6/4/25 - 2097: Turning Truth into a Production

Jim: You've tuned into iWork4Him, the Voice of Collaboration in the Faith and Work Movement.

Martha: We are your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg, and our mission is to inspire every workplace believer to recognize their workplace as their ministry place where they work with God every day. What can that look like in your workplace? Let's find out right now.

Jim: When you were growing up, did you think that being a movie producer was all glamor? Then as we've grown up, we've seen the movie producing is a dog eat dog world, and the only movie producers that stand a chance to have to live in Hollywood would be those ones not wearing Milkbone underwear.

Oh, that was a - I didn't even write that, but that's a whole Cheers reference there. If you're gonna produce movies, you think the only place to do that is in Hollywood. And if you're gonna do that, you have to presumably check your Christian faith and values at the door. That's not the way it's supposed to be.

Drew Martin is different. He's become a producer without all those preconceived notions. Not in Hollywood, but in Canada, eh? Drew's heart and passion for Jesus-centered Truth to be revealed through riveting video is why Drew Martin is here today. Executive producer and so much more. Drew Martin, welcome to iWork for him.

Drew Martin: Thanks. It's awesome to be here, brother. Sister. Thanks for having me.

Jim: We are gonna cover your whole movie producing story, but before we get into that, we want to hear your Jesus story.

Drew Martin: Yeah, that's my best story. My mom prayed for me like from before I was born that I'd know Jesus. And so as young as I can remember, I remember loving Jesus. I remember even one time my brother, I have a little brother. He is one, one year older than me or one year younger than me. And he works in the movie industry too, actually, in Toronto. But he decided he wanted to get married to the little girl across the lane.

So I thought, no problem buddy. I'll do the ceremony. I was like, I think he was six, I was seven. So I had to ran into the house. Mom, I need a Bible. I need a Bible. And so not that I could read or anything, but it was needed, part of the deal. So in any event, I went out there and no bride, but the kids were there and I was like, Byron, where's Suzy? Where's Suzy?

He goes, I dunno. And he starts crying. I was like, it's okay, buddy. It's okay. We'll find her. And I'm like, mom, what's going on? And she goes maybe Susie doesn't wanna get married yet. And I was like, what? How is that possible? And she goes, you gotta let it go. And so anyway, so I never did end up marrying anybody, in all my life. But I knew the Lord.

And I remember I was going to a Baptist church and I remember some guy was coming in and preaching and he was doing an altar call and I was like, so should I do this, Lord? And he goes, if you like to. I already knew. And yeah. And then I was going to non-denominational, what you could call like a really hopping, praise and worship and great teaching, preaching church. And they talked about the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

And I was like, if it's from you, God, I want it. So I got baptized in the Holy Spirit, spoke in tongues. I'd already been baptized in water in the Baptist church of course. And so I received all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And so I love the Lord God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Martha: Amen. You've had such a spiritual journey in your life. I'm curious how you decided to get into film production for your career.

Drew Martin: From a young age I was, I had a couple of people in my life that were very influential. One was my music teacher in elementary school and she was actually had gotten involved with the local community talent show.

And she said, okay, so what are you kids gonna do? You wanna sing, you want to, what do you wanna do? And so she had heard me sing in the class or whatever, and she said, I think you should be in this. And I said, oh, okay. And so the first year I did, Let's Go Fly a Kite. And then the next year I think I did what was it?

Can't remember now. In any event, then my friend and I one year did something where I was the ventriloquist and he was the dummy that sat on my knee. That was really good. Went to the city finals.

Jim: Awesome. There you go. How big was the city?

Drew Martin: Edmonton was like, like maybe 300,000 at that time.

Jim: Oh, it was pretty sugnificant. So we're talking Edmonton, Alberta, Canada?

Drew Martin: Yeah. And so then, you know from there I got involved. One of my other teachers, he decided, like I was going to the school, I'd been going to the elementary, junior high school, became the first academic junior high school.

So they weren't doing any option classes, right? Woodworking or whatever, mechanics or that kind of thing. And certainly not drama, but my teacher, who was my English teacher, who was also my art teacher, really super talented guy, George Miller was his name, a little Irishman, he's very funny, but very passionate.

And so he secretly taught us drama. So that's where I had my first exposure to drama. And then yeah, just then being in school plays and I went on to be involved at a high school level and was started acting there. And then I had a mobile disco company when disco was cool. I dunno if it's cool anymore.

Jim: It might, it's on the way back it. I've been seeing videos on YouTube, Kool and the Gang videos, but kids that are 20 doing the dancing. So I think discos coming back.

