Fr. Joseph Huneycutt: It is my great blessing today to be sitting here with Yelena Popovic who is writer, director, producer, of the movie that many of us are familiar with, Man of God, the story of St. Nektarios. Her forthcoming movie, you may have heard, is going to be about Moses the Black. Before we get into those two features, I would like to welcome you, Yelena.

Ms. Yelena Popovic: Thank you, Father, for having me. I really appreciate that.

Fr. Joseph: And ask you if you could give me some information on SimeonFaith, and at the end of this podcast, your husband, Alex, will give us some more information.

Ms. Popovic: Actually, after Man of God, on the heels of the success of Man of God, talking about the fact that I wanted to make a film about St. Moses the Black, instead of going and raising money for another film, we decided— And actually, it was my husband, Alexandros Potter, who’s the producer of Man of God, and he worked in Hollywood for many, many years, for the leading financiers in Hollywood; he was involved in making films, about 25 films. They were ranging from $1-80 million in budget. He’s the one who suggested: “Well, why don’t we—” Because we actually thought of putting a company together earlier, prior to all of this, because our company is called Simeon Entertainment, and the company itself was created to make films that have good messages that give inspiration.

But now we decided to actually, after Man of God— We thought that now, instead of trying to put a company that would only focus on making films that would carry the light of Orthodoxy, which will be primarily lives of the saints— And we felt that the saints have incredible stories—and to make them in a way that people can relate to them nowadays and that can change people’s lives. We decided that instead of raising the money for one film, it’s easier to raise the money for the fund, in which case it would enable us to have a studio distribution. So these films, if I say I want to do apostolic work through film, one of the things that I need to provide, then, is to make sure that these films can be seen worldwide, on a big platform. So if we have a fund, we can have an output deal with the studio, because they’re interested in content, not just one movie, but multiple films. In that case, we can have that kind of distribution that’s required to reach larger masses. That’s why I think it’s more productive.

Regardless, I will make St. Moses the Black. Obviously, that would also dictate the rest of the fund, because Man of God I believe had certain success. Hopefully Moses the Black can be as good as Man of God, just on a different level in the sense of exposure. And, God willing, we can make— Again, I want to say, I will direct and write St. Moses the Black, but I will be the creative executive in the company, where I will not be writing and directing films. I will make sure that other talented people, writers and directors, can do films about other saints. This is not only for me—I just happen to be writing and directing the next film—but it’s really for our future. This will be the first Christian Orthodox fund.

If we think about Evangelicals, Roman Catholics, they’re quite well funded, and they’re making some good films out there, but we don’t have anything. I think maybe this is our time—who knows?—to share a little bit of our faith, to put that feeling out there which is unfamiliar to a lot of people in the West. People seem to be craving that at the moment.

Fr. Joseph: So I know our listeners are waiting for the part about Moses the Black. How did that come about?

Ms. Popovic: In the year 2000, it was when I started to have a liturgical life. I had my first confession and my first communion, and it was since then that I became a member of the Church. Naturally, back then, I started to read, as the beginner in faith, in the Orthodox faith. I read a lot of books on saints. I love reading them, because they inspired me. There were incredible, wonderful stories that gave me courage. But I never thought about making a film about a saint, even though naturally as a filmmaker, as a writer, I would gravitate toward writing stories that would give hope to people, that would inspire people, that would help people not to give up and to fight the good fight.

But saint— No, that wasn’t something I thought about until I read a story of St. Nektarios of Aegina. As I’ve spoken about this many times, it was very personal to me on many levels. I felt as if every word of it was written in my soul. I embarked on making a film about him, because of this personal understanding and having gone to a really good drama school called Playhouse West where I learned my craft. I knew that if you’re going to— To make a good film, one would have to make it personal. The director has to— It has to be personal, and because this was very personal, I dared to enter that arena. With God’s help, it was realized.

Now, having said that, before I filmed Man of God I read about, amongst other saints, St. Moses the Black. When I read about how he died, I got chills, and I had that same feeling I had when I read the story of St. Nektarios.

