WEBVTT 00:00:02.160 --> 00:00:07.719 Hey, Tyler. Hey, how are you? Good. Yeah. Thanks 00:00:07.719 --> 00:00:10.720 for coming on short notice and things. Yeah, 00:00:10.740 --> 00:00:15.080 absolutely. Looking forward to getting to know 00:00:15.080 --> 00:00:18.179 about the movie. I was hoping if you could just 00:00:18.179 --> 00:00:21.280 get started with telling us about the moment 00:00:21.280 --> 00:00:24.920 you learned about the learning you movie and 00:00:24.920 --> 00:00:29.679 how that just kind of evolved. Yeah. So. We had 00:00:29.679 --> 00:00:33.700 a person named Jeff Davidson who has submitted 00:00:33.700 --> 00:00:37.320 a script to our film company. And we get we get 00:00:37.320 --> 00:00:40.539 scripts quite a bit. So we don't always read 00:00:40.539 --> 00:00:42.880 every single one of them. It's just impossible 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:45.740 to do that. But a guy named Mark on our staff, 00:00:45.899 --> 00:00:49.979 he has a daughter named Julianne that is profoundly 00:00:49.979 --> 00:00:53.380 autistic. So when we got this script and it was 00:00:53.380 --> 00:00:58.960 basically Jeff's story with his son Elijah. who 00:00:58.960 --> 00:01:02.439 is very much like Julianne, Mark was just enthralled 00:01:02.439 --> 00:01:05.000 with the script. So he called me and said, hey, 00:01:05.019 --> 00:01:06.239 you need to read this. I think this could be 00:01:06.239 --> 00:01:08.859 our next movie. And the ball started rolling 00:01:08.859 --> 00:01:11.780 from there. So within a week, we were meeting 00:01:11.780 --> 00:01:13.540 with Jeff, trying to figure out how we could 00:01:13.540 --> 00:01:16.620 purchase the script. And then we developed it 00:01:16.620 --> 00:01:19.859 for about six months with our team before we 00:01:19.859 --> 00:01:24.239 started pre -production on the film. So I was 00:01:24.239 --> 00:01:27.299 anticipating some sort of connection there. Yeah. 00:01:29.329 --> 00:01:35.290 Tell me about what it meant for you and the crew 00:01:35.290 --> 00:01:40.170 of finding the actor and then making the movie 00:01:40.170 --> 00:01:44.930 to appear the way that you've created. Yeah, 00:01:45.030 --> 00:01:49.730 we were really very adamant that we create a 00:01:49.730 --> 00:01:53.909 film that feels authentic. A lot of times in 00:01:53.909 --> 00:01:57.060 movies about people with autism, It tends to 00:01:57.060 --> 00:02:00.480 be romanticized. And so what happens is you get 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:05.859 the kid that's an unbelievable piano player because 00:02:05.859 --> 00:02:09.180 he's autistic, or the mathematician, and all 00:02:09.180 --> 00:02:11.560 of these incredible stories that Hollywood will 00:02:11.560 --> 00:02:15.240 portray autism as, which is great. But the problem 00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:18.280 is that's not the reality for most people. And 00:02:18.280 --> 00:02:21.960 so what we wanted to do is try to present what 00:02:21.960 --> 00:02:24.120 it's actually like to be on the spectrum and 00:02:24.120 --> 00:02:26.080 also what it's like to be a parent of someone 00:02:26.080 --> 00:02:28.680 that has to care for someone that's profoundly 00:02:28.680 --> 00:02:33.060 autistic 24 seven. And so we had multiple people 00:02:33.060 --> 00:02:35.319 on set that were either on the spectrum or were 00:02:35.319 --> 00:02:39.060 parents and caregivers of people. We had actors 00:02:39.060 --> 00:02:43.319 that volunteered for months with autism organizations 00:02:43.319 --> 00:02:46.360 just to get to know that better. And I feel like 00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:50.719 we did a a really solid job of being authentic 00:02:50.719 --> 00:02:55.360 and raw with the story. The clips that I've seen, 00:02:55.400 --> 00:02:58.340 the trailer, it's very good. It's well done. 00:02:58.340 --> 00:03:04.419 Thank you. It's easy to capture the emotions 