MULLY

It was an ordinary summer night in 2013 until I checked my voicemail. I had had a message from a friend, John Bardis, asking me to call him about a new project. That night I called him and he told me about a man in Kenya named Charles Mully. He said, very matter of fact, nobody knows this man’s story yet he’s changing the world. Bardis asked me if I would be interested in directing a documentary about Mully. I was beyond humbled by the offer and immediately said yes. This is the day my two-year filmmaking journey began. The very next morning there was book on my doorstep called, “Father to the Fatherless” written by Paul Boge. I read it that day and I couldn’t believe what I had just ingested. I was speechless. It was a story of miracles, faith, hardship and turmoil.
The story of Charles Mully is an unimaginable journey of selflessness - and it was all
true! Initially, I had no idea how I would capture this unbelievable story in a way that would be believable, accessible and entertaining. I needed to assemble my team and give the story time to develop internally and organically. My normal process is to go slowly, giving my imagination the room it needs to find form before I ever set anything on paper. It's how I've written all my plays and scripts. During this time of creative preparation, I secured my producers Elissa Shay and Lukas Behnken. Elissa had helped me with many creative projects in the past, including prep for my acting role in a film called "Child Of God”. I had a tremendous respect for her creative opinion and wanted her by my side. Lukas is my producing partner at The Sherry Theater, a venue we built ten years ago in North Hollywood. Lukas had experienced Africa through mission

work years before and was inspired to come aboard. “Mully” being a story about family, I wanted to make the film with people that I came up with, whom I trust, that know me, and whom I consider family. I knew they would be the perfect team for this specific project. So one night, as a deadline to deliver my outline for the film was upon me, I sat down at the computer and wrote out the story and how I wanted to approach the film. Sure enough, the film’s final structure is almost exactly what my original outline was.
I brought on another one of my talented friends, Justin Morrison; a cinematographer whom I felt was the perfect choice to travel across the world with me to Kenya. I rounded out the team with Richard Card, another talented cinematographer with a keen eye for detail who worked under
Justin. The duo was the perfect pair to help me accomplish what I needed visually.
We touched down in Nairobi, Kenya in December of 2013 and never stopped moving and shooting through Christmas and into early 2014. We made a second trip back to Kenya in May of 2014 and spent another 5 weeks filming to finish the shoot.
Charles Mully had documented his life on a personal camcorder, something none of us were aware of until we arrived in Africa. Four hundred hours of home footage was waiting for us like an undiscovered treasure. I had to incorporate the original footage into the film, and the real story took shape as the lives of not just Charles, but his biological family and those of his adopted children opened up before us.
I knew there would be no archival footage of Charles’ early life as an orphan, but it was a key element of the documentary that I wanted the audience to experience. Charles Mully was abused and abandoned in a hut in the middle of Kenya at only 6 years old, and I wanted the viewer to feel that desolation. That is where the re-enactments came into play. I wanted to make sure these reenactments felt authentic and cinematic.
We held auditions in Kenya for the re-enactments, actually drawing from the incredibly talented Mully children. The depth the children all have as a result of their individual tragedies and

victories is staggering. But when it came to choosing an actor to play Charles, time was drawing thin. One morning over breakfast as my team and I sat with Charles we asked him if he would be willing to play himself in the recreations of his younger life. Charles was 65 years old at that time, but he looked about 40 years old, so I knew it could work. He proved to be a great actor. When we weren’t filming him in the present we were filming him in the past. The extended Mully family became cast, crew, set builders, location scouts and goat wranglers among other things, and were instrumental in every aspect of our documentary.
We were fortunate and blessed to have so much access to Charles and his entire family, and it made the telling of his story fall into place like an unexpected gift from a friend. After a month of filming, when we wrapped the shoot, Charles came to me with tears in his eyes and hugged me. In that moment I knew what he was saying, the message unspoken. Charles is a man of great vision and drive, and I was fortunate and blessed that he trusted my vision and came on board to support the film all the way.
While filming, we found ourselves in some very precarious and dangerous situations in Kenya. We would travel many miles, with very expensive camera equipment in tow and we were very blessed the van
didn't break down or that we didn’t run into the wrong people. We did have our moments though. While filming in downtown Nairobi we were surrounded and questioned by the Kenyan army and lost some footage that day. At the end of the shoot one of our cinematographers, Richard Card, was taken to jail until we paid his bail. I'm still not sure why he was taken into custody.
When we got back from Africa, I had to fly immediately to New York City to act in a play off- Broadway with my friend James Franco at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Before I left and after a long search, we found an editor, Alex Mackenzie. I felt upon meeting him he had the right sensibilities and ambition to tackle this monster.
Alex began his work without me. I left him a tremendous amount of footage including over 400 hours of archival footage, I gave him my outline and after a few serious and intensive meetings with him about my vision, he was on his own. I returned from NY to a three-hour cut of “Mully”. It was at that point that James Moll, my dear friend, my mentor in the doc space, and someone I have the utmost respect for, came in and helped me craft this story into what became the final cut.

We eventually narrowed it into a two- hour cut, but I wasn’t satisfied. I knew it could be better. I worked days and night locked in the edit room with Elissa Shay and Alex Mackenzie. (My dog Coco Bean was there too).
James would come in at the end of every
week and work with us. We got it to a
point at which I felt that the viewer would
truly sense the story’s (and Charles’)
evolution from childhood to today. And
during that process, the audience is
never quite sure where the story is
headed. It keeps unraveling, little by
little. This was James Moll’s influence and direct blueprint on the film.
My favorite part of making this film was the many hours Elissa Shay, Alex and I spent in the editing room. It was a battle room of ideas and it felt like the world outside had stopped and it was only us, focusing on this story. I will say this: I had a revelation recently that the happiest I am in life is the times where I feel that I don’t want to be anywhere else than where I am at any given moment. I always felt that while working on this film.
The last huge hurdle was getting the score just right. We actually had to let a composer go who wasn’t capturing the essence of the film. Again, John Bardis, in his constant quest for excellence, gave me the blessing to find the ideal composer -- and we did. Benjamin Wallfisch is a true musical genius. He worked very diligently and feverishly to deliver a score that was moving, evolving and emotional. It was a gift from the heavens to have Benjamin compose the score for this film.
Charles Mully has devoted his life to following God. I could have avoided that fact, but God became a major unseen character in the film, guiding Charles and his wife Esther. I tell it the way it is. I felt empowered to keep this film 100% honest and not shy away from the religious aspects of the story simply because some people may not relate to them, or worse, may consider them politically incorrect.
I can say that I gave everything to making this story the best it can be. I can only hope we came close to living up to this miraculous story that was a gift to tackle as a filmmaker.

I know in my life this film will be the most important story I will ever tell. My partner John Bardis supported me. My entire creative team and my technical team at Tunnel Post supported
me. Tears come to my eyes when I think about the journey of making this film with people I sincerely call my family.
There is nothing in the world more fulfilling to me than doing what I was put on this earth to do, on a project that has the capacity to shift thinking and to change the globe. My hope is that the works of this man and his wife will echo across the face of the earth and that we will all pause for a moment and realize that through faith and hard work, anything is possible. This includes changing the world one child at a time.