AN INTERVIEW WITH UNDEFILED
DIRECTOR MATT MCCAULLEY,
Pastor Matt McCaulley has been nominated as BEST DIRECTOR at the 2024 International Christian Film Festival for his new movie “UNDEFILED”. Who is Pastor Matt? He is the outreach pastor of Journey Church, a solid and quiet church of 120 in the city of Joplin, (western Missouri), and a quiet, humble, talented man of many hats! We had a wonderful conversation, over a wide-ranging 40-minute interview over the Memorial Day weekend, about his new film “UNDEFILED”
So how did a
medium-sized Midwestern Southern Baptist Church end up with its first major
Feature Film “UNDEFILED” edited by the same Burbank company that edited the
popular THE CHOSEN series? (UNDEFILED
was edited by Christian, God-honoring Kappa Studios
of Burbank – the same editing firm owned by Paul Long, who edited UNPLANNED,
FAMILY CAMP, HIS ONLY SON, NO GREATER LOVE…and more). Read on………….
The
following is a synopsis of the conversation between potential award recipient
Matt McCaulley and myself.
The Joplin, Missouri-based LIGHT OF LIFE FILMS has launched its intense, fact-based,
and relevant-to-the-times movie UNDEFILED starring Bradford
Haynes, formerly of
the Los Angeles baseball Dodger in early May 2024. This is a gritty, yet
tastefully presented, raw look at the real-life sickening underbelly of the
world of pornography, the gateway to sex trafficking.
From speaking
with Pastor Matt, who has a tri-cornered hat that includes filmmaker, he
confirmed that every detail was paid attention to, to bring to the viewing
audience the dark grit that is the growing menace of underage sex trafficking
in the United States and its pornographic side. Without going into too much
technical detail, I recommend the viewer look at the movie through the lens of
the lead character Mitch Jennings (Bradford Haynes), because the seriousness of
the central issue of the film (human trafficking) will pierce the innermost,
most direct part of your soul. For movie tech buffs, this was filmed,
using vintage Kowa anamorphic lenses from the 1970s, from which the
desired gritty effect was derived.
The movie was
written by Pastor Matt, his son David, and his wonderful father Daniel. It was revised 30 times and does include inspiration
and facts from Dr. Kevin Whisman, Christian Clinical
Psychologist and Executive Producer of the movie. Dr. Kevin also hails from
Joplin and as a practicing psychologist, he is privy to facts most of us will never know. He supplied the factual underpinnings of this
excellent movie, UNDEFILED.
According to
Undefiled Director McCaulley, the casting effort was wonderful experience! It
includes of course, lead actor Bradford Haynes as main character Mitch
Jennings; Stephanie Patterson as his wife Amber
Jennings; Kalyn Wood
is the abused trafficked young lady and Stelio
Savante (Three Blind Saints)
among many others. Director Pastor Matt
said “casting was so much fun, yet terrifying as we did not want to make a
mistake!” He had known leader actor Bradford Haynes from their church’s
outreach ministry film component Light of Life Films, when Bradford appeared in
LOLF’s first ever movie: a 17-minute video on the substitutionary death on the
Cross of Christ, called “The Substitute
(2017)”.
The message
and mission of this brand-new offering, Undefiled, is twofold – to bring
attention to this pervasive issue of human sex trafficking, across state and
international lines, and secondly to bring 
VIEWING OPTIONS HERE
Hope to those who are caught in this
vicious circle of ungodly human error, that the Body of Christ not just knows
and write small checks to ministries about it, but that we DO care, do care and
the good Lord will lead us to the path of righteousness. The latter can be
followed by action, the wonderful Grace of God, and then – the sound of
freedom!
This labor of
love and intense focus was prayed up powerfully. Director Matt’s team went into
this project aware of their intention, as he recounted to “glorify God and not
ourselves and to make sure this entire film project was from Him”, he testified.
Finally, the
issue of movie budgets did have to emerge as it takes financial resources to
bring in a well-known actor and/or actress; their supporting cast, and
technical equipment. The cost of editing any production is a significant part
of expenses. To have maximum audience
impact, it is worth having the best of the best at Kappa Studios complete the
project.
Pastor and
Director Mike indicated while there was no organized “crowd-funding” for the
production of Undefiled, several local and Joplin, Missouri- area donors did
step up to the plate and assisted in the financing of this incredible movie.
As editor of
this website, I recommend not only seeing this film yourself in the recommended
channels at the top of this article but that you share this with your pastors,
small groups, or just friends who are concerned with this prevalent disease of
human trafficking and widespread pornography use, both of inside and outside
the walls of Christianity. Widespread support of works of Christian love and
Hope like Undefiled, will enable Journey Church and its Light of Life film
ministry to continue to produce more content, to bless a hope-starved world.
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