Episode 421

full
Published on:

3rd Oct 2025

Lights, Camera, Faith: Unpacking 'Searching for the Elephants' with David Alford & Joseph Stamm

We're diving into the world of faith-based filmmaking with two incredible guests, David Alford and Joseph Stamm! They’re here to spill the beans on their latest project, *Searching for the Elephants*, a Neo Western drama that tackles heavy themes like addiction, family, and the power of forgiveness. David, a seasoned filmmaker with a heart for storytelling, and Joseph, a young talent who's already making waves in the industry, share their insights into the creative process behind this impactful film. We chat about the importance of authenticity in storytelling, especially for younger audiences craving real connections, and how their unique generational perspectives shaped the narrative. So, buckle up for a fun ride filled with laughter, inspiration, and some seriously heartfelt conversation!

Takeaways:

  • In this episode, we dive deep into storytelling with David Alford and Joseph Stamm, who share their journey in faith-based filmmaking and the importance of authentic narratives.
  • David and Joseph discuss their film 'Searching for the Elephants', which tackles heavy themes like addiction, family trauma, and the quest for redemption, showcasing the complexity of real-life struggles.
  • The duo emphasizes the significance of mentorship in filmmaking, highlighting how their generational differences enhance the storytelling process and create relatable characters.
  • Both filmmakers stress the necessity of authenticity in their work, arguing that audiences today can easily spot manufactured narratives and yearn for genuine emotional connections.
  • Joseph shares how embodying his character required extensive research and a commitment to portraying the realities of addiction with empathy and realism.
  • David reflects on the challenges of balancing faith-based themes with broader audience appeal, noting the need for honest storytelling that resonates with diverse viewers.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

  • Cross Purpose Promotion Productions

https://crosspurposes.productions/

Transcript
Speaker A:

Today on the show, we're thrilled to welcome two powerhouse storytellers from the world of faith based filmmaking, David Halford and Joseph Stamm.

Speaker A:

David Halford, at 57, is a seasoned producer, director, writer and visionary founder of Cross Purpose Promotion Productions.

Speaker A:

With a career that began in Christian radio and evolved through theater and film, Dave brings decades of experience in storytelling rooted in faith.

Speaker A:

A a graduate of University of Texas in radio, television and Film, he is passionate about creating media that inspires, uplifts and challenges audiences to think deeply about redemption, grace and purpose.

Speaker A:

Joining him is 21 year old Joseph Stam, an award winning actor, co director and co writer who's been part of the Cross Purposes production since his teenage years.

Speaker A:

Joseph's journey from stage to screen is marked by a deep passion for storytelling and a commitment to using film as a tool for transformation.

Speaker A:

His work has already earned recognition as major Christian film festivals and secured global distribution deals.

Speaker A:

Together, they brought to life a powerful new film, Searching for the Elephants, a Neo Western drama that explores addiction, family and forgiveness through the story of a young man and his estranged grandfather, a Vietnam veteran.

Speaker A:

It's a story of healing, hope and the redemptive power of faith.

Speaker A:

So get ready for a heartfelt, inspiring conversation about filmmaking, mentorship and the mission behind the message.

Speaker A:

Please welcome David and Joseph to the podcast.

Speaker A:

How you doing guys?

Speaker B:

Doing well, thank you.

Speaker C:

Well, thank you.

Speaker C:

That was quite the introduction.

Speaker A:

Now you have to live up to it, right?

Speaker C:

Yeah, that's the trouble.

Speaker A:

Well, it's so good to have you guys on and I watched the film, so I'm going to get into that.

Speaker A:

But I want to get a little bit of background about you, each of you first.

Speaker A:

So I'm going to ask each of you and you could pick who goes first.

Speaker A:

My favorite go to question.

Speaker A:

What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Speaker B:

That's a tough one for me.

Speaker B:

It's that people aren't watching you as much as you think they are.

Speaker B:

And that's important to me because I'm a very introverted person who's found himself in front of crowds and audiences for a large portion of my life.

Speaker B:

And part of getting over the fear and anxiety of that is realizing they're not watching me as hard as I'm watching myself.

Speaker B:

So don't let it stop me.

Speaker B:

It's kind of the whole problem and I've used that over and over again in life.

Speaker C:

I'd say for me, it's just, you've probably heard it before, that classic quote that this too shall Pass.

Speaker C:

I think that's, that's a really good eternal perspective.

Speaker C:

It kind of puts stressful day to day things in perspective.

Speaker C:

When you know that it's not forever and whether that's a really good time, you know, don't get too comfortable because that's not going to last forever.

Speaker C:

And if it's a really bad time, don't worry, it won't last forever.

Speaker C:

And so either way, I find that advice and perspective really comforting.

Speaker A:

That particular saying got me through seminary, especially during those final exam weeks.

Speaker B:

So yeah, yeah, I'm sure.

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker A:

So let's dive into you guys story because this is an inspiring movie.

Speaker A:

Searching for the elephant.

Speaker A:

What message of hope do you want to leave with the viewers who watch this movie?

Speaker B:

Joe kind of hit on it already in that there's a way through.

Speaker B:

It touches on family trauma and addiction.

Speaker B:

And unfortunately, you probably know more people in your life than you realize that are going through this right now.

Speaker B:

If they're not going through addiction themselves, they have a family member who is.

Speaker B:

And I think that's probably one of the most grueling and awful punishments people can go through is having a loved one that they've nearly lost to addiction.

Speaker B:

And they can't really do, do much about it.

Speaker B:

God can and the person individual can.

Speaker B:

But the people who are kind of bilateral with that person can't do much.

Speaker B:

And this too shall pass, I guess is one way to look at it.

Speaker B:

And this movie hopefully inspires family members and loved ones as well as people with addiction that there is a way through and there's a way to bring your family back together again.

