Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 4, 1994 TAG: 9402110010
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
Then, in quiet reflection they watched Blair Underwood's 30-minute movie in which he portrays Christ, a black man who comes back to Earth only to be falsely accused again.
Those were the various reactions Underwood brought to Radford University on Wednesday as he screened his short film, "The Second Coming," as part of the observance of Black History Month.
They may have come to see Blair Underwood, a star of "L.A. Law," but audience members left, not only with pictures and autographs of him, but with a lot to think about.
Underwood - who is taping his last season on the NBC show - said he conceived the idea for the film after the verdicts in the first trial of Los Angeles police officers for the beating of Rodney King.
Before the trial, Underwood said many people who had their own problems with the L.A. police were thankful there was finally something on tape.
The verdicts came back, and an unhappy city began rioting.
Underwood began to wonder: What if Jesus had been a man of color?
That took Underwood back to his childhood in Petersburg, where an uncle would often tell him Jesus was black.
Underwood recalled that the first images of Jesus and Mother Mary were very dark-skinned people. It makes sense, he said, as Jesus was a Hebrew man from the Middle East. Somehow, that image changed along time, and many people, including blacks, think of Jesus as a white, blond, blue-eyed man.
"The Second Coming" tells the story of a black Jesus in dreadlocks who is falsely accused of raping a 10-year-old white girl. Jesus ends up in a mental institution, where the warden mocks him and decides to have him share a cell with a man with multiple personalities.
But that man, so uncontrollable that he is heavily sedated, immediately recognizes his new roommate as Christ, falling to his knees and kissing Jesus' feet.
Near the film's ending, the father of the child Jesus has been accused of assaulting brings the girl to him. He had previously helped her to walk, but she has deteriorated since he has been jailed.
"You're all she asks for," the father said.
As Jesus takes the girl into his arms, she awakens and smiles up at him.
"I tried to tell them you didn't do those terrible things to me," she says just before she walks again.
Turning to face him, she adds: "I knew you wouldn't let me down. . . because I believe in you."
The film ends with the Rapture, with Jesus taking the little girl, his child-like cellmate and other believers to Heaven.
Audience members, both black and white, reacted strongly to the film.
"We learn that God is white," one person said. "It was kind of uplifting" to see Jesus portrayed as a black man, they said.
A white woman told Underwood having Jesus accused of child molestation really upset her and questioned his reason for doing this.
Underwood told audience members the use of a white girl and the unspeakable crime of raping a child were purposeful elements in the film.
It was important that modern audiences be able to relate to the false accusation Jesus' persecutors imposed on him. And it was equally important that audiences see that a child could accept someone of a different race as their Savior.
"I think Rodney King said it best: Can we all just get along?" Underwood had said when introducing the film.
"Before we can get along, we have to know who we are. . .If you know where you came from, you are going to be uplifted."
``The Second Coming'' is available on videotape for $24.95. To order, call 1-800-333-9687, or write: Quiet Fury Video, P.O. Box 349, Petersburg, Va., 23803.
by CNB