The film "My Last Day" by JESUS Film Project made it's release debut yesterday. The story focuses on a thief in Jerusalem about 2,000 years ago. The thief is convicted of his crime and sentenced to death on a cross. Hanging next to him is another man, Jesus Christ.

Using some of the same dialogue from the original "JESUS" film, the short-film shows the thief grieving over his guilt as he realizes Christ's innocence. The biblical story presents the hope of forgiveness in Christ clearly and concisely.

"My Last Day" is certainly a different perspective on the crucifixion than what most expect, but the perspective is not necessarily the main thing that will first catch teens' attention. The film is short, for one thing–only nine minutes, so teens should have no problem sticking with the fast-paced story.

More than that, though, the style of the film may capture hearts. It's done in anime, a graphic animation-style extremely popular with youth and young adults in Asia (especially in quake-ravaged Japan), Europe, and America.

As students discover this new anime film, they will find much more than a pristinely-animated short-film. They will find hope, truth, and hopefully the start of a new life as they identify with the thief's feelings of guilt, shame, and, ultimately, redemption.

So far, viewings of the film have shown its great promise as an outreach tool. "It's perfect to provide opportunities to open doors to engage the ‘media generation' and could be a prelude to effectively presenting the Gospel to tens of thousands of young people across the globe," notes JESUS Film Project executive director Jim Green.

"My Last Day" shows much of the excruciating pain experienced by those crucified, so although it is animated, parents may want to watch it first before very young children watch it. You can view the trailer here. You can watch the full film here.

Pray that this film would touch many young hearts and result in thousands of lives won for the Kingdom.

Chief of Staff with JESUS Film Project, Scott Pendleton, says the current film doesn't appeal to some. "Because it's a 30-year-old film, it's not as effective in media-sophisticated areas, especially among the media-savvy youth."

Pendleton adds, "With today's youth, not just in North America but in other parts of the world, their heart language is visual media. It's what they see on a screen."

He says teens are looking at cell phone, television, computer and I-Pod screens. Pendleton says, "Young people are forming their beliefs and making life choices from what they hear and see through visual media. So it's so important that we engage our world through film to help lift up Jesus."

To accomplish this, the JESUS Film Project has formed the Global Short Film Network which will allow them to "compile a library of visual media on different topics or about different aspects of who God is and His character, and to be able to portray that visually."

Pendleton says these films would be short vignettes. "The attention span of those who are saturated by media is not very long." Their goal is to produce a feature that will force them to ask questions and to start a conversation with a believer.

JESUS Film leaders are also talking about producing a Japanese Anime style animation adapted for young people. "We are in the process of developing a 10-minute portion about the crucifixion, based on the JESUS film. It would be based on the soundtrack, so once we develop that Anime product, then we could release it in any one of those 1,000-plus languages worldwide."

They're still in the process of development. Once that's completed, they'll begin looking for partners to help them produce the new outreach tool.

Pendleton says it's going to be an expensive project. "Budgets for animated motion pictures are in the millions of dollars. And even though it would be just a short piece, it could still be at least a million dollars to do it right and in the highest quality."

The current motion picture has now been seen by billions; millions have been saved over its 30-year history.

Pray that God will use this motion picture to lead even more people to the cross and to His saving grace.

If you'd like to support the JESUS Film Project, click here.