It would be easy to demonize John Allen Chau, the Christian missionary who died while trying to bring the Bible to a remote tribe. The 26-year-old could have introduced new diseases to the North Sentinel Island community, causing serious harm. He also vowed to invade a community that craves isolation above all.

Now imagine a Hollywood film capturing Chau’s short, dramatic life. The industry isn’t known for sympathetic close-ups on faith, to be generous.

'Whenever we go into places where we’re not comfortable, the first thing is, "I have to impose my point of view. Here’s my worldview."'

Yet veteran director Justin Lin (“Star Trek Beyond,” the “Fast & Furious” franchise) took a less expected path in bringing the young man’s life to theaters.

Justin Lin. Photo: Giles Keyte

Quick to judge

“Last Days” stars Sky Yang as John, a determined Christian who vowed to do something remarkable with his life. He risked everything to travel to the North Sentinel Island, hoping to share Jesus Christ’s message.

The story ended tragically, but Lin’s film portrays Chau as a kind-hearted lad whose complicated life led him to his fate. Lin isn’t a Christian, but he treated the material with care and empathy. That wasn’t his first reaction.

“It’s very easy to judge and dismiss. That’s what I did when the story broke,” Lin told Align of the initial news reports, the kind of “hot take” that swiftly decried Chau’s fateful decision. “It didn’t sit well with me that I was so quick to judge and dismiss him.”

A father's story

An Outside Magazine feature on Chau’s life had a powerful effect on the filmmaker. The story shared Chau’s father’s perspective on his late son, among other details.

That rocked Lin.

“I have a teenage son. As a parent, I know exactly what he was going through, how you’re trying to impart your wisdom, make sure they’re not going through any hardships,” he said. “What I learned from that article was that if you do it on your timeline, and your son is not ready, you just miss each other.”

The project didn’t involve fast cars or intergalactic travel, but the change of pace spoke to the veteran filmmaker.

“I really wanted to try something different,” added Lin, even if he wouldn’t have the kind of blockbuster budget at his back.

“It’s going to be a run-and-gun, small crew,” he imagined before reading more from the real Chau’s diary. “In John’s writing, he was clearly inspired by adventure novels and Hollywood films. ... I’m going to honor that and be the signpost for our film. ... It’s an intimate story, but it has to feel like a big Hollywood film.”

He called in some professional favors to give the film a Tinsel Town sheen that otherwise might not have been feasible.

Still courtesy Pictures from the Fringe

Fresh perspectives

Lin approached Chau’s faith delicately, while acknowledging the dubious decisions he made along the way. A mid-film romance ends unexpectedly, for example, allowing for fresh perspectives on Chau’s quest.

That balance came via an extensive effort on the director’s part.

“Whenever we go into places where we’re not comfortable, the first thing is, ‘I have to impose my point of view. Here’s my worldview.’ I made that commitment early on to say, ‘No,’” he said. “Taking three years of my life [for this film] ... was to connect with his humanity.”

More with less

“Last Days” looks as lush as a $100+ million film, the kind that Lin routinely delivers. He didn’t have those resources nor an A-list cast to bring John Chau’s life to the big screen. Yang is a minor revelation, while Ken Leung’s turn as the young man’s father is heartbreaking.

Lin has a knack for doing more with less.

“I made a credit card movie for $250,000, and that movie opened the door and gave me all these opportunities,” said Lin of “Better Luck Tomorrow,” his 2002 breakthrough made by maxing out his personal credit limit. The film earned $3.8 million theatrically, a tidy sum given the budget. Hollywood swiftly came calling.

“Last Days” may have an indie sensibility, but Lin still felt the pressure to “nudge” the film in certain directions. The real Chau refused to be “boxed in” by society, yet the film industry tried to do just that with the film.

“Can you make this a Christian movie?” he recalled of the behind-the-scenes chatter about “Last Days.” ... I didn’t understand or even appreciate that kind of nudge. ... ‘If you really wanna be marketable, you should do more of this.’ Those conversations for me ended very quickly.”

“That is a challenge with independent films ... the temptation. ... ‘If I give you all this money, can you cast my son?’ Those are all choices you encounter,” he said.

Lin will find himself on more familiar ground with the upcoming “BRZRKR,” based on the Boom! Studios comic book co-created by Keanu Reeves. The “John Wick” star served as an angel investor in “Last Days.”

“I didn’t grow up wanting to make action movies, but I ended up enjoying the process,” he admitted.

The public got a sneak peek at “Last Days” during the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, months before its Oct. 24 theatrical rollout. The post-screening Q and A left him hopeful he had accomplished what he had set out to do with the film.

“Five minutes in, they could find a common bridge in [the film],” Lin recalled. “We need that now more than ever.”

'The American Family's Book of Fables': Wit and wisdom for our nation's 250th

Pick up the "latest" kids’ book these days, and chances are you’ll be met with one or all of the following: a feeble storyline, flat illustrations, and little to no moral value.

Not so, however, when you choose a children’s book by Dr. Matthew Mehan.

'I want the American family to have something beautiful and lasting. I want their witty-wise love of God, country, and family to be helped along, so to speak, by this book.'

In addition to his career as associate dean and associate professor of government at Hillsdale in D.C., Dr. Mehan has built a remarkable reputation as a children’s author. Each of his books is years in the making, and it shows. The finished products are lasting works of art that resonate deeply with readers.

With this in mind, it came as no surprise when Dr. Mehan was awarded one of just five 2025 Innovation Prizes from the Heritage Foundation this summer. The awards are designed to support “innovative projects … that prepare the American public to celebrate our nation’s Semiquincentennial by elevating our founding principles, educating our citizens, and inspiring patriotism.”

Dr. Mehan is putting his prize — as well as a recently awarded NEH grant — toward a collection of fables, tentatively titled "The American Family’s Book of Fables." The book is for all ages, not just kids, and will work through the Declaration of Independence phrase by phrase, supporting and expounding the founding document with an assortment of fables, dialogues, and poems touching on American history, culture, and wildlife.

This week, Dr. Mehan was kind enough to sit down with me to discuss his forthcoming book as well as the history of children’s literature in America.

