The Power of Story – Interview with the Directors of Trust Fund (CBG017)

We talked with moviemakers Isaac Alongi and Sandra Martin about their recent project called Trust Fund. Their approach is to create stories people are drawn to that have Bible principles in them. Isaac and Sandra are everyday people who live in Kansas City but who feel a calling to reach people with the gospel in a big way. Their movies are not intentionally not classified as “Christian” so that people who need to experience the gospel can bump into it. They are passionate about their Christian faith and about telling great stories.

Show Notes: 

• Sandra and Isaac share their story of becoming filmmakers 
• Started working for other moviemakers then sought after their own movie script• Sandra did the work to learn how to write her own script
• The first script was rejected so Sandra had to start over
• Isaac is a successful photographer who is getting back to his original dream of making movies
• Isaac has worked on other films, but the Trust Fund is their first project
• What makes a movie Christian is the worldview behind it
• Sandra is not writing a movie for the Christian market, she has the principles in it
• The strategy is to produce movies anyone will come to and enjoy
• The storytellers for every generation shape the culture 
• If you want to reach people that are not in the church you need to tell stories that appeal to everyone
• There is a purpose for creating movies for Christian audiences and it’s good as well
• Trust Fund was filmed in 25 days in Kansas City
• Isaac and Sandra tells of some wonderful ways God moved to help the movie happen
• Faith-based movies have become a genre but movies can be made with a Christian perspective
• Sandra wants to make movies that people can talk about later
• We talk about the next movie Isaac and Sandra are working on
• Isaac and Sandra had to wear many hats; in the next movie they will do things differently to help them focus on telling the story 
• They feel like God is behind them to make movies that relate to large audiences
• We discuss the marketing process for a movie; it’s expensive 
• Marketing is hard; the best marketing wins
• Half the budget will be on marketing for the next movie
• Their hometown, Kansas City, rallied around the movie to provide great publicity
• They are hoping to build a brand over time by releasing more movies
• Isaac would like to be more genuine with their marketing by being more organic

Links: 

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