Production Team

I have been actively working on documentaries for about nine years and have had a life long passion working with cameras starting with a Canon AE-1 as a teen. Our photo and film departments in high school were on par with university. I've had incredible access to great equipment and creative freedom since I was 16.

I was raised on the fringes of the Jehovah's Witness culture as my father joined the religion when he was about thirty. I was coerced into baptism as a teenager like most in the religion. I realized I didn't believe what the religion taught and left at 19 but got dragged back into it by my father and for cultural reasons. I gave this faith a proper go for a few years in my early twenties, auxiliary pioneering as a part-time minister (50 hours per month), before and during university and well beyond any dedication my immediate family had made (grandparents, father and four siblings). After photography school I moved to Ecuador to see first hand how the religion operated internationally. That was truly a life changing experience. Witnessing first hand how they operate in developing nations in their terms, "Serving Where Need Is Greater" is what I've come to view as "cultural imperialism". They have a serious superiority complex and do not treat the locals with much respect for example: opting for a white 18 year old from England as elder over a local in his 30s or 40s who'd been knocking on doors in his childhood town for many years. Experiencing that first hand was ultimately what lead me to leave the religion...that of course on top of a long list of nonsense that they teach and use to manipulate people.

After Ecuador I exited the religion permanently. I had made some close friends in the religion, many of whom have since come out as well. Together some of these creative people and I are working on this project to give a voice to silenced former Jehovah's Witnesses.

Minneapolis band with one ExJW member.

Some songs really hit close to home

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Album: Sleepywood Dojo

Eric Elvendahl, Cynthia Ivy Ann Elvendahl, Chad Stanley, Mitchel Vandenheuvel, Suzi Clark, Cassie Spicher, Ross Wilkins, Leah DeLaurentis, Soren Russell Carpenter, Ryan DuVal, Vincent Baumont, Nikolaj Svennivig, Linh Duong, Maria Myat Mo, Lourdes Andrea Villaverde, Matias Hidalgo, Jacques Wolf, Jon Dallas, Sian Walmsley, Kate O'Flaherty, Dung Nguyen, Thien Chip, Nicki Seminara, Chi Yen Le

DScott Clark, Drew Carlson

and many more.

Thanks for all the help!