00:03:04.419 --> 00:03:08.960 involved with it and the struggles. Do you have 00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:11.699 the moment on the beach, too? I think it's a 00:03:11.699 --> 00:03:14.530 beach. Yeah, that's my favorite scene in the 00:03:14.530 --> 00:03:18.389 whole film. In the movie, they build an eight 00:03:18.389 --> 00:03:21.389 -foot tall sandcastle. The dad in the film is 00:03:21.389 --> 00:03:25.789 an architect. When he builds a sandcastle, he's 00:03:25.789 --> 00:03:27.750 building it like an architect would, not like 00:03:27.750 --> 00:03:31.270 me or you would, like a normal person. They build 00:03:31.270 --> 00:03:34.090 this massive sandcastle and there's a storm that 00:03:34.090 --> 00:03:37.930 comes. And it just absolutely wrecks the kid, 00:03:38.150 --> 00:03:40.389 Elijah. And that's one of my favorite scenes 00:03:40.389 --> 00:03:43.210 because the more I talked to families within 00:03:43.210 --> 00:03:46.009 the autism community, more and more of them, 00:03:46.009 --> 00:03:48.830 they told me about, I'm going to roughly call 00:03:48.830 --> 00:03:51.550 it their sandcastle moment. But each of them 00:03:51.550 --> 00:03:54.490 had this moment where, at least for the parent 00:03:54.490 --> 00:03:57.949 side, they realized there's nothing wrong with 00:03:57.949 --> 00:04:00.530 my kid. But this is the reality of how it's going 00:04:00.530 --> 00:04:02.849 to be from now on, especially if they're profoundly 00:04:02.849 --> 00:04:05.810 autistic. And that was just such a powerful moment. 00:04:05.830 --> 00:04:08.490 So our producer team, we refer to that as the 00:04:08.490 --> 00:04:10.270 sandcastle moment. So each time we talk to a 00:04:10.270 --> 00:04:13.789 new family and they have this like story of this 00:04:13.789 --> 00:04:15.629 is the first time that I realized, hey, I'm going 00:04:15.629 --> 00:04:17.610 to have to care for my kid forever. We call that 00:04:17.610 --> 00:04:19.569 their sandcastle moment. So it was very profound 00:04:19.569 --> 00:04:23.009 on our end as well. Yeah, it's a good connection 00:04:23.009 --> 00:04:25.810 too, because the autistic child will spend however 00:04:25.810 --> 00:04:28.350 long needed to build that eight foot sandcastle. 00:04:28.410 --> 00:04:31.069 They would love it. And rebuild it once it gets 00:04:31.069 --> 00:04:37.259 destroyed. This is very good stuff there. Can 00:04:37.259 --> 00:04:39.160 you just talk a little bit about how many movies 00:04:39.160 --> 00:04:42.800 you've made and about your movie company? Because 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:46.399 that's something that's not like I don't have 00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:48.220 conversations about that very much. It's like, 00:04:48.439 --> 00:04:50.720 why do you even get involved with that? Yeah, 00:04:50.920 --> 00:04:54.639 this is our this is our fifth feature film. So 00:04:54.639 --> 00:04:57.839 we started making them back in. The process started 00:04:57.839 --> 00:05:01.120 back in late 2016, so about a decade ago is when 00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:04.939 we started doing this. I'm a pastor of a church 00:05:04.939 --> 00:05:10.220 in southern Indiana, down in Corden. And I studied 00:05:10.220 --> 00:05:12.259 film in college. I've always wanted to make movies. 00:05:12.500 --> 00:05:15.420 I ended up going into ministry back in 2016. 00:05:15.540 --> 00:05:17.199 I was like, why can't we do both of those things 00:05:17.199 --> 00:05:20.600 at the same time? We can do ministry and share. 