Banana Island Films
Team WITNESS UNDERGROUND
Scott Homan - Writer, Producer, DP, Director
Witness Underground is his first serious documentary.
Leave a review on Amazon & Rotten Tomatoes.
Cindy Elvendahl - HighTV vocalist, song writer
Cindy's story is the core emotional arc of the film. As a songwriter and lead vocalist for the bands Kloey and HighTV, she got an early start with other Nuclear Gopher artists. She has been deeply embedded in the Minneapolis music scene since she was a teenager. Cindy’s perspective and traumatic experiences as an indigenous woman in this religion are unfortunately, all too common for Jehovah’s Witness women.
Eric Elvendahl - HighTV guitarist, backing vocals
Eric is Cindy’s husband and a remarkably talented musician & composer. Together they just launched a new album. Eric has been in numerous bands in and outside of the religion and has produced many others as well. Visually and sonically, he’s always been at the heart of the music scene and ahead of the curve. Today, he scores films. Get the soundtrack featuring his music here.
Chad Rhiger - HighTV Bassist, Ghost Army Vocalist, Songwriter
Chad is a powerful social foundation: a natural skeptic, philosopher, comedian, and father to a wonderful child. He joined Eric and Cindy as the bassist to create HighTV, the featured band in Witness Underground. Together, they found a healthy way to bridge the gap between their lives as Witnesses and their new life in the greater world through music. He later fronted his own band, Ghost Army, and continues to write music. Get the soundtrack featuring his music here.
James D. Zimmerman - Author & Filmmaker
James is the author of Deliverance At Hand! Redemption of a Devout Jehovah's Witness and a skilled filmmaker. During production, he offered up his entire archive of short films and collaborative video projects spanning over 15 years that helped make Witness Underground a true documentary. It was a precious gift to get access to all of his past work and also have him tell such a detailed intertwined exit story with Ryan Sutter. Today, he does technical writing and is raising three kids.
Click on GET MERCH to buy his book.
Ryan Sutter - Technologist, Artist, Music Studio Co-Founder
Ryan Sutter is a Minneapolis based artist and the key subject of Witness Underground.
He is the world builder and co-founder of the recording studio called Nuclear Gopher, central to the story of Witness Underground, which just relaunched with four new albums. As the resident Nuclear Gopher technologist, he established the label on the internet in 1994 and at nucleargopher.com in 1996, where it remained until 2004. It's back!
Later, he independently recorded and released multiple solo albums and now has a new ablum out called Capistrano.
Ryan has been contributing to humanity since the early internet through music, software, and open-source philosophy. His vast archive of creative commons media was so compelling that this film simply needed to be made. Open source and creative commons images, songs, and artwork that he made available then, make up a large portion of what made it into the final cut of Witness Underground.
Buy the soundtrack to hear a curated collection of some of the best of Nuclear Gopher artists including a solid dose of Ryan's most compelling tracks.