Speaker B:

God helps that happen and you have to take the steps to reach out for it.

Speaker C:

I hope that the film also gives a perspective to people like you were saying, people around the person who is going through, you know, whether it be addiction or ptsd.

Speaker C:

And you know, we all have those people around them.

Speaker C:

So what I hope is walking away from the film, maybe we have a little bit more empathy and understanding of those people in our lives now that we've sat with those people for two hours and kind of understood them in a new emotional way.

Speaker A:

To me, Christian filmmaking is a difficult avenue to find your space in because you know, Christian filmmaking has kind of evolved and your story is, I would say, right on the edge of.

Speaker A:

When you think of a traditional movie and on the edge of the feel good Christian movies you've seen in the past.

Speaker A:

How did you balance between, you know, the spiritual themes and telling a faith based story to a broader audience than just A Christian audience?

Speaker C:

That's a really good question.

Speaker C:

That was a tough balance.

Speaker B:

That's been an ongoing balance of struggle.

Speaker B:

And it's something, Keith, I think you'll find a lot of Christian filmmakers find themselves kind of caught in.

Speaker B:

And that is that we've been making faith based films for about six years now.

Speaker B:

And this one was.

Speaker B:

It was edgier and it was harder and it was.

Speaker B:

It was rougher than any film we've done before.

Speaker B:

And it wasn't to be gratuitous, it wasn't to get attention.

Speaker B:

It was to try to reflect the reality of the world these people live in.

Speaker B:

And I think we as Christians have a tough time sometimes between portraying in our films what the world, the way we wish it was and the way it actually is.

Speaker B:

And it was important to us that people going through this struggle saw the world as they see it and not as we hope it is.

Speaker B:

And so there really wasn't the ability to have neat, clean, tidy, happy ending kind of moments in there.

Speaker B:

Because truthfully, even people who are redeemed through Christ and their addiction, there's not always a clean, tidy, happy ending that happens instantaneously.

Speaker B:

It takes time to recover, takes time to rebuild all those relationships that are trashed because of what's going on.

Speaker B:

And we thought the movie should reflect that.

Speaker B:

So in some ways it feels a little bit darker and edgier than some of our other products.

Speaker B:

But we felt like to be truthful and to be honest, it needed to.

Speaker C:

Be that way because people in this situation, you know, it's suffocating for them and the film kind of reflects that.

Speaker C:

So it's a pretty intense film.

Speaker C:

It doesn't let you breathe very often.

Speaker C:

And so I think that, you know, without that authenticity of how it feels to be in that position, then our message of hope, or the idea of hope at the end doesn't resonate because people don't recognize the rest of the film as true.

Speaker C:

So then they wouldn't recognize the hope at the end as true.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

So I think the story feels manipulated, so does the message.

Speaker B:

So it's important to us that the story not feel manipulated to be falsely happy and white picket fences, you know what I'm saying?

Speaker B:

And unfortunately, there's a lot of pressure on Christian filmmakers to make all their films that way.

Speaker B:

And that's still in the industry.

Speaker B:

We're starting to move away from it a little bit, but there's still a lot of pressure to put out Hallmark good feel movies.

Speaker B:

And if you do that, the industry welcomes you.

Speaker B:

With open arms.

Speaker B:

If you don't do that, there's kind of raised eyebrows.

Speaker B:

There's a little bit of.

Speaker B:

I don't know about you that kind of comes out of that industry.

Speaker B:

So it's a tough balance.

Speaker B:

But I think Christian filmmakers are starting to find those.

Speaker B:

Those boundaries and find their intentions maybe to be a little bit different.

Speaker B:

And my hope is better products and more products that people can identify with will come through because of it.

Speaker C:

Because the danger is, is that Christian films, I think are in danger of having the same meaning or thinking like as very becoming a genre in and of itself, essentially of inspiration or films.

Speaker C:

And that's good.

Speaker C:

We inspirational films.

Speaker C:

But we have that very well covered in the Christian.

Speaker B:

There's lots of Christian market right now.

Speaker C:

And so excited to, you know, look for different types of stories and different types of genres that, you know is coming from our perspective, which is a Christian one.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

I kept waiting for the youth pastor to come in and rescue you, but there was no youth pastor.

Speaker A:

Was still a used pastor with his Dockers on and came in and saved the day.

Speaker A:

So, Joseph, I got the car wreck.

Speaker B:

There's always a car wreck.

Speaker A:

There's always a car wreck.

Speaker B:

Brings everyone to Jesus.

Speaker B:

So we were waiting.

Speaker B:

We didn't include the car wreck.

Speaker A:

No, we didn't have the car wreck or the, or the used pasture.

Speaker A:

Joseph, you, your, your, your actor, I mean, your character in that movie was so believable.

Speaker A:

I found myself at times sympathizing with you as I walked you, as I watched that character go through all the struggles that were there because it's like you kept.

Speaker A:

You guys did a great job of bringing the audience to the point of, oh, this is going to be that feel good moment.

Speaker A:

Then all of a sudden it was snatched away from you.

Speaker A:

So you be like, oh, it's going to all work out.

Speaker A:

They're going to get along.

Speaker A:

We're going to have the happy moment then.

Speaker B:

No.

Speaker A:

And it reminds you of exactly how an addictive person's life is.

Speaker A:

It's not always going to be this nice little.

Speaker A:

You get over the hump and then you always go forward and there's never any fallback.

Speaker A:

You kept getting a sense that this thing at any moment could just totally come off the rails.

Speaker A:

And so how did you guys do such a great job of communicating that in your movie?

Speaker B:

I'll let you take.

Speaker B:

Because Joseph did a lot of research into that role and he talked with a lot of people who lived that life.

