When filmmaker Ben Smallbone was a child in Nashville, Tennessee, he planned to return to his parents’ farm as an adult in the event the world met with catastrophe.
The movie he directed, “Homestead,” is an extension of that worst-case scenario mind game he played with his siblings.
“It’s that question that is always looming no matter where you are in the country of ‘If the world collapses, how would you respond?’” Smallbone recently told The Epoch Times. “What if all of the things you rely on ... the resources, the grocery stores, gas stations, technology, phones, and electricity … all go away?”
In modern times, the term “homestead” has often come to signify self-sufficient micro-farming and small land-holding farming but without livestock.
The movie portrays a homestead as a fortress that a family escapes to after a nuclear bomb is detonated in Los Angeles, and the nation devolves into unprecedented chaos. There, they must survive not only apocalyptic conditions but also the dangers of human nature.
“We filmed in Utah, less than 5 miles from downtown Salt Lake City,“ Smallbone said. ”It feels like an entirely different world.”
“It’s unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in my life,” he said. “Just in the last few weeks and months, there’s been Russian nuclear threats, you know. There’s war in the Middle East.”
“Homestead” is also one of a slew of faith-based apocalyptic films produced and released by various directors and production companies in recent years.
Others include “Left Behind,” “Tomorrow Before After,” “The Coming,” “Disciples in the Moonlight,” and “The Remaining.”
Smallbone’s feature, however, doesn’t start with people being raptured to heaven with their clothes left on the ground.
“There is none of that in this,” he said. “The inciting incident is a bomb going off in LA, which motivates these people to flee to the mountains to a homestead for safety and security, and within that world is where a lot of the faith elements are unpacked.”
Angel Studios is releasing the survival drama on Dec. 20.
No film project, series, or screenplay is undertaken by Angel Studios unless first approved by the Angel Guild, a 300,000-strong worldwide network of creators who choose which projects to fund. Last year, out of 550 projects submitted to the Angel Guild, 13 were accepted, and $82 million was crowdfunded.
“They not only raised funds but also created an energy about the project with cast and crew that we couldn’t have replicated any other way, and within a few months, we had raised $1.5 million through crowdfunding,” Smallbone said.
The film stars Neal McDonough and Dawn Olivieri as Ian and Jenna Ross, respectively. McDonough is known for portraying Officer Fletcher in the box office hit movie “Minority Report' starring Tom Cruise. Olivieri is known for her roles in the TV series ”Yellowstone“ and ”Lioness.”
“When you have Neal McDonough walking onto [the] set, who’s been a part of hundreds of movies and TV series, everybody stands up a little straighter and works a little harder,” Smallbone said.
“When Dawn Olivieri shows up, the art elevates and the crew elevates, and the cast around her elevates to match her level of performance, and that’s really, really fun to watch.”
The “Homestead” feature film has led to a reality show spinoff called “Homestead: Family Survival,” which Smallbone also directs.
Like the reality show, the feature is based on a series of post-apocalyptic novels called “Black Autumn,” cowritten by Jason Ross and Jeff Kirkham.
“We have a few more episodes of season one we have yet to capture, and then the hope is to roll straight into season two of the series and, if that’s the case, then that will be the next year of my life,” Smallbone added.
