We chatted with the Kendrick Brothers, christian movie reviews Stephen and Alex Kendrick, creators of hit films including Overcomer, War Room, Courageous, Fireproof, Facing the Giants and Flywheel, about their first documentary , the re-release of Courageous and also about fathering.
The first question we always like to ask people when we first interview them is, how did you guys become Christians? And did your father, have a big impact in guiding you to Christ?
Yes, Alex and I grew up in a home where our dad, his life had been transformed by Jesus and his own father was seven feet tall was an alcoholic, he had a lot of unfaithfulness and pain in his past, with his father, and his grandfather. So, our dad grew up, very insecure, was dealing with depression and fears as a teenager, but his mother took him to a Church and he heard the Gospel of Jesus and he placed his faith in Christ and it transformed his life. One of the things I love about Christ is that He doesn’t just, you know, He’s not giving you rules from the outside that are just behavior modification, guidelines. He transforms us from the inside and so our dad began to change, you know, the family tree. He started saying I want to follow the Lord, I want to be faithful to my wife and my kids. As a result of it, we grew up watching our parents seeking God, reading the scriptures, we saw incredible answers to prayer in their lives and we fell in love with the God that they know and serve.christian movie reviews
And now, you know, He is our Lord, Alex and I have both given our lives to Christ, but it’s one of our greatest joys in life to be able to tell people what Jesus has done for us. How He is answering our prayers and revealing truth to us, you know, there’s so much light that gets turned on for you to understand reality in the world with Jesus in your life. From that you became pastors and then you go into filmmaking. What inspired you to start making films?
We did not have a television for much of our childhood and when we were able to see a family friendly movie at the theater, when we were young, it was very impactful. I remember thinking that we have to do this, we have to learn how to tell these stories. When we got to about 1985, our parents bought us one of those early versions of video cameras, and we ran around our neighborhood making silly little movies and developed a knack for editing between our VCR and the camcorder. christian movie reviews
So, we learned how to tell stories that way. Did it all through school and then after Seminary and getting our bachelor’s degrees went into full-time ministry, and began making short movies first, that led into our full-length features. And we’re just very grateful to have the opportunity and we don’t just want to entertain people, we want to inspire them and inspire their faith in God as well. On the subject of fathering, God used you to tell these incredible stories, but also to inspire or kind of father other filmmakers such as the Erwin Brothers. christian movie reviews
Well, Alex and I having been in Youth Ministry for years, we had these young people coming up that we’re pouring into and spending time with them teaching them about the L We’re talking a lot about fathering, which brings us onto your first documentary, Show me the Father. What inspired you to get into, first of all, making a documentary and having fatherhood as the main theme?
Well, one of my favorites in the movie is Jim Daly. Jim Daly grew up with a very poor example of a father. He [his father] often was not there for long stretches of his childhood, he was an alcoholic and eventually that killed him.
So, we got the main cast back together, we wrote and shot some new scenes for the movie. We then went back and re-edited the original film.
You are welcome to gather as many people take to the streets to demand that it comes there. I’ll make some enquires and when I get some information, I will let our readers know.
We’ve learned, there’s a big difference between a good idea and a God idea and everybody has a good idea.