Faye Root: Could you start by telling me a bit about your background and what inspired you to write children's and family literature?

Matthew Mehan: I've always been interested in creative writing since I was a child. I wrote poetry and short stories, doodled and drew. After college, I published some poems and short stories in a few places.

But I also studied a lot of the great writers, and I noticed they were always practicing the rhetorical arts so that they could be good communicators — be of service. Guys like Cicero, Seneca, Thomas More, Chaucer, Madison, Adams. I started practicing different kinds of writing every night after work, and I started writing these poems about different sorts of imaginary beasts — fables in imitation of Socrates from Plato's "Phaedo." At the very end of his life, Socrates was turning Aesop's Fables into poetic verse.

And that became the seed of my first kids’ book, "Mr. Mehan’s Mildly Amusing Mythical Mammals." I went back for a master's in English and a Ph.D. in literature. I realized I probably needed to find a genre that doesn't expect this kind of literary public service. Children’s literature seemed like a really great place to do this. And then I started having kids as well, and I didn't like what we were doing in the kid lit space.

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Leigh Brown

FR: Couldn’t agree more. My congratulations on your Heritage Foundation Innovation Prize. Your book will be a collection of fables — could you tell me about it?

MM: The book is a direct attempt to celebrate the Semiquincentennial and to teach and reteach the Western tradition and the American principles and people. It's folk stories and traditions: “Here's what it means to be an American. Here's what you should love about America. Here — get to know America.”

It’s divided into 13 parts and works sentence by sentence through the entire Declaration of Independence. Inside each of the 13 sections are three subsections: one for littles, one for middles, and one for bigs. Each of these are tied to an explanation of what that related portion of the Declaration means. The third engine of each of the 13 sections takes you to a different ecological region of the country.

So it's not just the principles of the Semiquincentennial and the Declaration. It's also the people and the stories and the wildlife, the beautiful countryside, and all the animals and creatures God gave us.

The whole book follows one particular funny fellow, Hugh Manatee, who starts in the Everglades, and he transports his heavy bulk by all various manners of technological, very American developments around the entire country.

I wanted a book that a family can engage with no matter their level. And it's designed to be a big heirloom book for the American family to last a long time — 250 years until the 500th anniversary.

FR: Could you talk a bit more about the importance of fables in American history and how the founding generation viewed and used them?

MM: The answer is, they used them just constantly. The fable tradition goes as far back as Solomon, who uses it in the Old Testament. It’s part of our Judeo-Christian, Greco-Roman Western tradition. In fact, kind of a theme of the book is bringing back Roman Republicanism. The beast-fable tradition is very much a part of that self-governing Republican spirit. The founders knew this.

And then you have the fables of the medieval Bestiary, the early moderns, and all the way up to the last major attempt: L'Estrange, whose works were in the library of all the founding fathers. A lot of them also had Caxton. We're talking 1490s and 1700s. So they’re definitely due for an American upgrade.

A page from "Mr. Mehan's Mildly Amusing Mythical Mammals." mythicalmammals.com

FR: Your book "Mr. Mehan’s Mildly Amusing Mythical Mammals" is an abecedarian. Could you explain what an abecedarian is?

MM: An abecedarian is basically just a fancy word for an ABC book where the structure is not complicated. There’s an A-word, and then some kind of poem or story, a B-word, and then a poem or story, etc.

I did it as a kind of nod to Chaucer, whose first published work of all time was an abecedarian. It was a good, simple structure. I could do the letter blocks for the little people, and each one of the letter blocks had funny alliterative tricks. These and the illustrations were very fun for littles. But then there was higher matter happening, both in some of the poems and the glossary for the adults. So there was sort of deeper matter for adults to seize on to.

For this new book, I've broken it out. I’m being more American, more candid, so it’s clear: This part’s for littles, that part’s for middles, that other part’s for bigs.

FR: In your article “Restoring America's Founding Imagination,” you mention that “children's imaginations were not coddled in our founders’ time.” Could you speak more about that?

MM: Think, for instance, of "Grimms’ Fairy Tales." In these fables, a stepmother might cut off the hands of a child and put stone hands in place, right? "Fancy Nancy" books can't handle that level of violence. But children had to deal with really rough things then. Rough times called them out of their doldrums to attention.

Now, I'm not going to go quite full Brothers Grimm-level gruesome with this book. But there are things, especially in the "Bigs” sections, that go wrong, that are serious. Explorers get burned at the stake. Someone takes an arrow in the sternum. People get shot and killed at Bunker Hill. If you read the school books of the founding period, they're just not messing around. People die because they're foolish, and yes, even kids can die.

Illustration from "The Handsome Little Cygnet." John Folley

You’ve got to be gentle, careful, thoughtful. I try to be measured. But there's got to be ways of introducing these themes to help children be adults. I think a lot of what happens in modern kid lit — why it's not deep, why it's not serious, or rich, or lasting — is because it's so saccharine. It’s not written to call children up to something more.

And you can do that in a very fun, wacky, hilarious, enjoyable way. I try to do that. But I'm trying to mix in that there’s a moral here. It's a different mentality than most of children's books today, but it's much more in keeping with our founding generation and the kind of moral seriousness combined with levity that sustains a witty-wise Republican citizenry. And I think the American audience is really starving for this kind of very moral, witty-wise book.

FR: You emphasize the importance of wit and wisdom in your work. Specifically, why does wit matter, and what role did it play in shaping America’s early identity?

MM: In a certain sense, wit is a virtue. To be witty is to have a certain kind of pleasant humor that can manipulate language, situations — turn them on their head, get people to see something different. And that makes people laugh because mental surprises are actually the source of laughter. Aristotle’s "Nicomachean Ethics" talks about wittiness this way — as playfulness.

Wit also means being "quick" in that sense of being adroit. Adroitness is actually a constituent part of the virtue of prudence — that sort of ability to take a problem and think about it in an adroit or adept way and quickly. That's actually required for prudence.

In fact, the word “wit” in Latin means genius — to grasp something and see: “That's what we should do.” It’s that sort of clever ability to take care of your business, to be able to say, “No, I can handle this. I can think this through. I can puzzle it out. I can come up with a solution. I can invent a new idea.” Think American invention, flight, jazz, computers.

