We are excited to announce that Paulo Simoes, owner of Brios Media Group and Executive Producer on Secrets in the Fall, recently directed a faith-based feature film with Living Word Films out of Raleigh, NC. The project, entitled Another Chance, is a story of a sleazy small town politician who has his world turned upside down when two teenagers struggling to overcome their own mistakes bring him face to face with his sordid past.
Simoes is a veteran in the film industry having work for the Brazil division of Sony Entertainment for over twenty years. During that time, he dealt primarily with distribution and marketing of big-budget films the likes of which have made Sony one of the most renowned brands in the world. After becoming more involved with Secrets in the Fall, his first independent faith-based film, Simoes was approached by his pastor and Living Word Films to pursue the ambitious goal of developing a dramatic Christmas film with a very small budget of $5,000 and the holidays creeping up fast. He says, “I saw this as a great opportunity to do something for God,” which had been lacking for so long in his previous role at Sony. Now he would be able to take the reigns and turn his attention more to the development of the story and carry out his creative ideas. “I was able to put myself to the test,” said Simoes.
Minimal budgets, narrow time frames and lack of personnel all posed interesting challenges for Simoes and his crew. “When you have these kind of constraints, everyone has to wear many hats to get the job done,” said Simoes. He even joked that while coming back from Orlando, he purchased a copy of Directing for Dummies and had an unfamiliar women from the plane wish him luck on the film. Luck is hard to come by in the film industry but you take all you can get!One of the things that we appreciate about the film is that, like the Secrets films, it puts a strong emphasis on empowering youth. Their courageous actions inspire change in characters that are struggling with their walk in faith. Self-esteem is something that is lacking in today’s youth, and it is very important to be able to deliver a message that connects with them and makes them realize that they have the power to influence this world in a positive way.
Another thing that drove us to work with Paulo initially was his willingness not to make another “preachy, message-heavy Christian film”. Don’t get me wrong, we have tremendous respect for Christian film companies that create said projects, but we, like Simoes, want our films to be accepted by a secular audience as well to empower common perceptions about the Christian media industry. The films still have strong morals and ideals but we focus more on the true-to-life scenarios and positive interactions rather than highlighting specific Bible verses to make the film “faith-based”. Simoes also stated, “I do not like it when I feel manipulated as a viewer, so we worked to leave it very open to interpretation.” Ultimately, very person who sees your film has different thought processes about scenes, interactions and dialogue, so if you can leave it up to their interpretation then many times they will become more emotionally invested in the characters and their stories.
Another Chance is now available for purchase on DVD and online streaming through the film’s official website (http://anotherchancethemovie.com/) and Simoes hopes to have it available on Amazon soon.
Check out the promotional video on LWF's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o391pmq13Yg#t=38
Leave a review online and follow them on social media to see what they are up to next.