Let's Go GREEN and GOLD!

Hello friends, this is Dick Foth again. With stories from the road. And today, I'm talking to my friend Anders Lindbull. Hi, Anders, how are you? Hey, Dick. Yeah, doing great. Yeah, thanks for having me here. Oh, my joy. And I wanted to talk to you, because this a little time sensitive podcast, a lot of times we put them out at different times, doesn't make any difference. But this one has to do with something that's happening just around the corner. But before we get there, let me back up and say, so where was Anders born? So I was born in a little town called Iron River, Michigan. It was the same town my dad was born in. And you know, it's a town of 3,000 people right on the Wisconsin Michigan upper Michigan. You know, a lot of folks don't know that Michigan has the two peninsula, and we were, you know, it gets lost on some of the maps, but, but it, uh, yeah, it's kind of I feel like it might always be my home where I was born. I know that's not the case for everybody, but for me, it feels very much like deeply embedded in my DNA. So, so folks from Colorado, we're listening when they say what's really cold, they don't have any idea. No, no, this is this is springtime. This is spring break weather for me right now. Sure. We're in the low 20s going to be one blow tonight. Uh-huh. If I see drips coming off, that means if it's March or April in my book. That's right. Good. So you grew up, went on to college and what do you majoring in college just real quickly? Yeah. So I, uh, I majored in narrative cinema. So this storytelling part of, you know, of movies. All right. And so here we are some years later. And you're. Married to a lovely lady Claire and you've got these wonderful children and merton the dog, the German daughter, right? That's right. That's right. Yeah. So, um, you recently within the last couple of years have produced and I don't know how long it took to get there, but, but you wrote a screenplay because you're a videographer. You've done a variety of things with video and telling stories. But you wrote a screenplay. Did you always have it in your heart to write a screenplay? And, and do I have that terminology right screen? You're. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. No, you got it. Yeah. I mean. I think I've always, so I, it was a high school teacher who got me into this film. And, um, and then. You know, I think there's no, there's no direct path. It's not like becoming a doctor or, you know, getting into some other semi normal profession where there's a path to, to it, you know, when you say I want to, I want to make movies or I want to write it and direct. It's a really ambiguous path. How everybody gets there and they get at it, you know, those, those who stick around long enough. To get a chance to do it. It's just a matter of finding your way. However it is. And, you know, it's kind of clawing scratching and hanging on for dear life for 20 plus years. And so yeah, we made, you know, we make a living doing commercials. That's how we pay the bills. Okay. And so it ended up being. You know, but it was always, you know, it's like you're trying to keep the dream alive while you're paying the bills and doing this thing. And so we were always developing. I say, we, it's my brother and myself, you know, developing stories on the side. And, you know, we're doing that for brands, really. We're kind of doing the same type of thing. You're trying to understand some, you know, a story that connects to an audience. And so there is a lot of overlap between commercial storytelling and what, what we're doing. So it ended up being one of our commercial clients who he owned a NASCAR team and saw the work we were doing. And he really loved it. You know, he had, because he had seen a lot of different commercial filmmakers over the years, work for him in company. And he's like, there's something you guys have that it just makes, gives me chills, gives me tears. And you do it really economically. He's like, what else you guys doing. And so we told him we know at that point we had been pitching different stories over the years. And we had this story. It was originally called God loves a Green Bay Packers. And, and, and where's that, if I can just interrupt for just a second. When was the, the, the embryo or the genesis of that idea? God loves a Green Bay Packer. Yeah. That genesis, man, it's hard to tell. Some of these, because you, you know, you kind of get these seeds that are given to you. Right. You know, I consider them kind of divinely ordained. And some of them, these seeds grow. And, and then these other ones kind of sit and incubate for years. And some of them get chopped down and die. I think this one was probably around like 2017 if I had to guess. And you, and you then wrote a screenplay around, around this idea. Well, we didn't know. So our process is a little bit different than maybe some other people's. Our process was we have this idea. We then actually build, we build like an inspiration trailer around it. And so what that is is it means we rip, you know, different scenes from different movies, other people have done. And we make what we think is the feeling of our movie. And so you're, you're essentially, you know, and you have little text that kind of