Voiceover: Movies that Move Us
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What movies taught you about life? Showed you truths you didn’t know you needed to hear?
Join Heather Bigley, a former academic and film teacher, and the host of Voiceover: Movies that Move Us—the podcast where films have an impact. Each episode, our guests share the cinematic moments that changed their lives. We want to learn from those silver screen experiences, and so we share those moments with you, looking at the films from a whole new perspective.
With a Doctorate in Film Studies and a passion for storytelling, Heather brings a little history, a little philosophy, some behind-the-scenes know-how, and her whole life to the movies she watches.
From Wild Strawberries to The Wiz, Terminator 2 to Tree of Life, we’re finding the films that moved us when we least expected it—golden age classics, recent blockbusters, and even the tiny indie film that barely anyone noticed. While Cosmo Brown might just want to Make ‘em Laugh, we’re interested in the films that make you cry, too. Movies that revealed something about ourselves. Mentored us when we needed mentorship. Maybe even illuminated the Divine.
Join us for Voiceover: Movies that Move Us for cinematic epiphanies, reel recommends, and maybe some self-revelations. Don’t miss a moment. Subscribe to us now on BYUradio, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Join Heather Bigley, a former academic and film teacher, and the host of Voiceover: Movies that Move Us—the podcast where films have an impact. Each episode, our guests share the cinematic moments that changed their lives. We want to learn from those silver screen experiences, and so we share those moments with you, looking at the films from a whole new perspective.
With a Doctorate in Film Studies and a passion for storytelling, Heather brings a little history, a little philosophy, some behind-the-scenes know-how, and her whole life to the movies she watches.
From Wild Strawberries to The Wiz, Terminator 2 to Tree of Life, we’re finding the films that moved us when we least expected it—golden age classics, recent blockbusters, and even the tiny indie film that barely anyone noticed. While Cosmo Brown might just want to Make ‘em Laugh, we’re interested in the films that make you cry, too. Movies that revealed something about ourselves. Mentored us when we needed mentorship. Maybe even illuminated the Divine.
Join us for Voiceover: Movies that Move Us for cinematic epiphanies, reel recommends, and maybe some self-revelations. Don’t miss a moment. Subscribe to us now on BYUradio, or wherever you get your podcasts.
24 Episodes
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Danor Gerald discusses Darren Aronfsky's The Fountain, a visually stunning film, about accepting death as a way to understand life.
In The Fountain, Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz play three different couples tied to each other over time, embattled by different desperate challenges, and trying to find a way to understand death. The Fountain is celebrated for its practical effects, made with macro photography.
Danor Gerald is an actor, director, writer, and producer. He stars in the new streaming series “Beauty and the Billionaire.” He won an Emmy for "Roots, Race and Culture," which he co-hosts and produces on PBS Utah.
Rabbi Lex Rofeberg from Judaism Unbound talks through American Jewish Representation in the Netflix series Nobody Wants This, starring Kristen Bell and Adam Brody. The show was a massive sensation in 2024, season 2 premieres in Oct 2025.
Lex shares what he sees as missed opportunities in Season 1 and what he hopes for Season 2. It's a great conversation that covers interfaith dating and marriage, the history of Jews in Hollywood, the problematic use of "shiksa", films from immigrant communities, and an ethics of care.
Lex Rofeberg is Senior Jewish Educator at Judaism Unbound, where he co-hosts and produces the weekly podcast, facilitates live digital events, and leads the UnYeshiva—its digital center for innovative Jewish learning and unlearning. He graduated from Brown University in Judaic Studies and was ordained as a rabbi in 2021 by ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal.
Haroon Moghul shares why Malcolm X is the film he recommends for every American Muslim.
Malcolm X (Spike Lee, 1992) avoids hagiography and instead looks at the complex, controversial American civil rights leader who transforms as he embraces Islam.
Haroon Moghul is the Founder and President of Queen City Diwan, a company that leads immersive travel experiences and hosts global leadership programs. An award-winning journalist and author, Haroon is the co-host of Avenue M, a podcast that explores faith, manhood and meaning with guests from across America and the world. He's written for The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, and NPR's Fresh Air. In 2023 and 2024, EqualityX named Haroon one of the fifty most influential Muslims in the Americas.
Liberty Barnes discusses a French film about women's trauma during WWII and how difficult films can help us build empathy.
Les Innocents (2016) is about a French doctor in Poland who discovers that a local convent is dealing with the aftermath of Soviet assault--many of the nuns are pregnant and must reconcile their religious vocation with their lived experience.
Liberty Barnes, PhD, is a medical sociologist and ethnographer, whose first book, Conceiving Masculinity, won the 2015 Sociology of Health and Illness Book of the Year Prize. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California-San Diego and completed postdoctoral training at Cambridge University and the University of Oregon.
Justin Petrisek from Notre Dame discusses The Taste of Things (Tran Anh Hung, 2023)--the anti-Iron Chef film known for its gorgeous cinematography and the way it contemplates devotion and commitment.
Starring Juliete Binoche as the masterful cuisinière who communicates through her exquisite meals, the film also asks, what does it mean to be a partner?
Justin Petrisek is at Notre Dame and serves as the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture’s research & publications program manager. His current research follows the intersection of film, philosophy, religion, and culture with a focus on the papacy and the Catholic Church.