00:05:22.250 --> 00:05:25.629 the news about Jesus in different ways with film. 00:05:26.009 --> 00:05:29.250 So we started making movies then, and it's progressed 00:05:29.250 --> 00:05:33.129 ever since. But we made a film called I Can back 00:05:33.129 --> 00:05:36.829 in 2023 that ended up being our first one that 00:05:36.829 --> 00:05:40.269 was out in theaters nationwide, which really 00:05:40.269 --> 00:05:43.250 opened up a lot of doors for this one, which 00:05:43.250 --> 00:05:46.310 Learning You is currently in a few hundred theaters 00:05:46.310 --> 00:05:48.250 across America. It's getting ready to have a 00:05:48.250 --> 00:05:51.500 European release. So yeah, we've built it up 00:05:51.500 --> 00:05:53.680 over the last decade. One of the things that's 00:05:53.680 --> 00:05:56.000 unique about our film company is that we donate 00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:59.860 100 % of our profits. So anything that we get 00:05:59.860 --> 00:06:03.519 back from like theatrical or streaming, we donate 00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:07.220 it towards a cause. So for ICANN, we worked with 00:06:07.220 --> 00:06:09.300 Christian Alliance for Orphans and we donated 00:06:09.300 --> 00:06:13.439 most of that money towards helping orphans. And 00:06:13.439 --> 00:06:16.839 then for Learning You, we created our own initiative 00:06:16.839 --> 00:06:20.120 called ACT. which is designed to give like free 00:06:20.120 --> 00:06:22.680 counseling and resources and respite and things 00:06:22.680 --> 00:06:24.980 like that for parents and caregivers in the autism 00:06:24.980 --> 00:06:29.639 community. OK, yeah, I've seen that promoted. 00:06:29.839 --> 00:06:31.920 I've seen you talk about it on Facebook clip 00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:34.220 and saying, well, I definitely want to talk about 00:06:34.220 --> 00:06:37.819 that. So you created it. Yeah, we started that. 00:06:38.100 --> 00:06:41.259 We actually started it about a year ago. We got 00:06:41.259 --> 00:06:44.079 a grant to kind of kickstart that about a year 00:06:44.079 --> 00:06:47.139 ago. So we guinea pigged it here in the southern 00:06:47.139 --> 00:06:50.000 Indiana and Louisville market. But we've got 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:53.220 about 15 cities that we're doing kickstart events 00:06:53.220 --> 00:06:56.300 all across America to try to spread different 00:06:56.300 --> 00:06:58.500 chapters of ACT so that more and more families 00:06:58.500 --> 00:07:01.180 within the autism community can feel cared for 00:07:01.180 --> 00:07:02.899 and loved on and have resources, things like 00:07:02.899 --> 00:07:07.899 that. Was that what predates does the learning 00:07:07.899 --> 00:07:11.759 you movie predate the startup of that? They go 00:07:11.759 --> 00:07:15.240 hand -in -hand so act stands for awareness connection 00:07:15.240 --> 00:07:19.139 and touch and we're basically using The movie 00:07:19.139 --> 00:07:21.620 as the awareness piece and then connection and 00:07:21.620 --> 00:07:24.959 touch we started an online group for parents 00:07:24.959 --> 00:07:27.480 and caregivers of the autism community so they 00:07:27.480 --> 00:07:31.939 could feel connected and then the touch is events 00:07:31.939 --> 00:07:34.220 and trainings and things like that, that we can 00:07:34.220 --> 00:07:37.839 put on in various cities that are more tangible. 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:40.819 So that gives them resources, counseling, even 00:07:40.819 --> 00:07:43.500 like date nights out, stuff like that. So they 00:07:43.500 --> 00:07:46.139 kind of go hand in hand, but the movie and the 00:07:46.139 --> 00:07:49.579 ministry started at the same time. Yeah, that's 00:07:49.579 --> 00:07:53.279 a great, that's a great, the idea that you just 00:07:53.279 --> 00:07:55.560 mentioned that you, you donate all of those, 00:07:56.579 --> 00:07:58.959 all of those earnings is very fascinating to 00:07:58.959 --> 00:08:02.660 me. That's well definitely the we're like the 00:08:02.660 --> 00:08:05.220 worst for -profit business in the world because 00:08:05.220 --> 00:08:07.879 we operate with investors like a normal company 00:08:07.879 --> 00:08:14.180 and then we give all of it away So how many movies 00:08:14.180 --> 00:08:19.639 