narrates through. And so that, you know, and I saw, I saw that one. And it didn't lose the feeling. Yeah, which is kind of make me want to root differently for the 49ers, but I, you know, yeah. And we're not here to convert, you know, we're not here to convert people to packers fans. But, but yeah, I think that, yeah, that's for whatever reason. That's just our process. Because it actually, you know, when you're trying to concisely tell a story, you are writing story structure. And so, you know, we have this rip trailer. And then we actually go to then building out scenes. So we, you know, we wrote out 70 or 80 scenes. And then what we did is we hired my friend, who's the most voracious reader I know. And I said, let me book you a hotel for three nights. And you just write. And, and here's the outline. Here's the feeling. And, and that's what he did. So that was how we got our first draft is, you know, him collaborating with me. You gave him the ideas, but he actually wrote the script or the. He wrote the first draft. And then I, I went in and I worked with him on that draft. And then. So I'm technically like the first screenwriter on record. He's the second one. And then we ended up hiring two other people along the journey to help. You know, we hired a Wisconsin guy to help give us extra Wisconsin ammunition in the story. And then we hired another woman, a friend of our producer, Aaron Boyd, who she's just really polished and understands. Yeah, kind of real true screenwriting format to help us kind of do the final polish on it. Okay. So. That working title of God loves the Green Bay Packers has now turned into green and gold. Yes. And it's an actual movie that has been funded and made. Yeah. And recently in the last few months, you took it to several film festivals, one in Indianapolis. Do I have that right? Yep. Correct. Yeah. That's Heartland International Film Festival. And how did that go? Yeah, we won. It's great because, you know, Heartland's pretty, it's a very specific, you know, it sounds exactly what it is. It's for the middle America. A lot of the film festivals are not for that. Yeah. And so, yeah, Heartland, but it's an Academy qualifying film festival. And we ended up winning the audience choice award there. And then also the Jimmy Stewart Legacy Award, you know, for anybody who knows Jimmy Stewart, it's kind of. This is a feeling of a wonderful life. Do we have any angels in it? Oh, there's, I think there's angels everywhere and that they don't have things that they got, they got cheeseheads on them. So, so you were there then, then you, was it Austin, Texas? Yeah. So then that was because we kind of, we knew this would perform really well at Heartland because it's, you know, squaring across hairs of our demographic. And it went to Austin and we won audience choice award there as well, which is another Academy qualifying film festival. We kind of knew that it actually shocked us. My brother called me, he's like, you're not going to believe this. And so that, that was, it dignified where the project had legs outside of just Midwestern, you know, farmers and packer fans. And this, this actually is translating to, you know, more of an art house crowd as well who can, who can pallet a happy movie, you know. Take it. Yeah, big time. So can you take, take, take a couple of minutes and just give me your elevator speech of the storyline of Green Gold. Yeah, so it's really simple. And that's, you know, that was intentional, but it's a story of an old dairy farmer in Wisconsin who finds out that his little chunk of dirt, fourth generation farms being taken by the bank. And he's not making his payments. And so his granddaughter, who's a musician, aspiring musician, living up in the, in the loft of the barn, helps convince him to make a bet with the bank to extend the life of the loan if the packers win the Super Bowl. And so the, you know, the film it on the surface has this kind of deal that these guys are working out with the bank and then on the under, you know, the real, the kind of the guts of the story is this family relationship, this grandfather, granddaughter, dynamic of how do you perceive this, this vocational work that's been around in our family for a long time. How do we think about it? How do we steward it? And then, yeah, farming in this case, yeah. And then it's pitted kind of against the background of the Green Bay Packers, which is, you know, the only community owned sports team in America. And, you know, that, that is symbolic of the greater community that, that these people find themselves in. You don't, you don't have to tell me the hand or the conclusion or anything. We'll, we'll hold that. We don't want to be a spoiler. But, but you went out and you look for somebody to play this old man, right? How old is he? Is he as old as I am? He's, he's a, I can't remember how old you are. He, when we filmed, he was 77. Yeah, he's a kid. And, and who did you get to do this? So we got Craig T Nelson, who is the voice of Mr. Incredibles. He's coach from the show in the 90s. You know, it's funny. A lot of the younger kids know him as Zeke from parenthood and then young Sheldon. Yeah. Which I didn't realize, but you know, school kids go bananas for this guy, which is funny, because I always thought