Wit is a creative energy of the imagination and the mind that helps one to rise in this world. Obviously, that has to be wed to principle, to piety, and to the higher things that cannot be compromised, the unchanging things. That marriage of wit and wisdom was something that our founding fathers knew must be done and must be done in each of us.

FR: Finally, could you talk about the illustrations in your upcoming book?

MM: Yes, my dear friend John Folley is a realist impressionist — a classically trained artist. His work mirrors both the realist classical style with some new techniques in Impressionism — particularly playing with light and the heft and weight that light creates.

John Folley at work. Mythicalmammals.com

He makes beautiful oil paintings, which he did for "Mehan’s Mammals." But he also uses a lot of the same principles in watercolor.

For this book, he’s going to do a combination of all of the types of art we've done before. We’ll have 13 major oils that introduce the animals and themes and the ecological areas of the country for each of the 13 parts. And probably one other oil: an American image of wit and wisdom and how Americans ought to pursue it.

And then we’ll have all kinds of pen and ink, computer color, watercolor, a lot of different little images basically populating the rest of the book. It’s going to be a very beautiful, hardback heirloom book. I want the American family to have something beautiful and lasting. I want their witty-wise love of God, country, and family to be helped along, so to speak, by this book.

—

"The American Family’s Book of Fables" is planned for release in May 2026 and will be available everywhere books are sold. Dr. Mehan will follow publication with a national book tour, culminating with the July 4 Semiquincentennial celebrations. For more information, keep an eye on his website.

Also be sure to check out two of Dr. Mehan’s other beloved children’s books: "Mr. Mehan's Mildly Amusing Mythical Mammals" and "The Handsome Little Cygnet."

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

Naomi Wolf continues to expose COVID vaccine: 'A depopulating technology'

Naomi Wolf's 1991 best-seller “The Beauty Myth” made her the most prominent face of so-called "third-wave feminism" and a darling of the liberal elite. The young Yale graduate and Rhodes scholar served as an adviser to both President Bill Clinton and — during his 2000 presidential run — Vice President Al Gore.

But then the COVID pandemic hit. For voicing her concerns about vaccine mandates and draconian lockdowns, Wolf found herself deplatformed from Twitter, marginalized as a so-called conspiracy theorist, and rejected by the same powerful Democrats who had once made her a star.

'A 13% to 20% drop in live births around the world, especially in Western, highly vaccinated countries.'

From Ms. to MAHA

Wolf, in turn, has left the Democrats behind. Seeing current Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. join the Trump campaign last year convinced her to endorse "the MAGA-MAHA ticket," she tells me via video call.

"I think it's a great thing for the country for these two groups of voters to be in alignment," she continues.

"What we're seeing right now ... the combination is making the Democratic Party obsolete. And as a lifelong Democrat, I wouldn't have ... said that was a good thing, except that the Democratic Party has turned into such a toxic, marginalized, self-marginalizing stew of festering special interests.”

With last year's release of “The Pfizer Papers,” based on the research of over 3,000 health care volunteers, edited by Wolf and Amy Kelly, Wolf has cemented her reputation as a courageous and supremely eloquent opponent of government overreach and globalist encroachment on public policy and free speech.

Neither safe nor effective

Wolf says that research points to the inescapable fact that Pfizer knew its vaccine was neither safe nor effective but released it on the public regardless because of an agenda that went way beyond mere corporate greed.

Wolf has sat down for this interview to discuss that research, which she recently presented before before the European Union Parliament after an invitation from German MEP Christine Anderson.

I note that Canada, too, has finally begun to question the efficacy and safety of the vaccine with the release of “Post-Covid Canada: The Rise of Unexpected Deaths” from the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms.

'My heart breaks for Canada'

For Wolf, this is a long time coming. In her view, the situation to her north is even worse than in her home country, with former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau overseeing "a horrible overall collapse of civil liberties and the rule of law ... and even basic norms of decency around life itself."

"My heart breaks for Canada all the time," Wolf continues.

“You have no Second Amendment. You have no First Amendment. People are scared — you know, when I go to Canada, people are really scared of what's going to happen to them if they are identified as critical of the government. You know, the poor truckers got de-banked and had to fight that fight back in 2022.”

Wolf describes Canada's major media as being “owned by your government," noting that “there’s been almost no coverage of 'The Pfizer Papers' in Canada."

I mention that Freedom Convoy trucker and protester Chris Barber could not only receive an eight-year sentence for “mischief" (the label the Crown has slapped on his peaceful protest), but could actually have his truck — the now iconic “Big Red” — expropriated by the Ontario provincial government and destroyed. Wolf is aghast.

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

A feature, not a bug

For her part, Wolf has not faced any legal pushback from Pfizer, despite repeatedly calling out the pharmaceutical giant for its alleged culpability in vaccine injuries and deaths.

Nor is Wolf afraid to employ a comparison even her allies may find inflammatory, likening Pfizer's "Pregnancy and Lactation" report to "Nazi science" for the cavalier way it acknowledges the human toll of the vaccines.

“I'm not equating it with Nazi atrocities as a whole, in terms of scale,” Wolf says of the eight-page report Pfizer delivered to President Biden and then-CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.

"But it's a very terrifying document, because it showcases all the deaths and injuries to women and babies that Pfizer knew their injection had brought about, and ... it seems to be communicating the damage to women's reproduction is not a bug, but a feature of the injection, like, ‘Look how effective it is.’ For instance, they've got two babies who died in utero, and Pfizer concludes that it's due to maternal exposure to the vaccine.”

Drop in live births

Wolf notes that this information did not stop Walensky from urging the vaccine on pregnant women or women intending to get pregnant in August of that year.

"So that sequence of events in itself really raises questions, because she knew this would kill babies," says Wolf, raising the specter of infamous Nazi medical experimenter Dr. Josef Mengele.

"I don't make this comparison lightly," says Wolf, who is Jewish and notes that her grandparents lost a total of eight siblings to the Holocaust. "[But the report is] very Nazi medicine in its methodology, because there are charts. And one of the characteristics of Nazi medicine is [being] meticulous about horrific crimes and suffering.”

