Dan Merchant

This is the USA Today article that covered my visit to the “least religious college campus in America”, Lewis & Clark College near Portland, Oregon.  I was always tickled that L&C had swiped that title from Reed College - which is also in Portland, just across the Willamette river.  At least we kept the title in town, eh?  This screening event was only the third time I had presented the first cut of the film to an audience.  Of the roughly 300 in attendance most (288 or so) considered themselves “non-Christians”. The film was enthusiastically received and the Q & A that followed nearly matched the running time of the movie.  I was moved.  I was surprised.  I was delighted.  Sitting in the dark that night watching the film I realized I’d made a film that was going to connect with EVERYONE (some deeper than others, of course) and that meant this job was going to big and the conversation was going to be huge.  You can imagine the glow of affirmation followed by the heavy decision to accept the challenge of taking this conversation out with the goal of including everyone.  I returned in the spring of 2011 to L&C to again screen the film.  I was invited by students who were freshman when I first visited and were now about to graduate.  They explained that Lord, Save Us had made a deep impact on them and had, to some degree, changed the climate toward the faithful on campus.  Lewis & Clark had fallen from #1 to #17 on that Princeton Review list of “godless campus”.  I took that to mean that some of the old stereotypes had been cast aside and that the campus was alive with questions and consideration - as it should be.

Lord, Save Us opened in select theaters (I want to say 13 markets on 9/25/09).  The film was supported remarkably well in some markets - advance screenings, strong press or church support pushed the opening weekend over the top - and faired poorly in a few markets where the grassroots push never came together.  In Portland, we blew up the new suburban multiplex, the Regal Bridgeport Village Stadium 16, and were eventually held over for four weeks.  Pretty amazing for a religion doc going against 3D adventures and animated spectacles.  This ad promotes our adding of an additional Portland theater on 10/09, the Fox Tower Stadium, which is the premiere art house theater in the heart of the People’s Republic of Portland.  Our film opened in that theater the same day as Michael Moore’s “Capitalism”.  We did fine, played for three weeks or so at the Fox, but it was evident that all of Michael Moore’s television commercials (and his hard earned 20 year reputation) absolutely translated to box office.  Which, if you think about it, is an amazing feat for a documentary.  And, yeah, I did wonder how Lord, Save Us could’ve impacted the country with a marketing budget as large as Moore’s.  Although it is worth noting that nearly two years after the theatrical release I still receive email and Facebook notes from people just discovering and being moved by Lord, Save Us so I guess this story is going to continue for a while.

I believe this was an ad placed in a magazine to coincide with the release of Lord, Save Us to theaters in September 2009.  Must say it was tough business trying to coordinate the PR and Marketing without a real budget.  Look at the laurels and awards from film festivals across the top and the great quotes from national press across the bottom - the movie absolutely connected with people (and continues today) but to move the needle at the box office requires lots of money and, frankly, a coordinated effort from those who are experts.  Sure the studios throw boatloads of money at their projects in order to draw large audiences - but the studios are also full of excellent professionals who are specialists in a strange field.  They know where and how to spend the money, they have the relationships and experience.  When our largest financial backer dropped out less than a month before the theatrical release it was a crushing blow, but in retrospect it would’ve been too little too late.  That was tough for me to know how well received Lord, Save Us was and be unable to release it in a manner that matched the film’s value.  My next movie will be released with a studio distribution partner.

The Lord, Save Us book had been in release for three months or so.  I had recently appeared on the Today Show and Dennis Miller’s radio show and we were in conversations with FOX about releasing the film.  Despite how much everyone liked the film they weren’t convinced Christian audiences or general audiences would go out to the theaters to see it.  This piece from The Oregonian’s esteemed columnist Steve Duin (who I wrangled into appearing in the Culture Wars Game Show segment) came out the week we tested the film for FOX at Portland’s historic Hollywood Theater.

“Entertaining and challenging…” - that was pretty much what I was going for!  Ha.  Outreach is an Evangelical Christian organization based in San Diego which provides resources to some 200,000 churches nationwide.  They are generally considered very conservative which is why I was so pleased they would consider my book and review it so positively.  I’ve enjoyed many fruitful conversations with the Outreach guys, we don’t always agree, but to be able to start a meaningful conversation with those who take their faith very seriously was evidence to me that Lord, Save Us could be a valuable tool for those inside the church as well as outside.

The author of this piece, Rebecca Cusey is an excellent journalist.  This interview came just after the Lord, Save Us book hit the shelves but our distribution deal had fallen through.  Another case of this amazing visibility for the project - Relevant is a bit like, say, the Rolling Stone, of Christian media - but if people were interested it would be another few months before the film even made it to theaters in select markets. Arrggh. But back to Rebecca, she was one of the first people to really interview me in-depth.  For as much talking as I did over the course of a couple interviews I was very happy I didn’t sound like a complete jack-hole when those words appeared in print.  I attribute that to Rebecca’s smart and fair questions and her excellent writing.  I also got a kick out of being listed on the cover alongside three other filmmakers of excellent repute. One of many honors to humble me on the Lord, Save Us journey.

This interview was conducted by a great writer and funny guy named Jason Boyett.  He wrote a charming memoir entitled, “O Me of Little Faith” which was published by Zondervan last year.  Also featured this article is Matthew Paul Turner, a wonderful Nashville-based author and blogger with whom I’ve had the pleasure of sharing the stage with a few times.  Prior to the Lord, Save Us theatrical release I was doing some advance screenings at midwest colleges and MPT’s hilarious book “Churched” had just come out.  His live readings were so much fun because he was so excellent and dramatic in his delivery.  If you enjoy great writing with a personal touch and helping of humor you’d be hard pressed to find better books dealing with the journey of faith.