On August 25, we celebrate the feast day of Saint Genesius. Saint Genesius was an actor and comedian. Intending to mock the Sacrament of Baptism,

Genesius had himself baptized onstage before the emperor. Suddenly, he had a conversion experience. He accepted the Christian faith and refused to renounce it, even when ordered to do so by Emperor Diocletian. Eventually,

Diocletian ordered him to be killed.

He inspired a character in the new film El Tonto Por Cristo.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve shared how this film actually got made.

But making it was only half the problem.

The other half is getting it into the world.

After a private screening, Jonathan Pageau and Deacon Seraphim Rohlin came on board as executive producers.

They helped launch a Kickstarter that became five hundred fifty people, mostly giving between twenty and a hundred dollars each.

That’s what took this film on the road, into historic theaters across the country, and all the way to the Kennedy Center.

It proved people are hungry for beauty, for meaning, for sacramental cinema on the big screen.

Here’s how you help take it further.

Purchase the presale on Apple.

That single action makes this film discoverable everywhere. It proves there's an audience.

It moves us into the algorithm-discoverable zone.

It also gets our investors paid back faster, so many of them can reinvest in the next slate of films.

We’ve proven we don’t need Hollywood. But we do need each other.

Join us for the watch party together, on the Feast of the Dormition, at seven p.m. Central.

Press play at the same time, then join us live from Substack afterward, as we give away first editioncollector’s merchandise, including the sold-out Blu-ray.

Comment WATCH for details.

Join the watchlist for our upcoming announcement:

https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/waitlist

Join the Green Room for early updates, our monthly film club, and a closer role in what we make next:

https://wildwestfilmmaking.substack.com/p/the-green-room

Support Wild West Filmmaking:

https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/donate

Website - https://wildwestfilmmaking.com

#IndependentFilmmaking #ElTontoPorCristo #WildWestFilmmaking

With the film wrapped, we headed into the editing bay to see what we had.

Jess had endless amounts of SAG paperwork.

I worked with Julian, our oldest son and our main editor, night and day, to put this story together.

I had to kill some of my favorite scenes along the way, in service of the story that was actually unfolding.

You tell the story three times. The one you write. The one you shoot. The one you edit.

You’ll be able to see this edited film this August.

If you were on the watchlist, you already got a special announcement.

If you want to hear it early, comment WATCH.

Big news, August 1st.

Join the watchlist for our upcoming announcement:

https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/waitlist

Join the Green Room for early updates, our monthly film club, and a closer role in what we make next:

https://wildwestfilmmaking.substack.com/p/the-green-room

Support Wild West Filmmaking:

https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/donate

Website - https://wildwestfilmmaking.com

#IndependentFilmmaking #ElTontoPorCristo #WildWestFilmmaking

Any film, especially an independent one, isn't made without its share of incidents.

We had fourteen fast days of principal photography. Then we wrapped.

Jess called our consultant producer to tell him.

He asked one question. Without incident?

Jess was surprised right back. Was there supposed to be?

Glory to God, and the prayers of Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco, for the protection around this film.

If you’re on our watchlist, you already got something special today.

August 1st, it’s official.

If you’re not on it yet, comment "WATCH” before it’s too late.

Join the watchlist for our upcoming announcement:

https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/waitlist

Join the Green Room for early updates, our monthly film club, and a closer role in what we make next:

https://wildwestfilmmaking.substack.com/p/the-green-room

Support Wild West Filmmaking:

https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/donate

Website - https://wildwestfilmmaking.com

#IndependentFilmmaking #ElTontoPorCristo #WildWestFilmmaking

Frederica Mathewes-Green is an author Jess has admired for years.

She read our script and asked if there was even the smallest part for her.

She flew herself out for one day, for a scene inside the cathedral.

Frank Mosley plays Genesius. In preparing for the role, he watched every one of her Welcome to the Orthodox Church videos. All thirty-six of them.

That day was a heavy one for him. Vulnerable.

We cleared the set for that scene. Everyone except essential crew.

Frank said Frederica could stay.

When we cut, she came back to craft services and said one thing to Jess.

There won’t be a dry eye in the room.

I still think about that.

We have something to announce on August 1st. Join the watchlist to hear it first. The Greenroom

hears it even sooner.

Join the watchlist for our upcoming announcement:

https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/waitlist

Join the Green Room for early updates, our monthly film club, and a closer role in what we make next:

https://wildwestfilmmaking.substack.com/p/the-green-room

Support Wild West Filmmaking:

https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/donate

Website - https://wildwestfilmmaking.com

#IndependentFilmmaking #ElTontoPorCristo #WildWestFilmmaking

Independent filmmaking is mostly the art of seeing what something else could become.

We had fourteen days of principal photography. Every single dollar mattered.

Because of generous people and a lot of relational equity, we transformed a historic women's dormitory in Tehuacana, Texas, into the monastery you see in El Tonto Por Cristo.

