Filmmaker Walks Line Between Faith Based and General Audiences Entertainment
/Filmmaker and TogetherLA contributing writer Spencer T Folmar isn’t shy about telling stories that highlight society’s sins and ills — and redemption.BY ALEX MURASHKOAs a Christian man living in Hollywood, navigating the movie industry can sometimes be difficult. Walking the line between Faith Based and General Audiences entertainment can be a vulnerable balancing act.After his film company, Hard Faith, released “Generational Sins” last year, a story that touched on alcoholism, suicide and redemption, Folmar began the early production stages of “The Beast in Me,” but recently shifted schedule to begin the movie, “Shooting Heroin.”He told The Hollywood Reporter that the switch in priorities occurred because “the opioid problem is so apparent and is so sad.”Folmar also told THR that “Shooting Heroin” will be the company’s first movie aimed also at a secular audience, given that the opioid crisis involves every demographic at every socioeconomic level.“We’re taking it into the heartland of America and exploring what this might look like in a fictional story,” he said.Folmar was asked by TLA to talk about his early journey of faith. Below is what he shared with us."I didn't attend church until my 20s.’ So, in my early 20s,’ right after college, I took a gap year and I went to a Bible school overseas in New Zealand called Capernwray. I went to this informal Bible school in New Zealand because I was at this crossroads in my life where I had just graduated college, and I was gonna move to Hollywood, to Los Angeles, from where I was living at that time, which was in Pennsylvania. I wanted to start a career in filmmaking professionally and within the Hollywood industry."I was at this intersection of my life and I wanted to sort of figure things out. I had gone to church a couple of times, liked a couple of people who identified as Christian and was inspired by some of the stories I had heard. But up until this point I had never read the Bible on my own and I wanted to decide once and for all whether or not I'd believed this to be my ultimate truth."During the time I was at Capernwray I was on a solo retreat where you go out into the wilderness, into the bush of New Zealand and you just took your Bible, and a notepad and nothing else. It was a time of contemplation and meditation while reading the Word. And so I went out into the wilderness and was by myself for 40 hours."At first, I would read new sections... for the very first time I was reading the Bible. And I was reading Acts, and I was reading Paul's Epistles, and the Gospels, and then into Old Testament. But the verse that really stuck out to me because of my peace was Galatians 2:20, when the person says that "I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives through me.”
"The thing that I really wrestled with, and I couldn't quite understand, is that up until that point in my life most of my universe and my actions and everyone around me kinda revolved around me and my ego and pride and what I could get out of this world and what I could accomplish. Whenever I looked at that verse and within the scope of some of these new letters and books I'd been reading in the Bible, it started to become clear to me that my life wasn't about me, but it was actually about this guy named Jesus. And that my purpose of living and all my actions are actually connected to this grand tapestry of God's work and creation, and his plan of redemption for humanity."I was humbled in a good way to realize that the universe didn't revolve around me, and it revolved around Jesus. It was better to be a thread in that tapestry than on the threshing floor. It was a huge 180-degree turn for me. My life flipped upside down and now these words of scripture became illuminated and they mattered in this unique new way. I had a special revelation. I had now found the Bible. Whenever I’ve read the Bible after my conversion experience, the words would be like a personal counseling, therapy session. It would cut me down to the core of my being in a way that years worth of counseling never could."Editor's Note: The above is part one of a two-part interview with Folmar.Director Spencer T. Folmar’s theatrical debut, “Generational Sins,” has spurred a national debate surrounding the interplay of faith and film. Folmar coined the term “Hard Faith” to describe this new genre of film, written for audiences who are hungry for hope in the midst of gritty real-life stories. Folmar’s films are now released under his Los Angeles production company Hard Faith Films, which is currently developing several projects that will reflect today’s multifaceted culture and audience.
One day, I want to ask God so many “Why?” questions. Why, Lord, did that happen? Why was I in that relationship for years just to see it fall apart? Why did I do that? Lord, why did you let that happen to me? Why did I move to that state… that country?A “Why?” question I ponder a lot is about the path of my education. In fact, my academic career is a complex conversation. I went to an undergraduate school that didn’t have a proper film degree but had a well-rounded liberal arts communication studies program. I attended four film schools in total, including New York University Tisch School of the Arts for my MFA in Film. I worked at a Psychology school filming classes and counseling sessions for a few years, and also attended an informal Bible school overseas. I eventually went on to earn a Masters of Theology at seminary. Why?Some days I look back on my life and think that my life is a giant, pointless mess. But when I have more clarity and take a moment to live in the present, I pray that maybe there is a point to all of this randomness. On my very best days, the Lord gives me great grace in seeing how He may have been organizing my life in an intricate and perfect plan after all. Maybe too, just maybe, my life is only a thread of the great tapestry of life and of God’s plan of redemption.It’s an overwhelming and fearful thing to try and make sense of all the events of a life. There is a lot of failure, brokenness, and utter darkness that is tough to reconcile with the character of God. What do I do with the parts of my life that I’m still waiting to see how God might use for someone else’s good or even my own good? My choice is to face the confusion and doubts with faith.Maybe yet, there is still much more that God is doing through my life than I am even close to understanding. Maybe, all that education is being interwoven into my screenplays, attempting to speak honestly about God and the struggle of faith. Perhaps, all my scars and brokenness will be used to help me be more empathetic to others and have more grace to my brothers and sisters. That is my prayer, Lord.I find the lyrics of Sufjan Steven’s Vito’s Ordination Song comforting for this subject:“There's a designTo what I did and saidRest in my arms,Sleep in my bed,There's a design.”---Director Spencer T. Folmar's theatrical debut, "Generational Sins," has spurred a national debate surrounding the interplay of faith and film. Folmar coined the term "Hard Faith" to describe this new genre of film, written for audiences who are hungry for hope in the midst of gritty real-life stories. Folmar's films are now released under his Los Angeles production company Hard Faith Films, which is currently developing several projects that will reflect today's multifaceted culture and audience.