“So there are charts in this pregnancy and lactation report that show tens of thousands of women injured menstrually; 15,000 women bleeding every day, 10,000 women bleeding twice a month ... 7,500 women with no periods at all, meaning [that they're] totally infertile."

"A 13% to 20% drop in live births around the world, especially in Western, highly vaccinated countries," Wolf says, noting that "that's the takeaway in Canada as well."

Sinister finding

So was this all about the profit margin?

“As a journalist, I try never to go beyond the evidence. … I went into the project thinking, ‘Oh, I'm going to find out that they were just greedy, or they just cut corners.’ That's not what we found at all,” Wolf says.

The truth, according to her, is far more sinister. “There are a number of data points that show that Pfizer intended to create a depopulating technology and that all the people up and down the chain of command — CDC, FDA, the president — knew," Wolf says.

"That's why I think the pregnancy and lactation report is so important, and that that was the main function — is to depopulate the West and also to create a massive scale of injury and and death, in addition to sterilization and pregnancy loss.”

Animator Tom Bancroft: From 'The Lion King' to the King of Kings

Tom Bancroft remembers the moment when the Disney magic began to wear off.

During his career at the studio, the veteran animator had helped create characters from some of Disney's biggest '90s hits: Mushu the dragon from “Mulan” and Simba from “The Lion King," to name a few. He was living every aspiring animator's dream.

'It hit me so strongly ... when kids pray from that point forward, this might be the Jesus they see in their heads.'

He also defended the company from critiques that it was indifferent or even hostile to Christianity, saying Disney simply stayed true to the story and followed it wherever it might go.

'Uncomfortable' truth

Then he worked on a 2000 short film called “John Henry,” a tale of U.S. slaves who endured the “peculiar institution.”

Faith, Bancroft tells Align, was “such an intrinsic part of that story,” something his storyboard animatics reflected. Disney brass disagreed.

“’This makes me feel uncomfortable,’” he recalls the president of animation saying at the time about its spiritual themes.

“It hit me like a ton of bricks," recalls Bancroft. "I didn’t see that coming. ... I’ve been telling everybody for years we were just staying true to the story ... we can have Mulan pray to her ancestors because that’s what they did in ancient China in that culture.”

“Now, we come to Christianity, and you’re not comfortable. It was the first time I said, ‘There’s another side to this story,’” he said.

“I didn’t know it then, but six months later, I [would leave] Disney ... I need[ed] to go use my talents and abilities for God more directly,” he says.

Seeing the 'Light'

Bancroft went on to work on the popular “Veggie Tales” franchise, as well as shows on the Christian Broadcasting Network. He's also written acclaimed books on animation, while co-hosting a popular animation podcast with his fellow animator — and twin brother — Tony.

Now, he’s brought his Disney skills to a 2D animated feature film that captures the life of Jesus Christ in a bold new way.

“Light of the World,” in theaters now, follows Christ’s story through the eyes of the youngest apostle, John (voiced by Benjamin Jacobson). That allows young viewers to experience Christ’s mission from a fresh, relatable perspective.

The film may not hail from the Mouse House’s iconic studio, but critics are praising both its sensitive storytelling and gorgeous animation. Bancroft was able to glean critical tips from the “nine old men,” the core Disney animators who helped bring the studio’s inimitable artistry to life.

“We get to put that emotion and that knowledge that we learned there [into the film] ... they were still passing down that wisdom to people like me and my brother [in the 1980s],” he says.

Finding Jesus

Bancroft played a role in bringing beloved Disney characters to life. Bringing Jesus to the big screen offered another, far more critical challenge.

“I honestly would wake up in the middle of the night ... it hit me so strongly ... when kids pray from that point forward, this might be the Jesus they see in their heads,” he says, adding his team created a Jesus figure with a skin tone darker than some previous screen incarnations.

The “Light of the World” Jesus posed another problem as a storyteller.

“Thematically, as a character in a film ... [Jesus] doesn’t really work. You want to have arcs to a character ... he’s going to question himself, he’s going to try, and he’s going to fail, and then he’s going to succeed later ... you don’t have that with Jesus,” he says. “Thankfully, we had that with John.”

Pixar/Disney

Bible stories on a budget

Working with Disney gave Bancroft access to money and resources that smaller, independent films can’t match.

“We had at least 10 at-bats ... we can miss a few times, maybe even nine times, and get it on the 10th at every level,” he says, meaning storyboard creation, vocal performances, and animation.

“I would do scenes over and over again until it was just right or just what the director wanted,” he says. “In an independent film, you have to get it right within the first one or two tries. You don’t get that many at-bats.”

The benefits, as he sees them, are considerable.

“You get to make the film you want to make,” he says, adding the film’s key financer, Matt McPherson, gave his team few guidelines beyond staying true to the Bible.

“I’ve never in 35 years had that freedom to make a movie,” he says. “We were off to the races and were loving every minute of it.”

Faith on the fast track

And he thinks more films like “Light of the World” are coming our way.

The faith-friendly genre has expanded in recent years, from “The Chosen” to 2024’s “Sound of Freedom.” Major streamers like Amazon Prime and Netflix have embraced spiritual stories, partly due to positive reactions from customers.

It’s show business, after all.

Another big difference, he says, is financial. Now, experienced storytellers who may have found themselves outside Hollywood’s creative bubble like Bancroft are getting back in the game on their terms.

“The money getting to the right people, honestly, has been the biggest difference. People don’t like to talk about that, but honestly, that’s how you make a change in Christian film,” he says.

Can true love 'Trump' our political divide? Writer/director Erik Bork is optimistic

Writer/director Erik Bork summoned the late Rodney King with his newest film.

It’s called “The Elephant in the Room,” although the subtitle could easily have been, “Can’t We All Just Get Along?”

'It made it a bigger challenge. How do you make a romantic comedy when you have that in the middle of it?'

The rom-com stars Alyssa Limperis and Sean Kleier (“Wedding Season”) as a couple staring down a near-impossible divide. She’s a dyed-in-the-wool progressive, and he voted for Donald Trump.

Twice.

