On August 25, we celebrate the feast day of Saint Genesius. Saint Genesius was an actor and comedian. Intending to mock the Sacrament of Baptism,

Genesius had himself baptized onstage before the emperor. Suddenly, he had a conversion experience. He accepted the Christian faith and refused to renounce it, even when ordered to do so by Emperor Diocletian. Eventually,

Diocletian ordered him to be killed.

He inspired a character in the new film El Tonto Por Cristo.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve shared how this film actually got made.

But making it was only half the problem.

The other half is getting it into the world.

After a private screening, Jonathan Pageau and Deacon Seraphim Rohlin came on board as executive producers.

They helped launch a Kickstarter that became five hundred fifty people, mostly giving between twenty and a hundred dollars each.

That’s what took this film on the road, into historic theaters across the country, and all the way to the Kennedy Center.

It proved people are hungry for beauty, for meaning, for sacramental cinema on the big screen.

Here’s how you help take it further.

Purchase the presale on Apple.

That single action makes this film discoverable everywhere. It proves there's an audience.

It moves us into the algorithm-discoverable zone.

It also gets our investors paid back faster, so many of them can reinvest in the next slate of films.

We’ve proven we don’t need Hollywood. But we do need each other.

Join us for the watch party together, on the Feast of the Dormition, at seven p.m. Central.

Press play at the same time, then join us live from Substack afterward, as we give away first editioncollector’s merchandise, including the sold-out Blu-ray.

Comment WATCH for details.

Join the watchlist for our upcoming announcement:

https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/waitlist

Join the Green Room for early updates, our monthly film club, and a closer role in what we make next:

https://wildwestfilmmaking.substack.com/p/the-green-room

Support Wild West Filmmaking:

https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/donate

Website - https://wildwestfilmmaking.com

#IndependentFilmmaking #ElTontoPorCristo #WildWestFilmmaking

With the film wrapped, we headed into the editing bay to see what we had.

Jess had endless amounts of SAG paperwork.

I worked with Julian, our oldest son and our main editor, night and day, to put this story together.

I had to kill some of my favorite scenes along the way, in service of the story that was actually unfolding.

You tell the story three times. The one you write. The one you shoot. The one you edit.

You’ll be able to see this edited film this August.

If you were on the watchlist, you already got a special announcement.

If you want to hear it early, comment WATCH.

Big news, August 1st.

Join the watchlist for our upcoming announcement:

https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/waitlist

Join the Green Room for early updates, our monthly film club, and a closer role in what we make next:

https://wildwestfilmmaking.substack.com/p/the-green-room

Support Wild West Filmmaking:

https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/donate

Website - https://wildwestfilmmaking.com

#IndependentFilmmaking #ElTontoPorCristo #WildWestFilmmaking