Latest / Virtuous Leaders with Dr. Johann D'Souza / Ep.102 - How Catholics Are Quietly Winning in Hollywood with Fr. David Guffey | Family Theater | Faith-Based Media

Transcript

Ep.102 - How Catholics Are Quietly Winning in Hollywood with Fr. David Guffey | Family Theater | Faith-Based Media · Virtuous Leaders with Dr. Johann D'Souza

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  I think it's a great time to be in family and shape content.
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  For one thing, it's there's a real Finally, people of faith
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  have proven there's an audience for it.
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  This is Virtuous Leaders, the podcast for based Catholics who
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  will speak truth, do good or die.
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  Try. Here's the show.
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  What is your vision for Family Theater productions?
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  Sure. My vision for family theater
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  productions is that we become a reliable, trusted source of
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  content that inspires people to open their hearts to God and
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  opens for people a vision of family that is redemptive vision
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  of family where there's joy in life even amid some of the
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  struggles that inevitably come in family.
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  So in short, we're trying to open people's hearts to God and
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  to the wonder of family. Take care of that image.
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  Do it in a couple of ways. I mean, we're, we're a company
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  that's been around since 1947. And so we created a lot of
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  different kinds of media in the over 75 years we've been here in
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  Hollywood, started in radio, moved to the television film.
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  Right now, we have 2 main ways that we try to reach audiences.
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  The first is through our digital content.
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  It's mainly on YouTube and social media, and our digital
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  content is we have two series that are catechetical, that try
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  to explain concepts of Catholicism in simple and
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  entertaining ways. That's the series are Catholic
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  Central and English and Lenticotoico in Spanish.
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  They're free, over 100 episodes each.
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  They're free. They're on YouTube, so that's
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  part of our digital outreach. We also have been doing limited
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  series, digital series on various topics where we try to
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  incorporate a Catholic perspective on grief, on living
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  with a child with special abilities or special needs, on
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  how how marriage lasts. What, what are the things that
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  come together that help people persist and and be resilient in
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  marriage? What are the things that help?
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  What are the things that are part of an artist's life if
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  they're coming from the Catholic tradition?
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  So that's some of the things that we do in our digital team,
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  our other teams, our features team, and in our features team,
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  we're doing feature projects for television and film that for a
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  broader audience. Often these are for people that
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  may not be as familiar with Catholic vocabulary or symbols,
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  but might be open to the meaning behind them.
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  And so we've had documentaries that have been on PBS.
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  We just had a documentary that released this week in theaters
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  called Broken Mary, The Kevin Matthews Story.
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  That's this wonderful story of transformation of this for this
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  kind of big time character in Chicago radio.
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  But those are the kinds of projects we work on.
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  We also do script some scripted work.
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  We've got a film coming out that was shot in Ireland this summer
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  about kids that were taken out of Nazi Germany and given refuge
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  in at a farm in Ireland where there's Catholics and
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  Protestants who have their own kind of tensions that come
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  together to take care of these kids.
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  So that's some of our feature work that we do.
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  And then as always, we try to be present to the Catholic
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  community in the safe community that's here in Hollywood, which
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  is surprisingly large. There's really a lot of people
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  who would love to be using their gifts and talents in ways that
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  serve the Lord, that inspire people and our our uplift
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  people. So it's been wonderful to be
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  part of that community here in in Hollywood of all places.
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  Over the productions particular dating blueprints was your
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  bitch. Say again.
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  The dating blueprint. The dating project.
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  Yeah, that's all. Yeah, that was that documentary
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  we partnered with Paul's Productions on, and we're just
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  bringing it back to market in the next couple months.
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  You know, there's this professor at at Boston College, Jesuit
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  University, She has this course that's wildly popular on the
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  philosophy of relationship. And within that she does a unit
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  on dating and what it is. It's traditional dating.
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  It's dating with traditional values and norms, but it's she
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  couches it in ways that make complete sense to these kids.
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  In fact, she gives an annual lecture where she kind of lays
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  out the dating project, which was in the site actual
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  assignment they had in class with the stages she saw of
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  dating. And she fills the auditorium.
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  Thousands of kids come to this auditorium.
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  So we made a, we made a documentary about it with, with
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  Paul's productions. And we kind of follow people
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  that are various ages, a couple college kids, some couple people
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  in their 30s, so on in their early 40s, their struggles with
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  dating. And then how this way of dating
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  where you really get to know people and you really discern
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  whether or not this is a good match.
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  And then you but you take it slow.
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  There's, there's definite stages leading to the point where
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  someone might be moved toward courtship and marriage.
