Guest Post: Interview with Relghim Film Makers

Enjoy what Hannah Bergeron, from the Relghim team, has to say about this exciting upcoming movie!

I would like to share with you a little bit of the film Relghim (Rel-Hime), which is currently in the process of being made.

Relghim, an action war drama that has a heart-punching story. With a feud between the Oghean and Haan (hane) clans, a family must fight against the odds for peace and restoration. With forgiveness being the message of the film, you will see how Dale, an Oghean, and the Wense family work together for good.  With much hurt and pain in their hearts, they strive to work harder than anyone to meet their goal.

I am the Behind the Scenes Director for this film; basically, my job is to film and photograph anything that is behind the scenes and create quality content, to show you what it is like to be on set! What is Relghim to me? Relghim is that eye-opening, heart-changing experience I feel everyone should see.  The message in this film speaks volumes, and really makes you question what you might have in your own personal heart that may need some tweaking.  Since being on set, working behind the scenes, and watching this whole thing develop and come to life, I have been more encouraged than I have been in a long time. I am genuinely very thankful for our Director, Grae Maer, and Producer, Lawrence Miller, for helping all of us cast and crew members to see the bigger picture in life!

I had interviewed both our Director and Producer and asked them some questions on why this film is so important to them, etc. One of the questions I had asked is, Why did you choose the name Relghim? The director's response was: “The name ‘RELGHIM' was created by my brother, Lawrence Miller [Producer of RELGHIM], and I.  Originally, we wanted to have a name that came from the meaning of restoration and forgiveness. We had called our film ‘The Forgiveness Project' at first. One night, my brother [Lawrence Miller] and I were working late, and I came into his office and I said, ‘You know, I think we should try to find another name for our film, instead of “The Forgiveness Project."' And after a lot of thought, we decided to use something from the language that is partly spoken in the film. (The language is called Tadar, which is made up for the film.) And that's how we came up with the name!"

I had also asked what had inspired them to make this film; here are their responses:

Grae: “What inspired me to make this film, I would say is about three-fold. The first, and biggest, inspiration I had for this film is that I feel very deeply for a community sense.  I also feel very deeply for culture. I have had so much happen in my own life that I wanted to share something personal with people.  I wanted them to not have to experience what I have experienced. The biggest inspiration or reason why I wanted to write a film was to touch some real topics on real things, things that we face every day. And to give people an opportunity to kind of, maybe, ask some questions."

Lawrence: “Film making has always been a passion of mine. I was originally inspired by my older sister actually, who dove into the world of film making. There is something about taking an emotion, a thought, a story, and putting it onto the big screen and to watch it. I work in production, and seeing all of the hard hours come to pass, just to see the final result of all of our work, is always something that made me stand in awe of the power of God.  To bring something together and the team effort that brought it is there.  Originally when I was looking to produce a film, I started with something short. I began talking with my brother and we somehow ended up like, ‘Yes, let's actually do a feature.' And from there I think the rest is history."

Another question: Is there something in the story you can relate to?

Lawrence: “Yes. Bitterness is a rotten thing, and as the scripture says, ‘Bitterness rots the bones.' [Pro. 14:30]  For a long time, actually, many years, I was very bitter towards someone. Little did I
know how it was coming into my life and affecting me so negatively. I have often seen the ‘tentacles,' you can say, of it.  This message that we're bringing is the power of unforgiveness.  I can relate to the story in that way, because I know the power of unforgiveness. I know that it reaches deep into our lives, and into the lives of our friends, family, culture, and nation if left unchecked.  I also know the power of restoration. I know that it is a very good thing, and I just want to let the world know about these two things. Yes, we have great unforgiveness, we can be very bitter towards someone. But! We can be restored in our relationship towards them, we can forgive them and move on.  Everything won't be the same as it was, but we have an understanding, and a great one at that. We can use those life lessons to improve upon our past situations. So yeah, the one thing I can relate to mightily in this film is the power of unforgiveness. Don't let it sit and rot. Don't be bitter. It rots the bones, and restoration is a beautiful thing."

