Alex & Stephen Kendrick join us today to share about their new film, Flywheel: Ignition of the Soul, which will be coming to U.S. theaters on October 16th, 2026. Learn why they re-shot the entire film in Portuguese, how God paved the way for a new ministry in Brazil, and more!

Episode Transcription

Note: This transcription may vary from the words used in the original episode.

Marlin Detweiler:
Hello again and welcome to another episode of Veritas Vox, the voice of classical Christian education. Today we have with us some real special guests, Alex and Steven Kendrick. Welcome, guys.

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
Good to see you. Our pleasure. Thank you for inviting us.

Marlin Detweiler:
Great to have you, Steven. We've met before, but Alex, this is my first time with you. And of course, I've had a chance to view a number of your movies and wonderful stuff. But this is a very interesting project that we're here to talk about. Flywheel, your first movie we've done in, let's see, 2003.

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
Yes.

Marlin Detweiler:
2003. And now releasing it in the Portuguese language for the Brazilian population. What the heck? What are you doing?

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
Well, not just releasing it, but we have completely reshot the movie in Portuguese with professional gear. It's a completely new movie.

Marlin Detweiler:
I know that I should have been clear about that. Thanks for that clarification.

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
That's okay.

Marlin Detweiler:
How is it you're doing this?

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
So Flywheel, our very first one, was primarily released on home video DVD, sold over a million DVDs. So I didn't have much of a theatrical release at all. And as time went by, we always wondered, should we remake this higher production quality now that we have a little more experience? And it's like the Lord said, there's a time, but not yet.

We released our recent movie, The Forge in Brazil, went to number one in theaters, had more tickets sold in Brazil than America, which shocked us. And so we had a request from Brazil. Would you come train some of our young Christian filmmakers how to make movies the way you make movies? They want to honor the Lord and maybe even shoot a film.

So we talked to them about possibly reshooting Flywheel. Of course, we would update the things that need to be updated, but the story is essentially the same. They loved it. We asked Sony, would you fund it? They said yes. We said, Lord, if you're in, this will do it. We went down there and the Lord brought the cast, the crew, the location.

So much support, pastors, churches, jumping on the bandwagon with us, helping us, praying it through. And so we shot Flywheel Ignition of the soul with better actors, an excellent crew, beautiful locations. And the movie turned out so well. Yes, we shot in Portuguese. Matter of fact, I have some scenes in it in Portuguese.

Marlin Detweiler:
That I was going to ask you about that. Was that a quick lesson?

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
Quick? It depends on how you define quick.

Because I had to learn how to speak some Portuguese for those scenes. But we shot down there, put it together. It came together so well, so full orchestra score, great actors, and we love what the Lord's done. And it's going to be real refreshing. So we have dubbed it into English for an American audience, but it's going to be Portuguese in Brazil and America comes out October 16th in theaters.

Can't wait for people to see it! If you liked the first one, you're really going to like this one.

Marlin Detweiler:
Well I watched over the weekend recording this on a Monday, and over the weekend I watched the first third of the Portuguese version in which you gave me access to thank you. And then my wife and I said, you know, we really ought to refresh ourselves on the original, which we probably hadn't watched in 23 years. And so we did.

And I got to tell you, the emotional impact of the Portuguese version. There was a tension there that I didn't quite feel in the first one. And Alex, that's no slight on you. You did a wonderful job with it, but it clearly was raising the bar in the storytelling and it was really impactful.

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
I would say everything about it is better in so many ways. You've got professional actors. We shot it on the Alexa 35 camera, which is top shelf. That's what the shot that ventures movies on. And the Lord supplied that. Ironically, in Brazil, we didn't even know it was there. And then the locations in Rio are beautiful, but there was so much prayer that went into this new project we had heard that there had been a group of people praying for five years that this would happen.

Wow. And when we got there, we didn't show up trying to stir up a fire. All the kindling, all the gasoline was already there. We just threw one match on it off and we were like, buckle up. So it was shocking in a happy way because it got funny how much faster the Lord was moving us with less resources, less knowledge, less connections in that country, because he had already gone before us and people were walking in the door.

Do you need this? You can have it. Do you need this location? You know, it was just happening so rapidly in front of us. We knew that the Lord had gone before us, and it was a reminder that he can supply anything in any amount, anywhere, at any time.

Marlin Detweiler:
You know, that sounds a lot like the movie story.

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
That's right. Walking by faith. Yeah. Similarities for sure.

Marlin Detweiler:
Yeah. Tell us a little bit about what's going on in Brazil. I have some familiarity with it, and we're doing some interesting and really incredible things in Brazil in our business. But you guys have really seen it more so than I have firsthand. And I imagine our audience would be blessed to hear about that too.