The first floor became our kitchen, our craft services, and one of our actual film sets.

The second floor became home for cast and crew. Genuinely felt like summer camp.

The third floor became the monks' cells. We lived there. We worked there. We prayed there.

Every inch of that property ended up somewhere in this film.

At one point, the atmosphere in that building got unsettling enough that Father Theophan came and blessed the house.

After that, everything felt peaceful again.

It's one of those stories that just became part of the life of this film.

We have something to announce on August 1st. Join the watchlist to hear it first. The Green Room hears it even sooner

Join the watchlist for our upcoming announcement:

https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/waitlist

Join the Green Room for early updates, our monthly film club, and a closer role in what we make next:

https://wildwestfilmmaking.substack.com/p/the-green-room

Support Wild West Filmmaking:

https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/donate

Website - https://wildwestfilmmaking.com

#IndependentFilmmaking #ElTontoPorCristo #WildWestFilmmaking

There wasn't a plan B at this point.

Every day we kept preparing as though production was actually going to happen. Every day we called SAG.

Father Theophan Warren told us something I still think about. He said Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco was good with paperwork.

So every day we asked for his intercessions.

And every day we called SAG.

Then, hours before production was supposed to begin, an email finally arrived.

Our interim agreement had been approved.

Our representative added one request, half joking. You can make this movie, but you're not making another one this year. We gladly agreed. We only ever planned to make one anyway.

Production was on.

We have something to announce on August 1st. Join the watchlist to hear it first. The Greenroom hears it even sooner.

Join the watchlist for our upcoming announcement:

https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/waitlist

Join the Green Room for early updates, our monthly film club, and a closer role in what we make next:

https://wildwestfilmmaking.substack.com/p/the-green-room

Support Wild West Filmmaking:

https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/donate

Website - https://wildwestfilmmaking.com

#IndependentFilmmaking #ElTontoPorCristo #WildWestFilmmaking

After years of work, we finally had a production date. A real one.

Locations booked. Equipment reserved. Every dollar we had already committed.

Around that same time, through an unlikely connection with Moore Productions, we got an expedited meeting that led somewhere I never expected. His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon read our script. He blessed the production. For a moment, everything felt like it was finally moving exactly the way it should.

Then the SAG strike happened. Our actors belonged to the Screen Actors Guild. Without an Interim Agreement, they legally could not work. Those agreements weren't exactly being handed out to tiny independent films like ours. If we didn't get one, we weren't looking at a delay.

Join the watchlist for our upcoming announcement:

https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/waitlist

Join the Green Room for early updates, our monthly film club, and a closer role in what we make next:

https://wildwestfilmmaking.substack.com/p/the-green-room

Support Wild West Filmmaking:

https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/donate

Website - https://wildwestfilmmaking.com

#IndependentFilmmaking #ElTontoPorCristo #WildWestFilmmaking

We had enough money to begin making this film. We did not have enough to finish it.

So Jess and I spent nights and weekends doing jobs we couldn't afford to pay anyone else to do. Production design. Locations. Costumes.

Long conversations with actors that quietly became our rehearsals, because we couldn't afford to schedule

separate ones. Nobody tells you this part when they talk about independent filmmaking.

It isn't glamorous. Most of it isn't even about filmmaking.

It's mostly two people solving one problem after another because they believe in the same impossible thing enough to keep showing up.

That's what these months actually looked like.

We have something to announce on August 1st. Join the watchlist to hear it first. The Greenroom hears it even sooner.

Join the watchlist for our upcoming announcement:

https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/waitlist

Join the Green Room for early updates, our monthly film club, and a closer role in what we make next:

https://wildwestfilmmaking.substack.com/p/the-green-room

Support Wild West Filmmaking:

https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/donate

Website - https://wildwestfilmmaking.com

#IndependentFilmmaking #ElTontoPorCristo #WildWestFilmmaking

Bishop Gerasim of Fort Worth told me something I don't think I'll ever forget.

He said, "Genesius, make this film before you're too Orthodox to make this film." That one sentence did something the last several weeks of doubt couldn't do. It gave me permission to stop second-guessing myself long enough to actually move.

Because here's the thing about certainty. It rarely shows up before you start. Usually it shows up somewhere in the middle, if it shows up at all. Sometimes you don't need certainty to take the next step. You just need enough courage to take it anyway.

That sentence became the reason production ever happened.

We have something to announce on August 1st. Join the watchlist to hear it first. The Greenroom hears it even sooner.

Join the watchlist for our upcoming announcement: https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/waitlist

Join the Green Room for early updates, our monthly film club, and a closer role in what we make next: https://wildwestfilmmaking.substack.com/p/the-green-room

Support Wild West Filmmaking: https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/donate Website - https://wildwestfilmmaking.com

#IndependentFilmmaking #ElTontoPorCristo #WildWestFilmmaking