I felt that the challenge in telling this story would be to resist the temptation to judge Judith’s character – indeed, to judge any of the people who enter and work at this ministries – and to understand that the motives and mechanics of this movement can not be reduced to generalities.  In my research I was surprised to find that there are hundreds of ministries across the country devoted to this kind of work, and equally surprised to see that there is no form of official accreditation, nor any set way in which they carry out their “mission.”  So my collaborators and I set out to fashion a “Ministry” which was not a scary or extreme environment, but rather one which operated on principles similar to those of any twelve-step program -- a place which, while rigorous and spare, was in many ways gentle and loving.

We shot Save Me in eighteen days, entirely in New Mexico.  I was fortunate to have not only the talents of Judith, Chad Allen, Robert Gant, Stephen Lang and a generous and inventive ensemble of actors, but also the tremendous gifts of Rodney Taylor, who shot on anamorphic 35mm, Ray Kluga’s production design, Lahly Poore’s costumes and genuinely supportive producers and executive producers.  I hope that Save Me can be a part of an ongoing discussion about fundamentalism, homosexuality, and the possibility of discovering one’s own spiritual truth through the search to reconcile the two.