Review: ‘Sacred,’ a global group portrait of faith in action

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Andy Webster
A celebrant in the Hindu half-sari ceremony, in Thomas Lennon’s documentary “Sacred.” Credit Thomas Lennon/Argot Pictures
The TV journalist Bill Moyers once said of the mythologist Joseph Campbell that he “was one of the most spiritual men I ever met, but he didn’t have an ideology or a theology.” The same might be said of Thomas Lennon, who directed “Sacred,” a kaleidoscopic travelogue depicting demonstrations of faith worldwide. Mr. Lennon (no relation to the “Reno 911!” comedian) enlisted 40 filmmakers in 25 countries to record scenes large and small, and the results are surprisingly cohesive. You won’t find greedy televangelists or much about militant theocracies here. “Sacred,” comprising three segments, celebrates perhaps the most worthy of religion’s functions: providing ceremonies for rites of passage (Initiation, Practice, Passage). [More]