who this Jesus Christ person was. So through a piece of art, and art alone, he delved into Christianity and connected with it. He had no input from any other sources but for having seen a painting. That gives me incentive that, indeed, you can open doors of hope for people through art.
NM: Your family is very much involved in your films. Your son Elijah plays Wyatt in MLIAM, Abraham acted in it and wrote and performed the music, and your wife worked behind the scenes. How does working with family inform your choices?
DW: A guy told me you shouldn’t use language you wouldn’t speak in front of your mom, and I consider that when I decide on a movie project. Not that I shy away from hard subjects, because a lot of junk happens to families. MLIAM touches on a few things, Ragman does too. And it allows me to use my family in the movies. They help out and act in some of them, and I think they have fun.
NM: I know that in MLIAM, even though it’s a relatively short segment, it touches pretty strongly on child abuse. I don’t think it specifies that the father is sexually abusing the child, but it’s suggested pretty strongly. And he certainly physically abuses the kids.
DW: We don’t say it per se, but yes, it’s implied. That’s what I was trying to do. But I like to leave that open ended. I think there are viewers who will connect more if you’re not specific. If you’re specific, you may have someone saying “Well, that never happened to me.” But if you show somebody slamming a door, then your mind takes over and you think, “Well, whatever is going on in there may have happened to me before.” It was also an easier way for me to shoot that scene from Wyatt’s perspective, so there are various reasons I shot it that way. There are a couple of statements where she (Lyndsy) tells Wyatt that he (the father) has done that before, and she says he’s a monster to Reverend Keys.