Speaker C:

Yeah, I mean it was on the there in the script really.

Speaker C:

But, yeah, it was really helpful to, I think, in the script.

Speaker C:

To me, he was a very understood, very sympathetic character.

Speaker C:

And so it was fun in creating the character to try to push certain moments to make it, because you're going to love him from the beginning, especially with that opening.

Speaker C:

And so then the film after that is the challenge for me was, let's see how hard we can make it for the audience to love him.

Speaker C:

Because kind of putting the audience in that position as a family member, watching, you know, someone go through this and being so frustrated at them for the choices that they make and so heartbroken because they love them so much.

Speaker C:

And so that was.

Speaker C:

That was a really interesting challenge to me.

Speaker C:

And so I had developed a character and, you know, watched documentaries and done different things.

Speaker C:

And then I met with some people who were in recovery or have been in recovery and talked with them and got their stories, and that really solidified a lot of what I was thinking for the character and hopefully kind of carried their voices through into the film.

Speaker C:

And then had people on set making sure that, you know, the detoxing and the, you know, whatever else was authentic and looked right.

Speaker C:

And so it was really great to work with people.

Speaker C:

And a lot of people on the crew had family members, you know, who were going through this currently.

Speaker B:

And at some point, we didn't know it before we started shooting.

Speaker B:

We didn't know family members of the crew members were going through addiction until we'd shoot a really difficult scene.

Speaker B:

And I had a crew member come up to me and go, can I.

Speaker B:

Can I step away for a little bit?

Speaker B:

I'm like, are you okay?

Speaker B:

Like, yeah, I can't.

Speaker B:

I can't keep watching this.

Speaker B:

It's too much.

Speaker B:

It's too much for me.

Speaker B:

And I thought, wow.

Speaker B:

I mean, I felt terrible because I had no idea.

Speaker B:

But also was a tribute to Joe's performance because it was so gripping and it was so believable that it was kind of triggering to people who lived through that themselves.

Speaker C:

It was.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

But it was good to be there for everyone.

Speaker C:

And that night on the road scene with the drug dealer, that scene, the night we shot that scene, I remember going around to every crew member and kind of giving hugs and talking to everyone, being like, I'm okay.

Speaker C:

It's all just acting.

Speaker C:

But, yeah, so it was.

Speaker C:

It was a very intense process.

Speaker C:

You know, I think we felt like.

Speaker B:

We owed that, though.

Speaker B:

We owed that to the people we were representing.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

Because their lives are intense.

Speaker B:

And for those of us who haven't lived through that, it's really easy to sit back and pretend we know what they're going through, but we don't.

Speaker B:

And we don't know what people are suffering through until you try to walk them out in their shoes, which is just what Joseph did for that role.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

I also want to get back to the grandfather because he did a great job, too, of kind of trying to figure out, how do I.

Speaker A:

How do I love someone who.

Speaker A:

He felt responsible for the situation he's in.

Speaker A:

Not to give away the film, but, you know, how do you.

Speaker A:

I mean, he did a great job of drawing you into what's it like for the caregiver trying to support a family that has ripped your heart out so many times, and now someone's asking you to please come in and give me one more shot.

Speaker A:

It's like, no, I've suffered too much pain.

Speaker A:

So I just commend you guys for the beautiful storytelling that you did in this and kind of hitting it from both sides, not letting any side kind of get off easy in this whole film.

Speaker B:

Well, and that's the.

Speaker B:

I think that's the benefit of us having two generations working on the writing of this.

Speaker B:

I mean, Joseph and I are, of course, obviously not the same age we are in mental capacity in many, many ways.

Speaker B:

I'm a big kid and he's an old man for his age.

Speaker B:

But in reality, we're actually different generations, if your viewers haven't picked that up yet.

Speaker B:

And just we get mistaken a lot.

Speaker B:

But from that, having the two sides, the two generosity perspective is really helpful in the writing, to be able to flesh out the characters that way.

Speaker B:

It gives us an ability to see things from different perspectives that maybe we wouldn't otherwise.

Speaker B:

And that's kind of a beauty of People think it's kind of weird that such age differences could write together, but it actually, I think, brings a lot of breadth and a lot of different perspectives to the story.

Speaker B:

That worked really well in this one.

Speaker C:

If you're willing to bring your vulnerability to it and, you know, yourself to it, which I think we were both able to do.

Speaker C:

And then Rick McVeigh as well, who played Griff, the grandfather.

Speaker C:

I mean, he brought a lot of himself to the role as well.

Speaker C:

And I just remember the rehearsal.

Speaker C:

He.

Speaker C:

He just, you know, we just had some really vulnerable talks that, you know, had nothing to do with picking up the script and going through the scripts necessarily.

Speaker C:

It was just kind of finding this dynamic that we had seen played out in our own lives and own families and.

Speaker C:

And how we can figure this out.

Speaker C:

Between each other.

Speaker C:

So he was really great.

Speaker B:

Oh, I think we've lost your audio, Keith.

Speaker B:

Oh, I can see you.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

Oh, you're back.

Speaker A:

Okay.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

That's a powerful, powerful story.

Speaker A:

So tell me about.

Speaker A:

How do you go into creating a story?

Speaker A:

You know, what is.

Speaker A:

What did you start with?

Speaker A:

I know as a writer, I have this general idea that's in my head, but how do you develop the stories that you're working on?

Speaker B:

It's funny because we often have a lot of stories kind of in development at the same time.

Speaker B:

You know, it's.

Speaker B:

It's like.

Speaker B:

I equate it to, like, having a garden in your.

Speaker B:

Behind your house, and you just plant a bunch of seeds and you kind of see which plant is doing the best.

Speaker B:

And that's kind of when you pay attention to.

Speaker B:

And it's kind of that way when you're writing screenplays.