it was me and my parents that would go bananas for him. But yeah, he, you know, we got it. Our casting directors, because we're an independent movie, barely, barely funded. And, you know, they asked us who we wanted and we said we want Craig T Nelson. And they, they laughed almost at us. And they said, OK, you know, kind of graciously smiled and said, who else do you guys want? And we said, we want Craig. And, and they came, they're like, OK, we'll graciously pass this along to his agent. But you better get, you better figure out who else you guys want. You need a plan. Yeah, but no kid in the next day, they call us back and they said, we cannot believe this, but he wants to talk to you guys. And so he read it. And honestly, on that call, he, you know, he was interviewing us essentially. And, but yeah, he signed up. He said, we're going to figure this out. He's like, I have, I read a lot of scripts. And he said, this one kind of speaks to. It speaks to the language that I grew up with. It speaks to the values that I grew up with that I no longer see in the work that I do. And I want to help get this out into the world. Wow. So, so you got Craig T Nelson. You got Culver's Custer or what it was. For this help put up some of the cash. You, you actually went to Green Bay recently, right? Yeah. So we got the Packers as a partner to which took two years to get. Oh, my goodness. That was maybe the time you were there. You were there the first weekend in January when the Packers Bears played, correct? Yeah. Did you preview the, did I hear that you previewed the film? We showed a couple scenes. So it was, we did kind of a red carpet PR event. Craig flew out for it. He's saying the national anthem at the Packers Bears game is kind of a PR stunt, which was a funny idea. I did, you know, that idea just kind of came to me and I threw it out to the Packers and they made him audition for it, which is his first audition. He didn't have 45 years, I think. So, yeah, but it was, you know, we had all the Packers executive executives out and we had Culver's executives out and we played for them. Kind of like a 20 minute version of the movie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that was an out of body experience, I would say. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my. Yeah. Well, you know, for, for me, of course, I've known you now for some years and I've known some of your, your in-laws and others here in the area. And by here in the area, I'm talking Northern Colorado. So here, here we sit having this conversation. And a few days from now, I believe, this coming Friday, we're doing this. We're talking on a Sunday afternoon and this coming Friday, this, your movie will be released at that time. And how many theaters across the country? It's almost a thousand now. It might actually be over a thousand because the Canada picked up like a hundred theaters this last week on it. Really, I thought, see, I'm way behind the last I heard was 280 theaters. I thought that was a lot. No, we're, I, this whole thing dick is so surprising to me. It's crazy. Crazy. Yeah. Yeah. It's, you know, that, you know, talk about a, talk about a feeling of just like hump, like I don't know how this happened fully. You know, it's, you're just stewarding what you have and doing the best you can. When they sent out when our theater, you know, our theatrical distributor sent it out. You know, they're like, we don't really have a fully full, full gauge on how many people will accept this because it's a risk for each individual theater. If they want to take up a screen to play it. Yeah. When they sent us back the list, my jaw dropped. I couldn't believe it that everybody was interested in this thing. Yeah. I think, you know, aren't, aren't we in a day when, when people, it isn't just about a feel good movie. You can have an animation piece and then it's a feel good movie. You know, my, my favorite animated film that shows how old I am is up. Okay. It's a guy that opened in 20 minutes. It's nasty. It's real good. And old guy goes up in a balloon or whatever. But, but this, this film and I have not seen it. You know, I get to see the film is coming weekend. This film has, has a point that's about culture. That's about generations, I guess, you know, and, and we're desperate for value centered things across the years. In a, in a time when there's such huge upheavals, so, so much uncertainty. And here's a film about uncertainty. How am I going to hang on to the farm? I guess that it's about that. And, and, and how do, why do, why do we place a bet on the Packers in the soup? I just, I'm, I'm very excited to see this. And so, I'm, I'm going to, I think I'm going to check it out Saturday afternoon. And, and here in our area, and, and by our area, I'm talking about the larger Fort Collins area. It's in cinema theater, which is major. I mean, it's one of the major general. These, these aren't, these aren't little boutique art houses. You know, these are money making places. And if it doesn't make a dollar, you're out in the day and a half, right? Four days. We got four days. Four days. