Faith Meets the Film Hustle ft. Father Tom Gibbons 🎬✨

We’re sitting down with Father Tom Gibbons, President of Paulist Productions, to discuss the "secret sauce" that has them collaborating with A-listers like Martin Sheen and Chris Pratt. We talk about their acclaimed anthology series, INSIGHT, which ran from 1960 to 1985 and won multiple Emmy Awards. Let's pull back the curtain on the intersection of the sacred and the secular.

💥 Basebal Beyond belief on FS1

💥 Debating Statues and Saints coming to PBS. 

💥 Combat Chaplains in the line of fire. 

💥 The Martin Sheen "Secret Sauce." 

💥 Indie distribution hacks for 2026.

Transcript

Mark Roberts 0:01

Good people of Earth, filmmakers, independent, financiers, all of you. We all love you very much. So, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Film Hustlers. I'm your host, Mark Roberts. I'm a filmmaker, been one for 30 years. We got David Dave on the ones and twos. You can't see him right now, but he's here. Got Rod to the ranks here. We've been doing this for a while, so please uh like and with a what else?

Rod Rinks 0:24

Subscribe to subscribe, give us some uh some tips, you know, or ask some questions, whatever you need.

Mark Roberts 0:30

Um, I think it's really cool uh that we've been doing this for six years. And I was thinking about it the other day. I was thinking that I became a much better uh picture producer when I started to do the show, thanks to Teddy.

Speaker 3 0:43

So thanks to really appreciate it.

Mark Roberts 0:45

Um no, I did. It changed it changed my ability to communicate with people, uh, and I think I became a better communicator because of it. So I kind of came kicking and screaming to the show and uh one time and I quit.

Rod Rinks 0:57

Too bad Davey doesn't have a mic because he can remind you about this.

Mark Roberts 1:00

And then I came back and I've been doing it for a while, and um, it makes me really happy to bring uh new people, new companies, new concepts to a film world that's changing all the time, especially now. Like every time we do the show, something different's happening. So I want to introduce um our guest, but first let me tell you a little bit about what he does. He's president of Paulist Productions, it's an Emmy Award-winning media division of Paulist Fathers. The Paulists, I believe we're the first society of Catholic priests founded in the United States with a specific mission to bridge the gap between the church and modern American culture. Love it. Welcome, Father Tom Gibbons.

Speaker 1 1:44

I'm giving a round of applause for that one. Thank you. I'm I I as a very longtime listener, I'm so excited to be here. I'm excited to have you, Father.

Mark Roberts 1:52

It's exciting to have you here because you are gonna give a different perspective on film, I think. Um I think everyone needs a little faith. You can bring a little faith to this uh to this conversation, especially to the faithless.

Rod Rinks 2:06

Hey, take it easy. I got a lot of faith. I was at Holy Week last week. I was there every day. Were you? Yeah, which parish? Uh Orthodox Christian. Orthodox Christian. Oh, yeah. Yeah, my wife, she's Greek Orthodox. Oh, that's great. Yeah.

Mark Roberts 2:19

I watched, I recently watched a documentary you guys did about what was the gentleman's name?

Father Tom 2:26

Father Juniper Serra.

Mark Roberts 2:27

Father Juniper Serra. And right I found it fascinating because that the name of the movie?

Speaker 1 2:34

The name of the movie is uh Debating Statues and Saints, the legacy of Father Juniper Serra. Yeah. And it's uh gonna be on TBS this fall.

Mark Roberts 2:43

Oh, that's great. It was it was uh a really cool movie. Um, and you know, documentaries have a have a way to make you feel certain things about history. Um and Father Serra, when did that happen? What what year was that?

Speaker 1 3:00

Um, well, the Father Serra came in the 1700s. Jeez, whiz. Yeah. So I mean he's considered to be by many the founder of modern California. So um he came over when uh the the Spanish who had uh basically settled what is now Mexico and and uh much of Central and South America, and they decided to move northward. And uh Father Serra was with them. You know, the the Spanish wanted to expand their empire, and Father Serra wanted to convert souls. There are these Native American indigenous, and that was his thing. So he set up all these missions along California and such places that later became famous, places like San Diego and San Francisco and Santa Barbara, and these missions largely became uh many of the cities we now experience as the major cities of California today.

Mark Roberts 3:56

He did it, he did a lot of work. Uh it's interesting because um when my kids were in school, you know, they had to do reports, and basically we just drove up and down the coast visiting every one of these places. So watching your documentary was awesome because it brought me back to that, but it also made me think because a lot of people have a problem with Father Serra and what he did historically. Why? Because he converted a bunch of uh people that didn't want to be converted per se.

