Experiencing Interruptions?

Violent True Believer

In Washington, DC a lonely woman who was once a high school chemistry teacher is recruited by a Neo-Nazi group and assigned the task of creating a weapon of mass destruction.

  • Arlin Godwin
    Director
    The Man In 813
  • Arlin Godwin
    Writer
    The Man In 813
  • Arlin Godwin
    Producer
    The Man In 813
  • J.C. Hoffman
    Key Cast
    "Jane Smith / Bomber"
    Riding On Faith, Red Flags, I'll Be Dead For Christmas, MORE
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    16 minutes 18 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    November 13, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    6,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Blackmagic 6K Pro B-raw 12bit
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.35:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Baltimore Next Media Web Festival
    Baltimore
    United States
    November 5, 2022
    Work In Progress Festival Screening
    Best Actress in a Short Film
Director Biography - Arlin Godwin

Arlin Godwin is a Washington, DC-based writer, broadcast television designer, electronic music artist, and filmmaker. He was signed to the INgrooves record label in 2002. His first short film THE MAN IN 813 was chosen to screen in competition at the 2011 DC Shorts International Film Festival where it won the award for Outstanding Local Film.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

HOW TRUMP'S INSURRECTION IMPACTED MY SHORT FILM

I live in Washington, DC--5 blocks from the White House--and politics is very much a part of the background static of my life.

Even so, I wrote an early version of VIOLENT TRUE BELIEVER in 2015, unaware that America was about to be threatened by a loathsome orange-tinged real estate cheat turned TV show host turned President of the United States. Back then I couldn't have imagined that my little script, about a lonely, unemployed woman building a bomb in her apartment, would ever resonate in the way it does today. Thank you (I guess) Donald.

Once Trump was in office my script began to change in response to what was happening all around us. And when the insurrection occurred at the Capitol (a little too close for comfort if you live here) I realized that Trump and his merry band of nuts had damaged my country but improved my movie! I also realized that women were every bit as much involved in trying to overthrow the government as men were.

And so my lead character "Jane Smith" was born. Wonderfully brought to life by actor J.C. Hoffman—Jane is a chemistry teacher who makes a bad joke at the school where she works and loses her job. Now she can't pay her bills and her building manager wants the rent. In short, as she tells her mother, "I'm in trouble".

When she sees a news report about a white supremacist group looking for new members her curiosity is piqued. Late one drunken night she searches for them online, finds their site, and ill-advisedly signs up.

And just like that, my little movie took on a relevance that it previously didn’t have. The story became a character study about a mature woman searching for a purpose who ultimately refuses to yield to the pressures brought upon her by a group of very evil people.

I’ve had many folks watch the movie and seriously question if people like Jane Smith really exist. The modern liberal mind just can’t imagine it. But sadly these people do exist. And they’re out there. Plotting. Scheming. Planning a new Fascist version of America. And to my way of thinking one of the best ways to help stop that is to expose it. To show on screen just how simple it is for a lonely person searching for meaning and purpose to get mixed up in something terrible.