Music is a crucial part of any film, even a documentary film. “Pope Michael” is no exception, and only being an amateur musician, music was something that I wasn’t able to even start to tackle myself.

Luckily, I have a very talented brother who recently graduated with a BA in music performance and composition from the University of Miami, Florida. He plays piano - more specifically, jazz piano, and he is incredibly talented at what he does. He wanted to participate, and we began a long process of music creation that resulted in the soundtrack that we’ve just released.

I’ll write more in the near future about the music creation process, but what I will say now is that Derek’s music is more than exceeded my goal for the music for the film. Not only are the melodies and arrangements beautiful, they vividly describe the tone of the film in a way that only a great soundtrack can. 

The soundtrack also has a few variations on the intro song of the documentary - “Cool Down There by the River Jordan” by Andy Burd. Andy is a great friend and banjo player who sent me this song on a whim. It perfectly fit the tone I wanted to set in the beginning of the film (and I was looking for a song with lyrics for the intro), and it became a part of the soundtrack.

I hope you enjoy the music as much as I have enjoyed it. As a documentary filmmaker, I was unbelievably lucky to have friends and family that are so talented and were able to create something so incredible.

You can buy the soundtrack on iTunes and Amazon MP3. You can see some more info about it on our soundtrack page.

Also, this soundtrack wouldn’t be possible without the talents of a few people. Brian Tate (bass) and Dag Markhus (drums) lended their talents to the trio recordings. Luke Moellman recorded and engineered the trio sessions and was responsible for getting the great sound of the recordings. Brian Gerstle recorded and mastered Derek for the solo piano sessions. Joe Hinman recorded Andy Burd’s track as a demo that eventually became the actual version of the song on the soundtrack.

I hope you enjoy these tracks as much as I have and have enjoyed having them inspire me during the post production process.

During the film festival submission period, we’re posting some videos put together specifically for the web. This first video are some shots from a trip to the Bawden garden on one of the last shooting days last fall.

For this sequence, Doug was still with me, so he is walking around with me with the boom pole.

At this point in shooting, I had gotten to know Tickie, Phil, and Bawden very well, and I think they were very comfortable with my presence with a camera. From spending so much time there, I can say that this is a look at exactly how they are around each other on day to day basis. I really love Tickie showing us the hot peppers, and Phil’s comment about not hitting your gardener with tomatoes.

This clip also includes a mention of Bawden’s gigantic solar array which I had to cut out of the documentary because it disrupted the flow of the first 20 minutes. It’s a strange feature of the backyard, and according to Bawden, wasn’t cheap.

I hope you enjoy the clip, and there is more on the way.

One of the interesting things about “Pope Michael” is that the documentary seems to have an interest in Europe. In fact, Dutch Catholic television visited Bawden around a decade ago to do a story on him, and Bawden has regular contact with people in the Netherlands among other countries. I’ve gotten emails from several European countries including Spain and Germany, asking about the documentary.

Unfortunately, though, the “Pope Michael” clips available online are in english, and not everyone speaks English who is interested in the film.

So I’m officially putting the word out asking if anyone has the ability and the will if they’d like to translate the dialogue a clip of “Pope Michael” into a language of their choice. It could be the trailer, the wine cellar clip, or even one of the clips we’re releasing next week.

If you’re interested, please contact me at adam@popemichaelfilm.com. We’ll make it easy and painless, and also give you credit wherever is possible!

One of the interesting things about doing a documentary about Bawden is that there is an almost constant stream of video content produced by him and Phil and put out on the internet. It’s like a whole DVD extras section for free on the internet, and a very interesting look into their house in Delia largely unfiltered.

A question I get sometimes is how serious is Phil about what he’s doing. It’s a fair question, since Phil is only in his early 20’s.

That question is implicitly answered in the documentary itself in a section late in the film that contains Phil making a vow of Obedience to Bawden and to the papacy. Phil, like Bawden, appears to be extremely dedicated to what he’s doing, hence the vow, which he took very seriously.

Phil is no stranger to vows. By the time we filmed his vow of obedience, he had already made a vow of chastity on his own. Then I spotted the above video that contains a vow to defend the papacy.

There are plenty of other interesting videos Phil and Bawden have made that are floating around on the internet and I’ll be sure to post some more.

Just a little note: as of this week all of our video content is going on YouTube as well, instead of just Vimeo. You can check out the documentary YouTube account here.