Richard Lindsay discusses Barabbas (1961), a Hollywood Biblical epic starring Anthony Quinn as the criminal released by Pilate in the New Testament story of Jesus' crucifixion. The film engages with the existential crisis of freedom and the cackling Jack Palance--talk about tonal shift!
Richard Lindsay is the Program Director at the Blackfriars Gallery in Berkeley, California, where he curates and promotes its Religious and Biblical movie poster collection. He is the producer, co-writer and co-narrator of Hollywood Biblical Epics: The Podcast. He is the author of Hollywood Biblical Epics: Camp Spectacle and Queer Style from the Silent Era to the Modern Day.
Morgan Atkinson discusses his latest film In the Company of Change, about the Urseline nuns in Louisville KY.
The filmmaker explores the challenges that face the order in an era of declining vocations and uses the life of Sister Martha Buser as a lens through which to view changes of the past 60-plus years in the religious and cultural landscape of America.
Morgan Atkinson has made films for over 35 years, including documentaries about Thomas Merton and the monks of Gethsameni. Many of these have been picked up and distributed by PBS.
Check out our video version of the episode on YouTube, where you can see clips from the film. And thanks to Morgan for giving us access to the film.
Meli Solomon discusses Bank of Dave (2023), based on a true story about a UK man who wants to open a local bank to help his neighbors but also to challenge the British banking system.
It's the kind of film that might have been made in the 1940s, with Jimmy Stewart in the lead--or wait, maybe they did?
Meli Solomon is the host of the Living Our Beliefs podcast and the researcher behind the Talking with God project. She has worked as a business manager, an art dealer and founder of Solomon Fine Art gallery, language trainer, text editor, business coach, and now public scholar.
James Goldberg discusses the highly decorated Lage Raho Munna Bai, a Bombai film about living like Gandhi in the modern day.
James Goldberg is an American poet, playwright, essayist, novelist, documentary filmmaker, scholar, and translator who specializes in Mormon literature.
Kevin Blankinship discusses the evolution of The Batman and how The Dark Knight offers us blurred lines and shades of grey to better understand redemption.
Kevin Blankinship is an expert in Arabic and the Middle East who has written and published widely. You can find his work, including his poetry, in the likes of Journal of Arabic Literature, New Lines Magazine, Lapham’s Quarterly, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.
Heather & Ian chat with McKay Coppins and Benjamin Park about the Hulu 2023 limited-series adapation of Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven.
Becca Hurley Luong shares how Contact's message of peace and unity continues to teach her.
Becca Hurley Luong is a linguist, writer, and comedian. She produces The Lisa Show and Council of Moms at BYUradio.
Producer Matthew Janzen shares Philomena, a film that challenges our perceptions of forgiveness and truth.
Matthew Janzen is the Head of Film at ACE Entertainment, which produces Gen Z & Millenial feature films and tv series. Previously he was the Senior Vice President of Production & Development at Lionsgate.
Robert Monson shares why this 1978 musical still resonates today and explores its themes of spirituality, community, and empowerment.
Robert Monson is a writer, musician, and scholar that looks closely at Black and womanist theologies as well as Black disability theology. He is currently a PhD student and is a host for two podcasts: Black Coffee and Theology and Three Black Men: Theology, Culture, and the World Around Us.
Multi-talent Danor Gerald joins Ian and me to work through Jeymes Samuel's 2024 Book of Clarence, a sword and sandal movie with an all-Black cast. What does this movie get right and why didn't it connect with Black audiences?
Danor Gerald is an actor, director, writer, and producer, as well as the President of Monark Media, PC, and Chief Creative Officer at Brand One Media, llc. He also co-hosts and produces the award winning TV series "Roots, Race and Culture" for PBS Utah.
Cinema curator Marie-Laure Oscarson shares Bye Bye Tiberias (Lina Soualem, 2023) about the relationship of mother and daughter against the backdrop of war, displacement, exile, and autonomy.
Marie-Laure Julien Oscarson is a native of France who has been living in Utah the last couple decades. She has always been a film enthusiast. She remembers learning English watching classic American films on TV. Marie-Laure graduated from Brigham Young University with an MA and wrote her thesis on Franco-Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colors Trilogy. For the last ten years she has worked as the assistant director and curator for BYU’s International Cinema, a university cinematheque that programs about 90 films per year for the BYU community. Most days you can find her hiking in the mountains, and she has never lost her love of world cinema.
Educator Evan Martin-Casler dives deep on childhood in the movies with a discussion of Ben Zeitlin's 2012 Beasts of the Southern Wild, a handmade movie that resulted in an Oscar nomination for six-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis.
Stay tuned for more coming-of-age movie recs at the end!
Evan Martin-Casler is teaching faculty at the University of Arizona and holds an MA from Tufts University in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice Leadership.
Lisa Valentine Clark shares the romance A Room with A View.
Justin Petrisek of Notre Dame joins Ian and Heather to work through Edward Berger's 2024 Conclave, and how the film portrays Catholics, the papacy, and spiritual life.
Heather teams up with In Good Faith host (and her boss!) Steven Kapp Perry for an examination of Denis Villeneuve's 2024 Dune 2.
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