Pure Flix CEO Michael Scott on 2022 Christmas Lineup and Mission: ‘We’re Here to Encourage Your Faith’
By Cooper Dowd, Staff Writer
Pure Flix recently announced their upcoming slate of Christmas TV shows and movies, with originals and exclusives dropping on their streaming platform each week leading up to Christmas Day.
Michael Scott, CEO, and co-founder of the company, sat down with Movieguide® to discuss what families can expect from Pure Flix over the holiday season.
“We’re excited,” Scott said. “Christmas is an awesome time for us. It’s great because we’re a family service and it’s a great time for families to come together.”
“We have a couple 100 Christmas titles on there with a host of those titles being originals and exclusives for this Christmas season,” he added. “We’re also bringing in some great new films that you probably saw in theaters. LIFEMARK comes to the platform, November 22. It’s a great movie with Kirk Cameron and the Kendrick Brothers on adoption and family.”
A portion of Movieguide®’s review of LIFEMARK reads:
LIFEMARK is a well-made, heartwarming, inspiring movie produced by the Kendrick Brothers and Kirk Cameron, who also stars. The movie is solid throughout, with a positive Christian worldview. The movie promotes relying on God, believing God’s plan, forgiveness, and loving others. There’s also a beautiful pro-life message about adoption, giving life and the value of life.
Scott said that while other mainstream streamers contain shows and movies with immoral content, Pure Flix will always encourage watching content together as a family without fear of sex, violence, or foul language.
“Pure Flix is all about community,” he said. “We are all about faith and family. So everything we portray is something that anybody can watch, whether it’s kids in your family, adults, grandparents, there’s something for everybody on the platform.”
“It’s also a great co-viewing experience,” he added. “So much of the time, whether you’re on one of the other streaming services, or watching cable or whatever, you’re hearing all these things that might be offensive to your values. You’re [watching] language, sex, violence, all these different things. In this case, you don’t get that. We say everything that we want to do is pointing towards Jesus. Ultimately, Jesus is the reason for the season. So what better time than to come to Pure Flix to celebrate?”
Founded in 2005, Pure Flix began with the mission to bring faith and family values to the households of Christians, who comprise one of the largest media audiences in America.
Scott recalled a moment while watching TV with his son, which solidified his desire to offer uplifting, faith-filled, and moral content to families.
“I was sitting on the couch with my son, and we were watching something on TV, and it was one of those ‘oh my gosh,’ moments like, you know, cover your eyes, don’t listen and wait for that scene to get through,” Scott recalled. “I remember it was a little bit convicting. My son said, after that, he said, ‘Can you pause it dad? Why is it okay for you to watch it and I have to close my eyes?’”
“It was a great moment to say, ‘Yes, we’re all about protecting our children and all these things, but also what are we bringing in as adults to our own life? What do we let in through our eyes and our ears that we’re hearing?’ Because every time we do something that’s counteractive to God or the opposite, it takes us one step further away,” Scott added. “That’s really a catalyst for me, as I think about it going back, for Pure Flix.
“We want the content that we have on there ultimately, to draw you closer to God, not push you further away. And I think if we can accomplish that, that’s an incredible thing. And I would be honored to be part of that,” he continued.
Since its conception in 2005, Pure Flix has established itself as one of the leading destinations for quality Christian content. Scott said that as streaming becomes more popular and people are constantly consuming media, having a morally uplifting and faith-inspiring option is paramount.
“Moviemaking is storytelling. If you really go back to Biblical times, and even Jesus’s life, he told stories, he told parables, right? The modern day parable today in our society is movies and television,” he explained. “We have a chance to tell great stories, but we’re not here just to tell a great story. We’re here to encourage your faith.”
“What we really strive to do is to find content that organically weaves in the faith,” he added.
In 2015, Pure Flix launched Pureflix.com, offering a streaming service option for its consumers.
“Movies have a profound impact. People go into the theater and that community experience is wonderful. But what we saw is, every day, people would come home from work, they would turn on that television, that television would run right through dinner, probably even right up until they went to bed. Nowadays, with cell phones and everything else, you’re connected all day long to the media. We said if we really want to make a difference in people’s homes, their lives with their family, we need to be able to bring something into them,” he said. “That’s when we launched Pure Flix.com, the streaming service, to really offer an incredible selection that you can get on demand, anytime, any device you’re on, on any app.”
“For me being a Christian, I think everything we do is a ministry. People are looking at our actions and who we are and what we represent,” he said. “Do we fall? Of course, everybody falls, but I think if what we’re putting out there, what we’re talking about, what we’re doing, my hope is that it’s drawing people close to the Lord.”
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