Speaker 1 4:26

Well, you know, it was it was kind of funny. I got involved in this because I uh at the time, this was all during COVID. So um there had been some controversy with Father Serra beforehand, so I don't want to say this was relatively new, but in 2020, when uh when George Floyd was killed, a lot of Confederate statues started coming down. So it was that time when we're having this, as a country, we're having this big, you know, re-re-engaging uh what how what is our big racial conversation and racial justice and what does that look like? And uh, you know, personally, I I grew up on the East Coast, so I was like, you know, I've also spent a number of time in Catholic um and African American communities, so I was kind of like, yeah, I can see why those statues are coming down. I personally, that's where I was. And then in California, the statues of Huneper El Serra started coming down, you know, be mobs were just taking the statue down or just groups who were angry at Father Serra. And um, I was just sitting back and going, oh, this is really interesting. And because I didn't really know that much about California history, um, besides Disneyland 1955. Other than that, I was I was pretty ignorant. Um, and I said, Oh, you know, this is interesting because I was looking at many of the Catholics are really upset because they're looking at Father Serra and they're saying, Oh, he's a saint, you're destroying a Catholic saint. How dare you? And they had a really strong point. And many Native Americans were looking at Father Serra, saying, No, he was a colonizer, and he is the one who took away our culture. And I was thinking, well, they have a point too. And I was just interested in the I was kind of standing back, I was more interested in the conversation and just saying, hey, and everybody, especially in our in our uh polarized media environment, everyone's just kind of taking sides and just talking at each other. I'm like, what would it be like to do a film where we brought all the different sides together and learn from one another? And so that's what debating statues and saints came to be. We found this great um the pastor of uh the mission Santa Barbara, uh I'm sorry, mission uh Buenaventura in Ventura County. Um the statue outside of City Hall in Ventura, just up the up the coast from us in LA, um, was gonna be taken down. Um and the pastor wanted to make sure that the statue wasn't destroyed. And the head of the Chumash tribe, the local native tribe, wanted to see the statue come down. They disagreed, but they said, you know, instead of yelling at each other, let's come together and see if we can work out a solution. And I just like the idea of with everybody yelling at each other, who are the people that we can highlight who disagree with one another but try to work past it, you know? Yeah.

Mark Roberts 7:09

So well, it was it was really cool. I thought it was a really good piece of work, and I learned a lot. And in the end, um it really made me think, you know, because I think a lot of those families that supposedly uh were, you know, uh turned against their will uh to Catholicism, uh, they ended up not wanting to get the statues taken down.

Speaker 1 7:32

You know, which was interesting.

Mark Roberts 7:33

Yeah.

Speaker 1 7:33

Yeah, there was it was funny. I mean, there was a real mix. Um there was uh there's there's many Native American uh Catholics, you know, who are very proud of their faith and very happy with their faith. There's many NATO I talked to them, I talked to uh I shouldn't say I, I also work with the great producer and director, Maria Elena Pineda, on that. Um, and then we also spoke with uh many Native Americans who are still really angry at the church and their role in Spanish colonialism. And and it was just kind of like a great opportunity to that's one of the great things that film can do is you know, how can we bring you we've got an hour of people's time, let's really dive deep more uh into a topic rather than just doing like a 30-second sound bite where people, you know, we can kind of grow and learn no matter where we're coming from.

Mark Roberts 8:24

I think that was the coolest part about it, just because it also made me think that if you're okay with it because that happened a long time ago, you had nothing to do with it, you weren't alive when it happened, but you're very uh happy with your faith. There was something really, you know, interesting about that conversation because because at the end of the day, yeah, maybe your ancestors were affected by it, but in the end, you're really happy with your faith and who you are and what what it means to your family. So check it out because it's a great documentary. It's gonna be on PBS.

Speaker 1 8:53

On PBS, and and uh I think since you've seen it, uh uh we were able to record uh Tony Planta, great actor, to do the voice of uh Serra. So uh oh really?

Mark Roberts 9:02

I worked with him on Three Amigos, he's great, that's right. You do that was a long time ago. Great guy. But anyway, congratulations on that. I thought it was terrific. I know that uh Paulist uh productions have been around for 66 years, which is a remarkable. I mean, look at it for a production company, that's pretty remarkable. And tell everybody what kind of work you look for, what you look to do. What's the point of Paulist Productions?