Actress Alley Mills, perhaps best known for her role as Norma Arnold, the mother in the coming-of-age TV series "The Wonder Years," is unashamed to talk about Jesus Christ. However, while she was still a Buddhist working in Hollywood, she was more concerned about what people thought about her than she does now, she told The Christian Post in an exclusive interview (May 28, 2013).BY ALEX MURASHKO"This town is driven by ego," said Mills, who currently plays Pamela Douglas in the soap, "The Bold and the Beautiful." She adds, "The more confidence you have when walking into a room, which is really about ego – that, much more than the depth of your heart, is what gets you a job." The question is always, "Can you hold your own in a room?"Mills said that she had good survival skills as an actress before becoming a follower of Jesus 15 years ago, but that her priorities are much different now. She gives her Christian testimony in church and has talked about it in Bible study, but has never spoken to the press about her journey of faith prior to her interview with CP.The actress grew up in New York, both the city and outside the city, and was mostly raised by a caregiver. Her parents, a father that was a television executive and a mother that was a magazine art editor, were "rabid atheists," she said. They later divorced."From the age of a teenager, I was always seeking something outside what the real world was. I had a yearning for meaning," said Mills, 62. "That's why I became an actress in school. I went away to boarding school when my parents got divorced. My childhood had not been happy."I was always searching. I became a Buddhist in my twenties when I came to Los Angeles. I met a group of people who I really loved," she explained.Being a Buddhist was part of her spiritual journey, she said. "I was a Buddhist for 20 years. At a certain point, in my late 30s I began to get unsettled about Buddhism. and the major thing was I felt like I needed to be grateful for this incredible creation … I've always loved nature. I've always been a hiker. I love the wilderness. I didn't realize it was God then, but I now do."Her uncertainty began to grow as she realized that chanting "to a law in the universe" was beginning to not work for her. She was also concerned that some of the Buddhist leaders were "becoming a little bit egocentric."A shift in her life began, she says, when she went to a Lutheran school's church service because it was recommended that as grandparents (Mills is married to actor and author Orson Bean) who are helping to place their grandchild in the school, they should attend."There on the wall [of the church where service was held] was a very old picture of Jesus and it was the same picture that the woman who raised me, my whole childhood, had by her bed," she said. "It was as if I was hit by a thunderbolt. I saw that picture and I suddenly remembered everything that I had not remembered at all about Mary (her caregiver) raising me pretty much from the age of two. She was a devout Christian. She was an African American. She kind of rescued me from a very crazy caregiver we had at that time, and always took me under her wing."Mills continued, "She would rock me in her rocking chair. She had a huge Bible and would open up her Bible and read to me. And I remembered everything when I saw this picture. I remember when I used to walk to school and that Jesus was with me, that he was my friend, that I wasn't afraid anymore, because I was a very anxious child. Mary would pray with me all the time. I snuck out to Sunday school. I had my own Bible with my name on it because I sang in a school choir. My parents didn't know."She said she completely forgot about this part of her childhood probably because her parents forbade the caregiver from teaching from the Bible at a certain point. "I remembered that happened in front of me when I was about six and she stopped reading me the Bible, which was awful. It must have broken her heart," Mills explained. "Unfortunately, she died before I became a Christian. I am convinced she prayed for me every day."She said the transition from Buddhism to Christianity at the point of remembering her past seemed logical."Nothing went against what I believed as a Buddhist. It was all like a missing link, because I had remembered what Jesus had been to me – just this incredibly humble and kind friend who brought peace to my heart as a very little girl … but I sobbed and I sobbed," she said. "She (caregiver) was the most incredible role model of my whole life. When I saw that picture everything came back to me."Later, Mills asked the pastor of the Lutheran school church if it was okay for her to attend even if she was a Buddhist. He told her it was fine just as long as he could have meetings with her and her husband over coffee."That pastor is still my husband's best friend and he baptized me 3 to 4 years later with my grandson," she said. "That was the beginning of a change in my life. It was a continuation for me… Buddhism was sort of a step. People worry about [Buddhism being the wrong spiritual path]. That's true, people can become complacent and remain stuck… but it wasn't for me, it was a step."
I thought opening up about my sin and shame would result in the end of my ministry career. But what I found was a deeper experience of God’s grace. Walking through the principles and steps of Celebrate Recovery®, I found I really was powerless to control my life and that I wasn’t alone in ministry, even as a young pastor. I learned in a deeper way that God really did care about me personally and that I had the freedom through Christ to live as God wanted me to. But more than anything, I learned that my struggles with porn, alcohol, and shame over past decisions were a result of thirsting for love, affirmation, and acceptance in things that could never satisfy. I have come to experience through Celebrate Recovery that God is the way, the truth, and the life, and all of my longings and desires are satisfied in him.I am so thankful that God led me to Celebrate Recovery. It has completely changed my life, my marriage, my ministry, and my relationship with Jesus Christ. I have found freedom from porn, and God continues to peel back more layers of my heart in order to make me more like him. I’m not “out of the woods,” but with the help of my forever family and the tools God has given me through Celebrate Recovery, I know I can continue to grow closer to him each day. Thank you for letting me share.Published with permission from 