New Bern filmmaker transports Nativity story to 1930s-era U.S. in time for Christmas

How do you take one of the most beloved and often-told stories in the world and make it new again?

That’s a challenge New Bern resident and first-time filmmaker Bill Hand takes on in “Epiphany: God Among Men,” a reimagining of the Biblical Nativity story shot at locations throughout Craven and Jones counties.

While numerous versions of the Bible’s story of the birth of Jesus Christ have been portrayed on both screen and stage, it’s a safe bet that none are quite like the one brought to life by Hand’s prodigious imagination.

“Epiphany: God Among Men,” asks a simple question: What if the Nativity story happened in 1930s America and had a decidedly Shakespearian edge?

The film, which Hand wrote, directed, cast and edited, presents the Biblical figures of Joseph, Mary and Jesus against a backdrop of Depression-era America and offers a new window into the family’s relationships and experiences.

The Sun Journal sat down with Hand last week to get his insights on the film as well as an exciting new film project he’ll be pursuing through next summer.

“The idea of Epiphany is to get into the heads of the characters: What is Mary thinking as the mother of God? What is Joseph thinking? What is Herod thinking? And then you go through their viewpoints and their ideas,” Hand explained. “I wanted to have a whole different way to look at it so the first thing was to get the actors out of the Bible costumes.”

The 51-minute film is presented as a series of vignettes that follow the promise and arrival of Christ and delves into the lives of his mother and father, a jealous king, humble shepherds and synagogue prophets, all seen from a more modern perspective.

Hand said he chose to set the movie in the 1930s because of that era’s similarity to the time of Christ.

“You’ve got a world war about to start, you’ve got dictators rising all around, you have financial ruin all across the nation,” Hand noted. “So to me it seems a very close idea of what Jesus and his family would have faced.”

Hand said the idea for the film began years ago as a literary experiment in which he wrote out the Nativity story in Shakespearean verse and then filmed a short video. During the downtime imposed by COVID he decided to dig up the script and turn it into a full-length feature movie.

Shot over several weeks last summer, “Epiphany: God Among Men,” used primarily local actors and talent save for the representation of the angel Gabriel, whose voiceover is done by an actor from New York.

“In our version the angel visits both Joseph and Mary through an old-timey radio,” Hand noted.

Another scene in the film probably not found in any other Nativity story: A shepherd traveling to see Jesus in a Model A car (an actual Model A courtesy of John Baldwin of Pollocksville).

“He actually broke down on the way to the shoot,” Hand laughed.

Local residents will be familiar with most of the locations used in the film, including Morris Blueberry Farm and Nelson Blueberry Farm in Bridgeton, Temple B’nai Sholem and the historic Blades House in New Bern, and a tobacco barn at Foscue Plantation in Pollocksville, which provided the setting for Joseph’s workshop.

Hand said the Pollocksville shoot came with a unique set of audio-related challenges.

“The day we’re shooting the military decides to send its Osprey’s on some kind of big training and they’re so low you can almost throw a rock and bounce it off the bottom of them,” he recalled. “Then the planes finally stop flying and we hear a chainsaw start. That was a real hoot.”

New Bern’s historic Attmore-Oliver House on Broad St. stood in for one of the movie’s most important locations, the home of Mary and Joseph. Hand admitted the house probably wasn’t the kind of dwelling a poor shepherd and his wife would have called home in Biblical times.

“That’s one thing I wish I could shoot in a more humble location,” Hand said. “If I had the money I would reshoot that scene but that’s what we had.”

A number of the actors are also familiar faces around town.

Howard Matthews, who plays guitar on Middle Street in downtown New Bern, was cast as the prophet Simeon. Blake Samperi, the minister of music at Brices Creek Bible Church, portrays Joseph, while Mary is played by local aspiring actress Isabella McCarthy.

Watson Smith handles the part of the baby Jesus while Hand’s grandson, River Hand, plays the toddler-aged Savior.

To shoot the movie, Hand recruited Ken Hess, an local filmmaker and host of The Experimental Film Fest and The Experimental Film Podcast.

Hand said he was initially hoping to have a budget of around $9,000 for the film but ended up with less than a third of that, most of which came from primary sponsors St. Paul’s Catholic Church and Brices Creek Bible Church.

Hand said he is hoping to raise more now that the movie has been released. “Epiphany: God Among Men,” is available for both rent and sale at http://hessmedia.vhx.tv.

“We were able to raise a little bit of money for it and I was able to pay a few of my people,” Hand said. “They all came in with the offer that if we make some money I’ll pay you this much but you all stand the chance of being totally volunteer.”

A whole different world

Hand is no stranger to the ins and outs of theatrical productions. He majored in theater at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pa. and began acting in stage productions after graduating.

He’s also been a major contributor to the New Bern arts world, acting in and directing numerous plays. Hand wrote the “Honour, The Musical” which debuted at Orringer Hall at Craven Community College in Jan. 2020. He’s currently part of the Christmas comic mystery and dinner show, “The Miscreant Christmas,” which runs through December 19 at locations from New Bern to Newport and Oriental.

“I’ve always been a fan of storytelling. I’ve always thought in pictures,” he said.

But film work, Hand admitted, is another world entirely for both actors and directors.

“When you’re acting on stage you feed off the energy the audience gives you, and on a film you don’t have that,” Hand remarked. “Also in a play you start at point A and work all the way through to the end. With a film, things are shot totally out of order and every little angle and expression stands out.”

Hand said film is far more time consuming as well. To get just under an hour of usable film footage, he and his crew shot for approximately nine days that stretched over four months.

The crew also delved, subtly, into the land of CGI and other special effects. A white post was removed from one scene and replaced by a car and the image of an aged barn was inserted to cover up a modern building. Viewers can also look for some special effects work during a scene where Joseph rises up out of himself as a ghostly figure.

Despite the steep learning curve, Hand said overall he was pleased with the final product.

“It’s a first attempt at a really big project like that,” he said. “I think it’s a good movie and quite watchable. We had some very talented people both technically and acting-wise.”

Hand said the learning process he went through on the “Epiphany: God Among Men” shoot will pay off when it comes time to film his next project: Hand recently received a $1,000 grant from the North Carolina Arts Council that he plans to put toward an adaptation of August Strindberg’s “The Stronger.”

“It’s the story of two women sitting at a table, a young woman, trying to rise in society, and a slightly older woman, a rich cultured woman,” Hand said. “In the story, the older woman has exerted her superiority by stealing her husband and having an affair with him.”

According to Hand, the short film will be produced on a far smaller scale than his last project.

“The younger woman talks all the way through but the other woman doesn’t say a word, she just reacts,” he said. “In a way she has the harder part because her entire reactions are in her face.”

Hand said he is currently reworking the nearly-completed script for the film, which he said will be around 15-minutes long. Production should begin by early spring, he predicted, and be wrapped up by summer’s end.

“We’ll market it to educational institutes and enter into film festivals,” Hand said. “What I’m interested in doing is taking some of the old classic plays and stories and putting them into video to be used in colleges or high schools.”

Noting the work being done by local movie makers and advocates such as the Eno River Media company and D’Aja Fulmore, who recently completed her feature length movie “Crossover” in New Bern, Hand said he believes a local cinematic renaissance could be just around the corner.

“There is a movement to really grow film in this area,” he remarked. “And I think that’s only going to get stronger.”

This article originally appeared on Sun Journal: New Bern filmmaker shifts Nativity story to 1930s-era U.S. for Christmas