The challenge and goals of independent Catholic filmmaking

There are high levels of dissatisfaction with mainstream entertainment these days. Consumers and pundits alike are calling for fresh, independent, and moral voices. Thankfully, a few new studios are answering that call.

However, as I’ve been exploring and sampling these offerings, I’ve found the quality varies. Too often, the stories take a backseat to preaching. And opportunities to connect with a wider audience seem squandered on a chance to score a few shallow political points.

Thus I was leery when an even smaller independent film, Exemplum, came up intermittently on my radar. Taking a closer look, I learned this psychological thriller had been filmed for under $10,000 and yet was garnering some solid reviews. Mark Judge of The Stream hailed it as better than “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Rebecca Mansour called it “entertaining and thought-provoking”. And mainstream film sites such as ReelViews have been taking it seriously, which is certainly a good sign, especially considering it has some obvious religious themes.

With practically zero marketing budget, this movie is relying on largely on a grassroots word-of-mouth campaign, and viewers are stepping up to share their excitement.

I was so impressed after watching Exemplum that I reached out to the filmmaker, Paul Roland, to speak with him about his creative philosophy. Roland wrote and directed the film, and also stars in the role of Fr. Colin Jacobi, a young priest whose ambition to become a media influencer takes him down a very dark path.

CWR: Tell us a bit about your background and why you decided to become a film maker. And please talk about your biggest influences!

Paul Roland: I got into filmmaking way back in high school. Trabuco Hills in Orange County. I had a wonderful teacher, Todd Sautner, who taught me film aesthetics at age 15. I’ve pursued it off and on since then. I went full speed ahead in 2015 and wrote several scripts before deciding on finally producing my own film for $10k. My biggest influences: Fritz Lang’s “M,” Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, and Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity, and, lastly, James Cameron.

CWR: Did you attend a film school after high school?

Paul Roland: Yes. I studied screenwriting at Cal State Northridge. I did not graduate from film school because I felt it wasn’t actually helping my needs or helping me grow as a storyteller. I’m glad I studied screenwriting because I actually started to grow the second I started writing feature films; you do not grow when you are writing short films, which is what film school emphasizes.

CWR: When you were there, did you feel your Catholic Faith set you apart from the environment, or was that not an issue?

Paul Roland: Well, my journey in the Faith is interesting. I was a cradle Catholic, who fell away from the church in both high school and college. I started living a Christian life after I met my wife. In 2014, I had a reversion to the Catholic faith and it was then that I started marrying my storytelling and filmmaking with my Catholicism.

CWR: Beautiful! Where and how did the idea for Exemplum‘s story come about?

Paul Roland: Complicated. When I set out to write the film, I knew that I was working with only $10,000. So, with that in mind, I had to construct the entire story around what I knew I could get for free. I knew I could get a Catholic church for free, a restaurant, or bar, and some houses and some apartments, and do some guerrilla filmmaking.

I had previously written a script that had dealt with similar themes, so I at least knew what kind of tone and moral lesson I wanted. I had in the back of my mind, a story about a priest who was recording his confessions. I found that compelling. So I developed the story from there, and everything else fell into place.

CWR: Your performance as Fr. Colin struck me as particularly believable. How did you approach the role?

Paul Roland: Thank you for appreciating that. Well, I am not an actor, and I have no desire to act and (direct) my own film again. However, working as a screenwriter for several years does hone your acting ability a little bit. I also had a background in acting training, going all the way back to seventh grade. So I’m not entirely foreign to the whole process. Honestly, my goal for Colin was very workman-like. I just wanted to keep the character from being flat. I did not want him to bring down the film in anyway. The other actors, however, are giving it their all in their performances, and it shows.

CWR: The beautiful hand-drawn illustrations play a significant part in the plot, combining old and new technologies as ways of telling stories. Were those your work or someone else’s?

Paul Roland: Two people. One friend did the hand drawn and another, Jude Halpin, did the digital art. My friend who did the hand drawings wished to remain anonymous

CWR: The film has won an award—did that happen before or after this recent spate of publicity?

Paul Roland: We won Best Director at the Pasadena international film festival in 2022, which was actually pretty miraculous, believe it or not. The film festival circuit is already incredibly hard to get into. Top level festivals, for instance, don’t even consider a filmmaker like me. You don’t get into those festivals without knowing someone on the inside or having a producer who has worked with them before. Even the lower tier festivals, like Pasadena, are very competitive.

To get selected at all and then win an award is pretty tough to do, considering we were up against films that had ten times our budget and with full crews.

CWR: Does all this publicity impact, in a good way, any upcoming projects you may be working on?

Paul Roland: I am in the active process of fundraising for my next project, which I will not reveal right now, the more successful I can make Exemplum, the easier it will be to get that film made. So all the positive press certainly helps with that mission.

CWR: Since Exemplum features a priest and some Catholic themes, it was natural for you to present these through that lens, using that vocabulary. In general, however, what is your artistic philosophy regarding ‘preaching’ at the audience, which is something we tend to see in alternative Christian media? In other words, what do you think are the best ways to tell a strong story, with a good moral message, that will appeal to folks outside the “choir loft”, so to speak?

Paul Roland: Basically, my Catholicism forms the bedrock of my moral outlook, so any story I write, regardless of what it centers on, that will be in there in some way. Always. For me, as it is for a lot of people, I care about the craft of making a good story. That means creating compelling characters, interesting themes, which, all therefore form an emotionally stimulating plot. When I sit down to write a film, my goal is to create a great piece of cinema with my Catholicism as the guiding light.

So, yes, I will always hold to the age-old principal of “if you have a message, call Western Union.”

CWR: Do you think creators working outside the traditional studios, publishers, etc., will ever achieve enough mass to have a measurable impact on the culture? Or should we not even be thinking in those terms? Should we just keep doing what we’re doing and let God use us, without have a set goal of winning the “culture wars”?

Paul Roland: We should not be thinking in those terms in the slightest. We need to be thinking about the quality of the work we are generating, and the quality of the network we are creating. Slowly (and I would say that you are one of them) a very good network of like-minded artists, who care about quality work and who have the same moral outlook, is banding together in a community of support. We need to keep encouraging each other to create timeless arts that can go toe to toe with anything mainstream. We must keep supporting each other and keep giving each other good vibes.

As I told a friend recently, we have to keep putting a penny or a quarter in each other’s jars. When we do that, a beautiful culture will sprout. We do not need to get caught up in culture wars or political battles or company drama or any of that. Just focus on creating beautiful art and being a good neighbor and being a good friend.

CWR: What advice would you have for a young Catholic creator who might be interested in filmmaking but who hasn’t really begun yet?

Paul Roland: Don’t think about the industry. Just think about learning the craft and forming a community of people you can create that stuff with. I honestly think that the old model is dying. Technology has made it where you can gather resources make your movies and put them out there, the only thing they really worry about is marketing funds.

My advice to every other young Catholic filmmaker is to just focus on being great, because everything else is just a distraction from that.

CWR: Folks can watch Exemplum on Tubi, and they can follow you on social media, but do you also have a website?

Paul Roland: Just social media for now. Having a feature film out there is a pretty good advertisement for yourself, I say!

(Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and length.)