Summary: Elliott Wallach, President of Edify Films, describes his journey to faith and film and what it means for him to produce God of Heaven and Earth – in theaters November 5th-6th.
Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! – Psalm 34:8 (ESV)
A Journey to Faith
I’ll never forget the first movie I worked on, it was such a surreal experience. For anybody that’s ever been in the military, a movie set is very similar, especially when you’re training for war. There’s a similar energy and intensity, an unforgiving timeline, all while electric generators are humming in the background. There are moments where people are shouting frenetically, and where people are standing motionless in urgent silence. And maybe the most familiar emotion is this feeling of camaraderie as you’re fighting towards a common goal.
If you can’t tell, I was a veteran before I found myself in the movie business. And it’s actually where I found my faith. I joined the army with a very close friend of mine named Lee Belas. We had known each other since the 8th grade. Having Lee by my side through half my tour was a great gift to me, the military can be a very lonely experience and with Lee it was always like having a piece of home with me. But aside from that, we also just had so much in common.
Lee and I were actually born in the same hospital, which was 1500 miles away from where we met, we both played trumpet, we both loved computers and video games, and both loved comedy. But after a couple of years of training together, we were separated. Lee was stationed in Kansas at Fort Riley and I was stationed at Fort Polk in Louisiana.
Lee ended up being assigned a very rare duty with a helicopter unit in Kansas, and ironically, I was also assigned to the exact same kind of helicopter duty, equally as rare, but in Louisiana. The parallels just never stopped, and then in 1991, Desert Storm broke out and Lee and about 700,000 other men and women were sent to the Middle East to fight Sadam Husein. Of that group there were about 100 army combat deaths and unfortunately Lee was one of them when his helicopter was shot down by the Republican Guard.
As you can imagine that shook me to my core, and I remember sitting on my bed looking at my dog tags. Your dog tags will list things like your name, your blood type, your social security number, and your religion. My religion said Christian, but it took on a much heavier meaning that day. In fact, it was the only thing that mattered, because it was the only thing that mattered to Lee. Every single possible thing that had happened to Lee had happened to me, except death, and I knew that it was going to happen to me too. At that moment all I wanted to know was what was true. I did not want my faith to be based on the way I was raised, or the feelings I had, or the expectations of people around me. If I was going to commit my life to a God, I wanted to know that he was real.
So when I got out of the Army, I went on a journey that ultimately led me to learn my faith, and especially the prophecies in the Old Testament, and I began to understand just how much evidence exists for the Christian faith. I think when I saw Isaiah 53 particularly, I decided I just did not have the faith to believe that Jesus was anything but what he claimed. He was the son of God as predicted and described in Scripture hundreds and hundreds of years before he was born.
The Power of Film
It was a few years after this point that I went to church and met my wife. She was a producer and the one that introduced me to my first movie set. I knew from the very first moment I heard the director say “action,” that I wanted to spend my life in this business, working to impact people with film. But to know me, it’s no wonder. If you have a musician in your life, that person may own 1000 albums or carry around thousands of songs in their playlist, and I can tell you that I easily own more than 1000 movies. I think movies are the most powerful art form ever created by man. My son might say video games, but I stand my ground. Nowhere else can you spend 90 minutes and literally forget your own identity and when the movie finishes and the credits roll, you can walk out of that theater changed forever. I can think of several movies that impacted my life that way.
So initially, my dream was to bring the Bible to the big screen, but in a way that had never been done before. And then Mel Gibson released The Passion of the Christ. When I went to the theater, I saw my dream take shape on film. It was not exactly what I dreamt of doing, but Mel Gibson took the Bible and he made it real, and that was exactly what I wanted to do.
I found myself obsessed with this film and I followed its theatrical release incessantly. By this time, through a string of miracles, I was promoting films to the faith market for 20th Century Fox. So when they acquired the DVD rights to The Passion of the Christ and tasked me with managing the faith publicity, it felt like Tommy Lasorda just asked me to pitch for the Dodgers.
Producing God of Heaven and Earth
From there my career blossomed, and I worked with virtually every studio, managing the faith publicity for a variety of Family and Faith Friendly films. The company I founded is called Edify Media.
Since then, I’ve moved into distribution with my other company called Edify Films. Our core product right now is the When Calls the Heart television series. In fact, the domain name WhenCallsTheHeart.com redirects to our online store.
But my dream has always been production. So now, knowing my background, you can imagine my excitement to help produce and distribute a movie like God of Heaven and Earth. As you now know, biblical proofs changed my life, and this film makes an incredibly compelling case as to what the Star of Bethlehem really was, but perhaps even more importantly it establishes a definitive crucifixion date of April 3rd, 33 AD. The movie finishes on location in Israel to prove that an earthquake happened in 33 AD confirming Matthew’s account that after Christ died there was an earthquake so powerful, a nearby centurion spoke the famous words, “Surely this man was the Son of God.”
To be part of this film is some of the most important work I’ve done with my life because of what it could mean to someone seeking like me. I’m so excited to be bringing it to you this November.
FILM RELEASE NEWS
You can get your ticket now for God of Heaven and Earth and see this feature-length documentary! Click for tickets and put in your zip code to check your closest theater showing this exciting film. The film begins showing in theaters Nov 5th & 6th in 600 theaters around the U.S. only.
WATCH THE TRAILER
CONCLUSION
We are thrilled to partner with Edify Films to present this as the first film in the Bible Cinema Roadshow series. The film brings two completely different scientific disciplines together to show that the creator of the Universe is the God of Heaven and Earth!
Your faith will be encouraged. Keep on Thinking!
