Russell Brand Asks Some Important Questions About The Sound of Freedom

Jim Caviezel and Tim Ballard join us on a cinematic journey that pierces the veil of mainstream media's narrative. We're confronting head-on the powerful Christian undertones and the bone-chilling reality of child trafficking portrayed in "Sound of Freedom," a box office phenomenon that defies media expectations. Caviezel delves into the emotional depths of his role, informed by his own fatherhood and faith, while Ballard recounts the life-altering rescue mission in Colombia that inspired the film. As they share their insights, we navigate the murky waters of media skepticism, possibly rooted in the film's association with contentious theories and its break from conventional promotion tactics.

The episode takes a sharp turn into the heart of darkness with a critical look at the Epstein Island controversy and its far-reaching effects on the information ecosystem. There’s no shying away from the difficult questions about transparency and the power wielded by elite circles. This discussion isn't just about a film; it’s an exploration of the societal tremors caused when long-held secrets are threatened with exposure. Prepare to be riveted by a candid conversation that not only entertains but also challenges the very foundations of what we believe about freedom, power, and the role of media in shaping our world.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Faith and Failure's podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:02

So Russell Brand has been known. Have you heard of Russell Brand? Russell Brand is a guy who is from the UK. He actually I think I first saw him on a movie years ago that I'm not going to name cause I just realized the name might be bad, I don't know, but he was on a Andy. I almost said Andy Minio. That's a Christian rapper. What's the dude? Not Andy? Now, I got that stuck in my head. Anyways, a comedian. He was a guy in a hotel.

Speaker 2: 0:29

I think it was called Bedtime Stories, adam Sandler. That's what I'm talking about. You see how much movies I watch now, adam Sandler. So he was on one of his movies. He played a funny little part and he has on. Well, on YouTube he has 6.71 million subscribers and then also I don't know what the number is on what do you call it? Not YouTube, but the other guy, the other thing he also. He livestreams on there a lot, so he calls people out, like he says. So he's like the UK version of Ben Shapiro and he's not Jewish. So now he is. I understand. I am a Christian. What this guy believes is New Age babble nonsense, like he thinks we're all with the universe and all this other stuff. I don't adhere to that. I don't subscribe to that kind of stuff because it's nonsense, it's borderline witchcraft. But this guy actually speaks out against the mainstream media, talking about the sound of freedom and its success. So if you're watching this later, if there's any language, I've bleeped it out. But if you're watching live, you're getting the real deal.

Speaker 3: 1:47

Sound of freedom is smashing it at the box office and is being attacked continually by the mainstream. Is that because it's a box office success? Is it because of QAnon conspiracy theories? Is it because it's a new emergent business model? Or does the establishment have something more serious to hide?

Speaker 2: 2:05

It's a bit dramatic.

Speaker 3: 2:07

Hello, there you, 6.5 million Awakening Wonders. Thanks for joining me in this voyage to truth and freedom, a voyage we can undertake together in glory and success. New stories are being told, New economic models are emerging, New challenges to the monopoly of entertainment and culture. Whether you agree with their position or presumed position or not, you have to acknowledge this is a significant, maybe even seismic shift in the way that entertainment is made, funded, promoted and the way it reaches its audience. How has Sound of Freedom become such a success? Let me know why you went to see it. Is it because of the subject, Ma? Is it because you're excited that films are getting made? They have a different relationship with the audience. We met with Jim Caviesal and Tim Ballard and I'll show you an exclusive part of that conversation later, but first let's try and understand the success of this film and have a little look at it together.

Speaker 4: 2:57

Why are you doing it? Because God's children are not for sale.

Speaker 3: 3:01

It appears that there's a cultural thirst for a film that presents an issue that you might imagine all people would agree on is worthy of attention. The trafficking of children appears to be more pervasive than people have previously thought and are willing to discuss, and it seems that American audiences in particular and let me know how you feel in the comments have a real appetite to see this story told, A story that is righteous, clearly connected to Christian values. Angel Studios also, of course, made the chosen, which is a retelling of gospel stories and, as a side note, stars my friend Jonathan as our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, but was also my body double when I used to be an HBO's show with the Rock Ballers, so I am able to say that Jesus was my body double.

Speaker 4: 3:48

This job tears you to pieces.

Speaker 3: 3:50

It's impossible to talk about Sound of Freedom without acknowledging that part of the mainstream avenue of attack is around the QAnon connection. Now, what is this QAnon connection? It seems that just people that like QAnon also like this film. Is this film inherently right-wing? Is there something particularly or especially conservative about it? In some ways, couldn't you say it's about rescuing Latino children and breaking down exploitation, and sex trafficking is plainly bad.

