{"id":8251,"date":"2019-11-25T05:45:41","date_gmt":"2019-11-25T10:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=8251"},"modified":"2019-11-25T05:59:04","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T10:59:04","slug":"waves-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2019\/11\/waves-review.html","title":{"rendered":"Director Trey Edward Shults on making &#8220;Waves&#8221; + St. Patrick &#038; Bill Maher"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s the latest dispatch from the crossroads of faith and media:<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"WAVES Movie Featurette\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Oyxju0w0MBE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Riding <em>Waves <\/em>of praise.<\/strong> Set against the vibrant landscape of South Florida, <em>Waves<\/em> traces the epic emotional journey of a suburban African-American family confronted with a shocking event that threatens to tear the family apart. The movie which open wide this Thanksgiving weekend has been receiving extremely strong reviews, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2019\/11\/powerful-honest-family-drama-waves-peers-beneath-lifes-surface.html\">including from yours truly<\/a>. <strong><em>Waves<\/em> <\/strong>stars Sterling K. Brown, Kelvin Harrison Jr.,\u00a0Taylor Russell,\u00a0Ren\u00e9e Elise Goldsberry,\u00a0Alexa Demie and\u00a0Lucas Hedges. It is written and directed by Trey Edward Shults.<\/p>\n<p>I had the opportunity to speak with writer-director Trey Edward Shults whose previous two films (the 2015 drama\u00a0<i><a title=\"Krisha\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Krisha\">Krisha<\/a><\/i> (2015) and the 2017 psychological thriller <i><a title=\"It Comes at Night\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/It_Comes_at_Night\">It Comes at Night<\/a><\/i>) were also well received.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: What compelled you &#8211; a young white guy from Texas &#8211; to write a story about an upper middle class African-American family in Florida? What did you draw on?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Trey Edward Shults:<\/strong> I formed a relationship with Kelvin making my last movie (<em>It Comes at Night<\/em>). I tailored a role for him. It was beautiful and collaborative working experience. Kelvin got script eight months before shooting and helped me hone realistic dialogue. I wanted to be authentic to the black experience but a lot of the themes are universal. It was an incredibly beautiful and collaborative experience with the entire cast. It gave me an opportunity to look outside myself &#8211; though a lot of the things these characters are going though (internally) are\u00a0 universal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: There&#8217;s a scene early on in the film where the family is in church and the minister delivers a sermon about the apostle Paul&#8217;s famous reflection on love (&#8220;<em>Love is patient. Love is kind&#8230;<\/em>&#8220;) that sets up the theme for what comes afterward. He talked about how we live in a world where people with different perspectives than are own are often presented as villains but said there are few real villains in life &#8211; that, in reality, we all need to learn to love each other. Can you tell me about that?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"role ellipsis\" title=\"Alexis\" data-v-168d0cba=\"\"><strong>TES:<\/strong> Yes. That was a real minister. The Love passage (from Paul) was written into script but ee went of riffing &#8211; but what he said was in line with theme of the story. I wanted to create a film about empathy, about how we need to understand each other and how a tragedy can happen. I hope (this movie) feels like an empathetic portrait of real human beings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"role ellipsis\" title=\"Alexis\" data-v-168d0cba=\"\">My parents are therapists.\u00a0 That helped shape the person I&#8217;ve become and how I see things. These movies (I make) are in a way act of therapy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"role ellipsis\" title=\"Alexis\" data-v-168d0cba=\"\"><strong>JWK:<\/strong> What is this movie helping you to work out?<\/p>\n<p class=\"role ellipsis\" title=\"Alexis\" data-v-168d0cba=\"\"><strong>TES:<\/strong> It&#8217;s about Communication, or rather it&#8217;s a c cautionary tale about lack of communication and how we should all try to be open. Sterling K. Brown (plays) a good dad who lives too hard.\u00a0 He makes mistakes with his son. How he tries to correct those mistakes with his daughter is a beautiful arc. He&#8217;s just a human being.<\/p>\n<p class=\"role ellipsis\" title=\"Alexis\" data-v-168d0cba=\"\"><strong>JWK:<\/strong> Can the lessons of this family be applied to politics and our nation?<\/p>\n<p class=\"role ellipsis\" title=\"Alexis\" data-v-168d0cba=\"\"><strong>TES: <\/strong>Yes! We need to be less judgmental. We live in a very polarizing, judgmental time. I believe that&#8217;s the spirit of this movie &#8211; to step away from that.\u00a0 \u00a0 Very polarizing judging time. I believe that&#8217;s the spirit of the movie &#8211; to step away from that.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=IpBZN9-SfzQ&#038;feature=youtu.be<\/p>\n<p><strong>Coming Attraction.<\/strong> The biopic <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iampatrick.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" shape=\"rect\">I Am Patrick: The Patron Saint of Ireland<\/a><\/em> about the remarkable life of St. Patrick is set for a two-night-only release (Tuesday, March 17 and Wednesday, March 18) just in time for the holiday in his honor. From CBN Documentaries and Director Jarrod Anderson, the feature-length docudrama peels back centuries of legend and myth to tell the story of Saint Patrick using historical re-enactments, expert interviews and Patrick\u2019s own writings to trace his journey to sainthood.<br clear=\"none\" \/><strong>Finally, Thanksgiving words of wisdom from Bill Maher:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"New Rule: Let It Go | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dW6C1UaQKhI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em><span class=\"st\">Encourage one another and build each other up &#8211; <\/span><\/em><span class=\"st\">1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s the latest dispatch from the crossroads of faith and media: Riding Waves of praise. Set against the vibrant landscape of South Florida, Waves traces the epic emotional journey of a suburban African-American family confronted with a shocking event that threatens to tear the family apart. The movie which open wide this Thanksgiving weekend has&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9,13,1085,14,17,24,26,31,1],"tags":[9535,59,9179,9538,9537,9532,9536,9534,9531,9533,9529,9539],"class_list":["post-8251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-church","category-christianity","category-family-matters","category-forgiveness","category-gratitude","category-interfaith-dialogue","category-movies","category-politics","category-television","category-uncategorized","tag-alexa-demie","tag-bill-maher","tag-cbn-documentaries","tag-i-am-patrick-the-patron-saint-of-ireland","tag-jarrod-anderson","tag-kelvin-harrison-jr","tag-lucas-hedges","tag-renee-elise-goldsberry","tag-sterling-k-brown","tag-taylor-russell","tag-trey-edward-shults","tag-waves"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Director Trey Edward Shults on making &quot;Waves&quot; + St. Patrick &amp; Bill Maher<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2019\/11\/waves-review.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Director Trey Edward Shults on making &quot;Waves&quot; + St. Patrick &amp; Bill Maher\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here&#8217;s the latest dispatch from the crossroads of faith and media: Riding Waves of praise. Set against the vibrant landscape of South Florida, Waves traces the epic emotional journey of a suburban African-American family confronted with a shocking event that threatens to tear the family apart. The movie which open wide this Thanksgiving weekend has&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2019\/11\/waves-review.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-25T10:45:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-11-25T10:59:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. 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Kennedy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2019\/11\/waves-review.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2019\/11\/waves-review.html","name":"Director Trey Edward Shults on making \"Waves\" + St. Patrick & Bill Maher","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-11-25T10:45:41+00:00","dateModified":"2019-11-25T10:59:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2019\/11\/waves-review.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2019\/11\/waves-review.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2019\/11\/waves-review.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Director Trey Edward Shults on making &#8220;Waves&#8221; + St. Patrick &#038; Bill Maher"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/","name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - John W. Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8251"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8270,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8251\/revisions\/8270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}