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
Well, first, the church is alive for sure. They were so expressive. We loved being in worship services, went to a number of churches down there to share about the film, but also join them in worship. Really loved that the crew and the cast that was with us love Jesus, loved on each other, and it was such a joy to work with him to make this film.

And they have an excited, capable, young contingency of filmmakers wanting to honor the Lord. They are familiar with Christian subtitles. There's a name for them down there. I mean, Christian soap operas. And there's a name for them down there.

But there's a term for that. But not as many Christian feature films. So they are very interested in getting accustomed to producing high quality feature films. So they welcomed us so many times and fed us well. It's hard to beat a Brazilian steakhouse.

But we so enjoyed. Yeah, we so enjoyed filming Flywheel, Ignition of the Soul down there, and it’s a beautiful country. There are some shots in there we just loved and so again, it's going to stir a lot of hearts. Can't wait for people to see it.

You know when we were when we went down there. It's amazing how God reminds you he's not an American. You know, the most of the world is not in America. And he has a heart for the nations. There'll be people from every tribe and tongue around the throne of Christ worshiping him in all eternity. And when you get there and you see the body of Christ.

Shouting almost as they're singing, they're so passionate because of the poverty that's there. Jesus is the best thing they got going on. And they are you know, it says in James chapter two, God has chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith, and that they are richer because they have to trust God day to day.

They tend to be more humble, more grateful, more teachable, more affectionate because of the suffering that they've been through. And the churches are rapidly expanding and spreading. They understand church planting at another level. I met a pastor in his 30s. He said he was working on planting his 50th church.

Marlin Detweiler:
Oh my word.

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
And I'm thinking, in the US, we're too impressed when we plant one church. And they just think at another level because they're doing home groups, they're doing leadership training, they're planting rapidly, knowing that time is short and heaven is long. So we were very inspired.

Marlin Detweiler:
What does the whole category you guys have been involved in this now for a long time. I don't know what you invested in prior to 2003. We have visibility beginning in 2003 with what you've been up to. What does film do to build the church and the body of Christ?

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
Well, as you know, Jesus often through parables, told stories, stories people could relate to. Then they get involved in the story, and then he teaches them a principle of truth, something about himself. And so Jesus himself often used the canvas of a story to teach and reach people. And so we have found that if you can tell a story they relate to, they see themselves in the issues are relatable, the trials are familiar, that you can really touch someone's heart.

And so a lot of people would say, as we start watching the movie, we see a version of the main character that we think is more wicked than we are. And then as the movie goes, he passes them in repentance and faith and starts walking with the Lord at a level they need to get to. So when they walk out the door, they're like, man, I need to be devoting myself to the Lord, getting right with other people, repenting of certain things and walking in obedience and faith. And that's what we want. We want to edify the body of Christ. We want to share the gospel with those who need to know it. And so we're not chasing awards in film. We don't need those.

We're chasing effectiveness. We're chasing excellence. And our canvas is not what you see on the screen. Our canvas is the heart. If we can share it. The story of God's love with people in a relatable way to their heart, and they respond. That is a successful film release for us.

Marlin Detweiler:
Yeah, well, you said as we were talking, getting ready to record that you've had instances where you've actually had more sales with film in Brazil with dubbed films than you did in America, with films that obviously weren't dubbed because they were in English. That's a that's an amazing statistic that speaks to a country similar sized, I believe. Is that correct?

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
210 million.

Marlin Detweiler:
Smaller slightly. What do you think God is doing in Brazil, and how do you hope to be a part of that?

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
Well, with film, it's interesting how God in our generation, you know, it was in the early 1900s when film really was, you know, invented and then began to spread. Early on, there were ministries that realized the impact it was going to have, and were using films to communicate the gospel in the early 1900s. You don't hear about that much.

Billy Graham jumped on it with worldwide pictures in the 60s and 70s. They produced multiple films. We were impacted by The Hiding Place by Johnny, by Crossing the Switchblade had an impact on our lives. The Prodigal, those movies. Early on, our dad would promote these Billy Graham movies to try to reach people with the gospel, and we were supporting that.

We didn't know the Lord was going to call us into the same thing in our generation. But if you think about Alex mentioned Jesus's parables, the thing about film is you're not just hearing a story, but you're seeing example. You're hearing music. As powerful as music is, the visuals are cinematic and beautiful, and all of those arts are conversing together in this synergistic influence.

