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Logline

As her faith community betrays the Jesus they taught her to love, an evangelical filmmaker reckons with the political identity she built her life on.

Synopsis

Born in 1981 just as the Religious Right’s culture war crashed intovisibility, a then evangelical filmmaker discovers the true origins ofthe “pro-life” movement. While disbelief initiates her investigation into a veiled history of white supremacy, betrayal forces a deeply personal examination of her own family and identity, neither of which can be disentangled from the other. As Roe is overturned and abortion bans become routine, True Believer is a call for reckoning for every American, but especially those within the religious subculture that threatens our very Democracy.

Meet the Filmmakers

Kristen Irving — Director/Producer
Kristen is a director, producer, and impact producer whose projects have participated at Tribeca, Sundance and TIFF. Kristen currently serves as the Director of Advocacy and Engagement at Brave New Films. As the former Director of Social Action and Advocacy at Participant Media, she created social engagement campaigns for documentary and narrative films ranging from Contagion to A Place at the Table. She also Impact Produced for Oscar-nominated filmmakers Lee Hirsch (Bully) and Lucy Walker (The Crash Reel). Kristen produced the award-winning short documentary Life After Manson, which premiered at Tribeca and had an excerpt released on the NY Times Op-Docs series. Kristen and her directorial debut True Believer, premiered at the Cleveland International Film Festival in 2024 and have participated in the 2017 Investigative Reporting Workshop at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, the 2019 Camden / TFI Retreat Sponsored by CNN, and she is a 2019 Film Independent Documentary Lab Fellow. Previously, Kristen worked at the CAA (Creative Artists Agency) Foundation, and has held various roles in nonprofit organizations including group home Hollygrove, XPRIZE Foundation, and the L.A. Kitchen (VP of Business Development and Communications).

Julian Cautherley — Producer
Julian is an Emmy and Sundance award-winning filmmaker whose projects have participated at Sundance, Berlin, Toronto, SXSW, Tribeca Film Festivals, and have been distributed by Netflix, HBO, Neon, Hulu, Amazon among others. His films have been twice shortlisted for the Academy Awards. Julian has produced a wide range of projects including fiction and non-fiction features, documentary series, VR and commercials. Recently premiered on Netflix is the 4-part documentary series How To Change Your Mind based on the New York Times best seller of the same name written by Michael Pollan. In 2021 saw the release of two films, Bring Your Own Brigade which premiered at Sundance and was distributed by Paramount and CBS Films. Why Did You Kill Me? was a Netflix Original that received over 30m views in its first 28 days in release. 2019 saw the release of Clemency starring Alfre Woodard, which won the Grand Jury Dramatic Prize at Sundance and was released theatrically by Neon in 2019, receiving nominations for a BAFTA and four Independent Spirit Awards including Best Picture. Julian grew up in Hong Kong, and teaches documentary production at USC.

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Contact

For inquiries, please contact fiscalsponsorship@filmindependent.org.