Meet Nathan Weidner

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nathan Weidner. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nathan below.

Nathan, so great to be with you and I think a lot of folks are going to benefit from hearing your story and lessons and wisdom. Imposter Syndrome is something that we know how words to describe, but it’s something that has held people back forever and so we’re really interested to hear about your story and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

I was never aware of imposter syndrome until about a year ago. I had always dreamed big and had aspirations to create films, and once I realized that dream I rode a high for quite a while. That high was fueled when we began to get our films onto streaming services. However, it eventually it began to wane. I would meet other filmmakers who were striving for and achieving some of the same things, and rather than celebrating their victories as a fellow filmmaker I began to look at these achievements as common. The thought that permeated my mind was, “Well, if I did it, then obviously anyone could do it,” as if I had not accomplished anything out of the ordinary.

It took a period of meditating and reflecting on what we had been doing the past four years to bring me around. Looking back on it all, I was taken with a deep sense of satisfaction and pride in our work. Certainly, I could see that the later films demonstrated evidence of artistic and technical growth from the earlier films, but rather than beat myself up over the flaws in our early work I embraced the growth as a positive. What is more, I have spoken with other filmmakers about their struggles to distribute their work, and it made me realize that our success in getting our projects onto streaming services was not as common as I had thought.

However, there is a danger after rebounding from imposter syndrome of overshooting and becoming overly prideful and boastful. In an industry that pushes you to self-promote and prove yourself all the time, it is difficult to retain a sense of humility. It is one thing to be proud of one’s work by feeling a sense of satisfaction, but it can easily spill over into the realm of arrogance . Even when I am not intending to come across this way, my failure to carefully choose my words when interacting with others can come back to bite me. It helps to remind myself that this is not Hollywood, and I’m definitely not creating work at the level of Christopher Nolan. I am simply an Ohioan who has been blessed with the opportunity to make films.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I have been shooting independent films since high school, but only recently did I enter a period in which filmmaking became a serious vocation. I had always dreamed of working in film with this sort of regularity, but I typically spent years between projects. After graduation I released three very modestly-produced films, in 1989, 2002, and 2009. After each of these I was always ready to shoot another, but the priorities of life always stepped in and prevented me from doing the next one for quite some time. I wrote “A Story For Winter” back in 2009 just after the release of my previous film “In Other Words,” but I didn’t actually get to start shooting it until 2021.

“A Story For Winter” was the film that changed everything for me. Its production value was of a higher caliber than anything we had previously released, and it garnered wider interest than any of the previous films. It was the first one we were able to get onto a streaming service. As was always the case, I had the desire to shoot another film after completing it, and this time everything fell into place. However, my production company went in a direction I hadn’t originally planned.

I am a high school French and Media Production teacher, and a number of students from my school had gone on to college to major in various areas of film production. I decided to bring them together the following summer while school was out and form a team to produce the next film. At first they were going to work under me as assistants, but over time I gradually moved out of the director’s chair and into the role of co-producer to allow the students, themselves, to do all of the major work. It was a risk, but one that paid off big time. In 2022 we release “The Name of the Sun,” and it created the model under which PRAUS Media now operates. The next fully-run student crew came together in the summer of 2024 to produce the film “Reckless Mercy,” which we released later that year, and we have already begun production on our next film, “Second Draft” which should be finished by the end of 2025.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The first is commitment. When I was in my 20’s I was interning with a church, and I was given a children’s Christmas play to direct. We did not have a lot of children who could participate, so I came up with the idea of, instead, doing the program for the children with puppets. I developed an elaborate set and planned on numerous puppet costumes, and before long I realized that I had bitten off more than I thought I could chew. I went to the pastor and told him that there was no way I was not going to be able to complete the show on time. He told me, “One one hand, I understand what you are saying. On the other hand, you made a commitment, and I feel like I should make you live up to that. What do you need from me to help you finish what you started?” I asked for some funding, and we purchased the materials necessary to complete the show. It took a lot of time and effort, but in the end it was a huge success. I have never forgotten what he said to me, and since then I have made a concerted effort to finish anything I have started. This came into play when I shot “A Story For Winter” in 2021. I didn’t have everything lined up yet, but in early March I began telling everyone, “We’re going to start shooting on June 21st.” We began on June 24th. Making the commitment compelled me to deliver.

The second is taking chances. Independent filmmaking can be daunting, because you don’t have the resources of a larger production, and a lot of the responsibility falls on you as the producer. It can be easy to play it safe and not attempt anything that is going to require more time, effort, or money than is comfortable to expend. However, I have always pushed myself to dream a little bigger and imagine what is possible. For “The Name of the Sun” I realized early on that I wanted to shoot in Montana, near Glacier National Park. People questioned me – “How are you going to accomplish that?” I told them that I didn’t know, but I was determined to find a way. It took research, a number of phone calls, and a lot of creative budgeting, but in June of 2022 I was able to take a group of four students to Whitefish Montana to shoot for a week in Glacier National Park. Sometimes things don’t work out the way we intended, but the only way to know for certain is to make the attempt.

The third is integrity. I made a commitment back in 1990 to create films that have a positive message that leave the audience with hope. I have not wavered from that commitment ever since, even though it has cost me the high regard of many of my peers in the independent film world. Films with positive messages are not as visceral and riveting as darker, intense films full of violence and horror. As a result, my short films are rarely nominated for anything at film festivals, and to date my features have only been selected at faith-based festivals. This complicated things when I dared to make grittier films like “The Name of the Sun” and “Chasing Glamour,” in which we attempted to convey realistic characters by having them used some crude language. The language barred us from entering faith-based festivals, which prohibit such language, and the message of the films has made it difficult for us to land into festivals that are not looking for films that are overtly spiritual. In spite of all this, I have learned that it is still important to remain true to who I am and what I am about, because the response I have received from audiences has been overwhelmingly positive. In the end, they are the ones I truly care about the most.

Whenever I meet young filmmakers, I often hear thinks like, “I want to be the next Quentin Tarantino” or “the next Christopher Nolan.” I completely understand, because when I was young I was always saying, “I want to be the next Steven Spielberg.” However, now that I’m making films, what is coming out on the screenplay page is nothing like Spielberg. I have had to accept that I can only make films like Nathan Weidner, and that’s okay. The world doesn’t need another Spielberg. And the world doesn’t need another Quentin Tarantino. The world needs what you uniquely know and see and can put on the screen.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?

“The Man Who Heard Voices” by Michael Bamberger is one of the most influential books I have read about a filmmaker. It was written by a journalist who met M. Night Shyamalan just prior to his starting production on “Lady In The Water.” Shayamalan permitted him to follow him throughout the production of the film, including during key meetings with executives. I read the book because “Lady In The Water” is my favorite Shyamalan film, and I wanted to know what went into the production. I also was curious as to why this was the first major flop of his career, since I held the film in such high regard.

The book shows how Shyamalan took a risk at pouring such a personal story into the script and how he went head-to-head against the studio to remain true to the film that he wanted to make. He ultimately left Disney because he believed they no longer valued individualism. He took a lot of flack for playing a major role in the film this time, especially since it was a character who was depicted as someone with an important message for the world. The critics also reacted very negatively to the message he conveyed concerning the ineptitude of film critics.

I value what Shyamalan chose to do in the production of this film, in spite of what it cost him. He created a work of art that inspired me as a human being and as a filmmaker. I learned that, while widespread praise and support may be required for a studio to turn a profit, it is not necessarily the genuine indicator of the true value of a work of art. I have never held out much hope of turning a huge profit from my work, but some of the feedback that I have received from individual audience members has encouraged me that what I have done has mattered.

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All taken by myself.

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