And if it's packaging a lie, it causes people to emotionally want to believe the lie. But if it's packaging the gospel, it's leading people to hopefully believe and entrust the gospel, trust their lives to Christ. But the Old Testament prophets, whether it's Ezekiel seeing a wheel, Daniel seeing, you know, the prophecies, Daniel saw the revelation of John in the book of Revelation.

What are they experiencing? It's almost like they're watching a movie. They're seeing it, they're hearing it and they're weeping. They're so moved. But God is revealing truth to them in the context of that experience. This generation has this powerful medium, and I'm like, we're going to be held accountable by God. We have to use it to point people to Jesus and to biblical truth, not to the world's lies or to vanity.

Marlin Detweiler:
Well, you've inspired a number of others, but you were really I'm not aware of anyone that did a recent Christian movie before 2003 with Flywheel. You guys were really pioneers in that regard, and there have been a number of others that have done quite well as well, but it was quite a risk. What was it like jumping in there? In the first instance.

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
We had no idea what was going to happen and we did everything wrong that you could do wrong. The one thing we did right was we pray. We dedicated it to the Lord and we sought him. Everything else we did wrong. I remember our crew, our volunteer actors. There were just members of our church showing up to finish a scene that we had shot the first half of the day before, and they show up wearing different clothes and I'm like, what are you doing?

You know, your clothes can't change halfway through a scene and they're like, oh, we didn't even think about that. You got to go home, get your old pull them out of the dirty clothes box, right. And put your clothes. Then one guy halfway through his, he had gotten a haircut. And I got so frustrated with him when he shows up in his hair shorter.

And I said, what are you doing? And he goes, I wasn't thinking about the movie when I got my haircut. So, you know, so there were all kinds of things that went wrong when we were first making the original Flywheel. But the Lord taught us, and we needed that to grow and to learn. And they're funny stories today.

But the Lord has brought us so far. And, you know, Scripture talks about despising not small beginnings. So the Lord has been faithful. We've been so grateful at what he has done and look forward to seeing what he will continue to do.

Marlin Detweiler:
Yeah, well, it is an exciting thing. When I first heard that you were doing this for the Portuguese speaking world, I thought, well, I know what's going on there, but this seems really out of character. I don't understand this at all. It's so good to get the context and the story. Do you mind talking about where you go next?

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
We are excited about this release because it's going to be translated into multiple languages around the world. We just wrote a Bible study that's going to come out using scenes from the movie, The Flywheel Ignition of the Soul Bible Study that will be coming out. We're praying about a few specific projects. One of them is the heart of the filmmaker.

We've been learning so much. You know, making movies has been our film school. And because we didn't go to a Hollywood film school or, you know, we weren't on Hollywood sets, we've taken scripture and ministry and then grafted those truths into our filmmaking journey. And it works. It works better than what Hollywood does. You know, God's Word is timeless.

It's efficient. It's loving, you know. So we've been developing a course for young filmmakers – would be great for a homeschool audience to you can go to the heart of the filmmaker, okay. We're putting together a course so that people can learn how to make films. So we're teaching about filmmaking, but we're doing it through the lens of seeking the Lord, honoring Christ from script to screen so that God is glorified in the process and the finished product.

And if it's successful, how are you stewarding the success, the applause, the finances, the platform that the Lord gives you because he's entrusting you with something. So it's a big deal that this generation that is growing up with smartphones in their pocket, that look better than our original camera for flywheel, you know, they can shoot a video uploaded to YouTube, have an international audience in a matter of hours, and it's like, if they don't fear the Lord, if they're not in the word, if they're not praying through their decisions, they could fall on that double edged sword or lead people astray without meaning to.

And so that heart of the filmmaker course is something we're working on. We're praying about another feature film that we've been working on that we hope to film next year in Morocco, and it's connected to a biblical story. So we'll be excited to announce it.

Marlin Detweiler:
That's exciting. Thanks for showing us a peek there, but I am I am amazed. Do you have some context for what has happened in Brazil that has opened up an interest in the gospel, the way that you all have experienced it?

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
I would say poverty is one of them. They've had leaders that have been caught up in corruption, that have really put the weight on the backs of the people, the favelas full of people that are there's gangs, there's violence, there's drugs. There's been so much witchcraft that has been a part of Brazil in the past. So there's been a lot of demonic influence.

The carnival that they have every year is a very hedonistic thing that happens across the culture. It's, you know, lewd dancing, drunkenness, it's wild partying. And some people in the culture, they say, hey, we're not married during carnival. You can go be with whoever you want, you know? And it's in the context of that wickedness in the culture that believers that have come to Christ and been transformed by the gospel, they love the Lord, and they've been set free from a lot of demonic oppression in their culture.

