After years of work, we finally had a production date. A real one.

Locations booked. Equipment reserved. Every dollar we had already committed.

Around that same time, through an unlikely connection with Moore Productions, we got an expedited meeting that led somewhere I never expected. His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon read our script. He blessed the production. For a moment, everything felt like it was finally moving exactly the way it should.

Then the SAG strike happened. Our actors belonged to the Screen Actors Guild. Without an Interim Agreement, they legally could not work. Those agreements weren't exactly being handed out to tiny independent films like ours. If we didn't get one, we weren't looking at a delay.

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We had enough money to begin making this film. We did not have enough to finish it.

So Jess and I spent nights and weekends doing jobs we couldn't afford to pay anyone else to do. Production design. Locations. Costumes.

Long conversations with actors that quietly became our rehearsals, because we couldn't afford to schedule

separate ones. Nobody tells you this part when they talk about independent filmmaking.

It isn't glamorous. Most of it isn't even about filmmaking.

It's mostly two people solving one problem after another because they believe in the same impossible thing enough to keep showing up.

That's what these months actually looked like.

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Bishop Gerasim of Fort Worth told me something I don't think I'll ever forget.

He said, "Genesius, make this film before you're too Orthodox to make this film." That one sentence did something the last several weeks of doubt couldn't do. It gave me permission to stop second-guessing myself long enough to actually move.

Because here's the thing about certainty. It rarely shows up before you start. Usually it shows up somewhere in the middle, if it shows up at all. Sometimes you don't need certainty to take the next step. You just need enough courage to take it anyway.

That sentence became the reason production ever happened.

We have something to announce on August 1st. Join the watchlist to hear it first. The Greenroom hears it even sooner.

Join the watchlist for our upcoming announcement: https://www.eltontoporcristo.com/waitlist

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The first investment made everything suddenly real. No more hiding behind an idea. Now I actually had to finish the script. I expected that to feel exciting. Instead, what showed up was doubt. If our investors are primarily outside the faith, do I even have the audience I actually want to make this for? Maybe I shouldn't be the one making this film. Maybe I'm not Orthodox enough yet. I didn't have a clean answer. I still don't know if I fully do. But I do know that question sat with me for a long time before anything moved forward again. We have something to announce on August 1st. Join the watchlist to hear it first. The Greenroom hears it even sooner. 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

We assumed Orthodox Christians would be the first people to support an American Orthodox film.

That felt obvious.

So we put together a proof of concept and held our first investor house party. Just us, some footage,

and a room full of people we were hoping would say yes.

Something surprising happened that night.

The first people who actually believed enough to write a check weren't Orthodox.

Some of them weren't even Christian.

They just saw something true in the footage and decided that was worth backing.

That night taught me something I didn't expect to learn this early. Belief doesn't always come from

where you assume it will. Sometimes the people who see your vision most clearly are standing

completely outside of it.

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Ideas are easy. I've got hundreds of them sitting around unused. Making a movie is a completely different animal. At some point, Jess and I got on a plane. Not for a location scout. Not for a meeting. We flew out to venerate the relics of Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco. Join the watchlist for our upcoming announcement:

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In this episode of Wild West Filmmaking, Josh David Jordan shares his personal journey in filmmaking, discussing his early influences, the challenges of independent filmmaking, and the importance of community and collaboration.

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In this episode, I tell the story of how El Tonto Por Cristo moved from an idea into a finished feature film. I wasn’t trying to make an Orthodox film. Somehow, the film found me. This is the beginning of the full story, from writing and production to the long road that followed.

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