Independent Film-maker Interview, part deux

continued ....

Travelogue: Tell me about the current project.

William: It’s a feature film called “Guinea Pigs.” We’re actually shooting it as a series of seven shorts, or chapters. That way we can do one at a time as funding becomes available, then we can tie them all together.

Bryan: If we could secure enough funding at once we’d scrap the chapter idea and shoot it all at once, but this seems like the best way to do it.

Travelogue: How do you secure funding for something like this?

William: This is something we’re learning. We’re going to be meeting with a guy that used to raise support for political campaigns but now does entertainment.

Bryan: Film is a very risky investment. You have to do it because you love it, because you believe in the project and have a passion for the medium.

Travelogue: Tell us about the story behind Guinea Pigs.

William: It’s basically a story of community and redemption, the story of two friends named Jack and Nicholas, in their mid to late twenties. They travel around the country going through pharmaceutical research, so basically they are, like the title says, guinea pigs. The drug study is a backdrop to their life stories. They’re coming together as broken people, becoming men.

Bryan: The premise is that a person’s past doesn’t have to predict their future outcome. We can overcome a tragic past, but we need each other.

William: The first chapter, which deals with Nicholas’s back story, is called "Justice Is A Blessing." It will probably be one of the more controversial aspects of the film because Nicholas was molested in his childhood by a family friend, Bradley.

Bryan: We were careful in how we shot it, as far as what’s called POV’s (point of views). We didn’t want the audience to experience the POV of the molester or the victim, but yet you will come away with an understanding of how evil this is. We didn’t want to glorify it in any way, but we didn’t want to sweep it under the rug either.
When we leave the back-story to catch up with Nicholas as an adult, he’s come across the guy and he wants justice; he wants to kill him. He has to discover the difference between revenge and justice.

William: It explores the cyclical nature of the things we’re exposed to as children. I’ve worked at a boys’ home, around fourteen-year-old boys who were already sexual offenders. When you look at their backgrounds, you find out they were abused themselves when they were younger.
Nicholas has bizarre views on sexuality, and he has this surging anger. It’s a vicious cycle of unhealthy mental and emotional patterns.

Travelogue: Why aren’t more Christian filmmakers dealing with these kinds of issues?

Bryan: We are so image conscious in the “Christian community.” We try so hard to be “Christian artists” instead of artists who are Christians. We should be more like people such as Tolkien, a Christian who told compelling stories. And of course, because he was a Christian, those beliefs came through in his art.

William: I think a lot of Christians are afraid to portray this world as what it is: a fallen world. We are fallen. Without Christ we are all Bradleys.

Bryan: The only time they seem to portray a fallen, messed up world is in End Time movies.

William: Or if there is going to be a nice, happy ending with no loose ends: it’s a fallen world, but then “Joey” become a Christian and it’s smooth sailing. But that’s not reality.

Bryan: Jesus never once promised anything like that. He warned us it would be just the opposite.

Travelogue: How do you, as a Christian, relate to people within the industry?

Will: It’s like any job. You don’t just go in and say, “Hey everyone, I’m a Christian. Watch me.” But the way you do your job, the way you converse -- the fruits of the Spirit will be present in those things.

Travelogue: Closing thoughts?

William: It’s amazing how everything has come for us together on this film, and how God has guided us. Everything from the cast, to finding props, getting an editor -- it was just one unique chain of events after another, and we could see God moving in so many ways.

Bryan: And the Sojourn community has been so supportive of us. That’s very inspiring -- to have a community of believers who see what you’re trying to do and who support it and encourage us to tell our stories. So many people have taken an interest in what we’re doing.

"Justice Is A Blessing" will premier in Louisville at the Kentucky Theater Saturday evening, April 29, as part of the Can't Dance Film Festival. Exact time is yet to be determined.