Speaker 1 9:26

Well, we're obviously we're a faith-based company. You know, we're uh we were started by Father Bud Kaiser in 1960. And uh the the story of Father Bud is he was this new priest and who came from Philadelphia and he'd just been ordained. And and uh he's giving these great homilies at St. Paul the Apostle Parish in Westwood, which is where I met Mark many years ago.

Rod Rinks 9:48

He saw Rocky, he's from Phillies. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 9:51

Yeah, well, I well Sebastian Stallone used to go to the parish too. So yeah, so I don't think you see him there. You see him there every once in a while.

Rod Rinks 9:58

There's a faith-based undertone to Rocky that's absolutely that's what he says, yeah. Yeah, so absolutely because it comes up, it opens under under uh in the church, right? Fights in the church, yeah. Yeah.

Mark Roberts 10:09

Not only does it open, he gets the when he goes to fight that nice hey father, can you go down? That's right. That's right.

Speaker 1 10:15

You need a lot of those. But um, this was like around 1960, and there was this uh brand new thing in 1960. It was called television. You may have heard of it. I'm using air quotes for everybody who uh is listening uh through the podcast. And uh the producer of the Leave It to Beaver show was also a parishioner, and he said, looked at Father Kaiser and says, you know, we should do a show together. And it started off as just Father Kaiser kind of doing a um Fulton Sheen thing where he just like talked into the camera. But then it turned into, you know, because St. Paul's like today, it's a place where a lot of film producers go to church, a lot of actors go to church, a lot of writers go to church, and it kind of turned into this thing where, hey, let's just start doing morality plays. And what they would do is they would just do these morality plays, and it kind of just became this thing in Hollywood where all of a sudden, you know, uh Jewish Ed Asner would do a whole bunch. You know, it just, you know, everybody wanted to do a special insight for Father Kaiser, and he would distribute it on um uh each television station uh in the first number of decades of TV had to give away a part of their time for social impact, social benefit programming. So what happened was Father Kaiser would say, Hey, I have this professionally made show that is, you know, for social benefit, and take it and distribute it for free, and that's how insight ran for 23 years, and everybody, you know, it was like uh anybody that you've seen on TV or in movies have probably done an insight episode between 1960 and 1983, and that's how Paul's productions got started.

Mark Roberts 11:57

That's pretty cool. Yeah. Um, and I think we need it, you know. I think having a different point of view uh for filmmakers and for um for product is good. Yeah, you know, I know that Teddy, you were talking about faith being a big deal these this these days. It's huge.

Rod Rinks 12:12

Like I, you know, for a little while I worked with this company called CL9 Entertainment. Uh do you remember the book Embraced by the Light? No, I don't know that book. Yeah, it was about this woman named it's a true story, Betty Edy. Uh it was real popular in like the 90s. This is before the internet, so like she went on like open all this stuff. She died twice. And went and experienced the afterlife and was terrified afterwards. And and finally, you know, I think it happened in 73. It happened when she was a little girl, yeah, and then it happened again in the 70s. And then it wasn't until the 90s they convinced her to write her story. So she wrote this book just kind of like almost like therapy. I read it, it's amazing. Yeah, and it blew up. Every celebrity wanted to meet her, wanted to talk about it, wanted to talk about, you know, because everybody's looking for answers.

Speaker 1 13:00

Right.

Rod Rinks 13:00

And so her son ended up starting a production company, and we ended up linking up. And um, he started reading some of my stuff, and he was like, Man, this is scripts, and you know, he said, Can you come at it with a faith-based angle? And I said, you know, maybe like let's see. And then I just I got a little more heavier into I'm we were talking about that, I'm Orthodox, Christian Orthodox. My wife is very uh into the church and like started leaning into that and and got more involved, and I had some things happen to me that gave me kind of like a spiritual awakening and got me closer to God. So then I started saying, you know what, this is the direction which I like, yeah. Redemption, you know, all that stuff. So they're still a little edgy, you know. Um, I took out the cussing and the killing because mostly gangster stuff. Sure. But I just it's comical, you know what I mean? There's a lot more comedy with a good feel, good ending. Well, I'll talk to you later about it.

Mark Roberts 13:50

But um, yeah, you're gonna have to confess, man. Like that's a whole that's a whole other thing.

Rod Rinks 13:55

This guy, he's not father. I'm glad you're here. Throw some water on this guy over here.

Mark Roberts 14:00

But I did I did read before you were ordained. Tell me if this is right. Before you were ordained, you worked in graphic design.

