After finishing their first feature movie, October Baby, filmmaker brothers Jon and Andrew Erwin faced a problem: studios didn't want to take a chance on a flick about the "untouchable subject": Abortion.

October Baby is a fairly typical coming-of-age love story, but the plot hinges on the main character's discovery that she's an abortion survivor. (Jon Erwin wrote it after hearing abortion survivor Gianna Jessen speak.) Though studio executives loved the film, they didn't want to take on the controversial topic.

Jon and Andrew Erwin

Jon and Andrew Erwin

But the Erwins managed to raise enough support to do a limited release last October, and on its opening weekend it was the fourth-highest grossing film for per-screen average at almost $8,000 per theater. The positive reaction was enough to convince Provident Films and Samuel Goldwyn Films to help bring the movie to a wider audience—about 350 theaters when it releases on Friday, March 23.

The Erwins, known for their work on music videos (they've won three Dove Awards and were recently nominated for another), have been excited to see the impact the film is having. "Ultimately we do want to raise the value of human life," Andrew Erwin says. "But the people who've engaged the movie that have moved me most are those who have pulled us aside afterwards and said, 'Nobody knows this, but I had an abortion.'"

CT editorial resident Morgan Feddes recently spoke with the Erwins about their careers, their films, and their faith.

How did you become filmmakers?

Andrew Erwin: Jon and I started as kids. We worked at a youth camp in upstate New York where we made these little film shorts for the kids. You'll never find a more honest audience than 500 teenagers. Later we got into documentary, and one of them used a song by Michael W. Smith. He saw that, loved it, and asked us to do his next music video, and we fell into doing music videos for the next six years. Our goal was to eventually get to feature films and to be able to tell stories that were our stories.

Jon Erwin: I didn't really want to get into the industry at first. But when I was 15, I was working with a cameraman and somebody got sick on a University of Alabama football game for ESPN. I got to take their place. I thought, Oh my gosh, I'm getting to watch a football game with a telescope, and I'm getting paid for it. I was done for after that. My dad helped us get a loan for our own equipment a year later. We did everything possible to pay off that loan. It was just one step at a time.

The brothers on the 'October Baby' set

The brothers on the 'October Baby' set

A: The fundamental thing that's changed recently, though, is that for the longest time, we made our living by working for hire. We worked to facilitate other people's stories, other people's visions. Then Jon directed second unit on the movie Courageous with the Kendrick brothers (of Sherwood Pictures), and those guys had a pretty big impact on him.

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J: Alex Kendrick asked me, "What's your purpose?" I didn't know the answer, because up to that point my purpose was to get paid. It convicted me that I needed to step out, and that Andy and I needed to use our gifts for the Lord in a greater capacity. We were the "get it done" guys—if someone needed a music video or a documentary but they already had the idea for it, Andy and I would come in as hired guns. We were kind of the Han Solo of the Christian world. That needed to end. It was time for us to step out in faith and do something that we were passionate about. That's what led to October Baby.

It's been said you took the premise to October Baby, thought about what a Christian film would do, and then did the opposite. Could you expound on that?

J: I feel like there are a lot of people whose eyes turn to dollar signs and want to copy the Kendricks (Facing the Giants, Fireproof, Courageous). I say we best honor what they've done by doing something totally different. So it was very much a consideration of how most Christian films feel: How do they look? What music do they use? And we wanted to try to flip this genre over on its end, still having a beautiful film of substance, still being absolutely overt about our faith, and being bold to take on a very controversial issue, but with a film that looks and feels different.

We want variety in a Christian space. Comparing us with the Kendricks is like Peter and Paul in the Bible—they both had the same calling, but they had totally different jurisdiction and they were sent to different audiences. That's what we see in us. I don't mean to demean anyone else's work; we just want to be different.

A: I think sometimes in Christianity we feel the message and the form are married together. The message is never changing, but the way we communicate with the audience is constantly changing. Ultimately as a filmmaker, you can only make a film you would go to see. I think that's what Jon's talking about—the audience can tell if your message is genuine or if you're just trying to imitate to be able to get something done. The way that October Baby is told, every bit of that is 100 percent me and Jon—the type of stories and the type of movies we love—without having to water down the message.

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Jon Erwin works with John Schneider

Jon Erwin works with John Schneider

Working with siblings can be a both a blessing and a curse. How do you work together? How do you make a decision when you don't agree on something?

