Episode 203 - Hard Faith Fest LA 2026 - with Spencer Folmar

In this special bonus episode of the Faith and Family Filmmakers Podcast, your host Geoffrey Whitt welcomes Spencer Folmar who shares the details about the upcoming Hard Faith Film Festival in Los Angeles. Spencer shares the origins of Hard Faith Films and defines “Hard Faith” as faith-centered storytelling that addresses difficult, realistic topics often avoided in traditional faith films. Hard Faith Fest 2026 runs June 25–28 at Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena with the theme “Do Not Fear,” featuring four days of screenings (50+ projects), workshops, panels, musical performances, a ticketed Pitch Fest, after parties, an awards show (40+ awards), and Sunday worship and prayer. Get all the details about the festival and updates at hardfaithfest.com. We have a special listener discount code: HFF26LA50 will give you 50% off a four-day pass.

Highlights include:

• Origins of Hard Faith
• Defining Hard Faith
• Overview of Spencers Films
• Festival Theme Do Not Fear
• Festival Growth and Venue
• Travel and Hotel Tips
• Four Day Schedule Breakdown
• Speaker Lineup
• Partnership and Invitation
• Dates, Website, Socials, and Discount Code

Hard Faith Fest is dedicated to showcasing films that tell stories of liberation, resilience, and the human experience. Our mission is to provide a platform for independent filmmakers, screenwriters, and artists to share their unique perspectives and connect with a diverse audience. Through the power of storytelling, we aim to inspire, educate, and provoke meaningful conversations.

https://www.hardfaithfest.com

Use Discount Code HFF26LA50 to get 50% off a four-day pass.

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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Jaclyn's Book - In the Beginning, Middle and End: A Screenwriter’s Observations of LIfe, Character, and God: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D9R7XS9V

Produced by Geoffrey Whitt for Faith and Family Filmmakers Association https://www.faffassociation.com/

Faith and Family Filmmakers Association is sponsored by Rediscover Television https://www.rediscoverfamily.tv/

Hey there.

Welcome to the Faith & Family Filmmakers Podcast.

I'm Geoff, and I'm excited to be back with you today and to with Spencer

Folmar from Hard Faith Film Festival.

We're looking forward to that coming up real soon.

Hey, Geoff.

So glad to be on the show.

Love, Faith, and Family Filmmakers.

Love to be back on the podcast and can't wait to talk to you about Hard Faith

Film Festival year four in Los Angeles

Awesome.

I'm gonna do a quick, intro to the festival.

Hard Faith Fest is dedicated to showcasing films and telling stories

of liberation, resilience, and the

human

experience.

Our mission is to provide a platform for independent filmmakers, screenwriters, and

artists to share their unique perspectives and connect with a diverse audience

Through the power of storytelling.

we aim to inspire, educate, and

provoke meaningful conversations.

That

is

Hard Faith Film Fest.

But I wanna go back for a second, Spencer,

because I know,

uh, Hard Faith Films and your whole journey with this

title, that subject goes back, I'm guessing, before the

festival started four years ago.

Yes, sir. Um, Hard Faith as a company started while I was in seminary

back in two thousand and eleven.

Um, and it was formed at that time, November 11th, two thousand eleven,

and it's been going ever since.

And here we are 15 years later.

Um, it started making feature films.

Um, we have created about five feature films in the Hard Faith space.

We're looking at also doing documentaries.

We've done some short films.

And four years ago, four and a half years ago, we started thinking about

making a film festival around Hard Faith, because every time we released

a Hard Faith film, we had so many filmmakers reach out, um, whenever we

would have press or whenever we would distribute the film or release it.

And other filmmakers said, "You know, I like what you're doing.

I like the Hard Faith genre.

We're also trying to make films in this space," or, "We'd like to make

films in this space." And so we, we just had a growing list of people that

have been interested and supporters of Hard Faith as a genre and, and

as a, you know, and in our films.

And then we decided, kinda taking a leap of faith, let's start a film festival

and see how many submissions we get.

And honestly, Geoff, I didn't know that first year if we would have

enough films to even show one day.

I didn't know what kind of submissions we would get.

Obviously, I didn't even know if people understood what Hard Faith was and wasn't.

Um, but even that first year, um, it was a one-day film festival on

Sunset Boulevard Four years ago, and I was really blown away by how many

quality submissions we had and how, how passionate people were about Hard

Faith and telling these kind of stories.