Can this romance survive a very 21st-century fissure? Even more important, can a modern-day filmmaker treat conservatives fairly in a politically charged project?

Splitsville

Bork, who co-wrote “Band of Brothers” and “From the Earth to the Moon,” started worrying about the state of the union back in 2016. That, of course, marked the rise of Donald J. Trump as a political force.

The Hollywood hyphenate realized a divided nation could be fodder for a different kind of romantic comedy. Instead of fretting over dresses or ways to lose a guy, a couple could squabble about politics.

“I was starting to be convinced that polarization was a key issue in our society, maybe the key issue,” Bork tells Align. “It made me want to explore it.”

And he had a little help along the way.

Lou Rocco/Getty Images

Likeable lovebirds

A pair of emerging groups — Bridge Entertainment Labs and the Civic Health Project — counseled Bork on how to make the script less polarizing and more believable. “Elephant” marks Bridge Entertainment Labs' first foray into pop-culture fare.

“In a romantic comedy, you have to like both of the people. … Can they be both likeable and believable to both sides was a key mission,” he says. That took multiple drafts to ensure that audiences didn’t hate either lovebird.

His small cast also shared their perspectives before the cameras began to roll. Bork credits them for adding their insights to the project.

“They had thoughts and questions and concerns. … Some were playing characters very different from them. … The [film’s] ending was the result of that conversation, that negotiation,” he says.

Affection insurrection

“The Elephant in the Room” is set just before the events of Jan. 6, 2021, one of the most heated political moments in recent memory.

“It was the most dramatic thing,” he says. “It made it a bigger challenge. How do you make a romantic comedy when you have that in the middle of it?”

It’s easy to point a finger at the cultural forces pitting American against American these days. Bork singles out news outlets and politicians who “keep us polarized and make us assume the people on the other side are the most extreme, lockstep version of what we imagine them to be.”

Bork told a story with specific themes ripped from today’s headlines, but he tried not to make a rom-com equivalent of a white paper.

“I want people to enjoy the story, a comedic and heartfelt experience, and have the other stuff be secondary, but the other stuff is important to me,” he says. “It’s not a documentary, and I’m not a social change agent. There’s no call to action.”

Wrong-com?

That said, he hopes the film lets viewers empathize with those who voted the “wrong” way last November.

“It’s about humanizing your interactions with people and having some generosity and curiosity about each other,” he said.

And he knows that can be a tall task.

“Yeah, it’d be nice to get along better, but they’re terrible. They’re stupid and evil,” he said, imagining what some might say about his film’s larger themes.

Bork can’t speak for Hollywood in general, an industry dominated by left-leaning views and an unofficial blacklist against some right-leaning artists. He can share some early screening reactions, which gave him hope about the film’s impact.

He knows plenty of Americans would enter the film with their arms ideologically crossed. He’s seen it up close.

“This is the wrong time for this … a movie that humanizes a Trump supporter,” as he puts it. For some viewers, though, the central love story won them over.

“But I’ve had people watch the movie who I know basically have that feeling … then when they watch it, [they say] ‘this was great and we need this, even though it doesn’t change my view of that man,’” meaning the 45th and 47th president, of course.

Making “The Elephant in the Room” gave Bork a fresh perspective, too. The left-leaning director says working with the aforementioned nonprofits let him examine his beliefs and news feeds.

“I’m trying to notice if I’m in an echo chamber,” he said, “and if I’m consuming things that the whole point is to get me angry or depressed.

“I try to go issue by issue [now] ... and be curious to understand, which I wasn’t before as much,” he adds.

Exclusive: India train bagpiper banned from TikTok speaks out: 'Can we be proud of our past?'

A Scottish bagpiper has received a bounty of backlash after going viral with videos promoting Western culture in foreign countries.

At just 20 years old, Robin Alderslowe decided to travel around the world and spread Scottish music with a desire to keep his culture alive, a culture he says faces constant pressure to water down its customs and history.

'The most core thing about fixing immigration is fixing our own attitudes toward our own self.'

The Scot visited countries like South Korea and Australia, but it was only when he began sharing content from India that he started garnering a following and, with it, a mountain of resistance.

Not only did Alderslowe start receiving social media bans, but he noticed that a lot of discontent he was generating was coming from, surprisingly, his own people.

Receptive audience

In an exclusive interview with Blaze News, the bagpiper said that while people are often "shocked" and unable to make sense of his presence in countries like India, it is not the native population that takes issue with his content.

"Normally, people think the confused faces of Indian people means they're angry, but they're quite pleased to have me there," Alderslowe explained.

Instead, other Scots have labeled him a racist. Alderslowe shared a story from all the way in Australia, where he met a Scottish woman who recognized him from his viral videos. The young woman chastised him and called him an "a**hole" and a "Nazi."

Bagpipers divided

Moreover, bagpipe players in his own country have excommunicated him from where he used to play. The thriving busking community on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland, is rich in history and was born out of ex-military members playing for pay. But since his videos have pulled big numbers, bagpipers have disowned Alderslowe due to tourists constantly "asking about that 'racist' bagpiper."

"I can't play there anymore,' Alderslowe said of his home country.

When asked if he is just trying to find his place in the world and spread his music without a message, Alderslowe confirmed, it is about culture, and it is about immigration.

RELATED: The Trump effect: Americans — not foreigners — continue to gain jobs

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"The most important thing surrounding what it means for an immigrant to come to our country, and whether that's good or bad, is our culture and how they're integrating into our culture," Alderslowe explained.

Scot free

To the young man, what's really important, "and really upsetting," is how Westerners are taught that being proud and happy about their own culture is wrong.

"We're saying things like, 'White people don't have any culture,' and to me, the most core thing about fixing immigration is fixing our own attitudes toward our own self, our heritage, our history, and our culture."

He added, "Us as Europeans ... can we be proud of our past, and how can we say that?"

If you ask him, much of the backlash Alderslowe is receiving is because he is not acting stereotypically "British."

See on Instagram

After years of being told to lessen his Scottish accent and avoid the typical image of a "shortbread tin" Scot, Alderslowe explained that being "loud" is the only way timid Scottish folk are going to be able to keep their proud culture.