Speaker 1 14:06

Yeah, no, I was um, I graduated from Loyola College in Loyal, now you Loyal University, Maryland in 1994. And I spent some time doing some volunteer work in Arizona and uh in Juarez, Mexico on the border of El Paso. And then I moved back to Baltimore. I was like, I didn't exactly know what I wanted to do. I was always interested in art. Uh I drew comic strips all growing up, like all my book reports were about Walt Disney. And I was just like, so what am I gonna do? And there was this new thing in the 1990s, it was called the internet. You may have heard of it, and there were things on the internet called web pages. So it was, yeah, I know exactly. Literally, the old dial-up. And so uh I had gotten a job at a company that was hiring graph designers to design web pages, and I was kind of the the headhunter for that, and I realized, oh, wait a minute, if you just learn the software, you can get a job in, you know. So I basically just got Adobe classroom in a book and learned Photoshop and learned HTML, you know. Um, you know, I'm totally dating myself now. Um, but I always had the artistic sense, and for whatever reason it just really clicked. And so um, and I I think I was always scared as a kid to do art like as a career. My parents are like, you gotta be a salesman, you gotta be in business, you gotta be a salesman. And and so and that was fine, you know, I totally understood where they were coming from, but I was kind of like, Oh, if you can digital design, I can have a career. So I started doing a career, and just the more software I learned, I just said, Let me learn Illustrator, let me learn InDesign, Quirk, you know, all this stuff.

Mark Roberts 15:52

And then you said, and then you said, forget that. I want to be a priest.

Speaker 1 15:56

John had been tapping me on the shoulder all that time. And so it was literally 20 years ago this month that God was like, All right, Tom, it's time. This is it. This is on. So uh, and I'd been designing web pages and doing a lot of that work. And um, along the way, I was kind of like, well, if I become a priest, how do I want to become a priest? Um, and I I knew like if it was gonna be a priest, I didn't only want to work in a parish. I really like working, I like parish work. A part of me misses parish work, but I I kind of had a sense that there was other things I wanted to do, and I found the Paulist Fathers who did communications, and you know, they they had a uh website called Busted Halo, and they had this production studio in Los Angeles, St. Paul's Productions. And I said, Oh, that really kind of clicks with what talents I have and different things, and so information. Um, I had the opportunity to put together my first film when they uh it was the community's 150th anniversary, and they said, Tom, you do graphics. We want to do a mass to celebrate all the people who had all the Paulists who had passed away. And so I was like, Well, maybe if we can make this like a little movie and I could teach myself Final Cut seven, you know, but I already knew Photoshop, so they gave me access to the archives. And so at that point, 150 years ago, it was the history of Paulist Fathers, it was also the history of photography. So they gave me access to like I mean, I felt like Ken Burns. It was like Civil War era pictures, and then like I'm going through all the names, and it was just like it was a historical treasure trove. It's like uh Police Fathers digging out uh from the rubble of the 1903 San Francisco earthquake and uh priests giving communion on this battleship in the middle of World War II, and it was just like oh my god, it was just so amazing. So uh I kind of just made this like 20 minute film, and it was kind of like you know, like when you watch the Oscars, they do the in memoriam. It was like that. And the community said, We really like this. You should start thinking about, you know, when you do become ordained, you know, how are you gonna use media? And so they've just I've still done a lot of, I'd still worked and did a lot of Parish work, but they always kind of said, Hey, if you want some, you want to try some things. And when I came to LA 10 years ago, uh I started working part-time at Paul's Productions as I worked full-time at at St. Paul the Apostle. Um, and then then transitioned to full-time at Paul's Productions about eight years ago. And then uh I took over Paulus Productions. They finally said, All right, you can take the training wheels off. Finally, you know, so last July um I became president of Paul's Productions.

Rod Rinks 18:37

Nice, really important though, Father. Congratulations. AI, yes, congratulations. What do you think of it? Because it's kind of in your wheelhouse, right? Like a little bit. A Adobe, like if you think about the trajectory, like, right, you were more like you were in the like that creative tech sense in the beginning, right? And that's where we're at now.