Okay.

So since we're talking about it, uh, tell us what "Hard Faith" is to you.

Yeah.

You know, it really connects a lot to my personal story.

I didn't grow up in the church.

I didn't grow up a Christian.

I converted, um, after college, and yet I was always a filmmaker.

Um, from a very young age, I knew I always wanted to make film, but then

after conversion, I realized that the purpose of my life wasn't to glorify

myself, but it was to glorify God.

And so my entire perspective and purpose in life changed.

And so I wanted to make films now that would hopefully glorify

God and bring people to know Him because it is a terrible darkness

living without God in this world.

Um, and so I started watching-- I, I never even heard of a faith-based film

before conversion, and so I started watching what was known as faith-based

films, you know, 16, 17 years ago.

And obviously, it's changed and evolved since then, not

entirely, but in a lot of ways.

And whenever I watched a lot of those faith-based films, um, I didn't connect

with the story, I didn't connect with the character, and I didn't--

I especially didn't connect with the environment or the reality in which

they set these films because so often I'm a f-- I, I am concerned that a lot

of faith films are set in a reality that is so censored or seen through

such rosy-colored glasses that none of us have ever experienced life on Earth

in, in, such a world as it is depicted in a lot of these faith narratives.

And what I wanted to do as soon as I saw these faith-based films, um, after

conversion, is I wanted to make films that would reach me before conversion and also

encourage people to reach out to those still suffering in darkness and, and those

too that are just carrying a heavy load or still suffering inside the church as well.

And so we wanted to tackle topics that aren't traditionally talked about from

the pulpit and aren't traditionally tackled by h- uh, faith-based films.

And so we started Hard Faith as a way to start conversations

to hopefully reach the lost.

Not the 99 sheep, but that one sheep that Christ went after.

So just before

we go into, uh, what we're here for, that's talking about the

festival, tell us about your films.

Uh, just briefly, name them and tell us what they're about.

Yeah.

Our mission statement since our founding has been telling stories that liberate,

and we believe that the number one that people-- way that people can get free

from whatever is, um, a heavy burden to them is Christ and his gospel and,

you know, his, his burden is light.

It is not heavy.

Um, and so our films tackle heavy subjects.

One we tackled on the opioid epidemic.

It was called Shooting Heroin.

Our first real theatrically released and, um, heavily discussed and

had a lot of press around it, our, our, big-- first big Hard Faith

film was called Generational Sins.

It's about two brothers who returned home to reconcile with

their alcoholic and abusive father.

And then the most recent film that I had the pleasure of working with you on

is called The Days Are Evil, which we just wrapped principal photography on,

and this is the first of three films on the topic of suicide prevention.

Yeah.

Well, I did enjoy being with you there.

I appreciate the opportunity to help with the sound there, um, on the set of "Days

Are Evil" just a couple of weeks ago.

Just a couple weeks ago.

It feels like just yesterday we were on set together.

Yeah, 'cause you're still up to your elbows in, in… Well,

just getting started in editing, so

I sure

not behind you.

No, it'll be living with me for years.

But, uh, it's a, it's a wonderful film,

and you were a wonderful part of the crew, and we had a amazing cast and

crew, and everyone really believed in what we were doing, and I think it's

really gonna be a powerful movie that will hopefully help a lot of people.

Yeah.

And, uh, speaking of the festival, I, I know I'm gonna see several of your

cast, um, m- maybe crew, I don't know.

But I know several of your cast are gonna be there as speakers,

so I'll

definitely, uh, reconnect with them

Uh, it's coming up in June, so let's start talking about Hard Faith

Fest 2026.

Um, y- I know you name each of your festivals, you give them

a

theme.

What is the theme for

uh, this summer's Hard Faith Fest?

This year's theme is Do Not Fear.

We named this, um, last summer.

You know, instead of calling it year one, year two, year three,

we started giving them themes.

And I think it's a, a great topic.

And also from my understanding, um, you know, it's one of the

most repeated commandments in all of scripture is do not fear.

I think it's a timely subject.

Obviously, there's a lot of unrest and lack of peace around the world

and amongst, you know, in our own hearts.

and I think that one of the greatest gifts, and this is even a line in The

Days Are Evil, one of the greatest gifts that you can receive and that I think

Christians don't take advantage of is the peace that surpasses all understanding.

And that peace can be had at any time and when-- and we really,

truly have nothing to fear.

