The director of the apocalyptic film Homestead believes America is closer to its depicted events than many realize, and he hopes the story sparks meaningful conversations within and beyond the church. The Angel Studios movie, which opens in theaters this week, depicts the chaos that unfolds after a nuclear bomb detonates in Los Angeles and families struggle to survive at a fortress in the mountains. It stars Neal McDonough, Jesse Hutch, Bailey Chase, and Susan Misner.
Ben Smallbone (Priceless, Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon) directed it.
"I think we live in a time maybe unlike anything that this country has experienced," Smallbone told Crosswalk Headlines.
"I think that there's a lot of really interesting conversations that we can have through the lens of a fictional story that very easily and quickly could become true."
Those conversations, Smallbone said, involve self-sufficiency and preparedness but also the potential limits of altruism. The pandemic, he said, opened the eyes of Americans to the fragility of the nation's supply chain.
"It's easy to love your neighbor when you have resources to love your neighbor with. But what if all of that is taken away?" Smallbone asked. "[What about] in times of nothing and the grid goes down, and your food and resources and the grocery stores are closed -- how do you take care of people around you? Or how do you take care of your neighbor when your neighbor might threaten the life of yourself or your children? And I think [the move opens up] some of these conversations and the way they connect to where we are today as a country and as a world with threats, unlike anything I've experienced in my lifetime."
Smallbone's name is not new to the film industry. He directed Priceless and Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon and also worked on two Kingdom Story Company projects: Unsung Hero and I Still Believe. He was on the filmmaking crew for two Christmas episodes of The Chosen. He started by making music videos for his brothers, Joel and Luke Smallbone, of For King & Country.
"In the 90s, I was obsessed with every post-apocalyptic, End Times, Revelation film that came out, and they came out quite frequently," he said.
He and Joel often attended the films together.
"The End Times was fascinating to me as a teenager," he said. "There's so many stories that have yet to be told, and [Homestead] was one of them, and so I found it fascinating to kind of dive into the post-apocalyptic world."
Christians are not to live "in fear," he said, but nevertheless are to be "prepared for what may come in the next few years or decades."
The film serves as an introduction to the Homestead TV series, which will be available at Angel.com.
"We're not speaking to just the church on this," Smallbone said. "There's an opportunity with this project, and hopefully a lot of what we do, that can go outside of the walls of the church. That's where I hope and pray that a lot of our art can get to. And that's what I've been fascinated about with The Chosen. The Chosen, at the core, is a Bible story, but I've [known] guys that would never set foot in church watching that show -- and not only watching the show, but moved by it, and impacted by and coming to me with questions about the Christian faith."
WATCH: Homestead | Official Teaser | Angel Studios
Photo Credit: ©Angel Studios
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
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