Meet Nathan Weidner

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nathan Weidner a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Nathan, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

Oh, that’s a deep question. We’re all looking for the answer to this one, aren’t we? We always hope for a burning bush or an A-HA moment that will send us in the right direction from the start, but unfortunately that’s not the way it happens for most of us. It’s usually a process of living through experiences that push us more towards what we are best suited for and weeding out those things that hold us back.

As a child I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to be when I grew up. Nothing sticks out to me, like wanting to be a fireman or an artists. I just sort of leaned into the world around me and focused on what I enjoyed in the moment. Art was definitely a huge part of my childhood, and I spent a lot of time drawing pictures, writing stories, making audio recordings like a radio host, and playing music. It knew I would always enjoy art as a hobby, but it never dawned on me that it could blossom into a career.

What ultimately drove me to filmmaking was a series of events. My sister took radio and television classes at the career center, and she brought me in to play part in one of her programs, which exposed me to the studio environment for the first time. After she graduated, she got a job at a television station and would let me come out to spend time with her at work, which made me want to do exactly what she was doing. I enrolled in the same career center, but I soon learned that the broadcasting projects I was working on were not nearly as fun as making films. My final projects both years were short films, and by graduation I knew I wanted to pursue filmmaking.

However, the story doesn’t end there. About three years into my film program I felt the call to go into ministry, and I abandoned film for a degree in French, to pursue being a foreign missionary. I spent the next eight years preparing for the mission field, but this ultimately never happened, because my first child was born with severe disabilities, which prevented me from leaving the country. I used my French degree to begin teaching high school French, and on the side I began to shoot films independently. This eventually opened the door for me to begin teaching video production at the school as well.

As I was living through this whole experience, it felt like a crooked path that seemed to take odd turns. However, over time this all culminated into a well-organized and fulfilling career. If I had just pursued film, I would have been doing it for myself alone. The years of training for the ministry and teaching high school changed my focus, and now I work with film students to help them get experience in working on feature films. If I hadn’t taken the path I did, I would have never wound up here, and this is exactly the type of work I find fulfilling.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

PRAUS Media began in 1999 under the name WeidScreen Ministries, with the goal of creating spiritually uplifting films. We released our first project, “PARCHEGONA,” in 2002. We began developing our next project in 2004, but when I met a talented young videographer, I conceived the idea of allowing him to direct the film. We encountered a number of delays, but we finally released “In Other Words” in 2009. The experience of working with an up-and-coming artist stayed with me, and even though it would be many years before our organization produced another film, I held onto the desire to help those just getting started to take their first major steps as filmmakers.

It wasn’t until 2021 that we produced our next film, “A Story for Winter,” which I directed on my own. After wrapping that project, I immediately began formulating a plan to shoot another film using film students. Several students had graduated from my high school who were majoring in various college media programs, and I brought a group of them together in the summer of 2022 to shoot “The Name of the Sun.” It was a huge success, and I determined that we would continue to develop our program to provide valuable experience to emerging filmmakers. Since then, PRAUS has produced two additional student films: “Reckless Mercy” (2024) and “Second Draft” (2025).

“Second Draft” is currently in post-production and is expected to be released in March of 2026. Set during the 2020 pandemic, the film follows the journey of a high school senior who, while completing an assignment for his history class, stumbles upon lost footage of an astronaut who never made it to outer space. He begins pursuing the astronaut to learn more of his story in hopes of completing a documentary about him. However, the astronaut refuses to cooperate because he doesn’t want anyone documenting the death of his dream for the world to see. It’s a story about finding purpose in life in the aftermath of losing everything we’ve been working toward.

While helping these young filmmakers develop is my goal, I understand that it is still necessary for me to grow as an artist in order to become a better mentor. I occasionally take time off from PRAUS to shoot films on my own under an LLC I named “Outside Hollywood Movies.” In 2023, I shot “Chasing Glamour,” a film about a prostitute who saves a man attempting to jump off a bridge, and in turn he makes it his mission to save her from the streets. My next project, titled “Hey, Jupiter!” will be filmed in the summer of 2026. It addresses the issue of shared custody and the pain of separation when children must move out of state, away from the non-custodial parent.