Maybe not but there's so many paths that can be taken in film and in video, and it seems you've taken almost all of them, which has been your favorite? TV, news, movies - what's been your favorite?

Drew Martin: Yeah, I went to a radio and television arts - a place came called Nate here, and I graduated with honors. And before I was done, I really made a determination that I was gonna, I was going to make friends with my teacher who was a young guy who was doing work in Vancouver.

And the first thing I did was, I got involved with a music video with Tragically Hip. I don't know, that was the first video they ever did.

Jim: It may not have made it south of the border.

Drew Martin: Yeah. I don't know. Tragically Hip, I think they did. Maybe you're just dating yourself. (laughter) outta the flow of the, the music scene.

But in any event, so then I got offered, they had a placement program in the school. And before I was finished, my Christian writing teacher said to me, Drew, if you're looking for a placement, I know CTV, which was one of the national networks, they're looking for someone to, to be a writer, producer in the commercial department.

So you should go over there. And I said, oh, okay. And she gave me the woman's phone number. I called, I went in, got the job. So I was getting full salary as a writer, producer making commercials, which was so much fun. And 'cause I was a writer, I loved writing. And so that was really cool.

Jim: But the question was, what was your favorite? 'Cause you've done so much. Your resume has it all. You've done tv, you've done news, you've done commercials, you've done movies. Which is your favorite?

Drew Martin: I think what I'm doing now is, it was always my favorite. At the time I felt so blessed and I loved doing what I was doing and I learned lots and I was so blessed to have wonderful people I worked with. But now, one of the things I've learned is that the Lord, where I would do things by my own strength or my own power, now really, I follow the Lord. And he goes, I want to do this.

And so I'm going, okay. 'cause the Bible says like, when he gives you a word, he will watch over it to perform it. It's not about my performance or my effort 'cause he doesn't want my flesh involved. He just, he wants to be glorified in the earth and so he should be. And so now I just go, okay God, what do you want to do?

And he goes, I wanna do this film about abortion called Unthinkable. And I was like, okay, God. And so did that film and I watched that film. I was a writer, director, producer, executive producer. And I wept when I saw that film. That he did. And I was like, God, this is so good. 'cause I just felt the anointing of the Holy Spirit all over it because he was gonna speak the truth in love over the nations as it related to abortion.

He needed to do that, not me. What did I have to say that was life changing? Nothing except that he would be on it and he would open the eyes of people's understanding.

Jim: You were stewarding that story though, Drew, and that's what's so powerful.

Martha: So I love that you're just walking us a little bit through the scene that God has used many different experiences in your life, many different paths in order to get you to where you are today with the experiences that you have and allowing him to direct your path.

And I think there's a lot of people that different paths in their lives can, take their career in lots of different ways, but no matter what path we take, it is critical that as Christ followers, we understand how to incorporate our faith in our work. And one way that can be challenging or encouraging for us in this area is to be a part of the US Christian Chamber of Commerce. You can join other like-minded believers to connect through powerful events, relationships, and resources. All of that is there for you when you join the US Christian Chamber of commerce at uschristianchamber.com.

Jim: And they even let people in from Canada, eh? (laughter) yeah. Seriously. Talk about a great avenue to let people know what's going on!

You've got some great movies. You know what Drew, what I think is interesting is that Martha and I watch a lot of streaming video whenever we've got time. They're always old series. And the series we've loved the most have all been produced in Canada because they tend to be, they tend to be cleaner - less sex, less vulgarity. Just, it's unbelievable.

I don't know what it is about your film industry up there. I know it's, you're even, you're deeper than that. But, I love that in Canada, not only the background's also prettier, but the content needs to be good. But over the last 10 years, Drew, you and your sons, I'm guessing they're your sons, they all have the same last name. They're on their website. They look younger than you. I figured they were. Your sons have run motion pictures and you've run a motion pictures production studio called Mighty Motion Pictures. How did Mighty Motion Pictures get started?

Drew Martin: I was working, I had a company called the Idea Factory first. And that was really cool because I was working at West Edmonton Mall as a construction worker and part of my job was to walk the mall, to do security. And I would praise the Lord all night long. And it was a big cavernous thing, so it was pretty fun.

And then I would have to clean the place where the trailers, where the construction workers worked. And I'd be singing and I was thinking about how earlier in the day my friends were talking about they love video games. And I was like, God, why is it that, that we can't get the first video game, as Christians? Like why don't, why are we always following the world?