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  And in fact, even just a spoiler alert, a couple of the people
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  that were in the original documentary have already had
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  have gotten married and, and found mates after years of kind
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  of dating around and playing the system.
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  So this is a it's a great film. It's subversive.
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  There's not a lot of explicit real language language in the
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  actual documentary, but it points to things that are
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  completely traditional and completely in line with our
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  Catholic vision. Where do you get your funding?
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  Yeah, that's the great challenge, isn't it?
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  We have, we're blessed with an endowment.
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  We're a church sponsored nonprofit.
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  We're part of a larger organization called Holy Cross
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  Family Ministries. We get some of our finding from
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  them, but then we rely on donors and partners and other people
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  that are interested in the kind of content that we produce.
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  So we draw some from a film time that we have, we draw some from
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  partners. And just now we're getting into
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  projects that are big enough that we'll be seeking investors,
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  people that would like to invest in faith-based content, but then
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  that will be coming really soon. The reason I ask about that is
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  and I've heard that Leonard Leo's Vittorius Conservative
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  planted businesses looking to invest in film and and Hollywood
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  productions that could have more conservative viewpoint.
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  Yeah, I, I just wrote down the name and I'll have to talk to
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  him because I think there's a couple of people.
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  It's a great time, by the way, for all the things that people
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  say about the industry. I think it's a great time to be
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  in family and shape content. For one thing, it's there's a
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  real, finally, people of faith have proven there's an audience
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  for it. And there's a lot of resistance
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  in Hollywood on a philosophical or theological level.
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  But at the root of it all is most of the people in Hollywood
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  are business people. And if they see that there's an
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  audience for something, they'll, they'll get behind it and
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  they'll support it. And so audiences have proven
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  they want the more traditional material.
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  They want more traditional values in the content they have,
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  especially for their kids, especially for their children.
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  And so there's the support from the audience, there's support
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  from from funders that we're starting to see.
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  I'm glad to know of the men that you mentioned, but I there's
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  also a kind of begrudging support from the people that are
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  are in control of the content that goes on streaming platforms
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  and networks. What's the darkest thing you've
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  seen in Hollywood? You know, I'm really blessed.
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  I, I, for one thing, I, I don't choose to be in places where the
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  darkness would be seen. So I'm, I'm fairly insulated
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  from that And I, but I hear stories and I'm certainly part
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  of the world where people are drawn into things.
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  I think the the hardest thing is, well, the worst things in
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  Hollywood are the kinds of exploitation that you hear we
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  hear about in the news lately of and the kind of horrible things
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  that go on behind closed doors and that I have no access to
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  that. You know, I rarely hear of it in
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  pastoral situations where people talking, but it's there and I
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  know it's there and I know people that you have experienced
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  it and it's horrific. So that's the most horrific
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  part, the abuse and use of people, the trafficking of
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  people of, of just using people as, as objects for pleasure or
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  so that's behind the scenes. In terms of the business, I
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  think the hardest thing is that, you know, if you come to
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  Hollywood with a great project, get a great lawyer because you
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  know, there's just there's just summit and the business deals
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  are so complicated that if someone doesn't know what
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  they're doing, there's an easy chance that they could give
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  away, they give away more than they want to, or they could lose
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  control of their project or the, you know, the other people
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  aren't going to care about the project as much as they do.
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  So you see a lot of situations where people, I don't want to
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  say they're ripped off, but I would say it's a combination of
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  their own naivete and the aggressive, the kind of the
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  aggressive stances some of the the people in the industry.
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  But I think that's one thing that people come to Hollywood
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  really have to look out for. And then the other thing is one
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  of the things I find with the Catholics that are in Hollywood
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  and, and Christians by extension, is they tend to be
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  really, really strong Catholics because they have to work for
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  it. They're going to be held
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  suspicious. They're going to be held, you
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  know, a little, you know, you know, people don't really
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  believe that we exist. I mean, I, I'm lucky.
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  They see the collar and they go, yeah, there's a guy of faith,
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  but someone who's just the average Joe, the old layperson,
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  it's a lot. I think it's harder for them
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  actually. So you have to be strong in your
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  faith. And I would say it's just so
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  important for people to find a faith community, like minded
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  people that they can stay strong with in the kinds of projects
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  they choose to be a part of and the business deals that they do
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  and how they get involved in the industry.
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  Sometimes you'll be able to throw out the claim that Jews
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  run holly free. Is there any truth in them?
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  I've never heard about Freemasons.
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  People throw that out a lot. But you know, there's real
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  historical reasons why the Jew, the Jewish people are really
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  heavy into the film industry. When film started in the late
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  18, late 19, the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was really
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  suspect. I mean, it was not like we think
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  of it as fine art. We think it is something that
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  that is has commercial value. With that.