Speaker B:

We actually had shifted our attention to a different screenplay before we.

Speaker B:

We.

Speaker B:

I had started writing Elephant, and then Joe looked at it.

Speaker B:

We kind of worked it through a little bit.

Speaker B:

And then another project was kind of coming up, and we thought, oh, we're going to try to deal with this, because our distributor said, hey, we think you should work on this other project.

Speaker B:

So we tried to.

Speaker B:

And that screenplay just wasn't coming together.

Speaker B:

And we struggled with it for a couple of months, and we came back to searching for the elephant.

Speaker B:

We picked up the script and went, this is it.

Speaker B:

This is the one we're supposed to be doing.

Speaker B:

And we immediately switched back and started doing that one because it just felt like it was the right time for it.

Speaker B:

It was hitting its stride.

Speaker B:

With stories like this, you just kind of let it be what it's going to be.

Speaker B:

You listen to the story and let it develop.

Speaker B:

The more we try to force a story, the more phony and artificial it sounds.

Speaker B:

But the more you let a story kind of evolve and just kind of chip away everything that's not part of the story.

Speaker B:

You just kind of unearth a story.

Speaker B:

And so with this one, it was such an interesting way it came about because it had nothing to do with what it eventually became.

Speaker B:

As a writer, you might know, you start down one path as a writer, and all of a sudden a different element kicks in, and you have no idea that's what it was going to be, but that's what it turned out to be.

Speaker B:

I was researching castles and medieval castle ways of defending castles and battles between castles and people, the way they had sie a castle, that sort of thing.

Speaker B:

And many of the mechanisms that people had in castles that they used to defend themselves were strikingly similar to emotional mechanisms we have to protect ourselves from things we don't want to deal with.

Speaker B:

And that the idea of having two castles built right next to each other and constantly at war is kind of the way I saw these two characters in the film.

Speaker B:

And some of the emotional techniques they employ to try to protect themselves from each other I got basically from medieval castle defense technology, if that makes any sense.

Speaker A:

It does.

Speaker A:

It does make sense.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

So I'm going to dig into this real quick because as I looked at the.

Speaker A:

When you sent me the title of the movie, I had never heard that phrase before, searching for elf, and it came out in the movie.

Speaker A:

Do you want to kind of tell people the history behind that phrase?

Speaker C:

Yeah, it's a ranching term that, you know, if it means you're always looking for something better and you're looking for something that doesn't exist, a lot of times ranchers, they'd have hired hands, and you could always tell if one of them was searching for the elephant, that he was there for this job, but he was looking over the hill for another job.

Speaker C:

He was looking for the better job.

Speaker C:

He was looking for the better place that he could stay forever.

Speaker C:

The place where he'll be satisfied.

Speaker C:

He was.

Speaker C:

He was searching for the elephant.

Speaker C:

The elephant wasn't there, you know, and so that's.

Speaker C:

That's kind of the.

Speaker C:

The.

Speaker C:

The phrase in the film.

Speaker C:

And it kind of reflects a lot of what both characters are chasing after and not finding in.

Speaker C:

In life and in each other.

Speaker A:

When is this film going to be available?

Speaker A:

I know I.

Speaker A:

You guys sent me a preview of it and I watched the whole thing as I was riveting.

Speaker A:

When can the audience get their hands on and watch this movie?

Speaker B:

They can watch it now.

Speaker B:

It's on Tubi right now.

Speaker B:

So if anybody watched the super bowl this last January, they have access to the Tubi platform.

Speaker B:

It's a free.

Speaker B:

It's Fox's free movie streaming platform.

Speaker B:

It's on there now and you can watch it there.

Speaker B:

It's on YouTube.

Speaker B:

I'm not sure the names of the channels it's on, but it's there.

Speaker B:

If you just type it in, you'll find it.

Speaker B:

There's.

Speaker B:

If you don't mind a few commercial breaks in it, but it's there.

Speaker B:

And then it will probably be on Amazon prime in the next couple of months.

Speaker A:

Wow.

Speaker A:

Awesome.

Speaker A:

Dave, I want to kind of get into your production company.

Speaker A:

What led you to start Cross Purpose Promotions and What's the mission behind it?

Speaker B:

Well, I'm old and I was doing a lot of things first before I thought about making a movie.

Speaker B:

I'd always wanted to be involved in this.

Speaker C:

So was I. Yeah.

Speaker B:

And Joe's even older.

Speaker B:

He holds up.

Speaker C:

Well, I'm telling you, I put my glasses on, you can't tell me this.

Speaker B:

So, yeah, I was going to write a play for a playwriting competition because I was really active, involved in theater.

Speaker B:

And I decided to write it.

Speaker B:

And as I got through it, I was like, oh, this isn't really working for the stage.

Speaker B:

It might work as a screenplay.

Speaker B:

And I got a wild hair to try to produce it as a short film.

Speaker B:

And so that short film, I talked to a few people in this small rural community that we live in in Virginia and I thought, this will never happen, but I'll just talk to a few people.

Speaker B:

And I was able to, just by talking to the community around me, reach connections through people after people after people, and found a crew to shoot this little film over a long weekend in the summer.

Speaker B:

And the film got picked up by distribution company and started winning awards at film festivals and did pretty well.

Speaker B:

And so by the time that was done, Joe was in that film.

Speaker B:

He was the lead actor.

Speaker B:

I found him as a 16 year old kid and he was the lead actor in that film.

Speaker B:

And so he hung around after the film went away and I couldn't get rid of him.

Speaker B:

So I just made him work on the screenplay, the next one.

Speaker B:

So he just started writing on that one.

Speaker B:

And next thing you know, we did a feature length film and we hadn't even finished it.

Speaker B:

We just shot it when the distribution company contact us and said, hey, do you have another film?

