Battle for the Minds
About the film Reviews About Steven Lipscomb
How Can I Help? What's New? Quotes From The Film
Radio Interview Transcripts How to Order
How Can I Help? What's New? Quotes From The Film
Radio Interview Transcripts How to Order
About the Film
Religion, politics and sociology collide in this award winning, critically acclaimed film. With shocking honesty, Battle for the Minds documents the rise of fundamentalism in America's largest Protestant denomination and the subsequent impact of that rise on women. Fundamentalist assaults on women in leadership roles serve as a microcosm for the alarming outbreak of the intolerant religious right in America today.
Winner CINE "Golden Eagle" Award
Winner "Golden Apple" Award for Excellence in Educational Film Making
Received a **** Rating and Editor's Choice Award From Video Librarian
As Seen On PBS's Award Winning Documentary Series, "P.O.V."
BATTLE FOR THE MINDS is more than a hard-hitting social documentary, it is also an intensely personal story. Filmmaker Steven Lipscomb was on the phone with his mother, Dixie Petrey, discussing plans to attend her seminary graduation. Petrey was about to become the third generation in Lipscomb's family to complete studies at the flagship Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky and dedicate her life to the ministry. On the phone with her son, however, Petrey described how a fundamentalist push to "take over" the seminary was creating an increased atmosphere of discrimination and repression. She told him of meetings she was not allowed to attend and places she was not allowed to speak because she is a woman. That night, Lipscomb determined to tell the world what was going on in Louisville, Kentucky.
He assembled a crew and flew to Louisville in order to shoot "Generations,"a film about his mother's experiences at the seminary, but soon discovered that he had stumbled onto the last major institution in the Southern Baptist world to fall into the hands of the fundamentalists. He opened a lens onto the actions of a new fundamentalist Board of Trustees whose first acts were chilling: to slap a gag order on the faculty; to require adherence to fundamentalist morality and social agenda; and to put women back into their "proper role" in the church and in the home – in effect to exclude women from all leadership positions in the Baptist world. This was particularly difficult for Lipscomb because it flies in the face of two seminal Baptist doctrines: "Liberty of Conscience" and "Autonomy of the Local Church."
Best of Festival Award - Vermont International Film Festival
Best Feature Film & Directors Choice Awards - Louisville International Film Festival
Honorable Mention For Best Documentary - South By Southwest Film Festival
Audience Top Ten List - Seattle & Cleveland Film Festivals
Official Selection of Mill Valley Film Festival and USA Film Festival
Lipscomb traveled to Atlanta to film the Southern Baptist Convention. He interviewed people he never imagined he could get on film – from the Convention president to seminary trustees to Paige Patterson, one of two men who engineered and implemented the fundamentalist takeover. With power and pageantry filling every image he shot in Atlanta, Lipscomb realized that the film was much larger than the personal history of his family. He conferred with many of his friends and realized it is the story of a fight currently raging in countries and religious groups around the world where tyranny opposes liberty. It is the story of a battle being waged in U.S. government for the political soul of America. It is a BATTLE FOR THE MINDS
About Steven Lipscomb
Steven Lipscomb produced and directed the award-winning, critically acclaimed feature film, "Battle for the Minds".
Produced and directed GREG FORD FOR CONGRESS, A HOME MOVIE. Touted as the "Roger and Me" of the political world, FORD is scheduled for release in the Spring of 1999.
Produced, co-created and co-wrote SHUT UP AND DRIVE a pilot for the USA Network starring Mojo Nixon.
Created Auzzie, the spokes-character for a nationally syndicated children's radio network.
Commissioned by Disney Interactive to write, produce and guide the development of a CD-ROM game series entitled "Movie Mogul".
Created "Good Morning My Ass", a morning television show concept purchased by Paragon Entertainment, currently in turnaround.
Directed, produced and performed in legitimate and improvisational theater in Tennessee, New Hampshire, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles – including a stint as a featured player in "Monkeys Kings and Other Things" on the Main Stage of the renowned Second City Theater in Chicago.
Recently directed and produced nine shorts and a half-hour documentary for a large corporate client as well as a training industrial for Home Savings of America.
Currently marketing DEAR MR. IRS, a book making fun of the tax man that he co-wrote and produced.
Also currently in pre-production on PSYCHO BUNNIES, a movie he conceived and co-wrote, best described as "the next TEENAGE MUTANT TURTLES".
Formerly an attorney with the law firm of Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher in Los Angeles.
