2 of 3

"I wasn't born to be a movie star. I wasn't born to be a producer, or to be famous. I was born to know and love and serve our Lord Jesus Christ, and that's my only goal right now."

Meanwhile, budding filmmaker/screenwriter Monteverde had already made a similar commitment of his own.

He wrote and directed Bella because "I wanted to use my talent to make a difference in the world, to somehow inspire others. I believe that the only thing you can take with you after you die is what you gave, and this is my way to give.

"I want to use film not only to entertain people, but to give them a message of hope, love, and compassion, without being too preachy. While writing and shooting Bella, I was very careful throughout the process that we'd never come across as judgmental. If we come across that way, we lose the whole purpose of the film."

Like Verástegui, Monteverde, 30, was once pursuing life in the fast lane.

Monteverde on the 'Bella' set

"Art has the power to change you," he says. "It can bring the worst out of you, and it can get the best out of you. I had both experiences. When I was 14, I saw a film about Jim Morrison [the troubled lead singer of The Doors], and it brought the worst out of me. After I saw the film, I wanted to imitate Jim Morrison, and if you know his lifestyle, it was pretty bad." (Morrison abused alcohol, drugs, and women, and died in 1971 at the age of 27, likely from a heroin overdose; an autopsy was never performed.)

Monteverde says the Holy Spirit intervened, and things quickly changed: "One day I woke up and felt very convicted of my lifestyle. I knew I was living a wasted life.

"Then I enrolled in film school, and things started falling into place. I was more focused on my path, more focused on the purpose of what God had for me. I changed my lifestyle and everything else, because everything was new—new friends, a new way of thinking. Now I look back at who I was before, I don't even remember being like that."

While a film student at the University of Texas, Monteverde slept on couches and on the mailroom floor because he used the "dorm money" from his parents to invest in a student film instead. "I didn't tell them," he now confesses. "But I was like, if I'm going to be in school, why do I need a dorm when I can use the money to make a film?"

So, while Monteverde slept on floors, the penniless Verástegui, facing his own impending homelessness, had a conversation with his best friend back in Mexico. Eduardo told the friend about his renewed commitment to God and his new professional goals, and the friend said, "You should meet my little brother, because he is going through the same thing. He wants to direct films with the same message that you want to act."

That little brother was Monteverde, and the rest, as they say, is history. Monteverde moved to L.A., where they started a film company, according to Verástegui, with just a cell phone to their name: "We didn't have any money," he says. "Just a big dream."

The two men soon met Leo Severino, who had quit his job as a business manager at 20th Century Fox because, like Verástegui and Monteverde, his religious convictions were driving him to desire to make redeeming films. The three men formed Metanoia Films; metanoia is Greek for "conversion" or "repentance."

Shortly after forming their partnership, Severino invited Verástegui to join him on a trip to Rome where he arranged a meeting with Pope John Paul II just a few months before his death.

"It was a beautiful experience," Verástegui says. "I asked him to please pray for us and for Metanoia Films, so we can do movies that will bring people closer to Christ and elevate the dignity of Latinos. And just ten days later, we met Sean Wolfington . . . "

Which leads to how they funded the film. When Wolfington, a wealthy Miami-area entrepreneur, heard the pitch from the Metanoia partners, he decided to finance the $3 million project, which was shot in New York City in just over three weeks.

next page... |  2 of 3