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's true. I, you know, I think to your point about the, the, I think what people. There's a, there's like an nostalgia. People feel with it when they watch it to again, sort of what Craig said, you know, he's like, this reminds me of things that I grew up with and that I loved and have seen just that are gone in culture and gone. And families and, and. And so I think it does speak to that. I think it also represents, I think it represents and dignifies faith and spirituality in a way that isn't. Either hockey or overly, you know, like evangelistic. It like, I think it represents it pretty equitably, at least, and sophisticated. You know, how I feel like my own spiritual life anyway. So I think people have responded to that and. And then, yeah, I think it leaves people with a good reminder of hope and goodness. I think that's the other big thing that people have said over and over. It's, you know, I think in the uncertain times, it's like you, you forget. You never know how the story ends, right? And, and I think in, in, you know, in cinematic history. As, as Emma has gotten more and more towards this authenticity piece, they've leaned more and more into the dark harder sides, which is, you know, proper. But, you know, in that, I think they've forgot that there's so much beauty that happens every single day that we just can't forget about. Babies are born, you know, all these wonderful miracles that we just encounter. And that is, that isn't hallmark. That isn't cheesy or cheap. It's beautiful and true. So, I think that's a big part of what, what happened here? Well, to have a, to have a young guy and, and, and I don't know how old you are now, but you're, you're young. Thirty eight. Yeah. How old are you? Thirty eight. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I can, I can almost remember thirty eight. And it's a, to have a young guy brought up in UP Michigan, up in that territory that makes real people. If you can survive, you know, do, do a, do a story from the territory, really. You know, Green Bay, Wisconsin, not that far away, right? And to, and to have it, to have it focus on the things that make life work, and help people know who they are in the larger picture is just a wonderful gift to us. Thank you for all the years and the countless hours and all of the, all of the flying and the selling and, smoking and breaking that has brought this to be. I just, for, for all of our listeners, which are across the country, I don't know how many thousands there are, but, but it's open across the country and in Canada, this coming weekend, January 31st, February 1st, is that correct? Yeah, correct. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, oh, go ahead. No, I was, I was just going to make a pitch and say, go see it, take your family, take the old ones and the young ones. And buy popcorn so that the place makes money and all of that, you know, I just, I just think, I just think that, that to have someone of your caliber and your roots with your lovely wife and your parents and in laws. And so it was all cheering, cheering you well. And, and going, having gone through all that in order to come to this place is a wonderful thing. And I just hope that this thing is just stays for 40 weeks. I don't know that any movie statement. Maybe just in a concert of four weeks. More than that. Is there anything else you'd like to say to us as we sign off or say to our, our partners and listeners out there? No, I don't, you know, I think it's in theaters. That was a real intentional choice that we wanted to and had been fighting for for a long time to get it into theaters because there is something, actually culverts was the one, their brand came on to, they came on after the movie was made and, and they said, we really want people to get out of their homes and go see it because there's something about getting out of our, you know, little individual worlds and getting out and watching it with together with other people that is sort of an, an intangible part of the film, like sort of what the film partly is, right? It's this. Oh, I think, I think if people have, you know, I haven't been to a movie theater personally in a long time outside of, you know, screenings that we've done with our movie. And so it's a good, I think it's a fun chance to get outside and, and yeah, hopefully, I think I would just share my gratitude for them supporting us. And there have been so many people who've just donated, donated so many hours and my mom was running movie posters, no kidding down this like an hour away to the neighboring town to drop off movie posters for us. It's just silly stuff like that that it's homegrown and, and hopefully can connect a lot of people and inspire, inspire folks. Well, here's, here's to green and gold and we will, I'm really looking forward to seeing it in a few days and we hope all of you listening will go take your families, get after it. And thank you, Anders Lindball for just being who you are dreaming the dream going for it and we get to back it. So that's it. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. You are welcome. Anders and I are out. All of you who are listening. Thank you for doing that. And we just, um, pray the Lord's best on this week as we move toward February. It's hard to believe we're almost there. But here we are. This is Dick Foth, signing off. We'll catch you later. Bye bye. you