Speaker B:

Your first one, Cross Purposes is doing really well.

Speaker B:

At that point we decided to start a company and produce the film and send it off to distribution.

Speaker B:

And since then it's been viewed millions of times all over the world and almost every major country of the world.

Speaker B:

And it's just the breadth and reach of that film has just been astounding.

Speaker B:

For this little tiny cheap film we made, it really went crazy.

Speaker B:

And Joe was, you know, he was the lead.

Speaker B:

That one too.

Speaker B:

I don't know, I just can't quite find another actor.

Speaker B:

So he did, but that one did really well.

Speaker B:

And again, it was like just a crew of family members and friends and people around us, but it just had a lot of love in it and a lot of team work that just really produced a magical little film.

Speaker B:

And that film's taken off and since then, we've done two more films, three more films since then.

Speaker B:

So it's just kind of built on itself.

Speaker B:

And we incorporated right after that short little first film just to have a company that we kind of handle the finances and stuff through.

Speaker B:

And that's just grown with the.

Speaker B:

With the process.

Speaker B:

Every film's been a little bit bigger, a little bit more expensive than the one before.

Speaker A:

So you kind of played in my next question.

Speaker A:

So how do you deal with the challenges of funding a Christian film and faith based in this market?

Speaker B:

A lot of antacid helps.

Speaker B:

Aspirin helps a lot too, because there's really no great way to do it.

Speaker B:

There's no magical formula.

Speaker B:

Everyone in the world in the film industry right now is looking for money and it's getting harder and harder to find.

Speaker B:

The beautiful thing about film is that it is diversifying into the population.

Speaker B:

It's no longer, you know, mgm, Warner Brothers is the only people who can make movies.

Speaker B:

Those people are losing money hand over fist.

Speaker B:

And so it's.

Speaker B:

It's devolving into independent filmmaking.

Speaker B:

And with the technology being what it is, everyone can make movies now.

Speaker B:

And so it's just a matter of having the discipline and the heart and the desire to want to tell your stories and do it in an excellent way.

Speaker B:

That's how you get attention now.

Speaker B:

So I think the trick filmmaking is no one's going to have a lot of money.

Speaker B:

So use the money that you got wisely and use your artistry to the best of your ability and see if you can get some attention for it.

Speaker B:

In that gigantic ocean of a streaming world that has no rules and no regulations, and they change every day.

Speaker B:

So no idea.

Speaker B:

You toss your movie out into the world and you see what happens.

Speaker B:

And that's what everyone's kind of having to do right now.

Speaker A:

Wow.

Speaker A:

So, Joseph, you started acting at a young age.

Speaker A:

What drew you to storytelling and how is your perspective kind of evolved as you've taken on roles behind the camera?

Speaker C:

Oh, I mean, my perspective has completely flipped upside down.

Speaker C:

Yeah, 100%.

Speaker C:

I think, as an actor, you know, acting is the thing that I got interested in in the beginning.

Speaker C:

I remember going to see a show into the woods and watching the audience just hooked on every word that the actors were saying.

Speaker C:

And it wasn't that they were laughing super loud or crying super, you know, they were sobbing or anything.

Speaker C:

There was just an energy, that connection and a conversation happening without anything being spoken.

Speaker C:

And.

Speaker C:

And it.

Speaker C:

It was just like that, I want to do that.

Speaker C:

You know, so that was the first spark.

Speaker C:

But I. I really always loved storytelling.

Speaker C:

Growing up with my siblings, making them be in my movies, you know, my home movies.

Speaker B:

In fact, we brought three of them for us to watch now.

Speaker A:

But that's great.

Speaker C:

Making about as we go, you know.

Speaker C:

And for this shot now, this is what's gonna happen, you know, and so.

Speaker C:

And.

Speaker C:

And my.

Speaker C:

I. I really learned how to tell a story through my grandma, just while she's a hilarious woman and engages a group and tells a story.

Speaker C:

And just watching the way that she did that taught me so much about how to tell a story.

Speaker C:

And so, yeah, but my perspective now, being behind the camera, writing and directing, the first initial spark for wanting to do that was like, oh, writing is just like acting, except for you get to play every character and you're not restricted by lines.

Speaker C:

You get to make them up.

Speaker C:

That's great.

Speaker C:

That sounds.

Speaker B:

If you notice a control theme running.

Speaker A:

Through Joseph Story, I am kind of.

Speaker B:

Noticing it gets worked.

Speaker C:

Because then I was like, well, now that I'm writing, like, I don't want to hand off my script to a director to go mess it up, you know, I do it on myself.

Speaker C:

I'll mess it up myself, you know.

Speaker C:

And so, yeah, there's a.

Speaker C:

There's a bit of a control thing, but, you know, I've.

Speaker C:

Yeah, it's completely shifted my perspective, you know, on what is.

Speaker C:

I do as an actor as well, to some extent, and maybe made me a harsher critic of directors, maybe.

Speaker C:

But.

Speaker C:

But I. I also think that as an actor, I tend to.

Speaker C:

I think something that I more excel at is.

Speaker C:

Is staying in my own bubble and staying in my own lane as an actor.

Speaker C:

And, you know, the director and the cinematographer and everyone else, they're doing their own thing.

Speaker C:

I'm.

Speaker C:

I'm here and I need to keep this, like, for.

Speaker C:

For searching for the elephant.

Speaker C:

Like, I didn't, you know, come out of character all day because I wouldn't be able to get back to that place.

Speaker C:

I can't just bounce back and forth.

Speaker C:

So I'm kind of in my own bubble a bit as an actor.

Speaker C:

But what's been super helpful is that that can be detrimental sometimes to your overall, you know, story arc or something like that as a.

Speaker C:

As an actor and not even arc, but just knowing, because that's kind of basic.