And I was in the bathroom at the time, cleaning the bathroom, and I was musing in this, and I was talking to Jesus, and the spirit of God so entered the room that I fell to my knees and I looked down and there were Jesus' feet. And he said, then you'll want to come to Heaven because heaven is an idea factory. And so that's why I named my first company the Idea Factory. And so then I ended up leaving the Idea Factory to a friend of mine that I've known since 0 7 and we still work together today. But that's when I started Mighty Motion Pictures.

And really, my brother who works in Toronto is a very successful producer, production manager, mostly in feature length films and, 'cause there's lots of production in Toronto, and my son Joses, who's my eldest son, went to school in Calgary to take film production under, they're all Christians.

And so Joses came to work with me and he did a film called Hush about the untold health risks of abortion, which won a number of international awards. And then he we also did a series together called The Awakers about indigenous people who have a disability but are involved in the arts, and many of them are Christians.

And then Joses went to work with his brother Byron, who has a master's of musical theater and they're running something called the Grindstone Theater here. And it started out with improvised comedy. But improvising a musical is what they do every Friday night. And yeah.

Jim: That, I'd like to see, we're gonna come visit you and see that some Friday night.

Drew Martin: Totally got to, I'll get you free seats. And yeah, so what was cool about that is that all my kids, my daughter has a master's of photography at a Ryerson and her husband is a virtuoso piano player. And so everybody's an artist. And the other day my boys said something really cool to me.

They said, dad, we want to thank you for two things. I wanna thank you for teaching us how to dream. And the other thing you taught us is how to work incredibly hard, because they're so frustrated currently with people that are working in their organization that are really not wanting to work. They don't have a passion and they don't have a determination and they expect to be paid exceptionally well.

Then they just walk away, and they don't stay there for extra hours 'cause they love doing what they're able to do. And so it's definitely a different culture.

Martha: It is. But I love the first thing that you just said that you know about encouraging them to dream big and to do big things. And you just touched a little bit on some of the projects that you've been working on and they're pretty cutting edge. And I'm curious when you are presenting the truth of some pretty hard things, how are those received by the watchers? The audience?

Drew Martin: Exceptionally well because most of the, we understand who our audience is for pro-life films, which is pro-life groups and churches and primarily, and unfortunately in Canada, when we try to get a theatrical license for those films, they're very liberal and so they don't want those kinds of films to go out to a general audience. And same thing in Canada and the United States, it's very difficult.

But especially when these are documentaries too. Although I've worked in every genre, including live action and drama as well as concerts and children's, every how to programming. And like tons of networks in the United States and Canada. So I found that a lot of what we're doing goes of course Christian stations in Canada and the United States are open to what we're presenting. But we've also formed Mighty Distributors so that we can distribute.

Jim: Lemme interrupt you 'cause I really want - so the truth, when somebody you wouldn't expect to hear this movie or see this movie gets to see it and they're exposed to the truth, how do they receive it? Because there are people that get exposed to your work like your latest movies, including fathers, which is coming up.

We're gonna talk about that in a minute. How do they receive it when they hear the truth that they have been lied to about all their lives?

Drew Martin: I've been super blessed by people, letters and people who are hostsing screenings and they're just, wow. This was super powerful. And the film uncovers the evils of abortion, particularly as it relates to Planned Parenthood. But in the end, it's a call to hope because it's the notion, it's a call to love radically, of the mercy and grace of God, because it's only the love of God that changes things.

It's the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. And so that's really, in looking at the horrors of that and the decisions that people are making, it's actually the love of God. And so they're like, wow, this is so powerful. This is so amazing. And so then they wanna see fathers and then, or I'm working on another project about euthanasia. 'Cause Canada is the world leader in euthanasia, which is insane.

And of course there's this understanding that we're not fighting against flesh and blood, we're fighting against principalities, a spirit of death. And then the other thing we're fighting against is actually the, that confusion, gender confusion, but also the tearing apart of family values, of Christian values, particularly as it relates to men and women and the divorce rate, which is the same in the church as it is outside the church. And actually I really wanna do a documentary called Why Divorce.

Jim: I wanna be involved in it. And I've got a title for you: Get the Hell Outta Your Marriage. Yeah, I'll let you, we I'll license that to you. I already have the website.

Alright. Okay. So the opposition, you've talked about some of the opposition from film industries and that kind of thing, that stuff's expected. They don't want the truth to come out. They work so hard to lie to the entire world about abortion. Have all your films been abortion centered?

Drew Martin: No. No. We did films about all kinds of different subjects really. And as I said, I've done work with children and that kind of thing. Sewing, cooking, whatever, all kinds of stuff. Not necessarily Christian.

