[00:00:00] This is a Dauntless Media Collective Podcast.
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[00:00:07] We have enemies within our country.
[00:00:19] I think it's a combination of demonology and scyop.
[00:00:23] The citizens are going to rise up and become deputized.
[00:00:26] I have always heard President Trump. regarding faith, race, gender, and religion. I'll be your host, Daniel Whitehodge. Hey folks, how are we doing out there? Podcasts land. Here we go. And the host of the
[00:01:40] Profane Faith Podcasts. Welcome back for those of you joining us again, Daniel Whitehodge.
[00:04:21] and projects around the house definitely out on the lawn. And, you know, doing some outdoor activities, fishing, walks, more fishing, you know. And just really trying to stay outside as much as we can. You know, I think what's interesting now, there's, well, there's several a while,
[00:04:24] there's a lot of things, interesting,
[00:04:26] but several things that have, you know, things were going that way. It just in May was really dry. I think we maybe got two inches total, which is very uncommon for us. June was even drier. And then the weather said we're going to make it all up in one day. So yeah, needless to say, our basement got flooded.
[00:05:42] My sump pump was overwhelmed, which is unusual.
[00:05:47] I redid my gosh. It's like all the city systems over a hundred years old and it just gets overwhelmed. I'm like, yeah. Uh huh. Don't you think? And I get it. This is just the person working behind a desk and, you know,
[00:07:00] they don't have the means or the wherewithal to solve the problem.
[00:07:04] But somebody at some point needs to. corporations try to call it inflation. Just like I have a hard time thinking at the moment that minimum wage gets raised, they raise the prices and call it inflation. I don't believe that, not for a second. I don't think, well, I don't, I know for a fact because
[00:08:24] one, most corporations, most industries are
[00:09:23] and written or co-written if you excuse me. An award winning film called Between Mercy and Me.
[00:09:28] It was released in theaters back in June,
[00:09:30] but it's available now.
[00:09:33] I'll put all those notes in the show links.
[00:09:37] And I just had a chance,
[00:09:39] and this guy is African American director.
[00:09:43] And first of all, just to find somebody
[00:09:45] who's actually writing and directing films So I'm talking today or this week with Craig Lamar Brown. He's a multi talented film producer, writer and director Hailing out of Detroit. He's gonna break that down. He's got a good story He's the founder of Brown Brown films a production company dedicated to creating inspiration or artistically captivating stories Craig's passion for storytelling began to take shape in his high school years
[00:11:02] then
[00:11:03] his versatile or
[00:11:05] versatility excuse me was showcased in David Leo's Schultz
[00:13:43] the But yeah, I grew up in the Detroit Public School System. A ADHD diagnosis was missed terribly with me. And yes, you know, just struggling through school, but still just had like a ton of like aspirations for art and creativity.
[00:13:48] And in all while, you murdered, shot, whatever the story know, there was, you know, there was definitely a change, you know, happening within me in regards to just really understanding, like, the importance of, you know, being in the community of other people who, you know, believe in something
[00:16:21] more than themselves, just having the perils and perils that can happen, you know, working with studios and whatnot. Yeah, I'd be curious. So, oh, yeah, it's insane. Like, I guess I like growing up, like I always had this draw to art and many different forms,
[00:17:44] like music, whether it's drawing, those, you know, creative ideas. So it was always a draw, but never executed in high school,
[00:19:04] or yeah, very soon in high school. kids. Okay. So you know, like, like the whole star of the artist thing is like, nah, I'm good. Like even though like I, yeah, if you want to audition for like a small part in the film, like I'd open that to you and this is like a really small part and I auditioned and he loved it and gave me the lead role
[00:21:41] of the movie and three weeks later I flew to New, absolutely. No, I'm with that, you. Yeah, yeah. So, after, so I knew that I wouldn't pursue acting full-time. I
[00:23:03] knew that wouldn't be like, you know World One for sure. But yeah, eventually, like, yeah, I continued to write and I wanted to tell stories and that's what my company was a birth out of, just recognizing like my gift,
[00:25:26] growing up, I'm Chicago based now, but I haven't grown up in SoCal, man, just, you know, being attuned to the industry. And, you know, I used to, when as a kid, I used to go to, you know,
[00:25:33] recordings of, what was it, Star Search? Yeah, there we go, Star Search, man. You know,
[00:25:40] because, you know, they just wanted, you know, audience seat fillers and stuff, man. So you
[00:25:44] can go to those things for free, even in my waiting in line what's so then on that, man? I mean, so I know you said you was creative, you know, tune with the arts. I get it. I was too, man. I mean, I was music guy. So I was always, you know, lured by mixers and, you know,
[00:27:02] and DJ and all that stuff, man. So I get that.