Speaker 1 18:55

It's I mean, it's hard not to see this as a sea change. I'm trying to like, you know, it I was talking with somebody, and I feel like I'm, you know, I came at this a little bit later in life. So I was ordained at age 40. I came to LA at age 44, you know, entered the film, you know, you know, uh, not not necessarily a spring chicken, you know, coming coming into this. And it's I was kind of saying, I I keep on trying to learn the business. And it's like, it's like trying to go to medical school where the body that you're trying to operate on, their organs constantly move and evolve. Like I'm like, you know, I'm like, wait a minute, I'm trying to remove the kidney. Why did it move to their armpit? Like, what's going on? You know, it's and and I know the entertainment business has always been hard enough, but it just seems like so many things are in flux. So I, you know, I think I think we're still unpacking and seeing what this means. I really do. I think it's a tool. I've done some, I've just like for another project I'm working on, I've just kind of played around with what can like I wanted it to make a photo and make it look like a painting. And so it is doing some coding and AI, and it's like poof, it's doing it, and it looks really cool.

Mark Roberts 20:06

Do you remember the movie, the TV show Helltown?

Speaker 1 20:10

No, which one?

Mark Roberts 20:12

It was with Robert uh Blake.

Speaker 1 20:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you remember that? I don't remember that.

Mark Roberts 20:18

Well, you're gonna look, you're gonna look like that. He's walking down like he looks like Clint Eastwood, but he's got like, you know, the collar.

Speaker 1 20:27

Oh, that's great.

Mark Roberts 20:27

Because you collaborate with a lot of big time actors. Like you uh I I read that it was uh Martin Sheen does a lot of work with you guys. I know that uh Chris Pratt was an executive producer on something. I mean, these are big names. What are your what are you most proud of? What uh that Paulus Productions has put out recently, right? Um, and let's hear I want to hear about what those projects are and where people can see them.

Speaker 1 20:50

Sure. I think uh I'm really proud of the the three ones that we've just put out. So I'm gonna be a little selfish. That's all right. I'm very proud of Hollywood Priest because that was like that was that was the film I directed and and produced and um produced with uh Maria Elena Pineda, and that got uh local Emmy nomination. So um Yeah, that's right.

Mark Roberts 21:12

Congratulations on the Emmy nomination.

Speaker 1 21:14

Uh you know, what what do they say? It's who whoever graduated, what do they call the person who uh is Valedictorian? Uh no, but the person who who uh got the lowest grades in medical school, doctor, you know, it's kind of like all right, yeah, I'm I'm I'm an Emmy nominated priest. We're going with that. But I'm really proud of that one because we got on PBS with that. And I I think one of the things we try, what I say is Paul's Productions, we create media that advances the conversation between the sacred and the secular, you know, bringing forward a Catholic voice while inviting all people of goodwill to the table. Because I think sometimes people hear faith based and they'll think, oh, you're just gonna try to ram some, you're gonna try and wrap God down my throat. I'm like, no, that is not what we do. We're interested in the conversation. We're there's the world is too big, we believe God. Is too big just to kind of keep things. We have some things to share, and we'd like to share them, but we also want to listen and grow. And um, I'm really uh I'm really proud that PBS, which is considered a secular uh organization, is like, no, we're gonna do this film, you know, and that they they put the film out there. And I I was I was really excited about that.

Mark Roberts 22:21

Well, we gotta check that out. I guess it's streaming. Can we check it out?

Speaker 1 22:24

You can currently check it out on PBS, and if you got PBS passport, then there's uh Fighting Spirit, which is really an emotionally well done film. Um, and that was uh really helped put together by one of our board members, Rich Hall, who um has a great long history in Hollywood. Um he and this is about the story of combat chaplains and those who you know, those who are uh priests like me who go on the front lines and are literally like with the soldier, and not just priests, but rabbis and moms, you know. Um, and they are on the front lines and they don't carry a gun. And I'm like, my most They have the most courage.

Rod Rinks 23:04

My dad was in Vietnam and he would tell, like, you know, you're out there with you have your weapon, you you got a Bible. Yeah, and you're running out there into heavy fire where people are getting and you're doing God's taking God's taking care of it.

Speaker 1 23:18

Yeah, it was like, yeah. And that we did a limited theatrical release, and that is um it's currently being uh broadcast on the Wonder Project, which is through Amazon. And uh coming this month, this is actually very good. Uh for Memorial Day, it's gonna be on all of the Avod streamers. So it's gonna be on Tubi, it's gonna be on Sling, uh Roku, I think, and you can currently purchase it off uh where you purchase films like iTunes and Google Play and Amazon and all that.

Mark Roberts 23:48

That's that's very cool. I think uh, you know what's really neat about all your projects is that they're all they all feel very they all feel high concept.

Speaker 3 23:56

Yeah.

Mark Roberts 23:56

Like they're easy to tell, like talking about a priest going to war with just a Bible. Like I already, I'm already into it. Like sold. I want to buy and I if I'm if it's not being made, I want to make it. Yeah. But uh yeah, I mean, that's pretty neat. Um is there anything else?