"If you ask somebody in Scotland if they're proud of their culture, they'll say, 'Of course I am.' It's about the way that I'm saying it. It's that I'm being aggressive, and I'm being loud, and I'm being proud of it in another country," the bagpiper described. "That's why they're claiming it's 'white supremacist' or 'Nazi' and associating it with extremism because British people aren't like that, we're not [loud] like that."

President Donald Trump (R) and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (L). Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP

Goa for it

Calling the kilt-wearer racist for his content would be pretty far off given his track record. In February, one of Alderslowe's social media posts made the rounds in Indian media after he and a few friends were allowed to skip the line at a popular club in Goa and get in for free.

Locals were outraged that they had to wait outside while foreigners got in immediately in order to attract a broader customer base.

These local sentiments have not been enough to keep Alderslowe out of the crosshairs of social media outlets, though.

Photo from Robin Alderslowe

Kilt-y by association

Much of Alderslowe's communication on social sites has been stymied due to constant suspensions, restrictions, and limitation of functions from the platforms. On Instagram, he has had his ability to post and send private messages restricted for weeks, including when arranging an interview.

"I'm permanently banned from TikTok and cannot appeal," Alderslowe also revealed.

Between "making no revenue" and booking flights to Africa, the young adult said he is looking for ways to spread his cultural message to the public. He expressed a desire to collaborate with others to help showcase their own cultures in their own countries, too.

"If we want to keep our culture the way that it is ... then we have to be proud of [that] culture and say it in a loud way."

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Adam Carolla rips California rebuilding red tape: 'Everything's in triplicate'

Adam Carolla tried to warn us.

The contractor turned podcast star spent years telling Californians how hard it is to build anything in the Golden State. Decades, to be more accurate.

Carolla calls politicians like Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass 'somewhere between incompetent and nefarious.'

It’s a red-tape nightmare under one-party rule, Carolla cautioned.

Now, six months after wildfires devastated large swaths of the greater L.A. area, locals are learning that lesson the excruciating way.

No progress in 'progressive'

Carolla is tracking the rebuilding effort, or lack thereof, on his podcasts and YouTube channel.

“You don’t get how pernicious these regulations are. Everything’s in triplicate. It makes it really hard to build stuff,” Carolla says.

He hates being right, but so far, the state’s Democratic machinery has proved to be as slow as predicted. He can see the results — or lack thereof.

“I’ve scoured the place on almost a daily basis,” the California native tells Align of looking for signs of construction in the afflicted areas. “There are a couple of structures, maybe three I’ve seen in the Palisades area being rebuilt. Zero in Malibu that I’ve seen.”

Newsom has suspended some environmental restrictions to allow for speedier recovery efforts, but even the left-leaning Wired admitted the progress has been agonizing.

Home-building chops

Carolla, who flexed his home-building chops on his “Catch a Contractor” TV show, knows the visual cues that accompany a work site. Flatbed trucks. Stacks of plywood. Cement mixers.

All of the above are in short supply, he laments.

The hard-working comic started a new YouTube-based series chronicling the rebuilding process. “The Malibu Fires: 6 Months Later” video generated more than 900,000 views in two weeks along with 4,600 comments.

He’s struck a nerve following the wildfires, but it’s a lament he began during his days co-hosting the syndicated “Loveline” radio show in the 1990s with Dr. Drew Pinsky.

“Nobody ever gave a s**t about what I said,” he recalls.

Early warning

Carolla broached the subject anew after leaving his Malibu home in early January. He recorded a raw, 45-minute monologue from a hotel room that day, and it swiftly went viral.

“Be prepared to deal with the city of Los Angeles, the red tape, the coastal commission,” he recalls saying at the time. He added insurance nightmares would only complicate the rebuilding efforts.

Carolla interviews a crush of personalities on “The Adam Carolla Show,” from celebrities to influencers. He even quizzed then-Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2013, a hardball Q&A that left the future governor reeling.

Out of office

The Democrat isn’t likely to revisit their chat, and Carolla assumes other state Democrats will avoid his podcast studio, too. He calls politicians like Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass “somewhere between incompetent and nefarious.”

“They’re process people. They don’t know how to build anything,” he says. "[Bass] didn’t get elected to do this. She wants to fight ICE.”

Mario Tama/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Carolla cracks wise for a living, but highlighting the California rebuilding process is no laughing matter. Some could consider his commentary “clapter,” the kind of political banter that plagues the now-canceled “Late Show” with Stephen Colbert.

Carolla makes sure to bring some wit to his monologues.

Room for humor

“I use half my comedic brain and half my construction brain,” he says, understanding that lives have been disrupted, or much worse, by the fires. “My job is to be accurate.”

He relies on a tried-and-true comic technique to broach the challenging subject.

“If you watch the vlogs, the humor is I’m the butt of the joke ... so as long as I’m the one who ends up looking foolish, there’s always room for some humor,” he says.

Carolla isn’t hopeful that the rebuilding efforts will suddenly pick up, mostly based on local restrictions. The state is still a relentlessly blue region, although for fellow Los Angelenos, the fires represent a “rock bottom” moment where voting preferences might change.

Might.

“I don’t know about California,” he says. “There’s still a broad Democratic stupidity that goes on in this state.”

Carolla already has his sights set on Nevada as his future home, but he sees a glimmer of hope for the Golden State.

He recalls spending time with the Army Corps of Engineers and has faith in the American people rolling up their sleeves when given the chance.

“When the workforce is unleashed, they’re pretty miraculous,” he says.

Pistol-packing rabbi targets anti-Semitism in action flick 'Guns & Moses'

Director Salvador Litvak brought "Guns & Moses" to a Jewish film festival in Atlanta earlier this year, and an audience member gave him an earful.

The film follows Rabbi Mo Zaltzman (Mark Feuerstein), who becomes proficient in using firearms after a gunman targets his synagogue.

'Now, in the Jewish community, the term "survivor" has a new meaning on top of the Holocaust — survivors of those kibbutzim on the border [of Israel].'

"I don't have a question. I have a statement. ... This is not what we need. This is not how we fight — with guns. We fight with a pen," Litvak recalls the woman telling him during a post-screening Q&A.