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  Then it was like, oh, this is really for the lower, the lower
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  masses. And like the robber barons, the
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  people that were in, they weren't investing in film.
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  And so the people that really built film were immigrants.
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  You have a lot of, you know, first generation immigrants you
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  have and a lot of people, a lot of those included people who
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  were Jewish by background. And so the literal truth is that
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  there were a lot of early investors who were Jewish, but
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  it's because they were, first of all, they weren't welcome often
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  in other business ventures. And second of all, they took
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  risks when other people weren't willing to.
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  I, I think that's largely, I mean, there are a lot of really
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  powerful people who are Jewish in the industry, no doubt about
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  it. But I think there's gatekeepers
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  who are agnostic, atheist, and they're, you know, we have a few
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  gatekeepers and executives who are Catholic or Christian.
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  But I think, you know, I think the hostility that some people
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  perceive from how it, it, it can be there.
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  And I know people have experienced that, but but if
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  you've got a great story, if you've got a great story and A
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  and A and a great film, you'll, you know, it doesn't matter the
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  the Jewish, Catholic, Christian, atheist thing won't matter.
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  There's a fascinating interview with a K GB X agent Eurybus
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  Maynow called Deception was My Job.
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  He talked about one of the Soviet strategies was
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  demoralization of the American people, beginning to some the
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  morals and culture of America as a first step towards revolution.
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  Do you think there's any truth in that through Hollywood?
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  Well, I think it happens more through social media.
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  I mean, I think the things I think, I think it doesn't
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  Hollywood in the media more on television than in film in this
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  sense. There are studies I wish, I wish
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  I were written down the citations when I was in
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  communication school because I would love to be able to share
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  them with you. And I kind of keep in touch.
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  But there have been studies that if if there's what they did is
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  they put people in a room and gave them a task like doing a
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  crossword puzzle or something. And then in the background there
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  was a television playing. And the experiment was to see
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  how much they'd pay attention to the television in the background
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  and how much they'd retain from that message.
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  And what they found was, is when the, when the, when the, the
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  message in the background was angry or, or, or loud or, you
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  know, angry and loud with full of emotion, They not only
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  listened to it, but they retained it.
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  And I think I think a lot of the media that we consume,
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  especially news media, is people that want us to be angry and
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  afraid because we'll keep watching, listening and and
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  paying attention, but it takes our attention.
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  And also the other things that are going on that are beautiful
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  and good and true and the ways that there's unity in the world
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  and the ways there's good things in the world.
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  So I think, I think that subversion comes and then in
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  social media, it just comes across, it's just really clear
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  that a lot of the posts that are up there are intended to be
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  divisive. They're not intended to bring
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  about a dialogue. They're not, they're just
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  they're meant to make either. They're either meant posted to
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  make you feel good about the position you have or be angry at
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  the people hold another position.
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  So I think that's where I think, and I think there's a lot of
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  subversion going on. They they, they've proven it.
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  I went to a communications conference and they talked and
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  there was an expert that talked about the posts about Pope Leo
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  within three days after he was elected.
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  And there were a lot of divisive posts, you know, things that he
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  didn't say, you know, showing it with people that were kind of AI
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  creations. And they found that of all the
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  negative posts, almost all of them came from a few sources.
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  I mean, they might have been different names on the post, but
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  they were they originated with the same sources and they were
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  sources from outside the country.
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  And so if people believe social media, your son, your being,
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  unless you do it very consciously, there's people
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  there that are trying to divide and what's one another name for
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  the evil 1, the divider or the accuser.
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  So that certainly is there. When we see demoralization
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  present in Hollywood is. Is how how?
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  Dumb movies are you didn't do very big budget movies
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  blockbusters. There's one called the beekeeper
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  and I, I just could not believe how unintelligent it was.
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  I, I, I'm, I sincerely think that our friends and I could
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  write a better script than that movie.
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  So it just, it puzzles me like how, how can movies be so dumb?
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  Well, it's, it's a problem. I mean, for one thing, it's a,
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  it's a, the bigger studios are making fewer and fewer films and
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  there's less and less money to make independent films out there
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  right now. And so they're going with what
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  they perceive as safe bets. They're going with things that
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  are based on an an intellectual property or, you know, a remake
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  or something like that, because they're perceived as more safe
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  bets. But in that and then, but the
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  other thing is, I don't think Hollywood trusts the audience,
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  just as they didn't trust it was a faith-based audience.
