Dozens of films were subsequently produced under the Dogma regime, some clearly more effective than others, and each to varying degrees of international audience acceptance. Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, authors of the original Manifesto, led the way with a pair of stunning films that offered convincing arguments for their reformation. But as new candidates lined up for official certification, the founders became embroiled in debates over interpretations of their rules; they also admitted to various transgressions in making their own films. Eventually, the two backed away from ownership of the movement, going on to make new films outside the narrow bounds of their ideal. Meanwhile, a host of other filmmakers around the world have continued to respond to the call, and the experiment has been prolonged with new films released each year under the official Dogma certificate. The effect of the movement has gone beyond the often pedantic debate over interpretation of the rules and the varied assessment of the individual films as the implications of Dogma have been wrestled with by thoughtful filmmakers and filmgoers worldwide: for most of these, the spirit of Dogma has counted for much more than the letter.

For many filmmakers and filmgoers who personally identify themselves with a religious tradition, this challenge from the land of Kierkegaard has a particularly compelling resonance. We are struck, first of all, by the religious language employed: Dogma. Vows. Chastity. One is forced to assume a context of holiness and discipline, of conformity to a higher order, without which there could be no renunciation of worldly excess. This is a serious call — demanding that filmmakers and audiences, including those within religious traditions, consider whether they've committed their own sins and stand in need of repentance, perhaps even penance. Yet our particular tradition warns of the futility of keeping the law as a means of salvation: as Von Trier and Vinterberg discovered, Ten Commandments can give easily way to uncountable, minutely-parsed regulations that subvert ends with means. Lawgiving becomes an occasion for self-righteousness and controlling others; filmmakers in our tradition know all too well what it means to have creative options circumscribed by rigid expectations.

Furthermore, manifesto-making seems quaintly out of sync with the historical moment, when it has become clear that even pious words are employed as disguises for the personal preferences of some elite.

Yet we remain intrigued and challenged by Dogma or, rather, its spirit.

As a counterbalance to the common and understandable aversion to rigid orthodoxies, Dietrich Bonhoeffer has left us the disturbing phrase, "cheap grace." Even for those of us who believe mercy triumphs over judgment there will nonetheless remain a "cost of discipleship" if our convictions are incarnated in flesh. And while ours is an age of suspicion towards authority, there has nevertheless been a recent renewed interest in monasticism, in a structured life. Writers such as Kathleen Norris in her Cloister Walk have tapped into a common desire to escape from the glitzy excesses of a noisy, self-indulgent world and strip down to the essentials, to make room for the "still, small voice." Interestingly, Norris frequently parallels the monastic experience, at its best, to the poetic. To be stretched between order and freedom is common to both the Christian and the artist. The Christian artist is stretched even further, between affirmation of the faith of the ages and the constant necessity for carrying it in new wineskins.

In an effort to find a balance, Flickerings at Cornerstone Festival has never identified itself explicitly with any clearly-defined orthodoxy, drawing its identity rather from shared core convictions among our Flickerings community and sense of common questing — a quest we freely acknowledge goes on far beyond the boundaries of our particular community. This is the quest for capturing in moving images those "flickerings" of common truth from a common human realm. While denied in theory, this common realm is in practice difficult to explain away. Too precise a border-drawing, of course, results in a brand of ideological works representing that tradition of "religious" filmmaking that most who identify with this project reject — yet from which others seem unable to escape.

Therefore, those of us responsible for the structure and focus of Flickerings have occasionally mused on particular applications of the Dogma 95 purgative to the characteristic excesses and indulgences of our own film culture. Watching young filmmakers trapped by dogmas of which they seem unconscious — including market and cultural expectations — has spurred us to formalize, and now share, some of these musings. This involves a risk of being misunderstood. Note carefully: we're not going to start issuing certificates, nor do we have any intention of following the letter of these rules ourselves. Neither is what follows a proposal for new guidelines for submissions to Flickerings. Rather, this is one more attempt to steer the context of this ongoing conversation in a particular direction.

Alongside the original Dogma Movement "Vow of Chastity," then, we offer our own Flickerings "Vow of Poverty." This is not really a manifesto, but a thought-experiment, a story to enter and from within which to view the world and emerge, hopefully, with both an expanded vision and a narrowed focus.

We hope it is taken in the spirit it is offered — slightly tongue-in-cheek, but only slightly; we aim to provoke dialogue, and more and better "flickerings".

1. We will refrain from the easy and automatic recourse to symbols which have been relied upon to excess: images of the Bible, the cross, angels, devils, etc and other symbols and conventional terminology have too often been used to replace thought and authentic audience response rather than provoking it.
2. There will be no "church scenes" in our films: no altar calls, no sermons, no entering a church at a crisis moment in the story.
3. If there is a conversion experience depicted in the film, it can only be used to set the story in motion, not to conclude it.
4. No Scripture verse shall appear in the film in either the dialogue, in print, or in onscreen titles; this seems an obvious corollary of the classic notion that the theme of the story should not be reduced to a single sentence and placed conspicuously in a character's mouth.
5. There can be no music with lyrics. Use of song lyrics to spell out the "message" of the story shows disrespect to the truth of character and setting — not to mention the intelligence of the audience.
6. While it is natural for narratives to portray their protagonist "at the end of their rope" in order to develop the character towards a climax of change, the following stock vices should be used with caution or avoided altogether: alcoholism, smoking, drug use, etc.
7. Certain genre and issue-based stories are now exhausted or have been so misused as to require their abandonment at this time: these include "End Times" scenarios, the Terminal Illness, and abortion dilemmas.
8. The film must stand alone: it is not an adjunct to another artist's work (as a music video or "documentary" promotional piece); it is not made to illustrate or sell anything. Likewise, no "follow up material" should accompany the distribution of the film, "study questions," etc.
9. The filmmaker recognizes that his or her highest calling is to put the truth of character and incident above any notion of truth of doctrine: neither the characters nor the audience are to be manipulated and/or disrespected for the sake of communicating a "message".
10. Ultimately, the filmmaker is obliged to express the truth about his own beliefs and doubts; at the thematic or narrative or emotional core of the film, to represent other than one's own true experience is to falsify the work.

1. Shooting must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in (if a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found).
2. The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. (Music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being shot.)
3. The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. (The film must not take place where the camera is standing; shooting must take place where the film takes place.
4. The film must be in color. Special lighting is not acceptable. (If there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera).
5. Optical work and filters are forbidden.
6. The film must not contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)
7. Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. (That is to say that the film takes place here and now.)
8. Genre movies are not acceptable.
9. The film format must be Academy 35 mm. [This is for theatrical release: several Dogma-certificate films have been shot in video or DV]
10. The director must not be credited.