"Ma'am, I 100% agree with you. Articles, editorials, speeches. We need to be doing that the best that we can to fight anti-Semitism and to build alliances with our friends and supporters," Litvak told her.

"But when a bad guy enters a synagogue intent on killing people, then you need a guy like me and a guy like Rabbi Mo ... to stand between you and that would-be murderer," he continued.

Protect and serve

Litvak, an Orthodox Jew, is part of Magen Am, a volunteer security organization that trains Jews to protect their communities.

"The crowd applaude. ... You could see it was so difficult for her," the "Saving Lincoln" filmmaker said about the exchange.

Pictures from the Fringe/Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

"Guns & Moses" — co-starring Neal McDonough, Dermot Mulroney, and Christopher Lloyd — offers a timely look at Jews fighting back via the Second Amendment. Litvak, who co-wrote the film with wife Nina Litvak, wrapped production before the Oct. 7 attacks.

The Jewish community already understood all too well the threats against it. Post-October 7, the film's sobering message hits harder.

'Good and meaningful'

Litvak says he decided to make a thriller as his next feature back in 2019. He began watching a classic thriller every day to study the best of the best. Then he read about a California synagogue shooting that killed member Lori Gilbert-Kaye.

Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein survived the assault but lost two fingers in the melee. Litvak later interviewed the rabbi.

Goldstein had asked people to make something “good and meaningful” from the tragedy, the director recalls.

"I was very moved by that," he said, and "Guns & Moses" was born.

Fear of faith

The director assembled a sturdy cast, including veteran thesp Lloyd, who plays a Holocaust survivor. Litvak landed on the "Back to the Future" alum — who hired a dialect coach to get his Eastern European accent just right — after being rejected by a series of "very big names of a certain age."

"This older Hollywood [community] is very afraid of faith. ... It's like a peanut allergy for them," said Litvak, whose mother and grandmother survived the Holocaust.

He faced more roadblocks while sharing the rough cut around Hollywood. He recalls screening the footage for a "big agent" who predicted the film would clean up on streaming platforms.

Litvak gently told him he saw the title as a theatrical release, adding that the film's audience will be not just Jewish patrons but Christians and conservatives.

"What are you talking about? Those people hate Jews," he recalls the agent saying.

"My jaw was on the floor. ... Have you ever met the people you fly over? Obviously, you don't know them. I know they support the Jewish people. I don't think this is news."

Shattering stereotypes

The exchange stuck with Litvak.

"This guy is so out of touch. Hollywood in general is so out of touch with half of America," he said.

He hopes "Guns & Moses," which opens in cinemas today, shows the power of self-defense in uncertain times. He also wants the movie to shatter Jewish stereotypes.

"It's a faith-based movie. It's an action thriller, which isn't a typical genre within the faith-based [genre]. It's about an orthodox rabbi who takes his faith seriously. ... It's not about a nebbishy or neurotic Jew,' he said.

"[Judaism] is a beautiful tradition that has so much to share. It's very important to us to smash those stereotypes."

"Guns & Moses" takes firearm training seriously. It's not a matter of showing the hero knocking over a few tin cans in a slick montage.

"In the real world — God forbid you're ever under pressure and in danger and you have to draw a firearm and use it — to hit the bad guy and not hit innocent people ... takes not just skill but muscle memory," he said.

'Never again,' again

The film's subject matter meant Litvak's team had to work around the Hollywood system, not benefit from it.

"We knew that no studio was going to make this movie," he said. What he couldn't foresee was a massacre on the scale that Hamas committed two years ago.

Photo by Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images

"We always thought [the topic] would be relevant. ... Now, in the Jewish community, the term 'survivor' has a new meaning on top of the Holocaust — survivors of those kibbutzim on the border [of Israel]," he says.

That, plus the "overt" anti-Semitism on college campuses nationwide, rocked him.

"It was at least considered inappropriate or impolite to call for the death of Jews on national TV," he said. "Democrats will not walk back support for 'globalize the intifada,'" he added, alluding to New York City mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani.

"We're living in such times," he said. "'Never again' means we have to take responsibility for our safety."

Dean Cain scores with family-friendly sports flick 'Little Angels'

Dean Cain’s father gave his son valuable advice at the dawn of his Hollywood career.

“Don’t tell too much about yourself in interviews. Let them watch you on screen,” Cain recalls his father, veteran director Christopher Cain (“Young Guns,” “Pure Country”), sharing with him at the start of his Hollywood career.

'My closest friends are teammates from Princeton,' he says. 'I know what they’re made of. ... You learn so much about people by being teammates with them.'

Dean Cain heeded Dad’s wisdom … to a point.

Cain learned firsthand the inequities of the nation’s divorce laws while fighting for joint custody of his then-young son. Later, he traveled the globe and gained perspective on his home country’s woes.

It’s why he started speaking up on important issues and sharing his right-leaning views. It also explains his pivot to independent film projects over the past decade.

“I’m sure it affected my career,” Cain tells Align of his political views. It’s a risk he was willing to take. “Not speaking up is crazy to me. … If you have something to say, speak the truth and hopefully make the world a better place.”

From Superman to soccer coach

Cain continues to work steadily on film and TV projects, from faith-kissed stories (“God’s Not Dead: In God We Trust”) to his latest feature, an underdog sports story he wrote and directed.

“Little Angels" opened nationwide earlier this month and continues to expand to new theaters — thanks to a feature on its website allowing users to request a screening in their area.

The movie finds Cain playing a disgraced football coach forced to oversee a girls' soccer team. It’s the ultimate indignity for his character until he sets his mind to turning this ragtag bunch of athletes into winners.

Cain’s fans may find his foray into screenwriting surprising, but he’s been telling stories ever since he was a boy. The “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” alum recalls his father nudging him to tap his creative side.

A writer at heart

“My dad started me as a writer,” Cain recalls, and he warmed to the task. “We’d go on vacation at our ranch house, and when it was raining, instead of watching TV I’d make up stories about our family.”

He later wrote episodes of “Lois & Clark,” but his bustling acting career took precedence. “The demands on my time were intense,” he recalls.