have you done as far as After starting your company 00:08:19.639 --> 00:08:21.860 because just see from the starting the company 00:08:21.860 --> 00:08:25.379 part is like very Seems very challenging, especially 00:08:25.379 --> 00:08:28.930 in this market this type of field Yeah, yes, 00:08:28.930 --> 00:08:32.750 we've done five five movies I've worked on a 00:08:32.750 --> 00:08:36.470 few others by myself like away from the company 00:08:36.470 --> 00:08:40.690 but five as first capital films this learning 00:08:40.690 --> 00:08:46.190 is our fifth one and You don't think of southern 00:08:46.190 --> 00:08:49.389 Indiana as a hub for men for making movies very 00:08:49.389 --> 00:08:53.549 often, but we have our own studio All of the 00:08:53.549 --> 00:08:55.730 stuff that we work with for distribution and 00:08:55.730 --> 00:08:58.100 post -production So like all the editing, all 00:08:58.100 --> 00:08:59.759 the sound and stuff like that, that's all done 00:08:59.759 --> 00:09:01.840 in Los Angeles. We shoot the movies here, but 00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:04.240 then everything else is done with a different 00:09:04.240 --> 00:09:08.740 studio in LA. But for all intents and purposes, 00:09:08.860 --> 00:09:10.940 the movies are made right here in southern Indiana 00:09:10.940 --> 00:09:14.960 at our studios, which is kind of cool. This is 00:09:14.960 --> 00:09:18.480 cool. Whenever you were casting for the actor, 00:09:18.519 --> 00:09:21.659 I know you you talked a little bit about it before, 00:09:21.659 --> 00:09:29.200 but the actors with the with autism. and I know 00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:31.700 you mentioned some volunteers and so forth but 00:09:31.700 --> 00:09:34.639 who all was involved and can you just take me 00:09:34.639 --> 00:09:36.860 through that process a little bit more detail 00:09:36.860 --> 00:09:43.500 about selecting the actor and then just how that 00:09:43.500 --> 00:09:50.120 was shooting the movie and if there was any if 00:09:50.120 --> 00:09:55.620 any kind of changes throughout for the actor 00:09:55.620 --> 00:09:59.669 kind of evolving as portraying an autistic. Yeah. 00:10:00.269 --> 00:10:03.970 So there's two main boys in the film. The two 00:10:03.970 --> 00:10:08.350 characters are named Elijah and Stefan. Elijah 00:10:08.350 --> 00:10:11.330 is played by a guy named Caleb Millby out of 00:10:11.330 --> 00:10:14.690 Oklahoma City. And we did a pretty wide casting 00:10:14.690 --> 00:10:17.110 call for this actor because it was a very challenging 00:10:17.110 --> 00:10:22.409 role. He is profoundly autistic in the movie. 00:10:22.669 --> 00:10:25.429 But also there's sequences of the film where 00:10:25.429 --> 00:10:27.909 the dad is dreaming. So he's asleep and he's 00:10:27.909 --> 00:10:30.950 dreaming like his son is not autistic. It's very 00:10:30.950 --> 00:10:35.009 like there's this contrast that's really profound 00:10:35.009 --> 00:10:39.350 where every parent that we talked to, if their 00:10:39.350 --> 00:10:42.190 kid was profoundly autistic and institutionalized, 00:10:42.370 --> 00:10:45.009 they had this desire for that not to happen. 00:10:45.029 --> 00:10:47.269 So we wanted to portray that. So we knew that 00:10:47.269 --> 00:10:49.830 the actor had to convincingly play someone on 00:10:49.830 --> 00:10:52.480 the autism spectrum that's on the far end. And 00:10:52.480 --> 00:10:54.840 also be able to convincingly play someone that 00:10:54.840 --> 00:10:57.259 was not autistic in these dream sequences. So 00:10:57.259 --> 00:10:59.259 you can see how that would be an incredibly hard 00:10:59.259 --> 00:11:02.379 role to find one person to do both of those things. 