Shield or Sword casts a clear eye on current controversies over how religious freedom should operate in today’s America. Should faith-based claims allow some Americans to disobey laws binding others? Why are women’s rights and LGBTQ rights specifically targeted by such claims?

As U.S. courts consider ever more cases arguing such questions, our film shows how groups on the political right and political left are working to influence the answers. We go inside a right-wing organization to see the range of issues it addresses under the rubric of religious freedom. We see a left-wing organization mount a campaign to resist the Texas legislature’s passage of laws constricting LGBTQ rights under the guise of religion. And we get to know three LGBTQ couples whose lives have been deeply affected, indeed scarred, by conflicting interpretations of religious freedom.

We have completed a one-hour fine cut of Shield or Sword and anticipate its release in 2019.

Production Team

For over 30 years, Lumiere Productions has been producing quality films that engage hearts and open minds. Award-winning and critically acclaimed, our work is distributed around the world on broadcast and cable TV, on streaming platforms and DVDs, and in movie theaters. Since 1996, we have worked exclusively on documentary films, focusing on the arts, journalism, religion, and various social justice issues. 

Cal Skaggs, the President of Lumiere, has produced and/or directed three major series for PBS—The American Short Story, With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America, and Local News—and produced numerous films for Discovery, PBS, HBO, Channel 4 UK, and Arté France/Germany. Lumiere’s recent films include Democracy on Deadline (2006), Kansas to Kandahar (2007), and To Tell the Truth (2011). In 2015, we completed the documentary feature, A Road to Home, following the lives of LGBT homeless youth through the streets and shelters of New York City, and The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith, on which Skaggs served as Producer. 


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For more information please contact:

Lumiere Productions

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New York, NY 10038

general@lumiereproductions.com