Independent filmmaking is mostly the art of seeing what something else could become.

We had fourteen days of principal photography. Every single dollar mattered.

Because of generous people and a lot of relational equity, we transformed a historic women's dormitory in Tehuacana, Texas, into the monastery you see in El Tonto Por Cristo.

The first floor became our kitchen, our craft services, and one of our actual film sets.

The second floor became home for cast and crew. Genuinely felt like summer camp.

The third floor became the monks' cells. We lived there. We worked there. We prayed there.

Every inch of that property ended up somewhere in this film.

At one point, the atmosphere in that building got unsettling enough that Father Theophan came and ble ...