Dispatch 06
Welcome to The Strata, a bi-weekly newsletter that tells a serialized story about my filmmaking process and updates you on the Impact Campaign for my first feature film.
The following is a continuation of Dispatch 05, which ended with:
I am on the phone with my dad. So I guess…we’re no longer estranged. But what on earth do we talk about? I shoot from the hip and ask him how he became a creationist. When he says college, I feel a twinge of defensiveness: college was my pathway away from creationism. I have questions.
Dispatch 06: The Pitch
Chemistry at UNC-Chapel Hill was not for the faint of heart. It was not an engineering-applied-science kinda place like NC State. Chapel Hill was theoretical and highfalutin.
My father’s dream had been to study music. But his dad, Papa, as we grandkids called him, had steered him away from his bliss and toward STEM. Math and science, Papa predicted, were the future.
My dad hit the books. He avoided pot and parties as he slogged through his class notes. His professors, he tells me, were often brilliant at science but lousy at teaching.
By sophomore year, he was hungry for meaning and connection. So when a guy invited him to check out a group called Campus Crusade for Christ, he showed up. He’d never heard of the Jesus People Movement until after he had joined. It changed his life and, a decade later, shaped mine.
He was deeply involved in Campus Crusade by the time creationist Henry Morris came to debate at UNC. Morris was an engineering PhD who espoused “catastrophic plate tectonics,” a Bible-based theory that claimed the Genesis Flood was the true source of geologic unconformities and the entire fossil record.
“I thought I was about to be embarrassed,” Dad tells me. Morris was debating a professor of anthropology, one of my dad’s favorite subjects. He saw no reason to conflate science with his Christian faith. How could you argue with evolution?
“But Morris went up there, he took out his little note cards, and he just took apart what most of us were taught to believe was accepted truth. And I thought: Wow.”
He was blown away by Morris’s arguments.
He finished his degree, but science now took a back seat to Christian ministry. He went to work for Campus Crusade.
“What did Papa say?” I ask.
“I wrote him a letter,” Dad tells me. “I said I knew my decision would disappoint him, but that I felt this was what God was calling me to do. I tried to explain it to him.”
I lean in. “What did he say?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?!” I feel defensive on his behalf. “Why not?”
“That was my dad, Katy. That was my dad. He’d work all day, come home, change clothes, and go back to work again at night.”
I think about Rich Smith, the professor who clarified Darwinian evolution for me in a way I’d never understood in high school.
“I don’t know if I ever told you this,” I say, “but I had kind of an equal and opposite experience in college.”
For Dad, creationism squared his evangelical faith with science. For me, science snuffed out Noah, the Flood, and, soon enough, the two-sided coin of God and Satan.
For both of us, a gifted teacher making what we perceived as logical arguments was what opened the door.
Dad and I, at the same age, in different decades, walked through the same portal in opposite directions. I guess we’re more similar than we are unalike.
The next thing I say is instinctual. My mouth speaks before my brain can catch and silence the thought.
“Could we do some filming together?”
My dad pauses, draws a breath.
“Okay.”
To be continued in the next dispatch.
Impact Campaign: The Personal and the Political
Thank you to our friends at George Mason, Georgetown, George Washington, and American Universities for including us in the 2026 Delta Summit. A project of the PiVoT Peace Lab, the summit brought together students and faculty to share research on polarization and conflict resolution. Our presentation drew on scenes from the film and the decade+ process of producing it to identify strategies for difficult conversations that can help reduce division and guide meaningful conversations and sustainable relationships.
We look forward to working with others in the bridging community to set up events and screenings related to our key Impact areas:
Family estrangement and family therapy
Religious divides, including faith-based v. scientific worldviews, and interfaith
The Bridging Community, which targets political polarization and aims to strengthen civic life
If you or someone you know is working in these areas, or you are interested in booking a presentation, please reach out to Adam Blackman, Impact Producer, here.
Educational and institutional DVD & digital site licenses can be purchased here.
KEEP SAVING THE DATE — Flood Premieres Theatrically in NYC in June!
DCTV - NYC theatrical premiere - June 10-25.
June 19, we will have a VERY SPECIAL GUEST moderating our Q&A.
June 20-25, we will have VERY SPECIAL PANELS that you won’t want to miss!
Jacob Burns Film Center - Come watch on Tue. June 23! Tickets are on sale: $13 (members), $18 (nonmembers)
PBS Movies Are FREE TO WATCH on YouTube
Don’t miss all the Independent Lens docs available right now, nationwide.
Premiering this week is my friend Vicky Du’s incredible personal doc Light of the Setting Sun, produced by the stellar Danielle Varga. Please watch and spread the word!
Flood will premiere on Independent Lens on July 13. Stay tuned.