I Entered A Church Film Fest, And This Is What Happened

Have you ever chased a big, crazy dream, only to have it quietly fizzle away among your folders on some thumb drive? And then did God rekindle it in a bizarre – yet perfectly perfect – way? And it came to pass but… His way? That recently happened to me when I entered a film fest at a friend’s church. And I’m still pretty stunned by what happened.

The Film Dream Backstory

Not a lot of people know that I was one of twelve writers chosen for the inaugural year of the New Mexico Filmmakers Intensive 18 years ago. I had these grand dreams of quickly becoming a grand screenwriter. And then the reality of Hollywood seemed to grind those dreams into, basically, dust. Even as a non-believer at the time, I understood the whole “dust-to-dust” concept. So I ground myself into my day job as a professor and department chair.

Every once in awhile, I dusted off the dream and started some screenplay, or a treatment, or some novel that would “certainly” get optioned…

Last year, I actually started piecing together a crowdfunding campaign – I was serious this time! Now a believer and on fire, I’d “do this right” because I knew God was “on my side”!

But door after door closed on various pieces of the campaign proposal, and I realized that God was giving me an “I don’t think so, my child.” I didn’t know why.

Until a good friend of mine urged me to submit a film to the annual iPhone film fest at her church. Rules: shot on a phone, under 15 minutes, any genre. Theme: “Wonder.” Hmmm…

As I pondered and prayed about this opportunity, another friend watched one of my school performances. Afterwards he told me, “You were made for this.” Aha! I knew what my film’s theme was.

The Film Fest Theme

For the whole year prior, since accepting Christ, I wondered, “How do you even know what you were made for?” I mean, I liked the sound of that verse from Psalms 139 – and I wanted to believe it:

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” (Psalms 139:14 NIV)

And suddenly, with God seeming to use two very separate friends to steer me to learn one important thing about Him, I committed. I entered the film fest. I knew I would make a documentary about the wonder that I get to experience when I watch the wonder in school kids’ faces at my shows.

Well, at least I knew that’s what I’d make until… I didn’t.

The Film Nightmare Scenes

Scene 1: Coco can’t get the parental permissions for the beautiful, heartfelt, powerful footage she already had from several school shows.

Scene 2: Coco struggles to schedule interviews with the families of past students – an attempt to create heartfelt footage.

Scene 3: After deciding against learning Premiere Pro on-the-fly while editing, Coco’s familiar editing software crashes. And she loses all of her work, which was 12 minutes of a 15-minute film. With T-minus one week to the submission deadline.

Scene 4: Coco cries on the floor, begging God, “Why???” And she almost quits.

Scene 5: Coco submits to making God’s version of the film – the pared-down story. And she prays through almost quitting, every single day… as she learns Premiere Pro on-the-fly while editing.

The Film Nightmare Climax

At T-minus two days to the submission deadline, I had a film in the can.

Almost.

I just had to export it. Cool.

Until not-cool. It kept exporting without giant swaths of sound. Extremely not cool.

Now, I’m fairly tech-savvy, and I tried everything. For two days. I even asked my husband’s son – a gaming sound designer – for help. Nothing worked.

I had to submit the film as it was. The church pastor kindly offered me an extension. But I was listening to something that he didn’t know about.

The thing was, I had to submit. As in, “In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:6 NIV)

You see, I had been slipping back into my pre-conversion fantasy of becoming a grand filmmaker – and winning the grand prize at the film fest, first time out the gate, no less. I mean, good grief, talk about puffed up pride.

I hadn’t been submitting really. And I knew it.

The Film Journey Conclusion (For Now)

During the week between the submission date – both the film’s submission and my own true submission – I actually did manage to export a version with all the sound intact. I sent that over, knowing it would be “un-judged” by the earthly judges. But at least the live audience would be able to enjoy the complete storyline with all the music at the live film fest event. Which is only partly what I had submitted to – the enjoyment of the audience.

My biggest submission was to accept and fully embrace God’s approval of this entire work – no matter what the judges or audience or anyone thought.

So, here’s the film for you to watch, if you’d like. I know this isn’t The End for this project. But for now, I’m thankful to God for the wonder of officially being a filmmaker.

Roll Credits, Please

If you’d like to watch any or all of the other films in Reimagine Church’s 2nd Annual iPhone Film Fest, check them out here. They’re truly full of wonder!