00:11:03.240 --> 00:11:06.279 So we did a lot of casting work through various 00:11:06.279 --> 00:11:08.940 talent agencies and things like that. And Caleb 00:11:08.940 --> 00:11:11.159 ended up being the one that we cast. We even 00:11:11.159 --> 00:11:13.059 flew him in from Oklahoma before we gave him 00:11:13.059 --> 00:11:15.240 the role just to make sure like on screen he 00:11:15.240 --> 00:11:20.379 could pull that off. Stefan, however, is an autistic 00:11:20.379 --> 00:11:24.419 actor from our area. His name is Seth. And he 00:11:24.419 --> 00:11:27.080 is like the sweetest human that you'll ever meet 00:11:27.080 --> 00:11:32.480 in your entire life. And basically, Seth just 00:11:32.480 --> 00:11:35.100 played played Seth on screen because that was 00:11:35.100 --> 00:11:38.820 exactly what we needed. And so he was man. He 00:11:38.820 --> 00:11:42.610 was awesome. We had to. Somewhat known actors 00:11:42.610 --> 00:11:45.769 named Dan Roebuck and Stacey Heideck. She's the 00:11:45.769 --> 00:11:48.190 lead on days of our lives. And they were, they 00:11:48.190 --> 00:11:51.029 were his parents in learning you. And they became 00:11:51.029 --> 00:11:53.710 like instant family, like, like genuine love 00:11:53.710 --> 00:11:55.590 between all three of those, those people. So 00:11:55.590 --> 00:11:58.250 Dan, Stacey and Seth were like inseparable on 00:11:58.250 --> 00:12:01.190 set, which was, was really cool. But it did present 00:12:01.190 --> 00:12:06.830 challenges. Especially with Seth, who is, he's 00:12:06.830 --> 00:12:11.080 really easy going, but He's pretty far on the 00:12:11.080 --> 00:12:15.500 spectrum in terms of social battery and things 00:12:15.500 --> 00:12:20.600 like that. And so we could very much tell this 00:12:20.600 --> 00:12:22.360 was the last take that we're going to get out 00:12:22.360 --> 00:12:25.179 of Seth before he really needs a break. And so 00:12:25.179 --> 00:12:29.080 the crew was really, really good about accommodating 00:12:29.080 --> 00:12:31.419 and understanding about that. So we would just 00:12:31.419 --> 00:12:33.440 say, hey, this is the last one for Seth. And 00:12:33.440 --> 00:12:36.389 nobody questioned it. They just understood. He's 00:12:36.389 --> 00:12:38.070 a little bit overstimulated. Let's give him a 00:12:38.070 --> 00:12:40.230 break. We'll come back to it So it was a really 00:12:40.230 --> 00:12:42.169 smooth process. We really didn't run into very 00:12:42.169 --> 00:12:45.590 many issues. I Think a lot of it was because 00:12:45.590 --> 00:12:48.210 we had so many people familiar with the spectrum 00:12:48.210 --> 00:12:51.649 on set with us So we had like like moms and dads 00:12:51.649 --> 00:12:54.509 we had even the lead actor John Wells His son 00:12:54.509 --> 00:12:58.289 is autistic and so like he plays a version of 00:12:58.289 --> 00:13:00.870 himself in the film basically I think that really 00:13:00.870 --> 00:13:04.129 helped make sure that was a smooth process Yeah, 00:13:04.129 --> 00:13:06.110 because whenever I see the clips and things, 00:13:06.330 --> 00:13:08.750 it's like very natural stuff. It's like, well 00:13:08.750 --> 00:13:12.330 done. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, that's good stuff. 00:13:13.549 --> 00:13:17.129 So with this ACT, this act, can you tell us about 00:13:17.129 --> 00:13:20.110 how people can get familiar with that and maybe 00:13:20.110 --> 00:13:24.649 even look into it and maybe benefit from it? 00:13:25.049 --> 00:13:27.669 Yeah. Yeah. So we are getting ready to launch 00:13:27.669 --> 00:13:32.320 our website. event outside of our area is February 00:13:32.320 --> 00:13:37.519 3rd of 2026. And so that's kind of like the big 00:13:37.519 --> 00:13:40.220 kickoff that we're out of the testing mode into 00:13:40.220 --> 00:13:44.080 the full blown thing. So once that launches on 00:13:44.080 --> 00:13:46.960 the third, you should be able to just Google 00:13:46.960 --> 00:13:51.840 act and be able to find it pretty easily. We 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:55.440 have a Facebook page called Thrive. That is the 00:13:55.440 --> 00:13:59.279 group called Thrive, which is the online group 00:13:59.279 --> 00:14:01.159 we started for parents and it has a few hundred 00:14:01.159 --> 00:14:05.139 parents in it already. But yeah, if you go to 00:14:05.139 --> 00:14:08.299 our website, learningumovie .com, after February 00:14:08.299 --> 00:14:11.220 3rd, there should be lots of info on ACT on there. 