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?

I have been asked this question before, but rather than touch on things I have previously addressed, I would like to mention some more recent issues I have encountered over the past couple years. These things have broadened my experience base and have taught me how one can best function in the world of independent film, although I believe that people from various walks of life would benefit from understanding them.

The first thing is efficiency in communication. As independent artists, we do not have the luxury of well-established organizations that have sufficient staff to handle multiple levels of interactions with clients and artists. We are often one-stop shops that must convey and gather information on our own. Because of this, it is necessary that we partner with people who respond to communications in an efficient and professional manner. We obviously do not expect others to be at our beck and call every second of the day. However, it is not an unreasonable expectation to receive a response to a text or email within 24 hours, even if the answer is “no” or “I will need to look into that and get back with you.” People who refuse to respond in such a manner do not convey a sense of professionalism or dedication to the project, and it makes me less likely to work with them again. And I hold myself to this standard as much as anyone else. I strive to respond to others as quickly as possible, even if my response must convey a delay in giving a solid answer.

Secondly, it amazes me how quickly artists are to consider or reject working with me without having fully vetted me and my work. I have gone through entire productions with individuals only to learn, in the end, that they had never watched anything else I had produced. This is risky, as it is important to align oneself with individuals and projects that will edify your career and positively impact your body of work. In contrast to this, I have also interacted with individuals whose work I have screened and vetted prior to approaching them and whose brand essentially appeared to align with my own, yet they turn down working with me without properly vetting me in return. While my goal is obviously to align myself with the best talent for the benefit of a project, I also strive to work in the best interest of other artists to help elevate them and provide them with opportunities to grow and challenge themselves in their art. I have witnessed such incredible potential stifled for lack of proper vetting and dialogue.

Lastly, it is important to understand that the work you produce is only as good as the collective investment each member brings to it. There is a fallacy in the film industry that the more money invested into a project, the better the project is. All you have to do is peruse Boxofficemojo.com to see that this is not the case. Hollywood sinks millions into films that fail miserably at the box office because they were poorly written or cast. By the same token, just because you get involved with a smaller, independent production does not mean that it is not worth your full effort. There is some incredible work that is accomplished on the independent level, and major movie stars are often willing to work on smaller films in order to obtain better roles and demonstrate their range that Hollywood films often limit. If we approach each project with professionalism, it will increase the artistic integrity of the project and reflect very well on us.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?

I have discussed the book “The Man Who Heard Voices” before, which addressed M. Night Shyamalan’s production of the film “Lady in the Water.” If it is okay, I would rather mention a couple films that have been important in my recent development.

The first one is “First Man,” starring Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong. After watching that film for the first time I had to sit and contemplate for a while how to describe the experience. In the end, I landed on something unexpected – music. Watching “First Man” is less like watching a narrative story and more like listening to an exquisite album that stirs up the soul. You do not just watch Neil’s life play out on screen. You experience Neil. You sit next to him and spy on him in quiet, uncomfortable close ups. In real life Neil was a fiercely private man, but you invade his space and live his experience by his side. It was a remarkable way to shoot a film, and I have strived to emulate this in whatever ways I can in my filmmaking.

The second film is “Colewell,” starring Karen Allen (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Starman). Allen plays Nora, a postmaster in a small rural community where people come together to socialize and connect while coming to pick up their mail. However, everything is threatened when the Postal Service informs them that they plan to shut the office down. Director Tom Quinn chose to shoot this film in a similar manner, spending a lot of intimate time with Nora in quiet solitude, and in the end “Colewell” comes across like a cinematic work of music that keeps me coming back to experience it over and over again.

It is well-known that the average attention span in the United States has dropped dramatically. Images and sounds often change every 3-5 seconds, and it is leaving an indelible impact on recent generations of media consumers. In a world where this is what is considered marketable, I am choosing to lean heavily into the influence of “First Man” and “Colewell.” I want to create films that will be a genuine experience, not just a visceral spectacle.

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Image Credits

All Images were produced by myself, Nathan Weidner.

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