Speaker C:

But I feel like it's helped me understand what my role is in the film at large, you know, and just kind of have a sixth sense for that as an actor, because I don't want to be too aware of that.

Speaker C:

Right.

Speaker C:

Because I'm not telling the story, I'm not the director, you know, but so I don't want to be manipulating the audience because of what I perceive my role is in the film, but just kind of understanding story a little bit more intricately now as a writer and director, just kind of having a sixth sense for that is helpful to just know where you fit in the story, you know, you don't want to be, you know, upstaging a scene that's not about you, you know, and so I think that's been helpful.

Speaker B:

Yeah, I wasn't going to let you do that.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

The good role of a director, right?

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

What happens is Joe was directing before and after and during the shoot I was actually on set director.

Speaker B:

And so I, I kept a tight rein on him.

Speaker B:

I didn't let it get out of control.

Speaker A:

There you go.

Speaker B:

But once the editing came in, that monster came back and control took over again.

Speaker A:

That's right.

Speaker A:

There you go.

Speaker A:

So, Joseph, I'm curious.

Speaker A:

How do you connect with younger audiences through faith driven content?

Speaker A:

Because it seems like the younger population is kind of wandering.

Speaker A:

How do you help to really connect with them in this face driven content?

Speaker C:

Yeah, I think there's so much entertainment nowadays for people my age especially, it's never ending and it's overwhelming the amount of entertainment and content, and I hate that word, but the amount of art that they can consume on a daily basis is insane.

Speaker C:

And so I think what connects to people my age, no matter how absurd or strange it appears, I think just giving them something authentic because there's so many people out there trying to manufacture something, trying to sell them something, you know, which we're here doing, you know, selling our movie in some ways.

Speaker C:

But like if you, if you bring something really personal and authentic to people, especially my age, they, they.

Speaker C:

That stands out.

Speaker C:

They can feel the difference between something that was written from a very vulnerable place that's speaking some truth, no matter of your religion or anything else.

Speaker C:

They can, they can feel that truth because they're being fed so much manufactured, manipulative content and art these days.

Speaker B:

I think that's right because Keith, you and I are probably similar generations.

Speaker B:

But there was so much reality in our growing up and there's so much.

Speaker B:

I mean, we dealt with the real world on a pretty daily basis, but we're talking about a generation now that's got artificial everything.

Speaker B:

And everything can be manufactured, everything can be manipulated.

Speaker B:

And you're constantly asking, is that real or not?

Speaker B:

Did that really happen?

Speaker B:

You watch scroll through social media.

Speaker B:

And you have no idea if those videos actually occurred or if they were manufactured anymore.

Speaker B:

And this generation's growing up with that mindset.

Speaker B:

So I think Joe's right.

Speaker B:

I think if they sense something real and personal, they go straight for it because that's like refreshing to them.

Speaker B:

And that's why I think we have to be careful with faith based media, because we can't get super manipulative with our media because the kids aren't going to respond to that.

Speaker B:

They're going to see that that's forced, that that's in our writing.

Speaker B:

We can't be manufacturing happy endings when they don't fit because that generation is going to reject it and say, you're fooling me.

Speaker B:

And if you're fooling me about this, you might be fooling me about your Christ as well.

Speaker B:

And we have to be careful.

Speaker B:

That's a dangerous two edged sword.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

And I think, I think the, you know, that's the thing that we talked about the most when making this film is authenticity, is we just wanted it to be authentic.

Speaker C:

You know, I was most worried about the addition part of my character coming across as authentic.

Speaker C:

We wanted every scene to be, you know, if I was struggling, you know, I remember one day I was struggling with a scene, it was coming out, you know, and it was coming out in all the right beats of the scene.

Speaker C:

But I just had to stop right in the middle of the take because I was like, this is not.

Speaker C:

This, this isn't coming from a real place right now.

Speaker C:

This is, you know, we have to find another way into it that feels real, you know, and.

Speaker C:

And we did.

Speaker C:

And so, yeah, I think, I think the, the authenticity just really stands out, especially to my generation.

Speaker A:

So we talked about how sometimes the scenes in a movie impacted the crew.

Speaker A:

I'm curious what one moment in making Searching for the Elephant deeply impacted you personally, each of you personally.

Speaker B:

For me, I think probably working that detox scene where Jason's character has collapsed and basically his grandfather's throwing him in the bed and said, here, have a beer and an aspirin, I hope you get better kind of thing, because he just didn't understand what was going on.

Speaker B:

And so Jason was left alone in this room to detox on his own.

Speaker B:

And I think standing there watching the film, part of me is like, what have I done, you know, to this character?

Speaker B:

And I have Joe sitting there on the bed, very realistically portraying it.

Speaker B:

And part of my brain's like, there but for the grace of God go I.

Speaker B:

That.

Speaker B:

That's not actually him going through that, you know, and that.

Speaker B:

But there are other people who have young people in their lives who are going through that.

Speaker B:

And so for me, it was very hard to watch that happen and think this is just pretend for us, but it's.

Speaker B:

It's reality for a lot of people.

Speaker B:

I know.

Speaker B:

And that's.

Speaker B:

That was a very hard moment that hit home very strongly.

Speaker B:

I couldn't say anything because Joe was working hard.

Speaker B:

I didn't want to distract anything.

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker B:

I mean, I was.

Speaker B:

I just had to keep my mouth quiet and keep working and focus on the job at hand.

Speaker B:

But that was a very tough moment.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

I would say kind of in the same vein, one part of it was actually showing the film, I guess isn't necessarily production, but showing the film to a lot of people who were in a recovery program who came to the premiere, and some of them who I had talked to, who had influenced the film, and just hearing their perspective on it, what, you know, what they thought of it, how real that they thought it was and how useful they thought it was, that so much so that they wanted to incorporate it into their program, you know, into their recovery program for people to watch, for people to watch, relate to, and then have that message of hope at the end to give them some encouragement.