00:14:13.100 --> 00:14:16.039 How can people get find the Thrive? What kind 00:14:16.039 --> 00:14:19.639 of online platform? Yeah, it's a Facebook group. 00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:22.080 And so if you have show notes, we can put the 00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:25.919 link in there if you'd like. Can you talk a little 00:14:25.919 --> 00:14:29.379 bit about how you approach movies with the Christian 00:14:29.379 --> 00:14:34.179 background? Yeah. So there's multiple types of 00:14:34.179 --> 00:14:35.799 faith -based films. You got the ones that are 00:14:35.799 --> 00:14:39.340 basically like a sermon in video format. And 00:14:39.340 --> 00:14:41.340 then you have like, on the other side of it, 00:14:41.379 --> 00:14:44.259 like a movie with a subtle faith element to it. 00:14:45.289 --> 00:14:48.049 Some of our films have leaned more towards the 00:14:48.049 --> 00:14:49.889 sermon side, especially when we first started 00:14:49.889 --> 00:14:52.570 out. As we've grown as filmmakers, they've leaned 00:14:52.570 --> 00:14:55.970 far, far greater to the other side of that. And 00:14:55.970 --> 00:15:00.230 so Learning You is definitely, it's definitely 00:15:00.230 --> 00:15:04.149 a wrestle with faith in the film. There's elements 00:15:04.149 --> 00:15:06.490 of, especially the dad character, just really 00:15:06.490 --> 00:15:09.610 wrestling with his faith and his relationship 00:15:09.610 --> 00:15:12.629 with God. But it's pretty subtle. So there's 00:15:12.629 --> 00:15:15.110 no big like come to Jesus moment in the film 00:15:15.110 --> 00:15:17.649 or anything like that. We were hoping that it 00:15:17.649 --> 00:15:22.610 would spark conversation of people maybe wrestling 00:15:22.610 --> 00:15:25.889 with their own faith that this movie would kind 00:15:25.889 --> 00:15:28.350 of help answer some of those questions maybe. 00:15:30.570 --> 00:15:33.269 That's kind of what I was hoping you would answer 00:15:33.269 --> 00:15:35.830 and how you would say that because you're absolutely 00:15:35.830 --> 00:15:39.190 right, especially autistic parents, because they're 00:15:39.190 --> 00:15:45.070 very It's very concerning as more and more profound 00:15:45.070 --> 00:15:48.070 autistics are getting older and, you know, they'll 00:15:48.070 --> 00:15:54.629 need 100 % caretakers and I hear a lot about 00:15:54.629 --> 00:16:00.070 worrying about that. Not having a lot of options. 00:16:00.690 --> 00:16:07.799 Whenever you had the institution, Elijah was 00:16:07.799 --> 00:16:10.639 institutionalized. Like people, I don't know 00:16:10.639 --> 00:16:13.200 if people still understand like that's a thing 00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:15.399 because society doesn't know what to do with 00:16:15.399 --> 00:16:19.600 them. Yep. And they turn a blind eye to them 00:16:19.600 --> 00:16:22.019 as well. They don't know what to do with them 00:16:22.019 --> 00:16:23.940 and they don't know that that really still exists, 00:16:24.139 --> 00:16:26.399 that there's a ton of institutions where kids 00:16:26.399 --> 00:16:30.820 are there. Yeah. Yeah. So that was very, that's 00:16:30.820 --> 00:16:35.049 a highlight, I think, for me. And I'm sure others, 00:16:35.289 --> 00:16:37.409 because definitely the parents of the autistic, 00:16:37.769 --> 00:16:41.429 profound autistic, and people don't even know 00:16:41.429 --> 00:16:43.950 what to do with the autistic. And it doesn't 00:16:43.950 --> 00:16:48.350 matter the level. It's very much against social 00:16:48.350 --> 00:16:50.970 norms. Like with the actor you were talking about, 00:16:51.190 --> 00:16:55.429 like the social batter and so forth. But yeah, 00:16:55.690 --> 00:16:59.710 excited that this will bring awareness. What 00:16:59.710 --> 00:17:04.640 is your goal? What is your hopes that learning 00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:09.400 you can become more available? Like, how is that? 00:17:10.019 --> 00:17:12.700 How can we make that more available to people? 