Twentyonehundred productions is InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's multimedia team. We serve InterVarsity staff and students by helping them communicate ideas effectively and with excellence.
Today's college students are part of a fast-paced, sophisticated, and highly visual media culture. Our mission is to create and use media to influence the hearts and minds of students in the university world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
As part of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, we want to encourage students to follow Jesus as Savior and Lord, understand themselves and their culture more clearly, and live responsibly in relation to God, creation and other people. Using video, photography, design and story-telling, 2100 translates biblical ideas to visually rich media so that students can receive and interact with the good news through contemporary channels in a compelling, credible, and clear voice.
Our History
Beginnings
In 1968, Eric Miller and a group of fellow seminary students were serving in Nairobi, Kenya. Eric noticed that while many students expressed indifference to the Christian message, they were eager to talk with him about current musicians such as the Beatles or Jimi Hendrix. With themes of alienation and brokenness in so many of their lyrics, Eric was able to introduce Jesus and the hope his death brought the world into the conversation. As an experiment, Eric created a multi-media show using several slide projectors and contemporary music. The music and images powerfully affected students. Students who dismissed Christianity before now sought to learn more about Jesus. When Eric returned to the United States, InterVarsity staff in Southern California asked him to put together a similar evangelistic multi-image media show to be used among university students. The first showing was scheduled for April of 1970, but one thing was missing—a good name. The producers brainstormed several ideas, yet nothing seemed right. Eventually, someone suggested the show simply be called what it was—Multi-Media Communication. Though few liked the suggestion, they needed a name soon. Then another team member pointed out that the title’s initials, MMC, also formed the Roman numeral for 2100. A few heads began to nod in agreement. For a temporary solution, they called the production TWENTYONEHUNDRED. The name stuck.
Touring Campuses
Over the next twenty years, 2100 produced four major touring road-shows: TWENTYONEHUNDRED, Lord Lord, Beyond Human Control and Habakkuk. In 1980, Habakkuk was awarded a gold medal at the International Multi-Image Festival in Vail, Colorado.
Moving to New Media
As media and the way students interacted with media changed, so did the products that 2100 offered. Slide show productions turned into videos and print resources, videos were made using digital equipment, and the web offered faster opportunities for distribution. 2100 began filming more documentaries and experimenting with animation, effects, and other techniques. Several times, 2100 received bronze and silver Telly Awards for excellence in video production. The team also began working alongside InterVarsity Press to create videos for Bible study and training curriculum. Rick Richardson’s Reimagining Evangelism and Dan Allender and Tremper Longman III’s Intimate Marriage series both feature 2100’s work in the books’ accompanying DVDs. 2100 continues to have a reputation for excellence in both content and aesthetics. Generations of students have seen 2100’s work featured at national conferences or their chapter’s large group meetings, and more than 350 students from a dozen countries have participated in our internship program.
