10/2/2023 0 Comments Jehovahs witness moviePut simply, this dream was on the exact opposite end of the spectrum from one of those “naked in public” dreams. It’s stories like hers that make it all worthwhile for us.Listen to the latest episode of the AIPT Movies Podcast! There was a woman who flew to New York for the Tribeca premiere from Los Angeles because she was an ex-Jehovah’s Witness and heard about the film and had to come see it. It has been amazing to talk to people who went through it and felt those things growing up. They have shared the trailer on their Facebook groups, and they've come up to us at film festivals to thank us for such a true portrayal. SW: We actually had quite a warm response from the ex-JW community, particularly the gay ex-JW community, which is quite a large group of people that have really embraced film. O-C: What have been the reactions since you started showing the film at festivals? As soon as we saw that, we knew that this was somewhere we wanted to shoot and that was our first day of shooting there. It just looks like they're walking on water. You see the shot in the movie a bunch where the tide goes out. There was this beach that was on the sidewalk with a sort of a cliff and then there's another beach at the bottom. I didn't want Anwen to have this vast knowledge of the religion because her character doesn't either, so I think that helped with them developing the characters on their own. SW: I sent June only a bunch of JW writings and the JW Bible because I didn't want them to know too much about it. O-C: Sarah, I know that the girls had you as a reference but did they do any kind of research to learn a little bit about Jehovah Witnesses? I just had a feeling about her so I asked Jesse if she would do a tape and she did and there you go. SW: I had been watching teen shows on Netflix and on CTV to get a vibe for some potential actors and I saw Anwen on a show and she's wearing glasses which was kind of dorky but she kept pushing up her glasses on her nose, which is something that I do. So, Jesse made some amazing discoveries for us in terms of June and Anwen. The entire film fell on the shoulders of these two main lead actresses. Sarah and I both knew from the beginning this was the single most important creative decision we can make for the film. MS: We worked with a great Toronto-based casting agent named Jesse Griffiths. O-C: You hit the jackpot with your two actresses, Anwen O'Driscoll and June Laporte. They're not like a big terrible bad church in the way that many churches are. It's about belief and love and yes, religion influences their relationship, but not in the obvious way. That's not really what the problem is in the story. But we were determined not to make into an obvious villain, because that's too easy. It was just the other little things that seem very strange to people who are not in it. My family was warm and welcoming in many ways. SARAH WATTS: Telling Mark stories of my childhood, growing up in this religion, they weren’t bad stories. It’s particularly interesting that you focus on the Jehovah’s Witnesses because most people don’t know much about them or have heard only bad things. O-C: Sarah, although the film is not autobiographical, you did draw from your personal experiences. So, I suggested that we write a movie together because I thought Sarah had a lot to say and it turned out to be a great collaboration. Hearing these stories, I felt like it could be a good basis for a film. She originally grew up in Yellowknife and just had such a fascinating story. I certainly didn't know a lot about Jehovah's Witnesses and I didn't really know her story. Sarah started telling stories about her background and I hadn't really known anything about her. MARK SLUTSKY: Sarah and I had been friends for a couple years and she took me out one night to have a drink at a dive bar.
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