And it's just a good reminder.

It's a good reminder for me.

It's a good reminder for artists who are crazy enough to be in

this entertainment industry.

And it's especially a good reminder for Hard Faith artists that are

so brave to tell these kind of risky and provocative stories.

So we really just hope that this theme and this message that we'll

be talking about each day is an encouragement to all of our artists

and all the audience members attending.

Awesome.

Good word.

So this is your fourth year.

so I'm assuming there's been growth.

What's-- H-how's that been for a, fourth year festival?

Yeah, each year it's grown by one day in Los Angeles.

So the first year is one day.

Now we're on year four, four days.

And it's also just about doubled in submissions, and it's doubled

in attendance, and it's probably tripled this year in speakers.

Um, and we have an amazing venue this year.

Last year, we were in, uh, the heart of Hollywood, and this year we're in

the heart of Pasadena, California,

a lovely neighborhood just a little bit north of Hollywood,

um, still in Los Angeles County.

And we are being hosted by Lake Avenue Church.

It's a beautiful church, very well-known, amazing facilities.

We're using their chapel and many of their rooms, turning into screening

rooms, and there's parking on site.

And we even have hotel room bookings.

And there's walkability, and it's safe, and it's clean, and this is a very

lovely place to visit in Los Angeles.

And we know our guests will appreciate that.

Sounds great.

So,

obviously with all festivals there are, attendees who, who

drive in, whether they're really

local or drive a few states but there will also be people who

wanna come from across the country.

What airport would they, uh, choose?

The closest airport is

Burbank Airport.

Um, used to be known as Bob Hope Airport.

Now they call it the Burbank Hollywood Airport, and it is

a beautiful little airport.

It's kinda like a regional airport.

They do call themselves an international airport, but it

has that local airport feel.

And I love Bob Hope Airport.

Um, and then… But, you know, probably a, a more affordable

ticket will be in the LAX, depending on where you're flying in from.

But even LAX to Pasadena is a short ride or drive.

So LAX or Burbank are great local air-

airports.

And Burbank is only, like, 15 minutes from, you know, the church.

I guess if you gotta get an Uber from LAX, it might be just as

expensive if you count both ways.

Exactly.

And, and also getting a rental car at LAX is, um, a fun adventure.

So I, I like flying into Burbank when I can.

Sounds good.

And, you mentioned, accommodations.

You've

got-- I happen to know

you have that information on your website.

Um, so, uh, people can find suggested hotels.

Yes.

The source of all knowledge for… And it's, it's being updated on almost

a daily basis, is hardfaithfast.com.

Um, so you can find our And, and this is where you should book your hotels,

because if you click the images of the hotels, which is The Westin in

Pasadena or the Marriott in Pasadena, if you click that link, you're part of

our hotel room booking block, and my amazing event planning wife, McKenna,

has negotiated a discounted fee for anyone staying with Hard Faith Fest.

You

won't get that if you just go to their website, but you will get a greater

discount than you can get on any booking website if you go on our website

and click the image of the hotel.

Cool.

Cool.

Okay, so let's talk about the festival itself.

great location,

lots of space.

Uh,

what does the festival look like?

We've got four

days, what does the schedule look like?

And, uh, tell us more.

Yes, so it's Thursday through Sunday.

Um, Thursday's the 25th.

Sunday is the 28th.

Um, Thursday is the kickoff, the first day.

There's gonna be screeners.

There's gonna be workshops.

There's gonna be panels.

Um, and we're also for the first time ever going to have musical performances.

Um, some of our documentaries revolve around musicians, and some of our

feature films also have musicians, and some of the musicians from

these films are gonna be performing.

Then some p-

musicians that-- Yeah, and

then some of the musicians I personally know are gonna be performing.

Um, and some local church choirs are gonna perform.

Um, we just, we're, we're really trying to integrate worship throughout

the festival, and we just love that live musical performance experience,

and music and film go hand in hand.

And we're gonna be having musical performances throughout the entire

festival, but Thursday has the most musical performances, so you don't

wanna miss out on the first day.

Friday, again, panels, workshops, screenings.

We have over 50 different films, screenplays, short films, student

films, episodics screening throughout the festival.

Thursday, um, or sorry, on Friday, in addition to screenings and

panels and workshops, we also have our very fun, as you know from

New York City, our Pitch Fest.

Uh, this is our fourth time doing the Pitch Festival.