A: The thing that's really helped us is we've embraced our differences. We're both filmmakers that have worked apart from each other over the years and are very capable to do that by ourselves. But there's something special when we work together. We've found the real creativity is in the friction. So we have this policy of friction with respect, and it goes to everybody we work with. There's conflict that arises when you have people who are passionate about their view, but as long as it's done in respect, the better ideas surface through that. It's that "iron sharpens iron" principle. We've learned to embrace that and go with it. It's become a fun process.

J: Andy and I argue a lot; anyone that works with us knows that. I'm more the manic, idea brother that is constantly getting into trouble. Andy's more the "get it done" brother; he's a bit quieter than I am and keeps my feet in the fire and gets projects finished. It works well, especially when we really embrace our roles.

It's a very different thing to attack another individual or to mutually attack a problem. What we try to do with ourselves and with our crew is be unified and attack problems. There's conflict in that because there'll be different perspectives, but we don't attack each other. At the end of the day, we're trying to solve a problem to make the best movie possible, and we're trying to do that together.

Andy works with the actors. I definitely work with the actors, but I work through Andy, and then I shoot the movie. So I'm much more the visual, technical brother. We just embrace those roles. We don't divide them quite as much as the Kendricks, where Alex directs and Stephen produces; we do both direct and produce, so there's a little more tension. But I think it's better for it.

How do you bring your faith into your work?

J: I think it can be a mistake when you're trying to wedge Christianity into a film that you're making. The beautiful thing about Christianity is that the themes of Christianity are so appealing at a fundamental level. When you make a movie about hope and forgiveness and grace and love, these things are incredibly appealing to any audience. It's the nature of the story you pick, making sure you're passionate about that, and making sure at some core level it's meaningful and it's inherently what you believe. That's what we do, as opposed to making a film that's like everything else and then putting a little Christianity in there. Then it feels forced and then it comes out totally cliché.

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Andy Erwin works with Rachel Hendrix

Andy Erwin works with Rachel Hendrix

One of the best compliments we've heard about October Baby is how organic the faith material is in the story. I think the reason is because the story stays on point. We don't try to take on ten issues with cliché one liners. The story is an examination of one issue, and that is the value of every life.

A lot of times I feel that as Christians, we alienate people simply by the way we present the information. We've got to get outside our subculture just by the way we present the gospel. I think there's a way to present the truth, but we need to de-cliché it and not use these one-liners where we're the only ones who know what they mean.

A: That was well said. Ditto.

How do you make sure an "agenda" doesn't overpower a story?

A: There's not a formula; it's a much more fluid concept. The gospel really does speak for itself, and the audience is a lot more intelligent than we often give them credit for. A filmmaker who I respect who's not a Christian said that great films don't give answers as much as they ask the right penetrating questions. If we can get people talking at the end of the day and discussing and really engaging with the issue, then at that point, it might change the way they think. One of the key ways to do that is to allow life to be a little bit more complicated than sometimes it's presented in Christian movies. So much of the time we take the human element out of a story that we don't allow our characters to struggle.

J: If you look at Jesus and his teachings and his parables, they didn't give answers. They asked such thought-provoking questions that you had to go home and think about them. When you start telling people what to think, they feel like it's propaganda. But when you encourage the audience to think for themselves and you show them a new perspective that maybe they haven't thought about, I think they genuinely enjoy the experience. J. J. Abrams said it best—that you have to go in with an absolute confidence that if something is entertaining and engaging and moving to you, it will be entertaining and engaging and moving to a lot of people. Don't try to please the audience.

A lot of people didn't understand October Baby. Even trusted friends that I have said, "Jon, this movie doesn't work for the Christian space." Well now, Provident is getting the strongest response it's ever had to a film. We really held to that absolute faith that if it's meaningful and entertaining to us, it's going to be entertaining and meaningful to a lot of people. So make the film that God has put on your heart. Make it something that you truly care about, and then leave the results up to God. People rally around that type of honesty, rather than filmmakers just trying to make the film for the audience; people can sniff that out in a heartbeat.

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What do you hope to work on next?

A: Typically for a filmmaker, once you get done filming, you do your press junkets but your heart and your mind are already on the next one. With October Baby, this was such a special project for us that we wanted to hold its hand all the way to the premiere to make sure it found its audience. We didn't want to divert from that path; we wanted to make sure that all of our focus was on that. Once it hits theaters March 23, then we'll take a step back and plan the next one.