Christians everywhere have a firm belief in respecting God not only in our actions, but in our words. Nonetheless, society has a very interesting and, as filmmaker and producer David Balzer found out, diverse experience with the phrase "Oh My God."

The Winnipeg Real to Reel Film Festival featured a large number of films, most of which were feature length films. Also featured, however, were a sereies of short documentaries on large variety of topics and stories, one of which stood out for its boldness in pursuing a phenomenon

Along with a number of others on the Saturday night showing, I was treated to three documentaries, with a diverse range of focus and scope.

Very Good Dirt masterfully tells the story of McConnell, a town in Southwestern Manitoba that, like many others, became a ghost town after agriculture and other industries in the area gradually became unsustainable. 

What We See transported us to Nepal, sharing one woman's struggle to rise above the calamities of life as a widow in her community and how she has begun to empower others like her.

Coming back to Manitoba and to the present day, we find the film, When Was the Last Time you said "Oh My God?" The 10-minute film shot in Manitoba is just the first stage of a large effort to talk to candidly talk to people across Canada and learn more about about how the phrase is understood by people and why they choose to use or not to use it. 

Don't let the juicy title get the best of your assumptions, though - the film's chief producer and interviewer, David Balzer, is anything but irreverant. The filmmaker, former broadcaster, and Professor of Communications and Media at Canadian Mennonite University was on hand at the film festival to discuss the film that night, and I had a chat,. Here he is talking about the motivations behind the film, where the larger project is headed, and also why and how festivals and screenings, like the Real to Reel Film Festival, play a role in the filmmaking process.

To learn more about this documentary project, click here.