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  And there's still a lot of distress about that, but we're
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  proving them wrong. I don't think Hollywood trusts
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  that there's a there's enough of an audience that would go to a
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  thought provoking, thoughtful movie and plunk down the 12 to
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  $15.00 to see it in theater that you know, would pay to see it on
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  live stream. So I think again, it's a matter
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  of if you find a good movie, if you find a smart movie out
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  there, boy, promote it, put it on your social media and tell
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  your friends. Because the only way more of
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  them are going to get made is if we show there's an audience for
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  it. And then the other thing is to
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  really kind of support the films that and the film makers.
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  Like if you find a film makers who's got a record of doing some
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  really incredible stuff, you know, make sure you watch his or
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  her stuff. So that we're part of saying
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  there's an audience for this. There's a purpose for this.
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  The other thing that I would say is sometimes really great movies
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  just aren't getting distribution and distribution is harder
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  financing right now. You'd think with all the
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  platforms out there that there'd be easy distribution.
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  And look, you can get your film, you know, on 100 platforms if
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  you don't expect to make any money from it.
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  But you know, to make a film is expensive.
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  You've got a lot of people who, you know, their livelihood
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  depends on it. So but finding distribution
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  where you know, the film makers and the crafts and the crew can,
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  can be paid in a way that is sustainable is really hard right
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  now. And, and I think with
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  consolidation streaming platforms, it's going to get
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  even harder. And you know, the audience,
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  again, the audience, it follows the audience like on some of the
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  streaming platforms that we're doing a lot of independent film.
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  Five years ago, what they found is, you know, they could sync a
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  couple millions in the independent film that they were
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  just producing or they could put on reruns of a 20 year old TV
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  series and people were just as happy to watch the 20 year old
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  TV series. So why put the money in an
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  independent film? So you've seen dramatic cutbacks
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  in the amount of money that the big streamers are putting toward
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  original content because they're just going back to, you know,
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  eye candy stuff that was made 2025 years ago.
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  And and audiences of right now aren't demanding more.
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  What do you think is the best film we've never heard of?
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  Oh, that's a tough one. I think most people have heard
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  of Babette's Feast, which I just think is this a bit.
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  So it's a foreign film, just beautiful film that celebrates
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  the importance of beauty and faith and true sacrifice in
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  Christ. And I really love that film a
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  lot. So that that would certainly be
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  one of them. There, there's some shorts that
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  I can think of, but you know that that's the one that comes
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  on. I'll have to think about that
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  and get back to you on that more.
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  But I, I, every year I, I'm part of a program that at Sundance,
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  we take college students who are studying theology and film,
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  bring them to Sundance and then we send the students out to
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  watch films in the afternoon and evening.
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  But every morning we bring them together, We have prayer
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  together. And then we talked about the
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  theological insights from the film.
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  And it's been wildly successful. It's called the Windrider
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  Institute. John Priddy and his brother Ed
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  pretty put to give this amazing program.
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  Well, it's been amazing to see, first of all, how how thrilled
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  film makers were when people wanted to talk about their film
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  in depth. And so they've had over the, you
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  know, the 20-30 years since it's been going, they've had
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  incredible film makers that have come forward to be part of this
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  this thing. But the other thing is, every
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  year they tell us. Usually I don't remember the
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  exact statistics last year for fun, Sundance, which is one of
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  the premiere film festivals in the United States, maybe the
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  world, they had over 4000 features entered.
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  I think they accepted around 120 and of those I think about 25
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  got distribution deals out of the festival.
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  It just goes to show that you've there's just a lot of great film
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  out there that we never see because the right platforms
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  haven't come and they haven't found a way.
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  One of the hopes is I have to tell you and that there's a,
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  there's a number of people trying to start faith-based or
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  values program distribution channels that will help us to
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  see more of those. And I'm real hopeful in the next
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  5-10 years that will more channels will come to be that
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  offer a distribution that's good for the filmmaker but also
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  provides us access to some of these great films that people
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  can't see. Any last words for us already?
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  No, I mean, I just the one thing that I would just say to your
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  audience of this probably goes without saying that, you know,
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  find the media that release feeds your heart and your soul
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  and and pay for it and then and then tell people about it and
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  then support it. Because the way they have more
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  of that kind of media made is if people find it, watch it and
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  support it. And my great prayers that people
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  will do that. And I think they are.
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  Again, I think it's a great time to be in faith-based and values
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  content creation because I think the world is hungry for it, and
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  I think God is working in beautiful ways to make it to
• 22:05
  feel that hunger. Thanks for listening.
• 22:08
  Please like, subscribe and share with your friends.
• 22:11
  See you next time.