“Little Angels” allowed him to tap into that skill set, and along the way he leaned on the classic writing maxim.

Write what you know.

Pinnacle Peak Pictures

Team player

Cain was a first-team All-American and two-time first-team All-Ivy for Princeton in the late 1980s and had a brief NFL career with the Buffalo Bills before a knee injury ended his gridiron dreams. He also ran track at Princeton and was its volleyball captain.

He assembled his youthful cast amid pandemic restrictions, forcing him to skip chemistry reads and trust his instincts. The young girls bonded on the set, becoming faux teammates and real friends along the way.

Cain knows the feeling.

“My closest friends are teammates from Princeton,” he says. “I know what they’re made of, what they’re like in stressful situations. I know what their characters are like. You learn so much about people by being teammates with them.”

“It’s akin to what happens in the movie. They learn to stick up for each other,” he adds.

'Truth, justice, and the American way'

Cain’s “Superman” days remain an indelible part of his legacy, and he remains invested in the character. He’s hoping James Gunn’s “Superman,” opening July 11, captures the Man of Steel he modeled his own performance on — the "aw, shucks" Christopher Reeve version seen in four films.

Lou Perez

“He’s my Superman,” he says of the late actor, who captured the essence of the DC Comics superhero, a fictional character who means plenty to Cain. “He is truth and justice and the American way. That is really important. Hard work. Dedication. Being honorable. … I know it’s cynical now, but it still plays and resonates with many.”

“Little Angels” marks Cain’s feature-length directorial debut, but he’s been soaking up information from film sets for decades.

“I watched [my dad] go through his process as a director. He’d have to make his movies on a shoestring budget,” he says, adding that family members helped flesh out scenes along the way. He recalls his uncle holding a boom mic to make some scenes possible.

“I’ve always been around it,” he says of the filmmaking craft. Now, he can’t wait to do it again.

“I’m hooked. I want to keep doing it,” he says. “I like the process. It didn’t feel much like work.”

'The American Miracle' reveals God's hand in nation's founding

Less grievance. More gratitude.

That was the motto guiding film scholar and talk show host Michael Medved as he wrote “The American Miracle," his 2016 tome exploring the providential moments that helped create the freest country in human history. The subject proved so vast that the author penned a companion book, “God's Hand on America: Divine Providence in the Modern Era.”

'One of the very few things they agreed on completely … was divine providence, the invisible hand. Washington used that phrase in the first inaugural address.'

Almost a decade later, we're drowning in grievance, while gratitude remains in short supply. A perfect time for Medved's book to reach the big screen.

No accident

“The American Miracle” hits theaters June 9-11, courtesy of Fathom Entertainment. The docudrama features recognizable names like Kevin Sorbo and Pat Boone, but the true stars are Washington, Lincoln, and Franklin.

The movie, subtitled, “Our Nation Is No Accident,” argues that God’s hand worked in mysterious ways to boost the country’s creation.

“I’ve been living with this idea of divine providence,” Medved tells Align, recalling pre-recorded history segments on his long-running radio program. “The most popular episode, ‘God’s Hand on America,’ gave rise to the book.”

Years later, it seemed like the right moment to bring its message to theaters nationwide.

The movie shares amazing stories tied to the country’s birth, including the many near-death experiences George Washington survived before becoming the nation’s first president.

Early in Washington’s life, he fought alongside the British and was the only horseback officer to survive a harrowing battle. “His hat was shot through with bullets, and two horses were shot out from under him. He was unscathed,” Medved shared.

No sugarcoating

The film doesn’t sugarcoat the Founding Fathers but puts them in spiritual context.

“At no point do we suggest the people you meet in the film are perfect human beings. … They were a remarkable group of human beings,” he says. “One of the very few things they agreed on completely … was divine providence, the invisible hand. Washington used that phrase in the first inaugural address.”

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Medved recalls a sermon from Presbyterian Minister Samuel Davies that echoed that sentiment.

“I cannot but hope Providence has hitherto preserved [him] in so signal a manner for some important service to his country.”

“The American Miracle” blends re-enactments with historical experts to buttress Medved’s arguments.

“Some of the leading historians in the country take the idea of divine providence very seriously,” he says.

Avoiding polarization

Medved’s conservative thinking is part of his brand, along with an extensive career as a film critic. He worked alongside fellow critic Jeffrey Lyons on the 1980s PBS show “Sneak Previews,” taking over for original hosts Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert.

His personal politics aside, Medved still didn’t want “The American Miracle” to embrace a partisan ethos. The film’s array of experts, including Robert P. George, Joseph Ellis, and Jana Novak, offer some ideological diversity. That includes contributions from Oscar winner Richard Dreyfuss.

The Hollywood icon is no rock-ribbed conservative. He’s left-leaning but a patriot who promotes a better understanding of the country’s founding principles via his Dreyfuss Civics Initiative.

“We tried to avoid some of the polarization that has been poisoning our politics,” Medved says of the film. “[Dreyfuss] has been a friend of mine for many years, since high school. He has made a passionate cause of civics and teaching civics.”

Part of “The American Miracle” explores the role black soldiers played in the American Revolution, fighting on behalf of the patriots. It’s hardly the kind of material one expects in a 21st-century film. Hollywood narratives wouldn’t allow it, but the historical facts remain.

Medved called their contributions “indispensable."

Spotlight on the founding

Medved’s decades-long media career allowed him to watch the pop-culture transformation up close. He hails the new wave of choice in media circles, be it podcasts or new media platforms offering something different from what legacy media outlets provide.

“Today, depending on what your own obsession or interest is, there’s something there for you. Generally, we all spend too much time on mass media,” he says. “However, the advantage today is that there is a great deal of choice.”

That also holds for the pop-culture realm. Medved brings up the crush of stories tied to the American Civil War, from feature films to the celebrated “Civil War” docuseries from PBS mainstay Ken Burns.

What’s missing? More cinematic takes on the country’s Revolutionary War and astounding origins. That’s where “The American Miracle” comes in.

“It hasn’t gotten the same kind of attention. There’s no equivalent of ‘Birth of a Nation’ or ‘Gone with the Wind’ or ‘Glory,’” he says.