Speaker 1 24:11

Yeah, and then uh the one we just came out with was directed by John Scheinfeld, um, who's done a lot of uh of really great films. Um uh it's called Baseball Beyond Belief. It's been on Fox Sports One this past week and a half. Uh, I think we've got a couple more broadcasts. We're looking at uh doing uh transitioning it over to AVOD, but it's having a really great broadcast on Fox Sports, so we'll see what happens in the future. And that's that's a conversation. We did it in partnership with Major League Baseball, and it was basically about how understanding baseball can help you understand religion, and understanding religion can help you understand baseball. Like uh like I was saying earlier, like Catholics, we have uh St. Peter's Square, Muslims have Mecca, and uh Red Sox fans have Fenway Park. And there's kind of like and but that it's a real sacred space, and it's like it kind of helps us like understand like oh, how do we understand what I like to say is that there's like emotional intelligence and head intelligence, IQ, but then this is like spiritual intelligence, and how do we like understand the world around us?

Mark Roberts 25:12

That's pretty cool. I I I either read this somewhere or you guys are doing it. Uh, it's about sports and religion, yeah, and how uh and superstition, because there's a lot of like uh a little bit, right? There's a lot about uh you know how you walk and what part, you know, what you touch and what you did when you played, did you use superstitions about anything? Did I when I I had I always have superstitions, even when I walk, if I walk go on a hike and and I end my hike at a tree, I have to touch the three tree three times before I turn around and go back to the road. Trinity, there you go. Paul's employees. Things like that. Are you a ball player, Mark? No, well, no, I played football. Okay, I played tennis, but um tennis. But I did have I know tennis, but I did have uh, you know, I I I am very superstitious uh about a lot of things. But um, but Paul's Paulus production is doing a lot of cool stuff, and I think it's a lot, it's stuff that people want to see. Um and it's cool, and it's cool that you guys are putting it out, putting it out there through great uh companies like PBS. Um and great that PBS is doing it, you know. Uh but it's clearly because you guys are doing great production. So congratulations on that.

Rod Rinks 26:16

Well, not just PBS, Tubi, Roku. There's a lot of people.

Mark Roberts 26:20

Well, I was gonna ask, have you heard of Hoopla?

Rod Rinks 26:22

I have not heard of Hoopla.

Mark Roberts 26:23

Okay, well, let me tell you about Hoopla. They're not sponsors, but uh but I hope that they will be. They just picked up hey, what's up, Hoopla? Um they just picked up one of my films, and I didn't know who Hoopla was. Hoopla is uh online company that provides streaming for every library in the United States. I might be wrong about that. I think it's 10,000 libraries, not all of them, and they have two million uh subscribers. Anyone with a library card can rent rent a movie there, and I don't believe they have to pay for it.

Speaker 1 26:57

Okay.

Mark Roberts 26:58

You have to check that out for yourself. But Hoopla is a great play to place to get like educational stuff that people want to see that maybe people don't have, you know, all these uh streamers and stuff. They might go to Hoopla and use their library card and see these movies. So check out Hoopla. Uh, I'm excited about uh all these different platforms that are allowing you to make money. And I and I think they pay pretty well too.

Rod Rinks 27:19

Father, when you were doing your documentaries, what music library did you use?

Speaker 1 27:25

Oh, you know, I was using this music library um called uh pedestrianmusic.com. Okay, but I hear it's not as good as another music library.

Mark Roberts 27:36

Well, there is one called extreme music.com.

Speaker 1 27:40

Oh, that's why the music was so I was using pedestrian.

Mark Roberts 27:43

Oh, I should have been using extreme music because if you think about it, pedestrian's a lot slower, doesn't know as much extreme as like you can get slower if you need it.

Rod Rinks 27:53

Yeah, if you want to. Everything's there, yeah.

Mark Roberts 27:56

But uh yeah, thank you for saying so. Uh our sponsor, our partner, uh extreme music.com, an amazing, an amazing music library that we use all the time. And you know, Paulus Productions should make a deal with them. I'll call I'll call Russ right after we get off this and have him call you.

Rod Rinks 28:10

Yeah, but you know, also too, Father, if you're ever in need of a cigar, sometimes you need to relax. You know what?

Speaker 1 28:16

I mean, I I like why I'm sitting in this room and I'm like we're gonna play some poker in the game. No, seriously, I'm like, this this reminds me of my grandfather. Like literally, I'm like, I'm back to being a four-year-old going into my grandfather's den in in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Rod Rinks 28:30

The light, the library here in Studio City, uh private cigar lounge. Like my guy Vic, he runs.

