| Heart of the Beholder | |
| Director: | Ken Tipton |
| Producer: | Darlene Lieblich Ken Tipton Jeanette Voluturno Arnon Manor |
| Starring: | Matt Letscher Sarah Joy Brown John Dye Anne Ramsay Michael Dorn Jason Wiles Greg Germann Ken Tipton Arden Myrin Silas Weir Mitchell Tony Todd Chloë Grace Moretz Priscilla Barnes |
| Cinematography: | George Mooradian |
| Editing: | Dana E. Glauberman |
| Music: | Peter Rafelson |
| Distributor: | Beholder Productions |
| Runtime: | 106 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | US$500,000 |
Heart of the Beholder is a 2005 drama film that was written and directed by Ken Tipton. It is based on Tipton's own experience as the owner of a chain of videocassette rental stores in the 1980s. Tipton and his family had opened the first videocassette rental stores in St. Louis in 1980; their business was destroyed by a campaign of Christian fundamentalists who objected to the chain's carrying the film The Last Temptation of Christ for rental.
The film showed at the 2005 Westwood Film Festival.[1] Critic Ryan Cracknell summarized the film, "There's no shortage of material for writer-director Ken Tipton to work with here. That alone makes Heart of the Beholder a film of interest. It is in many ways a politically charged film as it touches on issues of freedom of speech, religious beliefs and all out fanaticism. Still, I didn't think it was charged with enough balance and I think a large part had to do with the film's inconsistent pacing."[2]
The film won the best feature award at the 2005 New Hampshire Film Festival and the directors choice award at the 2005 Bluegrass Independent Film Festival.