00:17:13.380 --> 00:17:16.319 Yeah, so it'll be like just any other movie. 00:17:16.359 --> 00:17:18.960 So it's in a few hundred theaters right now. 00:17:18.960 --> 00:17:22.200 I think the theatrical window ends somewhere 00:17:22.200 --> 00:17:25.200 around February 20th with the streaming date 00:17:25.200 --> 00:17:28.279 set for late March. So once it's out on streaming, 00:17:28.519 --> 00:17:30.099 anybody will be able to access it pretty much 00:17:30.099 --> 00:17:33.299 wherever you watch movies. Um, yeah, and there'll 00:17:33.299 --> 00:17:35.319 be out on DVDs and stores, things like that. 00:17:35.940 --> 00:17:38.740 So yeah, okay. That's good news. That's good 00:17:38.740 --> 00:17:43.599 news. Is there anything, it's kind of a short 00:17:43.599 --> 00:17:45.460 conversation here, but is there anything that 00:17:45.460 --> 00:17:47.960 we haven't talked about yet that, um, you've 00:17:47.960 --> 00:17:52.640 seen, um, it seems relevant for you even. from 00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:56.000 the christianity or the autism movie making anything 00:17:56.000 --> 00:17:58.960 i would i would just say that i went into the 00:17:58.960 --> 00:18:02.279 making this movie liking the script a lot and 00:18:02.279 --> 00:18:05.900 then loving mark the the guy that first read 00:18:05.900 --> 00:18:07.700 the script so he's the type of guy that like 00:18:07.700 --> 00:18:09.180 if he asked me to do something i'm going to do 00:18:09.180 --> 00:18:12.920 it um but i didn't really know that much about 00:18:12.920 --> 00:18:16.240 the autism community i knew people um from our 00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:19.240 church that are autistic or i knew people that 00:18:19.240 --> 00:18:21.500 were parents of people that were autistic but 00:18:21.500 --> 00:18:25.759 I had never really done a deep dive into what 00:18:25.759 --> 00:18:29.180 they go through and the type of life that they 00:18:29.180 --> 00:18:32.339 live until this film. And so it's been really 00:18:32.339 --> 00:18:36.279 eye -opening for me personally. And it's also 00:18:36.279 --> 00:18:39.380 brought a whole lot of more empathy and compassion 00:18:39.380 --> 00:18:43.720 from my end, because I simply just didn't know 00:18:43.720 --> 00:18:46.740 what people on the spectrum go through when I 00:18:46.740 --> 00:18:49.819 didn't know what their parents go through. But 00:18:49.819 --> 00:18:52.259 I wish that more people would take some time 00:18:52.259 --> 00:18:55.720 to, for lack of better terms, learn one another, 00:18:55.940 --> 00:18:58.680 like learning me, learning you, learning each 00:18:58.680 --> 00:19:01.259 other. I think if we did that, they would find 00:19:01.259 --> 00:19:03.319 that same level of empathy and compassion that 00:19:03.319 --> 00:19:05.519 I did. And I think the world would be a whole 00:19:05.519 --> 00:19:07.839 lot better of a place. So it doesn't matter if 00:19:07.839 --> 00:19:09.819 you got relationships that are people that are 00:19:09.819 --> 00:19:12.960 autistic or people that aren't autistic. The 00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:15.769 minute we stop learning one another. those relationships 00:19:15.769 --> 00:19:18.049 become stagnant and we start making assumptions 00:19:18.049 --> 00:19:20.130 that may or may not be true, but we start believing 00:19:20.130 --> 00:19:22.910 them regardless. And I think we see that a lot 00:19:22.910 --> 00:19:24.950 in our world with the division that we have. 00:19:25.069 --> 00:19:27.029 But if we all just paused for a second and tried 00:19:27.029 --> 00:19:30.130 to learn one another, um, with some humility, 00:19:30.390 --> 00:19:32.089 I think we'd all be a lot more compassionate. 