Speaker 1 28:37

Someone had to let me in. I was walking around outside and there was no immediate door. No, this is a cool place, man. It's social. I knocked through, I did the secret knock, and yeah. And then the door opened. Yeah.

Mark Roberts 28:48

What's crazy about this place is um, you know, we bring in the father, father, father Tom, and it's you know, smoking, drinking, and we're sitting at a poker table.

Rod Rinks 28:59

Hey, what's wrong with that?

Mark Roberts 29:01

I would you are you gonna have to confess after this? Um you are. I am gonna have to. I kind of feel like there's gonna be some great things coming out of Paul's productions. I mean, really big, big stuff. So uh I'm excited to see what you guys do next. And just to just to go back for a sec, how does someone like Chris Pratt or um Martin Sheen or people like that end up collaborating with you?

Speaker 1 29:25

Uh I mean, I think like one of our secret sauces is our connection to the church, and they know that um that we're a good partner. And I think part of that is our history. So uh I Martin, I had done another film before coming to LA about Isaac Hacker, about the founder of the Paulus Fathers, and this was like my unofficial student film of like, let me just get the pictures together. And I remember uh Martin Sheen was very close friends with Father Bud for all those years. Oh wow, really? Yeah, I know it's really cool.

Mark Roberts 29:59

And so the legendary Father Buddha.

Speaker 1 30:02

Yeah, and and and and P, you know, it's funny when I say I'm in Paulis Productions, it's it's like people say the number one question I get in LA is do you still have that awesome property on the PCH? Because Paulus Productions had this property on the PCH just south of Malibu, right over by the Getty Villa. That's a bridge across the street. Beautiful great building. Um, and people used to see it. And it's like everybody, it's like people could be religious, not religious. I haven't had any Satan worshippers say anything to me yet. But you know, it was just like, do you still have that building? Like, no, we got rid of it a number of years ago. That's how what we're known. And so many people know Father Bud. Like, yeah, I still have people coming up to me. It's like I I met the writer for the film of Field of Dreams a couple of days ago, and he was like, Oh, I remember Father Bud Kaiser. And so uh, I have to admit, I'm totally been dining out on his name. And I mean, I I joined the community six years after he died, and I think he just left such a legacy that we've that we're trying to keep custodian of and really kind of move forward. He was trusted by everybody and loved by somebody.

Mark Roberts 31:06

That's cool. Um, and let me ask you this because I know people are gonna ask, like the minute they see the show, they're gonna be wondering, can they pitch you stuff?

Rod Rinks 31:13

Is there is there I'm pitching after the show when we wrap good stuff? You never want to read my stuff. I got good stuff. Father we're talking.

Mark Roberts 31:21

Is there documentaries that you'd be that you'd be considering? I mean, is there is there an opening for people to chat with you guys about other projects?

Speaker 1 31:30

Yeah, I think there's an opening. I think one of the things is uh, you know, I'm I'm trying to kind of see what we are gonna be doing and what are we not gonna be doing? Because I think for a while there people would hear, oh, you're a faith-based company. So they would just throw out uh, you know, it'd be like anything with the word God and it's a lot of people.

Mark Roberts 31:49

That's how I feel about Christmas. You say Christmas and they're like, someone's coming back into town and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know what happens.

Speaker 1 31:55

Fall in love with a Christmas tree farmer and all, you know, and all that. So it's it's so I think one of the things that we're trying to do is um, I think one of our formulas has been uh we like stories and projects that are grounded in both the sacred and the secular. So if one is like uh I look at you know the the chaplain's film, it's grounded in the US military and and and of course the ministers of all different faith traditions. So it's like it's I think that's kind of what it continues to be our special sauce. Um one of the things I've learned, you know, just from hearing pitches is there's a difference between somebody having a good resume and a good story. Yeah. So I have like people coming up to me all the time, oh, you know, there was this nun and she was so inspirational, and she started an orphanage in the middle of this wherever, and she was such a holy person. And I'm like, that's a great resume, that's not a great story. You know, if it's a good story, is there's this woman who used to be a dancer in Las Vegas and then had a change, and then you know, but I I think it's also if there's a story that also leads people to ask different questions. I have to admit, I'm like, I'm I'm not as high as uh on the inspirational story. I'm like, I I feel like that you know, it's it's gotta have some meat to it. It just can't have the sizzle. You know, I I like stories that have some meat to it.