[00:27:04] What were some of the technical components, man?
[00:27:06] Just coming to a film like this,
[00:28:02] I'm pretty sure it's 1921. No, cool.
[00:28:03] A beautiful movie about the war and it was amazing.
[00:28:09] I mean, this is like a high performance production camera.
[00:28:14] The color science behind it.
[00:28:16] It's just beautiful.
[00:28:17] You put the thing out and you hit record and I can write it out of the box.
[00:28:23] The image is amazing.
[00:28:25] Love it. good at all lighting. I think a lot of times in film, like short films or like low budget films, like you could tell that they're low budget because someone didn't like well. Right, yes, yes. And you know, like you go on Tubi, man.
[00:29:40] Oh my gosh, like it's there all day.
[00:29:43] And like, how about, I love that,
[00:29:46] no matter what your budget know, like I get a lot of great things because I wasn't just really just zeroed in on finding the best people and doing our best of everyone dropped their rates to make this film work because it was a big and this that and you know, stuff like that, you know, just just having those those type of things, you know, like, you know, access to, for example, streaming platforms network or Netflix or Amazon Prime or what have you just I just be curious just like how
[00:33:40] have those things come up or not come up.
[00:33:44] Yeah, no, that's some the right distributor. So, yeah, the distribution world, I'm still learning a lot about and the Kly media group is our distributor.
[00:35:02] They were like the first I had.
[00:36:03] I mean, it's like sometimes I, you know,
[00:36:06] like I could be a pessimist.
[00:36:12] It's hard for me to, you know, just celebrate things. That's something I'm constantly trying to work on.
[00:36:14] But like with this film,
[00:36:18] I mean, for an independent film
[00:36:20] to get theatrical release is almost unheard of.
[00:36:25] Like for a first, like I'm in the independent sector. However, I did have some serious conversations with bigger studios, but as I continue to build out my company and to bring more and more creatives and get more budget and dollars to build out the company,
[00:37:44] we're looking at how about we take this in another? What if we put this character in here like, hey, man, you're getting a little crazy here, man. I never had a talking dog in this thing, man. Like what is going on? So this is, so the film that you have now,
[00:39:01] dealing with some issues, you know,
[00:39:04] this between Mercy and Mean is the film.
[00:39:06] And again, as always for those listening,
[00:39:07] you know, all these links that's what the country was. And for the, and I give't, like it was a time where it could have led the charge or leading unity,
[00:41:42] but it didn't.
[00:41:43] I mean, I'm saying like the contrast of one another churches. Their churches are in the same community but they're you know they're a block away from each other's church but one church is black and
[00:43:02] one church is white and they're just at them calling them racist and doing the exact same thing that I'm accusing them of doing doesn't help move the needle. So, you know, it addresses that with like my own people is like we can be pretty harsh at times. And, you know, obviously there's a lot of other things
[00:44:22] behind those feelings that, you know, constantly need
[00:44:26] to address, but we also need to take our own responsibility and you're not allowed to say the thing for black people. And there's not many films that are addressed about race from white writers and directors because like, council culture, right? Like, either come after a little bit. If you try to make a movie about race,
[00:45:40] that is one side or right way.
[00:45:46] So those movies don it feels so good. Like it punches me in the face a couple of times.
[00:47:01] And then we have some amazing music
[00:47:04] that helps carry over to the next conversation.
[00:48:04] Awakening or reckoning if you will some people called it that in 2020
[00:48:08] You know, I'm or some of that stuff is is now worn off You know, I have a lot of companies AT&T Verizon people like that are you know, renegan, but that's a different conversation
[00:48:14] But the film deals with difficult conversations
[00:48:18] How do you balance honesty and authenticity with the desire to avoid like perpetuating right harmful stereotypes?
[00:48:25] You know triggering trauma, you know for, it was hard. I mean, there's who carries Confederate flags are racist, but you know. So.
[00:51:00] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:51:02] I'll say it.
[00:51:04] But I'll say it.
[00:51:05] I'll say it.
[00:51:06] Yeah. the film as well. But yeah, it was not easy, but that's how I tackled it. That's how me, the carighted tackled it and David, who plays Hugo as he gave his incredible input on like feeling since aerial types and stuff. But anyway, so yeah, but I wanted to give the audience something that we all see on the day-to-day basis, or that we interact with without even knowing it. Disreflection, that happens,
[00:53:40] and this happens for a long time, right?
[00:53:43] Like it's not a secret of times we're just blind to the people who are getting displaced.
[00:56:02] right? Like I noticed movies are just going to stop gentrification.
[00:56:03] Yeah, yeah. I got you. I got you.