Speaker C:

And so those conversations were just very heartfelt and very impactful to me.

Speaker C:

And then having, you know, conversations with different people.

Speaker C:

You know, I think of one young man who I was talking to, who we, you know, he was.

Speaker C:

He was struggling with addiction, and the.

Speaker C:

The film made him feel like, you know, he.

Speaker C:

He could, you know, maybe not beat it.

Speaker C:

I don't.

Speaker C:

I don't know what the right word is, but there was.

Speaker C:

There was hope for him to reconnect.

Speaker C:

And, you know, we.

Speaker C:

We worked on getting him help and everything and having that conversation with him afterwards, which is very impactful.

Speaker A:

What words of advice do you have for aspiring young filmmakers or aspiring young directors?

Speaker B:

Tell a story from you.

Speaker B:

Don't imitate other people.

Speaker B:

There's enough imitation in the world, and imitation is getting easier by the day.

Speaker B:

No one needs more knockoff versions of what's already out there.

Speaker B:

What they need is stories from you, from your life and from your experience, and they want to hear it from your perspective.

Speaker B:

So I had one young filmmaker stop me the other night and ask me some questions.

Speaker B:

And I said, you know, getting the film done by X date is great, but really telling a story that only you can tell is far more important.

Speaker B:

So make sure the film that you tell is is your voice, because that's what makes you unique from everybody else.

Speaker B:

Make sure when they see the film, they'll go, that's your voice and I recognize you in it.

Speaker B:

So I say that if you're going to make a film that it needs to be personal and it needs to be real.

Speaker B:

And no matter what kind of film it is, it doesn't matter what the genre is.

Speaker B:

You can tell a space alien trilogy if you want to just, but.

Speaker B:

But be authentic about it.

Speaker B:

And I think that's what we're finding in Hollywood right now is they're cranking out all these giant blockbusters and people are walking away by droves.

Speaker B:

I mean, they're just not interested because one, they've seen it before and two, there's nothing authentic.

Speaker B:

We don't believe those people are real people.

Speaker B:

And so we can't connect.

Speaker B:

So that's why I'd say for new people, the technology's there.

Speaker B:

Talk to ask for help.

Speaker C:

That sometimes it can be hard to now share that with people.

Speaker C:

Artists sometimes have trouble sharing, and it's really important.

Speaker C:

It's never going to hurt to ask.

Speaker C:

You know, you'd be so surprised at how many locations we've gotten for.

Speaker C:

Absolutely three.

Speaker C:

Because they're just excited about filmmaking happening, you know, Right.

Speaker B:

The script, you're like, okay, we're going to need a high security federal prison.

Speaker B:

Where are we going to get one of those?

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

But it worked out like there was an end.

Speaker C:

They had just moved everyone from this prison.

Speaker C:

There was an empty prison.

Speaker C:

We had to jump through some hoops with the city.

Speaker C:

But we ended up, you know, being able to.

Speaker C:

To shoot there, you know, and we had no idea beforehand, you know, there was so many things and charge us a dime.

Speaker B:

They gave it to us for free.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

And so many, you know, restaurants, you know, who are like, oh, I'm closed on Monday.

Speaker C:

Sure.

Speaker C:

Yeah, you come in and shoot.

Speaker C:

You know, you just.

Speaker C:

If you start talking and asking and sharing your idea, people will get excited.

Speaker C:

And so, yeah, starting out, you know, maybe right for what, you know, you can do and what's around you.

Speaker C:

You know, play to your strengths.

Speaker C:

Maybe don't do the alien sci fi.

Speaker B:

Movie in your backyard.

Speaker C:

In your backyard with $1,000 budget, you know, hats, you know, but so just play to your strengths.

Speaker A:

Yeah, we saw that movie before with the tinfoil hats.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

So I'm curious.

Speaker A:

This is my favorite question to ask my guest and you can pick who goes first.

Speaker A:

What do you want your legacy to be?

Speaker B:

For me, I want to tell stories that resonate.

Speaker B:

And that means stories that 30 years from now, the story still has meaning.

Speaker B:

It's still human, and human beings still feel it and resonate with it.

Speaker B:

And if I can tell stories that do that, I feel like that's.

Speaker B:

That's a lasting legacy when it comes.

Speaker B:

I mean, that's just from a business film.

Speaker B:

I mean, there's personal things I want to do at life, but.

Speaker B:

But from a storytelling perspective, I just want people to watch this film 30 years from now and go, yeah, I still feel that that's still true.

Speaker B:

And so I look for truth in storytelling that's lasting because I grew up knowing an everlasting truth.

Speaker B:

And so if my stories don't contain some of that, then I'm kind of feel like I'm wasting my time here on Earth, and I don't want to do that.

Speaker C:

That.

Speaker B:

So I want stories that people will look at ongoing and believe in.

Speaker C:

Do I want a legacy?

Speaker C:

I don't.

Speaker B:

So little life left.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

Who knows?

Speaker A:

He has so much life left to live.

Speaker A:

It's like, right?

Speaker B:

You only got about 60 years to work this out.

Speaker B:

We don't know.

Speaker C:

I don't know, but I think you kind of said what I was thinking statistically.

Speaker C:

But I guess just to add on to that, the best stories, to me and the artists that I appreciate their legacy so much, is one artist whose work speaks for itself that they don't have to speak to it.

Speaker C:

I love those filmmakers that barely talk about their work, you know, like Terrence Malick and, you know, have to.

Speaker C:

Doesn't have to, because the work speaks for itself.

Speaker C:

And I love art that means something different to me, you know, now than it will 10 years and I'll watch it again.