Over the summer we’ll be releasing a series of cut sequences from “Pope Michael”, and we’re starting today with one of the earliest sequences to be assembled - Bawden showing us around his home winery.

Here’s the description from Vimeo:

In this sequence, Bawden explains a little bit about his home wine making. He makes two types of wine - table wine for drinking with dinner, and altar wine for use in mass.

This sequence was cut for time and general irrelevancy to the larger plot of the documentary. Although this sequence was cut, wine does play a significant role in the documentary, as Bawden, Phil Friedl, and Eli Rotello all visit a winery after Eli arrives.

This sequence was shot on the second day of the first trip, and was one of the first to be assembled. If you look closely, you can see there is a boom mic next to the wine bottles when Bawden takes them in and out of the shelves. This was an oversight during filming - we were looking for the sounds of the wine bottles without realizing we’d need the b-roll as well.

After releasing our first trailer a few months ago, the hard work started of turning the rough cut of “Pope Michael” into the final cut. A week and a half ago I locked the picture (meaning that no more editing was necessary) and the remaining time has been spent working on the image (color correcting, taking out booms) and working on the audio (normalizing, EQing).

Thankfully, that work is done now, and the real fun begins! In a few days, “Pope Michael” ships out to its first film festival for consideration. I’m very excited to see where it goes, and what kind of response it gets, but we won’t know that for a bit.

If you don’t happen to be a film festival selection committee, then what’s in it for you in the mean time?

Well, now that the hard work is over, I’m going to be releasing some content over the summer:

The “Pope Michael” Soundtrack

The section in the “Pope Michael” credits for music is literally four times the size of the section for production. I was extremely lucky to have a group of amazingly talented musicians and audio engineers work on the soundtrack, bringing to life the amazing music that Derek wrote. Over the summer, we’ll be releasing the soundtrack online for a small cost to help cover film festival expenses. The soundtrack will have all of the songs in the film (as well as a new version of the trailer song) and some special tracks recorded just for the soundtrack.

Cut Scenes

 Everyone loves some cut scenes, and “Pope Michael” has a ton. I’ll be finishing those up and putting them online. There will also be a few behind the scenes clips, because everyone loves those as well.

Guest Posts

I’ve asked some people involved with the documentary (both in front of and behind the camera) to write pieces on there experiences, which we’ll be posting here. Also, we’ve got some interesting guest pieces about sedevacantism and other issues that are relevant to the documentary.

So watch out for some cool stuff coming up! I’m very excited about what we’ve got, and excited about eventually getting this thing out into the world!

My little brother Sean is a senior in high school - the same high school I went to, and my other younger brother went to - Saint Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale Florida.

When I was there, they had very little in the way of visual arts, period, not to mention the arts in terms of film and video. But now, since my brother is in a film class this semester, I’ve been made aware of a film festival they put on every year now called STAsis. Very cool!

Sean and his class were tasked with finding some sponsors, and he had me put together a little ad for “Pope Michael” in there, since Derek and I are both grads. Too bad I got Derek’s year wrong. The film festival was last week.

The Notre Dame Film, Television, and Theatre department has put up an archive of past film festival shorts on iTunes. If you check out 2008, you’ll find that the original “Pope Michael” short is up there (#3). It’s also available on the “Pope Michael” doc website here.

You’ll also see your favorite “Pope Michael” director (me) in the documentary “Ring by Spring” also of 2008, where I am on camera for a few blips with my girlfriend Michelle (she’s still my girlfriend).

In 2004, Thomas Frank published a book called “What’s the Matter With Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America”. It took a look at the rise of the Republican, conservative mindset in America, and focused on Kansas to drive the point home.

If you step into David Bawden’s living room, you’ll notice a copy of it on a small table in between two armchairs, because Bawden is the subject of an entire chapter of the book.

Recently, the book the basis for a documentary of the same name, and it’s been getting some great press and reviews. Roger Ebert said “I’ve rarely seen a documentary quite like it.” which is definitely something coming from a film critic who places “Gates of Heaven” in his top 10 of all time.

Bawden doesn’t appear in the film, but fans of “Pope Michael” will definitely be interested to take a very different look at the people of Kansas and the political situation there, but also the environment in which Bawden operates.

While watching the trailer, I recognized much of the scenery as very close to what it’s like out in the Kansas countryside. This image of a town in the trailer is very similar to Rossville, the town I pass through to get to Delia.

You can find their site at whatsthematterwithkansas.com, and be sure to take a look at their screenings section as it’s screening across the country right now.