[00:56:05] Can we do can we start to have like not just conversations,
[00:56:11] but like can we start to know make it take action or like,
[00:56:15] hey, like can we do this in a way that just doesn't displace a
[00:56:20] large group of black people that and that continues to persist.
[00:57:24] change of how this happens. So yeah.
[00:57:29] No, I appreciate you answering that, man. That's, I and I do think that art, right? Can in a lot of my I use films throughout all of my classes that I teach.
[00:57:34] And yeah, no, absolutely, man.
[00:57:37] Because I think you know, you can get at certain things through film, right?
[00:57:41] It's like, you know, whether it's abstract, whether it's direct.
[00:57:43] So and of course, yeah, I don't think any, you know, given all the different, like you said, cancel culture, some church be like, look, hey, we ain't gonna deal with this. We ain't got time for that. Or are the churches that I've been at, who just say, we don't deal with the issues of race.
[00:59:01] That's not part of the gospel.
[00:59:02] That's not part of our theology.
[00:59:05] If you just kind of Billy Graham's old stance, I got you. Yeah, I think a really tangible way is supporting and understanding, understanding like what it is there still. I just heard a super discouraging story from my brother-in-law about someone he was interacting with, a person time where you're like, hey, I don't know really what to do with this all day, but I want to serve my black brother or sister in this moment. And whatever way that looks like being open. And I think, it's a national holiday that how many years has it been now?
[01:01:41] Is it two or three?
[01:01:43] Since what, George Floyd?
[01:01:47] No, no, like how can we help you celebrate? I think that's probably the most basic way as we continue to celebrate the holiday.
[01:04:04] that hold, you know, that whole routine us and you know, you okay, ma'am, you know, all that stuff.
[01:04:05] So without giving too much away, how do you hope the scene will impact viewers understanding
[01:04:11] of particularly systemic racism and bias, right?
[01:04:14] You know, there's so, so much of that stuff that's embedded into, you know, particularly
[01:04:19] policing.
[01:04:20] I just read an article in the LA Times that was talking about how this African American traffic stop and it's watching film like, I'm trying to see how I can communicate this without giving these spoilers. Like it's, I phrased this film basically to more as a reaction than like, what's wrong within the scene, like with the police officer
[01:05:41] pulling them over and like, what's right and what's wrong
[01:05:45] but more so like how their response is. where, you know, it's kind of like, there's practices within departments that is like, man, like there needs to be some change or we need to hire different, different, different people. It's a hard job, like in general, like I can, I did a ride along with my cousin
[01:07:01] who was a cop. Like there's no way, I would be a terrible police. He's just really calm, gentle. And that's his response when he gets pulled over. He gets searched like all the time. Okay, yeah. All the time, you know, and he's like the most gentle person. And it's like, but what, like, why is that warranted? Like it's just so, so, so interesting.
[01:08:21] But I'm, and sorry, I'm kind of like going to
[01:08:25] wrap a trail here.
[01:08:26] But like-
[01:08:27] Yeah, that's just like exhausting, right?
[01:09:41] But yeah, and we all spend a lot of time gosh, it's so tough. I even know, it's because I want to give the benefit of a doubt to police officers as well, but also like I've been on the receiving end of brutality as well.
[01:11:00] I have friends who are not safe.
[01:11:03] And so it's kind of hey, let's let's back it up a little bit man um So let me ask this is you know our time is is running nigh here man, but you know, what's next for you man What's what's going on next? And you know what what you got coming up?
[01:12:24] Yeah, yeah, so yeah, I'm I enthralled by it. So yeah, I'm working on that. And this is in the early stages of pitching and asking for a lot of money. So I'm going well. So I'm super excited about that. But really, so working on that for the next project,
[01:13:41] but also just focusing on a company as well, your church or if you just have like an organization that you want to do to film like you can do that as well. So yeah it's available you can it can be watched it's not a theater anymore but yeah yeah it's ready to be viewed and I
[01:15:02] think this is a movie that will really entertain and challenge people. The it's podcast.com. Last question, sir. Where can folks find you at, man? And maybe somebody watching right now is like, Hey, I want to fund his next movie, man. I'm going to give this brother $5 million. I mean, hey, I need to spread some of that money this way too. There's a profane phase, but what's that?
[01:16:20] Daniel off. But working folks, working folks come and check out some of these, some of the putting out there as a black man, doing it up, man. It's good to see that and it's good to see your work that's out there, man. Awesome, man. I appreciate it. It's been a pleasure being on the podcast. It's having me. Hey, everyone. I'm Nate from the Full Mutuality Podcast.
[01:17:42] I wanted to take a moment to say thank you
[01:17:43] for tuning into this show.
[01:17:45] We're so grateful that you've decided
[01:17:46] to spend your time with us.