Fr. Joseph: So you feel like you relate to St. Moses the Ethiopian, St. Moses the Black, in some way?

Ms. Popovic: Even though I wasn’t a gang leader or— Well, one cannot relate to that fully. I left home very young. I had a difficult life. I was an artist. I still am an artist, but I lived in— I was an actress in Hollywood. I hung around a lot of wonderful artists that were struggling, whether it was a worldly struggle or spiritual struggle. I remember meeting a lot of people that many would consider “bad,” that were actually wonderful people, and they were always open to hearing about Jesus when I wanted to share something to them, even people that didn’t have faith or they didn’t really want to hear anything: when I spoke about Christ to them, they wanted to hear. Well, if I compare that to the crowds that I also hang around with, people that were wealthy, doing very well in this world, especially the learned intellectuals—not that I didn’t want to talk about Jesus, but they weren’t interested in hearing about him whatsoever.

So I’m certain that there are a lot of people that live destructive lives because they don’t know any better, because they’re maybe thinking at the moment that’s the best that they can do, and maybe somewhere deep in their heart they don’t believe that there is a chance for them. I know there are a lot of people there that can not only be forgiven, but they can do great works of God. This is why this is very personal to me to make this film.

Fr. Joseph: Would you say that you’ve developed a relationship with your subject, with the saints, like St. Nektarios and St. Moses?

Ms. Popovic: Well, like with people, with certain saints we have closer connections, I think. With Man of God, it was personal because I understood, in a way, what he had [gone] through because of my personal experience and because of the experience my father had, who was a righteous man. He was prosecuted because he was righteous.

With St. Moses the Black, I think what’s personal to me is the fact that, again, I’ve experienced a lot of kindness and help from people that many people would deem “bad.” This is what’s good and bad: that’s something that, of course, we know we’ve got to strive, we’ve got to repent, and we’ve got to get on the proper path, but I think that’s one of the reasons. And another reason I think is because I’m from Serbia; originally my parents are from Montenegro. And I think somewhere in my genes, I’m sort of— There are a lot of fighters back then. My great-great-ancestor is called Marko Popovic, Marko Miljanov. People can even find about him. They can read about him in Wikipedia. He was the man who, in 1700s, liberated Montenegro from the Turkish invasion. This was a very tough guy who was not afraid to die, who was not afraid to get tortured to death to save others. So there is something about me that I’m kind of fascinated by these characters that are very brave. I mean, you have to be brave—and I don’t care what you did in the past, but you have to be brave to repent; you have to be brave to say, “Hey, I want to die. I don’t think I should die peacefully. Because of the way I lived, I actually want to go through that kind of death, and this is how I want to glorify God.” So in my opinion, that really moves me. Somewhere in my soul, I not only respect that but it kind of maybe wakes up something in my genes, of my ancestors. I think that’s the connection there that I can find.

Fr. Joseph: Let’s back up just a moment to Man of God, St. Nektarios. That was one of the darkest, if not the darkest times that I’ve known in my life. We were all going through the dark days—the struggles, lockdowns, the pandemic—and one of the bright things that came out of all that was this movie that kind of just appeared out of nowhere, at least for us. Wow. What a time!

Ms. Popovic: Well, Father, now that you said that, actually it answers my question. Many times I ask myself— Okay, it was very difficult to make the film, as you can imagine, but then we were hit by pandemic on top of everything. We were supposed to start the film on March 16, 2020. And we had to move the date again, this time to June 8. And then we shot for five weeks, and then we had to stop for a month and a half, and then finish in the last two weeks. The whole time, pandemic was raging, and people had to get tested, and it was— I can say that it was a miracle that you had 50 people a day participating in shooting, and not one of them, for seven weeks, contracts the virus. Because if one of us had contracted the virus at that time, we would have to be— We would have to shut down for two weeks, and that could have destroyed the whole production in our case, because we were extremely limited. We had just exactly as much as we needed, and it was always very tight.

