Private Project

Church Kids Gone Wild

In the summer of 1998, seven high school graduates set out on an outdoor survival challenge sponsored by their church. They were left stranded in the California Wilderness with no food, shelter, or cell phones. A documentary crew captured the shocking, horrific events on film (i.e. actual real 16mm film).

  • M. David Melvin
    Director
    All American Tooles
  • M. David Melvin
    Writer
    All American Tooles
  • M. David Melvin
    Producer
    All American Tooles
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Genres:
    Comedy, Mockumentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 26 minutes 30 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 20, 2022
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    16mm film
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - M. David Melvin

M. David Melvin is an Asian American Director of mixed-race decent. He’s half Chinese and half “Pupu platter” of English, Dutch Jew, Black Foot (1/16), and scraps of Cherokee, French, Irish and Polynesian (apparently). But most people in LA think he’s Mexican. Melvin’s experiences growing up a huge Chinese immigrant family and in religious hippie communes around the world, while also being a multiracial person of color, gives him a unique perspective on race, religion, and culture in America, which he prefers to express with empathy and humor.

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Director Statement

Like many filmmakers during the pandemic I was hit with the double whammy of losing financing for a feature film I had been working on, and then my commercial production company (Blue Giant) was shut down for most of 2020. Unable to work on my indy feature or even to make a living, I dug a micro-budget 16mm feature film I never fully finished out of storage and scanned the negative in 4K. With time and new technology on my side, I was able to finally finish the film as I always imagined it. It also turns out that "Church Kids Gone Wild" is both hysterical and weirdly relevant.