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What Happened When I Entered a Church Film Fest, Part 2

What Happened When I Entered a Church Film Fest, Part 2

Last updated on: December 31, 2024 at 3:28 pm by Coco Cabrel

What Happened When I Entered a Church Film Fest, Part 2 2024-12-31T15:28:33-08:00 Coco Cabrel

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What happened in the wake of my iPhone Film Fest submission – basically the one thing I said I would never do! Credit: Reimagine Church (and yours truly, “Producer”!

A few months ago, I wrote about how I reluctantly submitted to God, crying on the floor, when I entered a church film fest. Shortly after I wrote that article, I submitted to God so willingly and so instantaneously, I barely recognized my own voice when it happened. So, Part 2 of this evolving story is about 2 things:

losing your sense of self as you thought you knew it, and
realizing your sense of self as God always knew it.

What was happening (I thought)

It was late summer, and I felt pretty settled into this new church, the one whose iPhone Film Fest I’d entered in the spring. So far, I had submitted to God’s call to enter a film, attend the festival, and meet the pastor for coffee. Then my son and I both submitted to His call to actually move to this church, called Reimagine Church, in order to support my husband because he liked it enough to go with us (he felt overwhelmed at our previous church).

Now, I felt the pull to serve at Reimagine. It’s still a small start-up church, so there aren’t a whole lot of ministries in place for me to choose from. Nothing seemed an obvious fit for me to jump into. So I prayed for an opportunity.

After church one Sunday, I fell into a typical, “no-biggie” conversation with the pastor, David Cobia. Basically, along the lines of, “That was a spot-on message, David. How do you manage to come up with these, David, you must have a great little film team.”

Wait, who said that?

You see, David’s sermons are almost always pre-recorded mini-documentaries. They rather brilliantly weave together Scripture, local locations, local and Biblical history, and a mind-opening take on what this all means for our Christ-centered lives. These video-sermons are so effective, I really did assume David had “a great little film team.”

“Oh, no,” David answered, almost flippantly. “I just write my script on Wednesday, go out and film with my tripod and selfie stick on Thursday, and edit on Friday.”

My jaw literally hung open for several seconds.

“But that’s impossible,” I finally retorted. “I thought for sure you had a team to create these.” (And if you want to see for yourself why I was so dumbfounded, check out this terrific example of a typical Reimagine Church video-sermon: “Connections – Part 7”)

“Well,” David began hesitantly. Then, sotto voce, he spilled the tea. “Actually, Coco, I’ve been hoping that someone from the film fest might bubble up as the person who could start helping me.”

I noticed that my hand was physically raised while I blurted out, “I’ll do it.”

Wait, who said that?

The set-up

I agreed to meet David for lunch that week. That’s when he’d tell me all about “what he had in mind.” It seemed like an awfully big deal just to discuss my assumed role of holding the camera on his video shoots. But OK, I was just pleased that God seemed to have answered a prayer of mine and a prayer of David’s, and I was following along.

Over empanadas, David told me about a book he had spent the past 10 years writing. It apparently explored the intersection between creativity and spiritual formation. An intriguing topic, for sure. A part of me thought, But aren’t we all “writing a book”? And another part of me thought, And why is he telling me about this? This has nothing to do with being a cameraperson for his video-sermons.

“I want to create a video-sermon to go with each of the 10 chapters, like companion pieces,” David explained.

Yet another part of me thought, Wow, even more intriguing…

But I’ll never do THAT

A tiny quick bit of backstory:

18 years ago, when I was on maternity leave from teaching, my husband, who was working in the film industry in Santa Fe, New Mexico, dragged me to a “special” Saturday industry meeting. It was “so special” that my husband refused to tell me what it was about; he wanted me to be surprised. Diaper bag over my shoulder, I was not enthusiastic.

The line in front of Santa Fe College was surprisingly robust. At least this meeting was popular.

The woman at the table at the entrance was asking each person a question and then handing them a packet from one of 3 piles. I strained to hear the question. I wanted to at least be prepared for my “special” turn… because I didn’t know why I was there!

We finally got close enough for me to hear. The woman was asking which “track” you were interested in: producing, directing, or screenwriting. Oh, brother, how could I escape? But it was too late, it was my turn, and I answered with a completely convincing, “I’m deciding between directing and screenwriting.” Clearly, I should have actually gone into acting because she handed me 2 packets.

I listened to the presentation for an outstanding new intensive program to develop New Mexico-grown producers, directors, and screenwriters – and I became one of the dozen inaugural screenwriters. It was such a valuable experience on so many levels. And God meticulously worked things out during that time of turning my back on Him.

The key thing to note for my Reimagine Church story is this:

In my mind, I would NEVER be a producer. Ever.

The ask

So, 18 years after deciding I would never be a producer, and 6 months after producing/directing/writing a short documentary for this church, and 20 minutes into a lunch meeting that I was still clueless about, David my pastor said, “And I’d like you to produce the video-sermons. You know, make them like mini-films for each chapter of the book. I really wish I could focus on delivering the content. So, I’d really like for you to be the producer.”

And somehow, I found myself grinning and giggling and wholeheartedly agreeing. Without a pause for even a fraction of a second, without a moment’s hesitation, I said, “I’d love to!”

Somehow, my previous sense of never-be-a-producer-self… never even crossed my mind. Somehow, to answer in such a way to God’s answer to a prayer… came naturally and instantaneously.

And somehow… it made sense.

What happened, really – AKA Part 2, really

I realized pretty quickly that God had been preparing me all along. He provided me with screenwriting skills. He provided me with an assistant director learning experience. He provided me with leadership and organizational skills with an academic department chair job. He provided me with a husband in the film industry and many new and old connections to tap into.

Most of all, He provided me with a willing heart. Willing to submit. And it opened up an incredible experience that has already touched so many.

If you’d like to watch the very first episode that I produced – made possible through God’s provision – click this link and enjoy!

Jumping the Path, Episode 1

Jumping the Path, Episode 1: “Struggle: A Panel Discussion among Working Creatives in Los Angeles, Christian and Non-Christian”

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