Speaker C:

And it means something completely different, you know, because I've changed and my perspective has evolved, and the art is open and subjective enough that it's still having a conversation with me 10 years later, you know, and so I love art that can.

Speaker C:

That can do that and.

Speaker C:

And that can, you know, change over time.

Speaker C:

You know, people.

Speaker C:

There's a reason people are still watching Andrei Tarkovsky is because his art has something in it that was true then and it's true now, you know, and.

Speaker C:

And so.

Speaker B:

But.

Speaker C:

But it's evolved in the ways that it's true, and the ways that it connects with people is different, but just as impactful.

Speaker C:

And I think when you can make something that's a time capsule like that, that can travel through time and.

Speaker C:

And connect to people wherever they are, that is.

Speaker C:

That's really special.

Speaker C:

And that's what I aspire to.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

I don't know if I overdo it, but I aspire.

Speaker A:

There you go.

Speaker A:

I love that.

Speaker A:

So on my season six, you see where you have a surprise question.

Speaker A:

You guys got to pick a number between 1 and 4.

Speaker A:

You gotta agree on the number.

Speaker B:

Oh, you can pick numbers.

Speaker C:

We gotta pick a number between 1 and 10.

Speaker B:

1 and 4.

Speaker C:

1 and 4.

Speaker C:

3.

Speaker B:

3.

Speaker B:

It's definitely 3.

Speaker B:

That's the right one.

Speaker A:

All right.

Speaker A:

Who would you most like to sit next to on a 10 hour flight and watch.

Speaker B:

O.

Speaker B:

Okay, this is hard because we're all in film mode now.

Speaker B:

So I'm thinking of film.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

Because obviously you would say like, Jesus, but.

Speaker C:

Right, that's.

Speaker C:

Yeah, obviously, but.

Speaker C:

But let's keep it film related.

Speaker B:

Well, and I feel so much comfortable with him in a flight, no matter what.

Speaker B:

I often ask him to sit next to me in any flight.

Speaker B:

I.

Speaker A:

Because I know it's not how.

Speaker A:

I know that's how his journey is.

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker B:

But we're talking about just people, people here and now.

Speaker B:

Gosh, there's so many great filmmakers I'd love to sit next to.

Speaker C:

I would like to sit next to Werner Herzog.

Speaker C:

He just has the most fascinating.

Speaker C:

I could listen to him read a phone book and it would be the most poetic, delightful thing I've ever heard.

Speaker C:

Like, he, he is just a fast person and has such a passion for what he does and he doesn't do anything that he's not passionate about.

Speaker C:

I respect that.

Speaker C:

And the stories he has from his life.

Speaker C:

He's just lived a lot of life and he's, he's traveled and he's had every job you can think of under the sun.

Speaker C:

And then he was a filmmaker, you know, and so just the experience and he's just a fascinating person to me.

Speaker B:

Since we're in the film world, I want to sit next to Charlie Chaplin and pick his brain.

Speaker B:

That man generated so much worldwide art, it entertained gazillions of people.

Speaker B:

And still to this day's work is relevant.

Speaker B:

And he generated it all himself.

Speaker B:

I mean, he basically just pulled it from his heart and soul and with his full body and with his full manner created stories that, that, that turned on the world.

Speaker B:

And to me, I was like, going back and hearing him talk about that would be amazing.

Speaker B:

I'd probably need more than a 10 hour flight.

Speaker B:

I'd probably hope for a delay or two.

Speaker A:

There you go.

Speaker C:

Yeah, that's a good one.

Speaker A:

Well, thank you both for, for coming on and sharing your heart about this movie.

Speaker A:

Where can people follow what you're doing next, your next project, and where can they of course, follow the find the film and learn more about what you're doing?

Speaker C:

Yeah, we, we Searching for the Elephant and Cross Purposes productions are on, you know, Facebook and Instagram, but we also have a website, Cross Purposes Dot Productions.

Speaker C:

And there you can look at all of the movies we've done, where to find them and keep up to date with news.

Speaker B:

Yep.

Speaker B:

All of our new stuff, we post on our auditions and things for new films.

Speaker B:

And there's links on under every film that takes you to the platform you can see it on.

Speaker B:

There's a list of platforms you can see the movies on.

Speaker B:

Click on it takes you directly to the films.

Speaker A:

Well, guys, thank you so much for this enjoyable conversation.

Speaker A:

Keep doing what you're doing.

Speaker A:

Like I said, that movie was.

Speaker A:

Was powerful and impactful and you did your great storytelling.

Speaker A:

So thank you for joining me.

Speaker B:

Thank you for having us, Keith.

Speaker C:

We appreciate it.

Speaker C:

Thank you so much.

Speaker C:

And thank you for your questions.

Show artwork for Becoming Bridge Builders

About the Podcast

Becoming Bridge Builders
Building Bridges, Transforming Lives
Discover the inspiring journeys of transformational leaders on "Becoming Bridge Builders" with host Keith Haney. Each episode uncovers the inspiring stories of individuals who are profoundly impacting the world. Learn how their leadership and unique gifts bridge gaps, foster unity, and create lasting legacies. Tune in for powerful testimonies, insightful, often challenging conversations, and practical wisdom that will empower you to become a bridge builder in your community. Join us and be inspired to create positive change and follow in the footsteps of these remarkable leaders.
Support This Show

About your host

Profile picture for Byrene Haney

Byrene Haney

I am Byrene Haney, the Assistant to the President of Iowa District West for Missions, Human Care, and Stewardship. Drawn to Western Iowa by its inspiring mission opportunities, I dedicate myself to helping churches connect with the unconnected and disengaged in their communities. As a loving husband, father, and grandfather, I strive to create authentic spaces for conversation through my podcast and blog.