And it causes the church in the middle of that to get busy praying, to get busy reaching out to other people. And the scales have tipped in a lot of ways because the churches have gotten on fire. Pastors have begun praying with other pastors in their cities for one another's churches, and we went to one of those meetings where you've got 30-40 pastors of different denominations meeting together, supporting one another, working together.

How can we reach our city with the gospel? There's been movements of prayer across Brazil as well, and now it's turned into church planning and evangelism across the culture. So God is, you know, you see it in the book of Acts in the midst of persecution, persecution, the church thrives, you know, when they're suffering. And we're seeing that happen in Brazil.

Marlin Detweiler:
Yeah, that is remarkable. Are you inclined to speculate ten years out with regard to the initiatives that you're taking? The initiatives I'm seeing in education of what we might see in Brazil, where where do you see opportunities? Where do you think God will take things?

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
Well, it's interesting. They're already talking to us about doing another film in Brazil, bringing in more young filmmakers training, you know, another section of the next generation. And we are for that, you know, but we don't want to jump ahead of God or lag behind Him. We want to track with Him. But yeah, we see a movement going on in Brazil, but they cannot wait for politics to change or the military to step in, and they have to move forward with the Lord.

And yes, there are things that will be challenging and trying as they step forward in faith. But the church is vibrant, they are expressive, they love the Lord, and we're excited about how the Lord is already moving among the Brazil church in ways beyond filmmaking. And so, you know, we're releasing a Bible study there along with the movie.

And so that's coming out. You can go to FlywheelMovie.com and see a lot of this. But anyway, we're we believe that there will be many more Christian, God honoring movies produced in Brazil over the next decade, ones that we're not even associated with, but praise the Lord. So if we can just add a log on the fire of those that are trying to honor God in that manner, we want to be a part of it.

Marlin Detweiler:
Yeah. When does the movie release in Brazil, you said October 16th, in the United States. Is it about the same time or is a little bit earlier?

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
It's November 5th, I think in Brazil.

Marlin Detweiler:
Okay. What does a release look like there? Is it similar to what we experienced in the United States?

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
It's going to be big. So on October 16th, when it comes out in America, you can go to FlywheelMovie.com and see theaters and things like that. November 5th it releases in Brazil and it's going to be all over Brazil. And almost every theater, 700 to 800 of their theaters, they don't have as many as America, but they're doing a big release and they're excited.

And so we met with everybody from city leaders to mayors to some of their celebrities down there who are believers. And we're hoping God does something extraordinary, that it's a launching pad for many more productions to draw people to the Lord. So we're excited and we'll continue working with them as well to make more movies with them ourselves.

But we hope the contingency of Christian believing filmmakers only grows in Brazil, that it becomes just a hotbed of God honoring movies and productions.

Their theaters are nice. The ones that we have visited, some of them are very big. A movie ticket there's like three bucks, you know, compared to the US, which is a lot.

Marlin Detweiler:
Of suspense and a lot more accessible.

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
That's right. So and the churches have now been leveraging films for the kingdom, these Christian films that have been coming out. So there's been a growing momentum of pastors and churches and ministries saying, oh, this Christian movie is coming out. Here's how we're going to use it to reach our community and to strengthen our churches. So there is an excitement, you know, through this cinema that's happening in Brazil.

Marlin Detweiler:
So like in America, after there's been a bit of time for the release to have subsided, the theater presence is gone. Churches can get access and use them for direct ministry initiatives. And they do.

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
That's right. That's exactly right. Long term.

Marlin Detweiler:
Yeah, that is really cool. Yeah. Well this has been it has been great to visit with you all and to hear what you're up to. I, I'm sure I speak for many of our constituents and listeners to say thank you for what you're doing. And thanks for helping us understand why the rerelease was not rereleased, but the new release was in Portuguese because that had me scratching my head a little bit. It makes perfect sense now.

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
Well, it's a better film. It's going to feel like the first time you watch it when you see it. And again, we can't wait for people to see it. October 16th in America, you can go to FlywheelMovie.coom to get more information. And November 5th in Brazil. We're excited both ways.

And thank you for all that Veritas is doing. Yeah, we are a Veritas family and I'm grateful for the resources that you put out that help families like ours to disciple our kids.

Marlin Detweiler:
Thank you. We just like you. These kinds of things help us get up in the morning, don't they?

Alex & Stephen Kendrick:
That's right. Thank you so much.

Marlin Detweiler:
Thank you so much. And folks, thank you for joining us on this episode of Veritas Vox, the voice of classical Christian Education. We hope you'll go see the movie and we look forward to seeing you next time.