The Porn Storyteller

Originally Published: April 8, 2005

“I knew something was up when the Cinequest Film Festival had to add an extra 300-seat theater on opening night,” says filmmaker Bill Day who produced Missionary Positions, a documentary film about two pastors crusading against pornography.

Day and his tiny one man production company, Smiling Zebra Pictures, seems to have hit a nerve that taps into grassroots sentiment against pornography. But Day, a secular filmmaker who admits he has been in jail more than church, has been clearly caught off guard by the momentum building around the film – especially with the church crowd. A recent church presentation in Grand Rapids, Michigan drew a crowd of 6,000 people for a single screening. “I had to go out and buy a suit so I could introduce the film,” complains Day.

Missionary Positions follows the adventures of Craig Gross and Mike Foster, two hip young pastors from Southern California who created an Internet-only ministry called XXXchurch.com. The focus of the ministry is to help people who are struggling with Internet porn addiction.

“The film turned out well because Craig and Mike are really dedicated to what they are doing but funny as hell at the same time,” says Day. “But what I didn’t realize was that thanks to the Internet, porn touches everybody these days. And lots of folks are pretty pissed off about it.”

Day says it is unnerving to have people lined up after screenings to talk to him about porn. “I’m getting everything from young teens to 80-year-old women with a porn story to tell,” Day claims, “and they talk to me like I am one of the pastors.”

Pastor Craig Gross from XXXchurch, says a woman who has performed in hundreds of adult videos will appear after an upcoming screening at a church to announce her decision to join the fight against pornography. Her identity will not be revealed until her appearance.

For non-church goers, this documentary can be seen at the Nashville Film Festival on April 20 and 21st, followed by the Newport Beach Film Festival on April 24, and then the Jacksonville Film Festival in May. In the meantime, Day is struggling to get preview tapes out to newly interested festivals and churches from Hawaii to South Africa. “I am still a one man company,” says Day. “I lick all the postage stamps myself.”

Visit them on the web:

missionarypositionsmovie.com
xxxchurch.com