Mark Roberts 33:22

All right, so if you guys are out there and you wanna pitch something that you've thought about that's got some meat to it, that's got uh some redemption. Wait a minute, that's all that's all your movies. Well, me.

Speaker 1 33:33

Well, you know what? Here's the thing. I think it's like I preach every weekend, and I feel like you know what I like to tell a lot of jokes when I preach, and you know, they go over mostly okay. I haven't gotten too many last year.

Mark Roberts 33:43

I consider I consider you funny. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 33:46

Thank you. Yeah, but um, I always feel like a good homily camp. Yeah, exactly, right? Yeah. Um, I always feel like a good homily has to have good pathos, and I feel like a good story has to have good pathos. And I think that's the mistake that many people, when they come into the faith base, they think, oh, they have to get rid of the pathos. It's like, no, because that's where the meat of the story is. Because if you're not digging, if you're not wrestling with God at all, yeah, that's why the stories of the Bible are so great, because it's people wrestling with God and and and them thinking they get the upper hand and then God sneaks a good one in, and but it all comes out good.

Mark Roberts 34:19

There's so many, there's so many uh things to talk about. We're gonna have to have you back on. Yeah, because there's there's clearly we can talk for another hour about it. I think it's a really amazing thing that the industry is where it's at, um, and that you guys are doing what you're doing. I, you know, I also you know, I was thinking about this the other day, having nothing to do with the podcast, but I was thinking about how much I liked um Touched by an Angel.

Speaker 3 34:43

Yeah.

Mark Roberts 34:44

And uh, you know, I feel like The Little House on the Prairie was sort of religious, religious to a certain way. Yeah, yeah. So those shows uh that they don't do that much anymore, I think hopefully can make a comeback.

Rod Rinks 34:55

You know, you have a series about well, there's a big movement right now. Have you no heard about like this younger generation are are turning to God, they're turning to Catholics. Is that true?

Speaker 1 35:05

Yeah, oh I think so. Yeah, because I I I think there was maybe a move away from religion and pop culture, yeah. Where it almost became so sterile because they wanted whether whether they were afraid that different religions were just gonna go at each other, or they were afraid of really turning off an audience. So we, you know, it's like you look at some of the Christmas movies, and it's like, where does everybody go at the end of the Christmas movie? Oh, we're going to the bookstore. I'm like, wait a minute. What's the point? I'm like, like midnight is closed on Christmas Eve. Like, even like if you don't believe in God, you don't believe in anything, you're not hanging out at the bookstore on Christmas Eve, like you're going to the Zero Pan. And so, uh, and I think there may have been a way, well, we got to market to everybody. But I think there's, I think there's a happy, that's what we try to do is we try to say, look, we're we're a part of the culture, we're a part of the faith. And and I I feel like if you have an open table and you welcome everyone in, you have an open and respectful and fun conversation, everyone's welcome. So I think, and I think the that's why I think people really like our style of films, because we try to, we really try to bring everyone to the table. We're not trying to, you know, uh hard sell you anything. You know, we're just saying, well, let's talk. There's a lot to talk about in this big world.

Mark Roberts 36:20

Yeah, I think that's I think that's important. Well, congratulations on being uh president of Alex Productions. Congratulations on 66 years. I mean, important the journey's been amazing. Um, and thanks for being on Film Hustlers. I think uh a lot of people are gonna appreciate this one. Especially this guy right here.

Speaker 1 36:38

Yeah. Oh, it's great.

Mark Roberts 36:39

I'm gonna set up a confessional right over there.

Speaker 1 36:41

No, I've been listening to the show for years, so I'm I'm excited to be here. Oh, it's probably you gotta come back. You gotta come back.

Mark Roberts 36:46

Well, we appreciate you, we appreciate what you're doing. Uh keep keep keep up the good work. Can't wait to see uh the movie that's coming out.

Speaker 1 36:53

Uh Debating Statute and Stants?

Mark Roberts 36:55

Or I can say that I liked it, but the baseball movie, it's already out.

Speaker 1 36:58

It's already out, yeah.

Mark Roberts 36:59

Fox One.

Speaker 1 37:00

Fox Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2. I think it has a couple more broadcasts in the video.

Mark Roberts 37:04

I want to see that. I'm really interested in it.

Speaker 1 37:05

You'll like that. Yeah, yeah, you'll like it a lot.

Mark Roberts 37:07

All right, well, thanks uh for being here, and thank you guys for listening and watching. Um subscribe and subscribe and like subscribe and like comment. Give us some comments. And um, yeah, see you next time.