Bhagula, a typical farmer in Bundelkhand (a region of Northern India), is up to his eyeballs in debt and all of his hope has dried up with the drought-stricken land. With his family already starving and the local lenders threatening to take what little property they have left, Bhagula decides it will be best to poison himself and his family. (Sadly, this is a common occurrence in this part of India.) In God’s perfect timing, a wandering holy man arrives. The family offers him their last remaining food, and he shares stories with them about God the Creator. After the holy man departs, the family witnesses a miracle as the previously empty food container is full again. Inspired by this supernatural encounter, Bhagula and family set out on a journey of discovery, crying out to their Creator and seeing his provision.
We are happy to report that by God’s grace and hand of provision the production phase of the film for the Bundelkhandi people was completed successfully. It was a rocky start, not unlike many other projects. This time casting was the major source of concern. We struggled to secure the actors we needed for production and then struggled more to keep them focused on the set during filming. The experience of being in front of cameras and microphones for the first time ever also proved to be more difficult for these new actors. The first few days of shooting scenes with dialogue had us questioning if we had made a mistake, but with perseverance and lots of God’s grace we started to pick up the pace as the days went on. We completed principle photography on time, and now even have a rough-cut of the film already.
This production was run in tandem with our training program, the Frontier Filmmaking Seminar, targeting up-and-coming Indian media makers, and empowering them to make high-quality narrative films that share the truths of Jesus with the masses of unreached people in this country. We were exceedingly impressed with the dedication of these students throughout the production and I have high hopes for all that they will go on to do in the days to come. We thank God for these new connections with nationals who share our passion to represent Christ through all sorts of media and I look forward to partnering with these guys again as we press on toward a common goal.
You can learn more about our seminar at create2020.com/training
We will be offering it twice more this year:
- Sweden 29 May to 8 July 2017 (Outreach to Syrian Arabic-speaking refugees resettled in Sweden)
- Taiwan 24 September to 4 November 2017 (with outreach in Okinawa, Japan)
- India – February 2018 (Tentative)
