The Daily Signal - Taking Back the Arts Industry with Angel Studios CEO Neal Harmon

Episode Date: July 5, 2024

Angel Studios CEO Neal Harmon discusses the incredible true story of "Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot." Harmon also explains how Angel Studios has, and is, permanently changing the media landscape. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Friday, July 5th. I'm Virginia Allen. I hope that you all had a wonderful Independence Day, got to spend some time with friends and family, and definitely eat some great food. Well, earlier this week, I was so pleased that we got to have Rebecca Weigel on the show to discuss the brand new movie Sound of Hope, The Story of Possum Trot. The film is in theaters now, and this is Angel Studios' latest film that they're distributing. Well, on today's show, Angel Studios CEO, Neil Harmon, is sitting down with the Daily Signal's Mary Margaret O'Lahan, not only to discuss that incredible new movie Possum Trot, but also to discuss how Angel Studios has and is permanently changing the media landscape. There is such a need for conservatives to really lean into that art space and produce high-quality film and TV, and both Neil and Mary Margaret get into the detail. of what that looks like and how Angel Studios is doing just that.

Stay tuned for Mary Markets' conversation with Neil Harmon after this. Hey, it's Rob Lewy from The Daily Signal. Want to stay ahead of the curve on conservative news and analysis? Subscribe to our free Daily Signal email newsletters. You'll get the latest headlines, detailed policy coverage, and exclusive interviews delivered straight to your inbox. Whether you're interested in our morning update, breaking news alerts, or weekly roundups,

We've got you covered. Don't let the liberal media control the narrative. Sign up now at daily signal.com slash email and join thousands of informed conservatives who rely on the daily signal to cut through the noise and get the truth. Here with me today is Neil Harmon, CEO and co-founder of Angel Studios.

Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me on, Mary. So, Neil, tell us, you are doing some culture-changing work at Angel Studios that we're not seeing in Hollywood and elsewhere. What inspired you to get into this business? My children. Yeah?

And a hope for better storytelling for them and for their children. Yeah. Talk to us about what prompted you to, first of all, get into Sound of Freedom, because I think that's the one that's on the top of a lot of people's minds when they hear Angel Studios. What made you be interested in producing this movie? So Sound of Freedom was produced by Eduardo Verastigy, and directed by Alejandro Monteverde

long before we entered the pitcher and they were working with Fox and Fox was purchased by Disney and Disney said it wasn't a match for their brand and decided not to release the film and Eduardo spent a year trying to get it out of Disney and

once he did COVID hit and during COVID Eduardo and I ended up meeting each other at the World Congress of Families in Mexico City. And then I met Tim Ballard on the set of The Chosen, and he said that the rights to Sound of Freedom might be becoming available. And I think it was March of 2023 that they called and said,

hey, can we meet? And Jim Caviesel and Tim came over and Eduardo got on the phone and we talked it over and within five days we had struck a deal and decided to take the sound of freedom out in that time we also reviewed the film with the Angel Guild nothing can come through Angel without it going through the Guild they get to decide whether we greenlight something

and so from March to July 4th we got ready and launched that film and it was a whirlwind It was what I remember it. There was this massive media rollout and so much promotion. What kind of impact has Sounded Freedom had? I think it's such an interesting question to ask you because we can, you know, see with our eyes from our side of things, but you would really know. So I've had leaders of nonprofit organizations write me and say that events where they speak, where they would expect 20 to 30 people, they have 2 to 300 people. where they ask for people to act on social media and they'll buy ads to try to get people involved in fighting trafficking, that their costs for getting people involved have just dropped dramatically. And that's really exciting that it's kind of, it's raised the awareness everywhere

to help everyone who is fighting this issue. And we're talking about anti-trafficking organizations, Yes, that's right. It's amazing. That's really amazing. This new movie that's coming out, Sound of Hope, tell us about that. Well, do know it's fun. So Sound of Freedom, after it became big, had a law written in its name. It's called The Sound of Freedom Act. And the additionally, the governor of, I think it was Alabama, raised the minimum penalty for first-degree child trafficking to a minimum of life in prison.

And this is because of this film. There is already a bill right now that just got named the Sound of Hope Act to help the foster care system work with churches in Texas. So these kinds of changes, we don't understand completely the ripples that they'll have. but it's fun to see that happen even sooner with Sound of Hope. Yeah.

Wow. And tell for our listeners who might not have seen Sound of Hope yet, or they can't see it yet, right? That's right. It hasn't come out yet. What's it about? So Sound of Hope tells the story of a small community in Possum Trot, Texas. This is East Rural Texas.

This group of 22 families at Bennett Chapel, adopt 77 children out of the foster care system. They literally eradicate the foster care issue within 100 miles of their little church. They go through so much for these children. This show doesn't shy away from any of the hardship, but it also doesn't shy away from the hope. And thus we named it Sound of Hope,

It's an anthology of films that are helping to save children. Wow. And you're partnering with the Daily Wire on this one, right? That's correct. That's really neat. Can you tell us a little more about that? So Daily Wire is an excellent news organization and who has never released a theatrical film.

And we are a movie studio that has never done the news. And so we thought that this was a great film to partner on. They helped it tremendously during Sound of Freedom, Jordan. Jordan Peterson did an interview with Jim Caviesel and Ben Shapiro did it, like all the Daywire team did. And this time we're formally setting up a partnership to release this film. And we're very aligned on getting it to as many people as possible to help solve this foster care crisis.

