Elias Daughdrill wants to create a film about the appeal and delusion of faith:
The film is a personal, independent narrative that takes a sensitive but critical look at at religion in America. FAITH follows two different people and the evolution of their belief in god after personal tragedy befalls them both.
Chris is a devout, fundamentalist Christian whose son is bi-polar. When prayer doesn’t work, and his son commits suicide, Chris’s worldview is thrown into disarray.
Betty is a teacher at the local community college who grew up in the church. With a father who was both Pastor and philanderer, Betty dismissed religion as hypocrisy and simplistic fable. But she just found a lump in her breast. As she faces her own mortality, the attraction to some kind of higher power might be too strong to ignore.
FAITH juxtaposes two narratives to uncover the ways we are pulled towards – and away from – God. The film exposes the hypocrisy and arrogance of fundamentalist Christianity while exploring the need to call on a higher power during times of crisis.
The film will be shot in and around California’s Central Valley, which forms the setting and ideological backdrop of the story. Eli Daughdrill, the film’s writer/director, grew up on an Almond ranch in the valley and knows the people and place very well. The characters in the story are fictional but certainly feel like real residents of the valley.
You can support the project through Kickstarter and follow the progress on @themoviefaith.
That could be quite interesting, as long as it avoids the “no atheists in foxholes” trope in the second story.
BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT!!! If the director wants to talk to someone who has had to deal with crisis personally and repeatedly, I’ll be glad to help. That argument is just about one of the worst arguments I have ever heard for faith. If anything, anyone with one whit of logic will see it for what it is.
What is bullshit? I think it’s well known that many people turn to a higher power in times of crisis. They are wrong, of course, and I personally find it cowardly — but some/many do feel that need, and that is the need (I presume) he wants to explore.
Thanks Daniel for posting. And thanks for your interest and comments.
Confused-Well, I’m not sure if you would consider that narrative as part of the foxhole trope or not. I don’t. For me, the crucial part is that calling on a higher power feels comfortable for the character. She grew up in the church, had long since rejected it, but something about it feels normal to her since it’s what she’s been around her whole life. The script certainly doesn’t see it as more right or wrong than the other character’s decision, it is simply the choice some human beings make. It may very well be unhealthy, but I would argue a great deal of our behavior is unhealthy when trying to salve a wound.
Larian- This is the same comment you posted on our kickstarter page, and while I appreciate your passion, I’d please ask that you be a bit more civil on our public pages. I have no problems with the disagreement, but the tone doesn’t help for useful discussion. As I responded to your post on kickstarter, the film doesn’t see her decision as right or just, but rather an understandable choice in the face of her own mortality. Just as it sees the other character’s choice as understandable in the face of what he sees as God’s abandonment. The existence debate isn’t what the film is about nor particularly useful for me. I’m interested in what we do and trying to understand those choices.
I am more than happy to address anyone’s questions or concerns. Please feel free to post on our facebook page, which Daniel has linked to above, or our twitter account here. You can also send us an email directly @ themoviefaith@gmail.com.
Many thanks
Eli Daughdrill
Oops, my mistake. Our twitter page has a link, but not the facebook page. Here it is: http://www.bit.ly/aVaCQ0
Best,
Eli Daughdrill
I have just looked at your facebook you say you were a christian for a decade, what happened? why did you loose your faith.
I was a fundamentalist for more than a decade-more like first 18yrs of my life (my parents still attend an Evangelical church). It’s not what I would call a loss of faith, but rather a gradual opening up to the world. Evangelicals (and they aren’t alone in this) understand the world through a single lens, and see that perspective as the only proper perspective for salvation. With education, getting out into the world (and into larger, metropolitan areas) I began to see the hypocrisies, fallacies, and oversimplifications inherent in this worldview.
I grew up in a small town, where Christianity is essentially the only belief system and once I met others who had different belief systems (or none at all), I could see how absolutist and problematic literalist interpretation is. I’ve come to a point now where I don’t label myself, because I don’t see much purpose in it and because I don’t quite know what label fits. I am mostly agnostic, though I might pray from time to time, I find the existentialist view to probably be the most healthy perspective (especially finding meaning in each other, in the world that exists around us, without fear of spiritual retribution), but certainly don’t reject the notion altogether of “believing.” I can’t judge people for trying to find something to make sense of a world they have no control over.
I relate, Eli. I now consider myself an open agnostic, and i write in that area, eg on atheist spirituality, the stupidity of much religion, and what spirituality might look like if it were real. Good luck with your movie.
Thanks Jonathan for the encouragement. Much appreciated.
Wow, that’s my story also! Thanks!
Except that I am atheist (rather than agnostic – because the evidence points overwhelmingly in one direction), and I’m more judgmental than you. But our history and evolution out of fundamentalism is so similar….
Oh, my favorite. The ‘agnostic vs atheist’.
Damn you Huxley. Damn your pedantics to hell.
@Revy – funny! Although, may I point out that the difference between the two beliefs (agnosticism & atheism) is substantive! Especially when it comes to the christian god.
I do not say “I have no idea if the christian god is real or not, because I have no proof”. NO! I actively believe that christianity, and the christian god, is imaginary only and that the belief in same has caused a great deal of destruction throughout history. Right up to the way it almost destroyed me. So call me pedantic – but the difference is important to me.
Thanks Janet for your comments and interest. Glad to know that we have our own little community.
That’s it? Yawn. It would be far more interesting to interview real people experiencing real crisis. what’s the difference between the “need to call on a higher power? and pretending to make deals with god? None. It’s time for the author to read about the various psychological stages of dealing with loss, such as denial, acceptance, etc.
You’re right, it would be an interesting film. You should make it. And I am familiar with the stages of grief. The summary you’ve read is concise and simple, we hope the 100 page script and nearly 2 hr film will be a bit more complex. But alas, you’re under no obligation to see it and yawn you’re way through it.