Beyond Belief the Movie finished up filming in the Chicagoland area earlier this month. Many people worked tremendously over long workdays to make this project a success. This movie is a faith-based film featuring the songs of Petra. We wanted to sit down with our very own Joe Sanders who produced the film. Joe’s vision and pursuit of his dream helped make this into a reality. Let’s hear from Joe about this exciting new adventure.
What brought up this idea of making a movie that was inspired by a popular Christian 80’s rock band?
Joe Sanders: The movie was originally not taking place in the 80s. It was about this kid hearing the voice of God and then having to do something that he wasn’t qualified for and he really had no business doing it. It was impossible which is running this marathon. And so, I decided at one point I just kind of got the idea to make it in the 80s. It’ be more fun that way, give the movie a different world. And then thought it’d be really cool if we had a cool soundtrack to the movie. I started listening to all this 80s Christian rock music and the song Beyond Belief just kept playing and over and over again and I realized that the lyrics to that song is really like what our movie was about. And so then we thought, I wonder if Petra would want to do this with us.
So, we found Petra, reached out to them and they thought it was a cool idea and we just kind of grew that relationship from there and we decided to call the movie Beyond Belief. That is kind of how it came about. I have always been a fan of Christian music and Christian rock music. When I started researching it and looking into 80’s Christian rock, Petra is at the top of the list and their music is iconic for that era in that time. And so, I really enjoyed getting to know them and hearing their catalog and listening to all their great music spanning over 50 years.
What were the beginning steps of putting this all together and how long does the process take?
Joe Sanders: I first introduced this to John, my director, about 14 years ago. It was a very long time ago and we were working on a few other projects at the time. We didn’t work on it for that whole 14 years, but on and off we just really thought the story was something different and interesting. We just kept working on it here and there and then we started getting more serious about it. We made a film called Grace Wins in 2022 and our other movie One Hit from Home, started to show up on some of the streaming charts. We just felt it took a long time and then once we got the 80s vibe going and we got Petra involved things really started to move for us. It started opening up a lot of doors and it seemed like it took a ton of time, energy, and patience to get this thing over the plate.
You own a successful digital marketing firm and have done a lot of great videography work for small businesses. What are the similarities and differences of making a movie?
Joe Sanders: When we make videos for our clients in the marketing world there’s the same level of professionalism, but you’ll go with one person or maybe three or five people on a set and shoot for a day or a weekend or something like that to do those kinds of projects. A feature film is 40 people a day for a month with 12 to 16 hour workdays. And so, it’s also a lot different because when you’re shooting a film, a narrative, you’re really bound by the script. When we’re doing more commercial style stuff for Relevant Elephant, it’s a lot more like we’re interviewing people. It’s a little more documentary style, whereas making a feature film, is all predicated on what’s on the page and what you have to shoot that day. They are very different, but Relevant Elephant uses some of the similar equipment just like a smaller version of it.
Your wife and son were on set helping out and were extras in the movie. How does having support from your closest family and friends help with this big endeavor and what kind of feedback did you receive?
Joe Sanders: It is everything. It’s such a big project that without having the support of your friends and family it couldn’t be possible. You just want to share with them because it’s such a special thing. People came out and helped which I appreciated we wanted everybody to come out and whoever wanted to be a part of this could be a part because you just want to share it with people, and you need the support. The last time we made a movie it was in Mississippi, and I had to go away for a month and this time we shot it here, so I was away, but I wasn’t across the country. It was special to have everybody and even some of the local people that we hired from Chicago on set it was really cool.
I think the feedback was amazing. I think everybody had a wonderful time and everybody worked really hard. The feedback we got was tremendous. I think everybody felt loved and cared for and it was like a family atmosphere. We all kind of went through it together and the goal for me would be just like I do with Relevant Elephant. Anybody that I hire that works for me on a project I’d want them to be able to come back and work with me again. We did the same approach with Intrigue Films; we would want anybody that we hired on set to come back if we did another movie and I’m confident they would do so.
You just finished filming. What are the next steps and when can people see Beyond Belief the Movie and can fans do anything to help?
Joe Sanders: We’re in post-production right now which will probably take four to six months to finish. After that I don’t know because we are talking to distributors right now about the film and we don’t have a distribution plan. We’ve got interest but the vision would be a theatrical release sometime in 2026 but there’s a huge gap between where we are and where that’s going to be but we’re going to address that part of the post-production distribution process. This process entails to edit the film, mix the audio, add the music, do the VFX, color correction, etc. After that we got to talk to all the distribution companies that distribute Christian films, secular films, put movies in the theater, and companies that put movies on streaming networks. We’ve got to talk to all of them and find somebody who wants to buy it. We’ve already had a few conversations and we’ve already had some offers. We want to make the best deal for what we feel is best for the project and then go through that process. So, it never stops.
I think fans have done so much. When we did a crowdfund campaign with this the fans really came through. The support that we’re getting on social media from our fans has been tremendous. And yeah, I guess just the support of continuing to show interest in the project but at this point it is a little bit of a holding pattern because we have to get the film done and then we have to show it to people and then we have to get it out there. So, the fans will probably not have a ton of involvement in this, but we will continue to post this journey on our social media and share updates as we go through this. And so, we invite all our fans to participate with us in this special journey. We are very excited in what comes next!