It's amazing. You know, I want to come back to something you said a moment ago because a conversation that I have in my circles a lot with a lot of my conservative reporter friends is that the right doesn't really know how to utilize the arts to change culture. And, you know, we see a lot of change happen through the arts, happen through movies especially. What's your take on that?

And why do you think that so much of the change we see in our culture is a product of a more left-leaning turn? That's a great question. I will, I'll just back up for a moment on Sound of Hope. We've seen lots of left outlets and figures watch this film and love it. That's awesome. So this is a unifying story. Absolutely.

I think that's very exciting. You know, my own upbringing, I'm the third of nine, and we grew up in Idaho, and we worked and worked just to make ends meet, and my parents were more concerned about raising a bunch of kids than they were about the arts. And I think where families and people of faith are trying to just mind their own business and get through life, that we haven't realized that it's important to engage in the arts to help, shape the future of our culture. And I think we're all becoming aware of that now.

And there are some very gifted filmmakers who have a vision for that that are some of the best I've ever seen in the world. And so it's an exciting time for Angel Studios to come on the scene at this particular juncture of technology, of divisiveness in society, of some mistakes by some of the big studios

that have left a big hole in the market, and it feels like we have this, you know, once in a hundred years type of opportunity. And I guess I should specifically say that I know Angel Studios isn't left or right. That's right. Very much filling that void that has been left by these major studios who have leaned too hard one way,

and typically left-leaning. And you're telling really beautiful stories that are about truth. Is there something to that? Absolutely. I think that when you tell truth stories extremely well, they have to be told really well. It draws everyone in.

And when you preach, and this has been a problem on the right and the left, where people are trying to preach one ideology or another rather than to tell a story. Right. it turns people away and it divides. But when you just tell a story that's authentic, then the story speaks for itself

and people are able to interpret it the way they choose. Yeah. I mean, we know that from, that's what we try and do with our reporting at Daily Signal too, where, you know, I believe the truth will set you free. Yes. And we'd like to put the true facts out there and let people decide for themselves how they feel about it.

I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about the chosen. I think most people, when they hear Angel Studios, they thank the chosen. What made you get into the chosen business in the first place? That's a daunting task to tell the story of Jesus Christ. We started our studio with Dry Bar Comedy, which gets over a billion views a year today. And a mutual friend, Matthew Farachi,

introduced Dallas Jenkins to us, and he had a short film that he had produced for his church, called The Shepherd. We saw it and said, oh, this is why we created this company is to help stories like this reach the world, take on life. And so we got behind

Dallas and his vision for this story and turning it into a seven-season series. And it didn't hurt that right as we had it ready, that COVID hit and people needed to laugh and they needed to, so they watched Dry Bar, and they also needed God in their life,

and so they watched The Chosen. So all of that helped. It was like a perfect aligning of, of, of a filmmaker and, and a marketing and studio team, and then COVID that allowed that to blossom. Wow. That's amazing. Well, my final question for you,

and it kind of is harkening back to our earlier conversation, is do you have advice for, you know, aspiring artists, especially on the right where I would say art is undervalued? What would your advice to them be? If they're really, they want to create things that are beautiful and true, but they're not totally sure where to start or how to, you know, get past the utilitarian aspect of society these days? Not to shy away from engaging.

I feel like the filmmakers that were working, with today that are able to tell the stories at the level that the Angel Guild requires are people who have gone through the fire of the critics of filmmaking at the highest level. And sometimes I think that we're maybe feel like that our values don't align enough to engage with Hollywood. But Hollywood is the greatest storytelling. community that's ever been created, the problem that they have is that the gatekeepers, a few elite people,

are deciding which stories are to be told and how they should be told. And at Angel, all we're doing is just moving that greenlight power to the Angel Guild, the community. And then once that's there, like, the talent, like, I've been amazed at the people who normally make stuff that a conservative audience wouldn't want to see,

or here, but then they see the opportunity around Angel, and they're totally willing to make something for this audience. But all they want is for art to be done at a high level, and then they want to engage. And so what we have as an opportunity here is a group of filmmakers and creatives that are part of Hollywood, but they want to tell stories that amplify light, and the Angel Guild and the community has given them the opportunity to do so.

So the sky's the limit. You need to engage in order to get the hard-earned skills of telling stories on a high level. It's amazing. Well, thank you so much for sharing that with us. We're so grateful for your time. Thank you very much, Mary Margaret. Thanks so much for joining us today on the Daily Single Podcast. We're going to leave it right there.

Because of the holiday this week, we do not have top news. this afternoon, but we will be back with you on Monday for top news and, of course, our normal morning interview edition. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Enjoy time with family, friends. Keep celebrating our independence here in the United States. We'll see you right back here on Monday. The Daily Signal podcast is made possible because of listeners like you.

Executive producers are Rob Bluey and Katrina Trinko. Hosts are Virginia Allen, Brian Gottstein, Tyler O'Neill, Mary Margaret O'Lehan, and Elizabeth Troutman. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, John Pop, and Joseph Fons Spakovsky. To learn more or support our work, please visit DailySignal.com.