Davy McCall, a senior film major and the director of Biola’s semester film, wants “Heritage” to capture both the depth of the external war in the Middle East and simultaneously question the internal conflicts of deciding which wars are worth fighting.

“People fight because they love … We want people to internalize this external, far away story. We want people to see themselves in the characters and relate,” McCall stated.

Inspiration from the Middle East

The inspiration of this film came three years ago. Before McCall came to Biola, he took a class at Chico State that had a segment on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. McCall realized that a great story could be told if two members from opposing sides of this conflict were put in a “time out.” He wondered what would happen if they just had to be with each other without the ability to fight.

According to McCall, people are so passionate about fighting because they have such an intense love for their families, country and community. Their love is so all-consuming that fighting to defend their ways of life seems like the right action to take.

“It’s not so much based on hate, as much as it’s based on their incredible love for one another. Not the love of their enemies, but their love for themselves — for the same things you and I would fight for,” McCall said.

McCall hopes “Heritage” will communicate this idea of love and help people understand those who they call their enemies.

Over the summer McCall visited Israel to gain an insider's perspective of both sides of the conflict. While there, he shot a documentary that shows the process he went through to make the movie “Heritage” authentic.

McCall described the documentary he shot and “Heritage” as sister films. He plans to show both movies consecutively at the premiere in order to inform the audience of the validity of “Heritage.”

Filming in the process

Kyle Martin, production manager and senior film major, explained that while the film is on a tight budget, they’ve been able to use their resources wisely. They’ve done some filming in Santa Clarita and rented a section of the Blue Cloud Movie Ranch, which is a popular filming location for many films and TV shows such as “Iron Man” and “NCIS Los Angeles,” according to a Los Angeles Times article.

Currently, the crew is working on finishing the last set piece to move into studio A on campus, so they can film the last scenes of the movie by mid-November. The film will debut around the end of December or the end of January when students get back from Christmas break.

Out of the eight other films McCall has directed, he stated that this production crew has been the largest he has worked with. According to McCall, the best part about this filming process is the crew’s ability to work together and produce quality work in a timely fashion. Martin agrees that the crew’s ability to perform well has made filming enjoyable.

“I think something that has been my favorite part of this whole process has been the professionalism,” Martin said.

Most of the film crew are juniors and seniors which, according to Martin, made it really easy on set because everyone knew what they were supposed to be doing.

It all starts in the heart

McCall and the rest of the crew hope that when this film hits the big screen, students will be able to relate the conflict in the movie to the conflict in their own heart.

The crew wants film viewers to see that even though these Israeli and Palestinian fighters seem so different from the average American, in reality they are virtually no different.

“In these times of conflict we wouldn’t react that differently at all. In fact we might do things exactly the same if we were in their shoes,” McCall said.

God has had his hand in it

According to McCall, the process of making and producing this film has been a trying time for many of the crew members. There have been points where all they could do in a situation is wait for God to deliver the materials or the funds or the actors into their hands.

Danny Allinson, senior film major and the director’s assistant, shared that the crew struggled raising enough funds for the film.

The crew had a goal to raise $6,000 in roughly twenty days. Without a fundraiser, they would not be able to film in Santa Clarita or build the set that they have been using in Studio A.

At first things didn’t look so good. According to Allinson, money trickled in very slowly. As their deadline drew closer, the crew used every means necessary to raise the money. They sent out emails, calls, Facebook promotions and were in constant prayer.

“It was a really tough couple of days where we had to push, but it was definitely by the grace of God that we did it because we had some really, really strong backers that we weren't expecting,” Allinson said.

They reached their goal in the last days of the deadline and ended up exceeding their goal by about $1,000. Throughout their worries and financial stresses, the crew grew in dependence on God for the outcome of the film.

“God has stayed faithful and true to us every step of the way,” McCall said.