It is a ticketed event, so what you can do is you can sign up and

you can pitch your idea, and you have an allotted amount of time.

You pitch to our industry veteran professionals, and they'll give you

feedback on the spot, and you'll also get written feedback afterwards, and

you can communicate with our judges.

And then you also get a vote from our judges as well as from the

audience, and there will be an award given out for the best judges

pitch and the best audience pitch.

That will be given out on the next day, on Saturday, which is our awards show.

So again, musical performances, panels, speakers, screenings.

And then Saturday night Is our big award show, and it's gonna

be our biggest award show yet.

We're giving out over 40 different awards, all the different categories

as well as categorical nominations for best actor, and best writing, and best

producer, and best feature, and best, you know, pitches, plus some surprise

awards that you don't wanna miss out on.

And the award show's gonna be a lot of fun.

Each night we're doing an after party that's gonna be announced soon, and

so look out for those announcements.

Again, hardfaithfestcom is the place for announcements.

And then Sunday we're gonna be worshiping at Lake Avenue Church, um,

our beautiful, gracious, host church.

And after Sunday morning worship, which everyone is invited to or you can, you

know, worship at your own tradition church nearby, s- then Sunday afternoon

we're getting together and we're gonna do a time of prayer and a time of

sendoff for all of our artists as they go back to their creative community.

So hopefully they can be energized and filled with hope and lack

of fear, uh, as they go off and create their own art back home.

Sounds cool.

so Do you wanna share, uh, some highlights of your speakers?

Absolutely.

Yeah, we have a great, great speaker lineup.

Um, a lot of really fun speakers.

Um, Dave Meacham from Echole, um, Distribution, formerly

known as Peak Distribution.

He's gonna be speaking on theatrical distribution.

We have Demetrius Troy from

the television show The Chosen.

Um, and he, and he plays the role Lazarus in that show, and he's

also our Pastor James in The Days

Are Evil, and he's gonna be doing an actor workshop, and Demetrius is amazing.

Um, then we have Daniel Roebuck, who was our Santa Claus in my Christmas

movie, Saint Nick of Bethlehem,

and Dan is gonna be giving a workshop on directing actors.

Then we have another fun, uh, kind of surprise guest, Bill Farmer,

who has been the official voice of Goofy for the last 35, 40 years.

Anytime you hear Disney use Goofy's voice, it is Bill Farmer, and Bill played the

sheriff in my film Generational Sins.

Um, so Bill is gonna be giving a workshop on voiceover acting and building a

career in voiceover acting and animation.

Dean Battali is a amazing screenwriter, has done a lot of work in TV and film,

and recently adapted or wrote a screenplay about C.S. Lewis and Tolkien meter-

meeting for the last time later in life

at a pub, and that- That play that he wrote, which I got to see some

early previews of in Hollywood, is now showing at the Museum

of the Bible in Washington, DC.

Dean Vitali's gonna be speaking.

John Reuben, who played our therapist

in,

Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, you remember

John?

Um, he's-- who plays our therapist in The Days Are Evil.

John is actually a Christian rapper,

hip hop artist, and I've known John… He was the very first

Christian artist I ever knew,

and his lyrics are very-- Yeah, and his lyrics are super profound and deep.

They're very hard faith and, and so he and I have had a relationship for about

a decade now, and I have always found a lot of inspiration from his lyrics.

But he's going to be performing as well as giving a workshop.

We have Stevie Potter, who's our lead actress from The Days Are Evil, who's

gonna be giving an acting workshop.

We have Karen Covell from the Hollywood Prayer Network

giving a producing workshop.

Jim Covell, her husband, giving a, uh, a workshop on scoring film.

We have Joy Villa, who is a Grammy Award-winning artist,

talking about making music.

We have Nathan Clarkson, who was at Hard Faith Fest New York City and I worked

with on Bright Sky, who's talking about making big films for a small budget and

selling them to a Christian audience.

And then we have Mark Joseph, who I have worked with for over a decade.

He was a co-producer on Generational Sins and Shooting Heroin, and a producer on

The Days Are Evil and The Suicide Trilogy.

Mark Joseph recently produced, um, the biopic on Ronald Reagan, uh,

featuring Dennis Quaid, and he's gonna be talking about his experience of

producing that film as well as a new book he has o- out about that experience.

And we also have Geoffrey Ivan Witt

speaking, um, and, and some more surprise speakers and guests.