I’m glad now, because I’ve asked myself many times why now, on top of everything, I have to do this in the middle of the pandemic. So now, when you tell me it was somewhat of a light in this really dark period, I understand why. And maybe… Because faith is such a valuable thing, maybe we can’t say we have faith unless we really surrender completely, which was in my case with this film. I just had to simply believe and not give up, that this will be finished with the help of God—not with my help; with the help of God, the intercession of St. Nektarios. Sometimes, as you say, there are dark times for many reasons, but that’s when God sends his grace in unusual places. This was through film this time, as you say. I’m glad to hear that.

Fr. Joseph: Earlier when we were talking, Yelena, you mentioned that Elder Ephraim of St. Anthony, Arizona, had a role in the making of Man of God?

Ms. Popovic: Geronda Ephraim had a role and is still having a role, I believe. As you know, as I said for 15 years I was there. In the year 2015 was when we moved to Europe, not because of necessarily making the film about St. Nektarios, but because of some family things. When I found myself in Greece was when I thought, “Well, maybe I’m here to make the film about St. Nektarios.” At the end of 2015, before I went to Serbia and Greece, after visiting Aegina for the third time and asking St. Nektarios to bless me if it’s his will to do a film about him, I had to get a blessing from somebody in the Greek Orthodox Church. Naturally, I went to Fr. Ephraim, Geronda Ephraim and Geronda Paisios. I brought the script, and I asked them to bless me to make the film. They gave me a blessing. That’s who gave me a blessing to do this. The only thing they asked of me is to use a devout Orthodox Christian to play the role of St. Nektarios. That’s the only thing they asked for, and I ended up doing it, actually. Aris Servetalis is a devout Orthodox Christian who is an amazing actor.

Why did I say that he’s still behind this? I really feel it strongly. I feel that he was not only part of making Man of God, which was miraculous—I believe that also through his prayers the whole thing happened—but I believe that he is very much behind the next project and in general behind this mission to hopefully spread the light of Orthodoxy in the media, which is a very important thing nowadays.

Fr. Joseph: Thank you, Yelena.

Ms. Popovic: Thank you, Father.

Fr. Joseph: Now it’s on to hear from your husband, Alexandros Potter, and hopefully our listeners will stay tuned so that they can hear how they, too, can have a role in SimeonFaith and bringing Orthodox saints, Orthodox movies, to the big screen. Alex?

Mr. Alexandros Potter: Thank you very much, Father. We’ve set up SimeonFaith as a dedicated film fund that will finance and produce multiple films that will carry the spirit of our Orthodox faith to a global audience. This is really apostolic work through film. It’s the first Orthodox Christian film fund that will operate on a studio level, alongside the already well-established and well-funded Evangelical and Roman Catholic production companies.

Film is part of our everyday culture. It’s a powerful tool that moves and shapes and inspires us, especially for our youth. SimeonFaith is paving the way for something undeniably needed, and I encourage everyone to be part of it. Our initial goal is to raise $3,000,000, which will enable us to start operating the fund and greenlight the first couple of films, including Moses the Black. As of this recording, we’ve raised $1,000,000 from investments of $50,000 and $100,000 from accredited, high net worth individuals.

There are a few ways you listeners can also participate. You can either invest, or you can donate. Donations in any amount, starting as little as $10 up to $20,000 per transaction can be made directly online at SimeonFaith.com. That’s SimeonFaith.com: S-i-m-e-o-n-F-a-i-t-h dot com, SimeonFaith.com. You’ll also enjoy on that landing page a short, three-minute video presentation that we put together, which I hope will further inspire everyone to participate. If you’re an accredited, high net worth individual or company or institution or church that would like to invest or donate at the $50,000-level or more, please reach out to Fr. Joseph here at St. Joseph Orthodox Church in Houston, and he’ll be able to put you in touch with me.

Fr. Joseph: Thanks to my guests, Yelena Popovic and Alexandros Potter. Please go to SimeonFaith.com and see that new teaser regarding the Moses the Black movie, forthcoming with your help. With your help. SimeonFaith.com.