This movie presentation, appropriate for Easter week, consists of eight different “news” segments, each about 15 minutes long. It would be a very effective device for helping to get the events of the Easter story uppermost in your mind at the Easter season. The simulated news reports cover the events of “Holy Week” (the week of Jesus’ crucifixion) as if they had happened in modern times. The movie was released in the year 2000.

The reports begin with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and end with a report that He had gone up into the heavens. Each daily “broadcast” begins with announcing featured story lines of the report and the anchor shortly after greeting the viewers with “Good evening.” The “broadcast” ends with the anchor bidding the viewers “Goodnight,” just as we might experience in a real news broadcast today.

​ “On-the-scene reporters” are utilized, as well as “experts” invited to give their views on what’s happening. Sometimes “people on the street” are interviewed.

The way this movie is designed provides opportunity for commentary that gives greater insight into the events of Holy Week and the attitudes, confusion, skepticism, and loyalties that played a role during that time. If you have young children wandering about the house, there will be nothing visually disturbing. Since the “reporters” never knew what was going to happen, they always arrived after the fact and talked about what had happened.

I believe you would derive the most benefit by watching one “daily broadcast” each evening during the week before Easter. You could begin on the Saturday evening just before Palm Sunday and end on Easter evening. If that would not be convenient, you might consider watching the first 4 segments on the Friday or Saturday night before Palm Sunday and the last 4 segments on the Friday or Saturday night before Easter Sunday. However you watch it, I believe it will make an impact and give you a deeper understanding of the events of Easter week.

​The Dateline Jerusalem DVD is currently available from Vision Video  and Amazon there may be other sources. If you look for it online, be sure to enter “Dateline Jerusalem movie” or “Dateline Jerusalem DVD” in your search engine, since someone has written a book by the same title.