Jim: But the cutting edge ones that you're doing, so when you experience opposition, how are you dealing with it? What are you doing with that opposition? Is it an encourager? Is that like a light, your rocket engines kind of thing? Or does it get you depressed? How do you deal with the, with that opposition?

Drew Martin: The opposition isn't with me personally, in terms of what I do. It's really as it relates to the subjects. The subjects that we're dealing with, right? And so even for us, like we're working on another film with a friend of mine called Porn Free, which not only talks about pornography, but it is the root of also prostitution and then even child trafficking, right? Same spirit, right? It's being released and then flows down.

And so those kind of shows, it's not just they come from a Christian foundation perspective, but what's interesting is that people now, when they see those things happening, they feel helpless. That's a great time to come in with what God's perspective is like. Why does it need to be different and how can it be different?

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Drew, you're working on some big projects right now and you're looking for some partners in those projects. Tell us about the project you're working on right now. Tell us about this Father project and what it's all about.

Drew Martin: Yeah, it's really a trumpet call. It's a Joel 2 trumpet call for men to come to the battle. Men have such an important and obvious role in making children, but they have reneged on and departed from their responsibilities as dads. And as those who basically have sex with women and then, but not taking the responsibility of loving women there. And so they walk away from their responsibility as it relates to one, those women, but those children. And not only that, not only do they walk away, oftentimes they walk women into abortion clinics.

The film Fathers is really the call from the Lord to, for men to be men. And as it relates to making and protecting children. And standing up as it relates to obviously abortion and the killing of children.

Jim: And that's one of those subjects when we were in Tampa Bay, and actually one of the local pregnancy centers had recognized this. And then we're ministering to men, not just the women, but when it's one of those subjects that, when you look at the national conversation is if you don't have a uterus, don't bother commenting. You're outta the conversation. You are looking for people to join you in this project to get it out there.

What does that look like? Is that money you're looking for? You need actors? You need documentary? What are you looking for this project?

Drew Martin: Typically any one of our projects, they're, independently invested upon. So we sell shares in our in the project to investors at $50,000 each, and that actually gives us the money that it takes to do the film and also something of the distribution as well, which is so important. Yeah. And what's awesome is, particularly in this case, where there's men have the opportunity now to put - where man's treasure is his hard is also.

And so to be able to put finances into this. But what's really cool is that God, it's not just, it's not just a gift. It's an opportunity to be engaged, involved in prayer and from the foundation of who they are as men and women who work and as a family come together and put money into it.

But there's also like the, because we have an absolute wonderful distribution plan with an audience that's waiting out there for this film, then they'll, there's an opportunity for them to make money and actually even put money into other projects like this. Whether it's with Mighty Motion pictures or the kingdom. Nevertheless it's an incredible way to make some kingdom finances and get a word of life out there. Yeah, so they can just go to my website, www mighty motion pictures.com. But my email is dMartin@mightymotionpictures.com.

Martha: Awesome. And I'll put that in the show notes for people so that they have that accessible to them. So they don't have to remember it right now as they're listening. But listeners, you heard that you can, email and ask more questions to get involved with Drew.

Jim: Drew, how do, if somebody wants to just stream your movies, they wanna watch 'em, is there a place where they can go and pay X amount of dollars to just watch a movie in their living room?

Drew Martin: Part of what we started setting up with Mighty Distributors is where people can do that. But now it's designed actually for screenings. So if they wanted to screen, to host it in their church, then we'd set that up. But oftentimes when I do a show, I pre-sell the concept to a broadcast or broadcasters. It's there that they can watch what we're doing.

Jim: We encourage you all to get out to Mighty Motion pictures.com. Check out the work that Drew's been doing. Drew, we love hearing your story. Love hearing the excitement of a Christ follower producing films that are presenting truth.

It's kinda like one of those Al Gore movies. It's an inconvenient truth, isn't it? An Inconvenient Truth, like Al Gore, little Al Gore moment right there. Drew, thanks so much for bringing your story. We love to hear your excitement driven by the Holy Spirit as you produce these films.

Pray super big success on this Father film that's coming out, that you can get the money you need to get it produced. And I love - one day we need to come on location there to Canada, eh, and capture some of those faith stories up there in your part of the woods. But Drew Martin, thanks so much for being on iWork4Him today.

Drew Martin: Thanks to you guys. Love you. Bless you.

Jim: You've been listening to iWork4Him with your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers. Our workplace, it's our mission field, but ultimately iWork4Him.