B.A. degree with honors from Dartmouth College, where he was president of the senior class.
J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School where he was a "Greenburg Scholar."
Religion, politics and sociology collide in this award winning, critically acclaimed film. With shocking honesty, Battle for the Minds documents the rise of fundamentalism in America's largest Protestant denomination and the subsequent impact of that rise on women. Fundamentalist assaults on women in leadership roles serve as a microcosm for the alarming outbreak of the intolerant religious right in America today.
Winner CINE "Golden Eagle" Award
Winner "Golden Apple" Award for Excellence in Educational Film Making
Received a **** Rating and Editor's Choice Award From Video Librarian
As Seen On PBS's Award Winning Documentary Series, "P.O.V."
BATTLE FOR THE MINDS is more than a hard-hitting social documentary, it is also an intensely personal story. Filmmaker Steven Lipscomb was on the phone with his mother, Dixie Petrey, discussing plans to attend her seminary graduation. Petrey was about to become the third generation in Lipscomb's family to complete studies at the flagship Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky and dedicate her life to the ministry. On the phone with her son, however, Petrey described how a fundamentalist push to "take over" the seminary was creating an increased atmosphere of discrimination and repression. She told him of meetings she was not allowed to attend and places she was not allowed to speak because she is a woman. That night, Lipscomb determined to tell the world what was going on in Louisville, Kentucky.
He assembled a crew and flew to Louisville in order to shoot "Generations,"a film about his mother's experiences at the seminary, but soon discovered that he had stumbled onto the last major institution in the Southern Baptist world to fall into the hands of the fundamentalists. He opened a lens onto the actions of a new fundamentalist Board of Trustees whose first acts were chilling: to slap a gag order on the faculty; to require adherence to fundamentalist morality and social agenda; and to put women back into their "proper role" in the church and in the home – in effect to exclude women from all leadership positions in the Baptist world. This was particularly difficult for Lipscomb because it flies in the face of two seminal Baptist doctrines: "Liberty of Conscience" and "Autonomy of the Local Church."
Best of Festival Award - Vermont International Film Festival
Best Feature Film & Directors Choice Awards - Louisville International Film Festival
Honorable Mention For Best Documentary - South By Southwest Film Festival
Audience Top Ten List - Seattle & Cleveland Film Festivals
Official Selection of Mill Valley Film Festival and USA Film Festival
Lipscomb traveled to Atlanta to film the Southern Baptist Convention. He interviewed people he never imagined he could get on film – from the Convention president to seminary trustees to Paige Patterson, one of two men who engineered and implemented the fundamentalist takeover. With power and pageantry filling every image he shot in Atlanta, Lipscomb realized that the film was much larger than the personal history of his family. He conferred with many of his friends and realized it is the story of a fight currently raging in countries and religious groups around the world where tyranny opposes liberty. It is the story of a battle being waged in U.S. government for the political soul of America. It is a BATTLE FOR THE MINDS
About Steven Lipscomb
Steven Lipscomb produced and directed the award-winning, critically acclaimed feature film, "Battle for the Minds".
Produced and directed GREG FORD FOR CONGRESS, A HOME MOVIE. Touted as the "Roger and Me" of the political world, FORD is scheduled for release in the Spring of 1999.
Produced, co-created and co-wrote SHUT UP AND DRIVE a pilot for the USA Network starring Mojo Nixon.
Created Auzzie, the spokes-character for a nationally syndicated children's radio network.
Commissioned by Disney Interactive to write, produce and guide the development of a CD-ROM game series entitled "Movie Mogul".
Created "Good Morning My Ass", a morning television show concept purchased by Paragon Entertainment, currently in turnaround.
Directed, produced and performed in legitimate and improvisational theater in Tennessee, New Hampshire, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles – including a stint as a featured player in "Monkeys Kings and Other Things" on the Main Stage of the renowned Second City Theater in Chicago.
Recently directed and produced nine shorts and a half-hour documentary for a large corporate client as well as a training industrial for Home Savings of America.
Currently marketing DEAR MR. IRS, a book making fun of the tax man that he co-wrote and produced.
Also currently in pre-production on PSYCHO BUNNIES, a movie he conceived and co-wrote, best described as "the next TEENAGE MUTANT TURTLES".
Formerly an attorney with the law firm of Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher in Los Angeles.
B.A. degree with honors from Dartmouth College, where he was president of the senior class.
J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School where he was a "Greenburg Scholar."