The Cinematography Podcast Episode 182: Adamma Ebo, Adanne Ebo, Alan Gwizdowski
Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul is a satirical dark comedy and mockumentary about Trinitie Childs, (Regina Hall) the “First Lady” of a Southern Baptist mega church and Lee-Curtis Childs, (Sterling K. Brown) her pastor husband. The pastor is accused of sexual misconduct and the two are struggling to relaunch their megachurch in the face of the controversy. As part of their public relations campaign, Trinitie and Lee-Curtis consent to a documentary crew following them.
Adamma was the writer and director of the film, and her twin Adanne was one of the producers of the film. The sisters have been partners their entire life, and enjoy working together. They grew up southern Baptist in Georgia, immersed in the megachurch culture. Both Adamma and Adanne felt that any evangelical megachurch’s messaging seemed insincere and un-Christian to get rich off of their congregants’ donations. With that background, Adamma decided to write a satire about a black southern megachurch- a fresh subject that she’d never seen on screen before. Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul started out as a short film that Adamma was able to develop into a feature.
Cinematographer Alan Gwizdowski (nicknamed Gwiz) took over the production when fellow DP Adam Bricker had a scheduling conflict. Adamma wanted the film to look and feel very much like a real documentary, mixed with a more cinematic, narrative film look. Gwiz knew they needed the two different worlds to be separated- the part of the documentary that the Childs want the “filmmakers” to see, vs. what the documentary filmmakers are able to capture behind the curtain. They decided to keep the more illicit documentary scenes handheld and the official documentary scenes had a more cinematic look.
Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul is in theaters and also streaming on Peacock.
Find Adamma Ebo Instagram: @adamma.ebo
Find Adanne Ebo Instagram: @adanne.ebo
Find Alan Gwizdowski Instagram: @alangwiz
Close Focus: Saudi Arabia is offering a 40% cash rebate to film productions, but continues to be a controversial place.
Ben’s short end: The podcast Pretend, a true crime documentary podcast about con artists. This season is a six part series uncovering Frank Abignail, the infamous con artist profiled in the movie Catch Me If You Can.
Illya’s short end: The Xperia 5 IV, a Sony Android phone that claims to do 4K 120 fps on all three rear cameras.
Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras
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Email: editor@camnoir.com
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Twitter: @ShortEndz
Podcast Credits:
Producer: Alana Kode
All web and social media content written by Alana Kode
Host and editor in Chief: Illya Friedman
Instagram: @illyafriedman @hotrodcameras
Host: Ben Rock
Twitter: @neptunesalad
Instagram: @bejamin_rock
Editor: Ben Katz
Composer: Kays Al-Atrakchi
Subscribe to the Podcast on Apple Podcasts or click on the link below to listen here
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:25 — 58.3MB)
Hi Illya, I hope you’re doing really well!
I just listened to the start of your latest podcast « Honk for Jesus.. » heading off from work, thanks for a laugh.
You guys chatted about the 40% producers offset in Saudi Arabia which was interesting news.
I’d listened to the below podcast a while back and thought that might shed some more light on the whole incentive and how it seats with your close focus talk.
Hope you enjoy. PS I find that every podcast is actually quite geographically self centred and really like to listen to some from different parts of the world to sort of piece things together and get a better picture of dynamics at play so hope this does that for us 🙂
Thanks for all your work.
Raphaëlle
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The rehabilitation of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman
FULL STORY
9 AUG ⋅ 27:02
Middle East correspondent Martin Chulov discusses how the crown prince of Saudi Arabia has been re-embraced on the world stage, four years after the killing of Jamal Khashoggi
https://overcast.fm/+Ug_ohu31k
Thanks so much for the comment and the podcast recommendation!