00:19:33.549 --> 00:19:36.970 Yeah. Humans love to confirm their beliefs, right? 00:19:38.349 --> 00:19:42.099 And it's, um, we'll manipulate. the reality of 00:19:42.099 --> 00:19:44.420 things that fit into our beliefs, and if they 00:19:44.420 --> 00:19:46.940 don't fit, we reject. It's like a quick answer 00:19:46.940 --> 00:19:51.680 key. Accept or reject. We're so fast at it. Yeah, 00:19:51.859 --> 00:19:56.700 we live increasingly more in a black and white 00:19:56.700 --> 00:19:59.380 society, where it's either black or white, right 00:19:59.380 --> 00:20:03.019 or wrong, good or bad. But the reality is humans 00:20:03.019 --> 00:20:05.900 and humanity, we have lived in the gray area 00:20:05.900 --> 00:20:09.849 forever. like most humans are not good or bad 00:20:09.849 --> 00:20:14.589 inherently or or like right or wrong fully like 00:20:14.589 --> 00:20:16.690 nobody's a hundred percent good nobody's a hundred 00:20:16.690 --> 00:20:18.569 percent bad except Jesus who was a hundred percent 00:20:18.569 --> 00:20:20.410 good that's the only one that's ever ever been 00:20:20.410 --> 00:20:24.490 that and so if we could if we could start living 00:20:24.490 --> 00:20:27.349 in that gray area and recognizing that people 00:20:27.349 --> 00:20:32.099 are complex and their stories are usually defined 00:20:32.099 --> 00:20:34.680 by past trauma and experiences that they've had 00:20:34.680 --> 00:20:37.359 or life circumstances. That's how we start learning 00:20:37.359 --> 00:20:39.779 one another. And I think that you nailed it. 00:20:40.019 --> 00:20:43.279 Like we want instant answers and instant gratification 00:20:43.279 --> 00:20:46.559 and instant responses to things, but that's really 00:20:46.559 --> 00:20:49.180 not how humans operate. And so I hope this movie 00:20:49.180 --> 00:20:51.759 of nothing else challenges people to take a step 00:20:51.759 --> 00:20:53.500 back and realize like, Hey, there's some stuff 00:20:53.500 --> 00:20:55.440 going on in people's lives that I should probably 00:20:55.440 --> 00:20:57.920 be learning about them rather than judging or 00:20:57.920 --> 00:21:00.890 making assumptions or whatever. I think that's 00:21:00.890 --> 00:21:04.309 why Sermon on the Mount is bookended with Matthew 00:21:04.309 --> 00:21:08.309 7, with the judgment. Yep. I think that's why, 00:21:08.309 --> 00:21:11.089 you know, it's beautifully bookend right there. 00:21:11.309 --> 00:21:14.809 Yeah. Yeah. That whole, the whole Sermon on the 00:21:14.809 --> 00:21:19.349 Mount recognizes the heart of people, and yet 00:21:19.349 --> 00:21:21.490 we're still choosing law. So Jesus is saying 00:21:21.490 --> 00:21:23.069 it's not about the law anymore, it's about the 00:21:23.069 --> 00:21:25.230 heart for that entire Sermon on the Mount, which 00:21:25.230 --> 00:21:27.509 is why he goes to this to stop judging people. 00:21:27.829 --> 00:21:30.630 And yet we're still searching for the law, even 00:21:30.630 --> 00:21:32.769 2000 years later, even people that know Jesus, 00:21:32.849 --> 00:21:36.450 they're still doing that. Yeah. What are you 00:21:36.450 --> 00:21:39.690 looking forward to most recently? What am I most 00:21:39.690 --> 00:21:42.650 looking forward to? I am about to go to this 00:21:42.650 --> 00:21:44.849 is a personal thing, but my wife and I are about 00:21:44.849 --> 00:21:49.049 to go to Pakistan in two weeks. We've been working 00:21:49.049 --> 00:21:51.509 there for the last couple of years, helping start 00:21:51.509 --> 00:21:54.849 schools and helping free people from backyard 00:21:54.849 --> 00:21:58.549 slavery and So we're going to go in a couple 00:21:58.549 --> 00:22:00.970 of weeks and hopefully be able to free about 00:22:00.970 --> 00:22:04.670 10 families from slavery, which is really exciting.