My name is Stephan McGuire and I am writing you all also in behalf of my good friends Raven and Mike Pence. We have formed a core team to begin preproduction on a documentary called "Losing My Religion". During the past few years, since creating a concept for this film, http://www.hungrycreature.com/lmr.html I have had the privilege of becoming a real filmmaker!
Recently I was one of the Producers of the documentary The 11th Hour, narrated and produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, a film I worked with him and an amazing group of people for nearly 3 years. I also became the Founder and President of CSAfrica, an international coalition of nonprofit organizations offering sustainable solutions for grass-roots initiatives to empower the people and communities of Africa. My love for Africa has brought me here to Namibia, Africa, from where I am writing now, for most of 2009, to direct my first film! Now I feel VERY ready and qualified to direct "Losing My Religion" when returning back to the States in November; with such experience under the belt, and with a fantastic team now forming, we are ready to go!
I think everyone on this forum will agree: An intelligent study is needed on the effects of extreme fundamentalism in the world today. Bill Maher's fun film Irreligious and Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's Jesus Camp certainly opened up a great cinematic dialogues, and the Losing My Religion Team is ready to push the boundaries even further.
This film will appeal to XJWs, those who know XJWS, and basically a very wide audience for this reason: There are currently hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions of ex-Jehovah's Witnesses around the world who struggle with adjustment to their new lives. But there are also billions of other people find their life purpose's and identities almost solely through their religions, political persuasions, marriages and/or other relationships, their corporate careers, nationalism, the military, etc. Upon close examination, most of us are willing to throw out our own personal reasoning capabilities and deny our own personal experiences to be relieved of the oppressive burden of figuring out life ourselves. Why? What is going on? Why are we afraid to think for ourselves and really be ourselves?
Losing My Religion, a documentary film for theatrical distribution, will be a soul-searching, interview-style film documenting the experiences and exoduses of Jehovah's Witnesses, (and others who leave their sects), as they leave behind family, friends, that acquired interpretation of "God" that we all are too familiar with, and that very unique 'fundamentalist reality' we lived in. Our stories will be the focal point, however, but we also will be including the experiences of people who are leaving other cults as well, to draw comparisons. We also will be reaching out to Psychologists, Researchers, and other experts to give a fully told story. All in all, we are aiming for a VERY comprehensive film.
Right now, we are looking for Producers (those that can bring in funding), as well as an excellent Editor who can be PASSIONATE about this project and can get behind our mission!
Please respond as soon as possible by emailing: [email protected] if you feel like participating in any way. As well, if you know anyone who may be interested in this project, please let them know about us! WE want to share with the world our unique stories, to help those that are suffering in their transition into the "big, bad world" and offer support. We look forward to your support.
All The Best
Stephan
http://treemedia.com/treemedia.com/Stephan.html