On Saturday December 11 I returned from a week in Israel with my partner
Eddie Flom, our film’s director Cris Kruzen, and our esteemed friend
and collaborator Raul Fonseca, Biblical expert and spiritual counselor.
Our time in Israel was extremely productive. We spent the first four
days in the Old City of Jerusalem, scouting potential locations there,
and meeting with people who could help us. Immediately Cris’s friend
Chris Mitchell, Head of the CBN News Bureau for the Middle East, and
based in Jerusalem, became our guiding light. The first night in
Jerusalem we met Chris and his friends Gary and Cindy Bayer at a
Christmas Carol concert at St. Anne’s Church in the Old City, afterwards
going to Gary and Cindy’s home four stories above the Old City for
custard and coffee. For the next seven days Chris, Gary, and Cindy were
our nearly constant companions and travel guides, opening doors to
people and places for us. Chris took us on a night tour of the Mount of
Olives, and invited us to a film party in Haifa which resulted in our
meeting a wonderful Christian Arab Director who will be working with us,
but also discovering the city of Akko where we will be shooting much of
our film. In between we spend two days and nights with Gary and Cindy
at their beautiful Writer Retreat near Tiberias overlooking the Sea of
Galilee, and touring much of the Golan and Galilee areas visiting
Nazareth, and the places of the loaves and fishes, Peter’s home, the
sermon on the mount, and Caesarea Philippi in the Hula Valley of
Northern Israel. In the Galilee and Golan there has been significantly
less urban development than than in the other large urban areas of
Israel, and many of the sites in the Bible remain in their natural
condition save for the Churches built near them. We learned from walking
the land where Jesus grew up and started his ministry, that the
natural terrain remains much the same as it was in Jesus’ time, full of a
unique natural beauty which includes clear springs, mountains, valleys,
the Jordan river, and the spectacular Sea of Galilee. Our director’s
vision for the film we are making is to bring the story of the
beginnings of Christianity to life through the lives of the central
characters. Now we can see how the land itself will be an integral part
of telling this story through its colors, textures, and natural
features. We have a solid grasp on how to make the film now, a core of
experienced and well connected people to assist us, and a great vision.
See the Thirty Three Facebook site for HD images of the trip and stills
of many of the locations in Jerusalem, Nazareth, the Galilee, and Akko,
north of Haifa, where we will be based for the shoot next year. Thanks
to all who have supported us, you were in our hearts during this first
trip to begin our journey of producing the film “Thirty Three, The Story
of Hope.” Bill Whitacre
