Episode 191 - Testimony Series: Letting God Write Your Story - with Gigi Wilcox
This episode is a part of our December testimony Series. Gigi Wilcox shares her journey of discovering her passion for filmmaking through divine inspiration and guidance. At 14, she was unsure of her future, but a series of events led her to realize God's plan for her. Watching 'The Chosen' with her family, she identified the powerful impact storytelling could have. Inspired to create a show about American history and the founding fathers, she felt God guiding her steps, including a surprising parallel with Director John Irwin's project, 'Founders.' Gigi emphasizes the importance of seeking God's guidance in one's path and highlights her efforts to use filmmaking for His glory.
Bio:
A homeschool graduate from Clint, Texas whose biggest mission is following God’s creative Will, GiGi is fully invested into the study and practice of biblical storytelling, especially via cinematography, directing, and screenwriting. She has taught thoughtful high school classes on art and worldviews, directed short films to alight truth-seeking fires in her community, and continues responding to God’s progressing opportunities to tell stories through both her own growing films and by organizing youth to embrace Godly character through creative realism.
The Faith & Family Filmmakers podcast helps filmmakers who share a Christian worldview stay in touch, informed, and inspired. Releasing new episodes every week, we interview experts from varying fields of filmmaking; from screenwriters, actors, directors, and producers, to film scorers, talent agents, and distributors.
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Produced by Geoffrey Whitt for the Faith and family Filmmakers Association
Copyright 2024 Ivan Ann Productions
Transcripts
Gigi:
Hello, my name is Gigi Wilcox and for the past few years I have been thinking a lot about the question, do I let God write my story?
Gigi:
I think every filmmaker, especially, and of course, every other person on the planet should really take this question into account.
Gigi:
I'm 19 years old.
Gigi:
I'm from Clint, Texas, the El Paso area, and when I was about 14 years old, I really had no idea what I was going to do.
Gigi:
I was constantly changing my mind, thinking about, oh, what am I gonna do someday when I grow up?
Gigi:
And I wasn't really letting God decide.
Gigi:
It took this kind of crazy wake up call from the Lord, I think to kind of set me on the path that I believe he wants for me.
Gigi:
One evening I was watching the chosen with my family and I stopped and I just, I noticed how well it could actually connect the audience to the truth, to history, and I thought that was so distinguishable and different than, than most things out there and really impactful.
Gigi:
That was the first time I just realized, whoa, filmmaking has a cool purpose.
Gigi:
Now I absolutely love American history.
Gigi:
A kindhearted doctor I once met gave me a founder's Bible, if anyone's heard of that, out of the blue, brand new.
Gigi:
And I've just been studying it, learning about how God has just made some amazing things happen in my own country right here that just go unnoticed.
Gigi:
And it's so sad, and I would love to see people grow closer to God by understanding his place in recent history.
Gigi:
I was watching that show and I noticed how well the history could be connected, and I thought to myself, oh, wouldn't it be awesome if there was a show that was like that, but about American history and about the founding Fathers, the whole founding era.
Gigi:
And I started imagining it in my head and I started planning and I thought, oh, it's gonna be called Founders and it will be my show someday.
Gigi:
And.
Gigi:
I share this to be totally honest about how amazing God just speaks to everyone, because this really touched my heart, a totally pivotal event for me in my life.
Gigi:
I pictured scenes at the Constitutional Convention.
Gigi:
I could already picture the color grading.
Gigi:
I could see it all, um, either Jefferson or Washington standing in the midst to all of the delegates in the middle with like a concerned look on his face.
Gigi:
Then I just held that assumption that someday, somehow God would work wonders with that and bring me there.
Gigi:
Right?
Gigi:
It was about a year and a half later things, little messages from God about not planning things ahead.
Gigi:
Right.
Gigi:
All in the course of like a few weeks started kind of touching my heart and I was like, whoa.
Gigi:
One of those moments being, um, hearing Director Jenkins of the chosen, describing how the chosen got started in the first place.
Gigi:
Uh, it's not my job to feed the 5,000 just to provide loaves and fish, and that just spoke to me for a moment.
Gigi:
Like, how does that, what does that mean to me?
Gigi:
And it all made sense.
Gigi:
Later on, a week later, my grandmother and my dad both text me on the same day to turn on the radio and go Listen to this guy.
Gigi:
They thought I'd be interested in on the radio.
Gigi:
Turns out it was Director John Irwin and he was talking about his new.
Gigi:
Um, show he was announcing, uh, in partnership with Angel Studios that was going to be produced called Founders.
Gigi:
And it was gonna be all about connecting history, kind of inspired like the chosen about the founding fathers and God's history that's going unknown.
Gigi:
And I was like, whoa, that's amazing.
Gigi:
And that's kind of crazy in the same sense, but I mean, I guess lots of people probably had that idea maybe.
Gigi:
Then I looked it up.
Gigi:
I looked up this website and the concept image was actually the same picture that I had from my head.
Gigi:
Thomas Jefferson standing amidst the delegates with a concerned look on his face or something, and like the whole color grading of it all.
Gigi:
I was like, whoa, that is freaky.
Gigi:
Honestly, I was, there was a moment I was, I was kind of disappointed, right.
Gigi:
Because I was in this state of mind that was thinking I knew what God's plan was going to be.
Gigi:
Right?
Gigi:
We all get that sometimes.
Gigi:
I didn't know what to do for a moment, and so I was telling my family about it.
Gigi:
I'm like, what do you think of this?
Gigi:
This is like a weird coincidence, right?
Gigi:
And they all gave me hints that maybe it's something you should keep thinking about or something.
Gigi:
And so it took me finally sitting down and saying, what are you trying to tell me?
Gigi:
God?
Gigi:
And.
Gigi:
It finally clicked.
Gigi:
It's not my job, right?
Gigi:
To feed the 5,000.
Gigi:
All of these things.
Gigi:
I was going through all of these questions about what to do next.
Gigi:
God sends the calls, he does the miracles, and we get to be instruments of that, and that's what's so amazing.
Gigi:
Don't put all the pressure on myself.
Gigi:
I was so happy.
Gigi:
Then afterwards.
Gigi:
Getting to just be excited that that project was happening.
Gigi:
Right.
Gigi:
Even another little providential note of the story was I was even praying for, um, Mr. Kelsey Grammar to, to help him be a part of that project.
Gigi:
Then from then on, um, just with his passion and, and knowledge for history, and now I just saw the trailer for a young Washington, I believe that's what the, the project's turned into now, and saw that he became part of it too.
Gigi:
I'm like, oh my gosh, that actually happened.
Gigi:
Wow.
Gigi:
So how then does all of this translate into my God story about filmmaking?
Gigi:
I'm sharing with you.
Gigi:
Well, from the bottom of my heart, I can tell you from experience that I was a kid who was worried about my future.
Gigi:
And through a growing interest in filmmaking, God showed me his path, how I could grow.
Gigi:
My God story is that God spoke to me about the art of storytelling, honestly, and that's why I am doing this.
Gigi:
So he taught me to start listening to his calls and not just listen to my own that I give myself.
Gigi:
So now I'm doing everything I can to follow through on the jobs he gives me from a local academy to mission outreaches.
Gigi:
I'm doing what I can to use film for his glory, and I speak to every kid out there.
Gigi:
Everyone in my generation who's ever wondered, what am I gonna do someday?
Gigi:
What's next in my plan?
Gigi:
Stop and ask.
Gigi:
What do you want me to do?
Gigi:
God, I'm here.
Gigi:
You have the best story written for me, better than I could ever write for myself.