Some are still being confirmed, but we have already over 20 confirmed speakers.

Great.

and we're really excited to be partnering with you, um, with regards to promotion

and, um, you know, you'll be hearing from us both, uh, well, here on the podcast

and, uh, on our website and in our meetups

That we do on Thursdays.

If you don't know about our meetups, check our website.

We get together and, and network and do different things every Thursday.

and of course, I'll be at the, uh, the festival.

I'll have a table, and we'll get to say hi, and, uh, we're just really

excited to be closely connected.

looking forward to it.

love Faith + Family, filmmakers.

Love you and Jaclyn.

you.

guys do great work, and you have such a wealth of resources.

I first heard about you guys at Content, and yeah, I think more people should

hear about it, so I'm really thankful of this partnership because you guys

give away so much, offer so many resources, and people really should take

advantage of everything you guys offer

Well, thank you.

And, uh, so I'll, I'll say at this point as well, I've really enjoyed, uh, working

with you, Spencer, and of course, got to work directly with you recently.

Um, and one thing I can say about Spencer, May as well here, he's

very authentic, but He's also,

um…

very encouraging to everybody.

very affirming,

very kind, and of course, everybody on set loved his wife, McKenna,

and she did a lot of the cooking for us as well.

And so, uh, I guess we met in person, in December at the, Hard Faith

one-day festival in New York, and, um, really nice people to be around.

So if you.

have not been to a Hard Faith festival, uh, I…

And I know a lot of our people, our, members and people that

associate with us have been.

Uh, I'm just gonna

encourage you right now, hardfaithfest.com.

Uh,

we'll put the link in the show notes as well if you need to

go back and look for it later.

You can sign up

there, um, register, find your hotels.

And, you know, it's coming up really soon, but it's, still… There's still plenty

of time to get the best airline tickets.

It's not like, you know, it's, it's two weeks from now or something.

Plenty of time to get your accommodations.

Plenty of time to plan for this.

So, um, you know, whether you're close by or traveling from far away,

uh, lots of time, and I encourage you.

It's gonna be a great time for us to be all together.

I'm looking forward to it, Spencer.

Thank you so much, Geoffrey.

I'm really looking forward to this fourth year.

Every year it's a whole, it, it's a whole unique experience every festival.

Always

has its own personality, but it's always a really… For me, I

get super encouraged, and I know people who attend get encouraged,

and I just think it'll be a real, I, I hope, Lord willing,

be a real blessing to all of us.

So I, I hope people can attend and be there with us.

Okay.

Tell us that date one more time.

June 25th.

Yep, June 25th through the 28th.

It's

four days.

Starts on a Thursday, ends on a Sunday.

It's at Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena, California.

The website is hardfaithfest.com.

You can follow us on our socials um, the handle is @hardfaithinc,

either on Instagram or Facebook.

It's the same.

And do check out the website and our socials regularly because we're gonna be

posting so much about all the updates.

And also, Geoffrey, I wanna make available to anyone listening to this,

I'm gonna send you a discount code if you wanna include it in the show notes.

So you can… Your… If anyone that wants to buy, um, their four-day pass,

there'll be a discount code whenever you check out on our

website, hardfaithfest.com.

For the four-day pass, there'll be a 25% off discount code that our dear

Jeffrey will include in the show notes

that you can apply at checkout.

Awesome.

So that's something

you still have to create, is that correct?

You can't

mention it

25% off for creating that code I have it.

I, I, can't… Yep, I can mention it right now.

Here, let me just pull it up.

So the 25% off discount code, do-do-do-do-do, is HFF26LA50.

Okay.

So

Okay.

So HFF26LA50.

Are

Yes, and it's actually a 50% off, but I'm gonna go with 50%

off because it's the one I have.

So

50% off.

Are you sure you wanna do

a 25% off.

I'll do it.

I'll do it.

okay.

Okay.

It's here on the spot.

I'm gonna do it.

50% off just for Faith and Family listeners.

And they're all capitals, HFF and the L?

HFF.

HFF is capitalized and LA is capitalized.

Okay.

HFF26LA50, and we will-

put it in the show notes

Only here.

it.

Awesome.

Well, thank you so much.

I'm sure our listeners will

appreciate that, and we'll certainly, try and bring as many people with us as

we can ' cause we're excited about this.

Thank you so much.

excellent.

we'll, see you then.

we'll We'll see you in LA.

Do not fear.