So with that said, please join us by bringing this film to life! How can you help? There are two very important jobs.

The first: you can donate to our fundraising Kickstarter page and get some fun and exciting pledge items, like an original Oghean or Haan sash, custom mug, and more!

Secondly, you can spread the word by emailing your family and friends, or you can share our social media links on your own!

We are so excited to make a good quality film that teaches family unity, forgiveness and faith. Come join us and spread the word!

 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Relghimthemovie/ [1]

Twitter: https://twitter.com/relghimthemovie [2]

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/relghimthemovie/ [3]

Website: https://www.relghimthemovie.com [4]

Contact: relghimthemovie@gmail.com

We have YouTube videos you can watch!

Our Behind the Scenes Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEGxiOawVcQ [5]

Our Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCwizmeMLf0vMW5rJbOXJnw [6]

Reflections in a Glass Slipper

(Before I go into my main blog post, I wanted to give my update on Camp NaNoWriMo, for all those interested: it’s going well so far. I’m ahead of the game, in fact!

And also! I hope you had an incredibly blessed Passover/Unleavened Bread/First Fruits/Resurrection Day! I hope that our Lord and Savior used them to bring you closer to Him.)

Last week, I got to see the new Disney live-action Cinderella with a lovely group of friends. We all enjoyed it; very few things in it bothered me in comparison to most mainstream films. In every aspect it was a beautiful movie. Probably the most visually beautiful movie I’ve ever seen. The sets were utterly idyllic … Cinderella’s mansion, stone and castle-like but cozy and homey, decorated in Georgian-Victorian style (I stored ideas away for my dream house); the gardens and farm, not too pristine but lovely all the same; the surrounding woods and meadows; the classical capital city on the edge of the sea. The actors were gorgeously arrayed in costumes that revealed their character. The actors powerfully portrayed those personalities, too.

The tone of the movie was fairytale yet not too over-the-top to feel quasi historical—it was a mixture of historical eras, though, to make sure you never forgot it was a fairy tale, so when the fairy godmother showed up—the only magical person in the film—you didn’t feel she was out of place. (Side issue, but I just read in a how-to-write book that if, in a work of fiction, you’re going to introduce something typically unbelievable, you’d best hint at it very early on so that readers feel it’s justifiable and belongs in the story when it enters in full. The writer of Cinderella did this perfectly by having Cinderella’s mother speak about magic and the fairy godmother at the beginning so we knew what to expect later on.) As you can tell from that parenthetical note, I noticed tons of things the moviemakers did well, and if you see it/have seen it, you’ll notice them, too, so I don’t need to detail all of them (a daunting task!).

To continue about a few other things that struck me, however: I appreciated the message. “Have courage and be kind” is not something you often hear in pop culture nowadays. I read an article about Cinderella’s brand of power and how it contrasts with the female warriors that are all the rage right now. The director, Kenneth Branagh, said he wanted this movie to show kindness can be a super power (“Behind the Goodness in Disney’s New Cinderella”). That message is something young girls actually benefit from taking to heart rather than violence and attitude. All girls find themselves in positions where they have to choose to be kind and good, and Cinderella shows the importance of that choice. (Albeit a little romanticized, but still … kindness and goodness does pay off!)

Before I saw this movie, I watched the animated Cinderella from 1950. Cinderella is probably my favorite fairy tale and Disney princess (she and Mulan are both up there), but I had forgotten how much the animated version focused on the animals (mice, cat, etc.) and how little on the prince. Which was fine with me; I loved the storyline of the mice and was left with little desire to know more about Prince Charming, who actually seemed rather selfish to me. I loved how the new version paid tribute to the animated version (with such things as reminiscent costumes and a gluttonous mouse called Gus-Gus) but fleshed out the human portion of the story. It was like Cinderella grown up.

I didn’t really set out to write a full review, but just wanted to share some of the many thoughts sparked by this lovely film. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!