Speaker 3: 4:21

I'm very surprised now by the nature of the culture wars. Sometimes I find it difficult to track what side things are supposed to be on. That's actually why I have refused to participate in those categories and boundaries anymore. I do believe in freedom. I do believe in new economic models and ways of making content and entertainment. Obviously we participate in it and I can't help but feel that many of the attacks leveled at this movie are because this has bypassed the ordinary systems of promotion and production. This is not made by one of the big studios, this has not been promoted in the normal way and it's still found a massive audience.

Speaker 3: 4:58

I feel that the media in general are very threatened, obviously by new independent media models because what they have is a kind of collective monopoly. I know, collective monopoly sounds somewhat paradoxical. But what I mean is there's a sort of an easy tension between the media superpowers that make television and movies, and if you start to find ways where you can make content and say, look, we don't care if this is a popular subject or if you presume it has affiliations with particular political persuasions, which, by the way, are allowed People are allowed to be conservative, people are allowed to be Republican, people are allowed to be right-wing, just the same way as people are allowed to be Democrat, people are allowed to be liberal, people are allowed to be progressive. These things shouldn't be oppositional, because if they are, that is tyranny.

Speaker 3: 5:46

My assumption is is that the mainstream media, as with our kind of content, doesn't like the emergence of this type of model, the same way that the mainstream attacked Joe Rogan during coronavirus because of his outspoken stance on health, alternative medicines and his willingness to have a variety of conversations on the subject of coronavirus and the handling of the pandemic. They obviously opposed the content, but they oppose even the concepts of Joe Rogan. They don't want there to be a Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan is a real thorn in the side. This is comparable, I think. I really hope that the reason this film is receiving all of these criticism and attacks is not because there's institutionalised sex trafficking to a degree where people don't want it spoken about. That's what do you think?

Speaker 2: 6:32

What would be a good explanation that would explain why they're so bent on trying to suppress or trying to talk bad about something that is shedding light on. This Seems a little too on the nose but A terrifying concept to me.

Speaker 3: 6:51

What is easier to understand is they are threatened by the economic model itself. I don't see what it is about this film. That's an attack on anybody's values. I don't understand that at all. It seems like it's somewhat anti-deep state, because it's a rogue and renegade figure that breaks away from bureaucracy in order to do what he believes was necessary to be done. The fact is, it's based on the truth, like any movie that's based on the truth. There's extemporization, there's the collapsing of characters, there's the simplification and amplification of certain events and details. That's standard in any narrativization of true events. In a way, perhaps part of the reason this film has become such a phenomenon is it provides us the opportunity to talk about the nature of conspiracy theory and censored information.

Speaker 3: 7:32

Conspiracy theories over the last few years have gained a lot of momentum. Some of these conspiracy theories might be extreme and some of them seem quite plausible. In particular, when you talk about QAnon, people start talking about Pizza Gate or that furniture shop where people said it was a front for trafficking, and those might be some of the more outlandish aspects of the conspiracy theory world. I don't know. Let me know what you think in the comments. In our country, the UK, there was an investigation into Westminster, the seat of our parliamentary power that's the same-same Capitol Hill in your language and presumed nefarious activity, the worst kind of nefarious activity that you can imagine your spot on. In fact, the subject of this film covers exactly that activity and mysteriously, about three prime ministers ago, which could have been an hour ago in our country we'd churned through them like they lost all the evidence.

Speaker 3: 8:16

That doesn't make you feel more comfortable that there is no such thing as conspiracy theories, does it? In fact, you still can't talk about the assassination of JFK, or at least you can't talk about it. You can't get access to the information. There are aspects of the pandemic that are still heavily redacted and controlled. Conspiracy emerges out of clandestine spaces when there is no trust in authority, and the reason there's no trust in authority is because we live in a surveillance state with increasing censorship. Information is being controlled with the creation of new categories, and when something like this emerges, that's entrepreneurial and perhaps Christian, which is one way of looking at reality. I know a lot of you guys are Christian and I love Jesus Christ. People attack it.

Speaker 2: 8:55

He loves Jesus Christ, but it's just another one of his, Anyway. So the at the end of the last video where we actually looked at the trailer and he was talking about pairing with them, the director, he actually went through, I think, in an interview. He went through nine, I think nine different people before he got to Jim Kaviso, because nine different people would turn it down. They didn't want to touch it. They thought it was a what do you call it? A Like a bit, not a business killer, but a career killer. That's what I was thinking of. They they thought that it was going to kill their Career or they just was like no, I'm not touching that, that's too controversial. We need more controversial things out there to especially stuff like this, to spread light on things that are so dark.

Speaker 3: 9:41

Saying eyes to do with QAnon? Well, I don't know, man, it seems like that's a little bit of a stretch. It seems to that the whole area of conspiracy theory. When we're now investigating the truth of UFOs publicly, we might have to reappra- which I think is a mass distraction.

Speaker 2: 9:58

But we'll go on.

Speaker 3: 9:59

He's our attitude towards.

Speaker 4: 10:02

And this is my one chance to put those pieces back together.

Speaker 3: 10:06

Even though the subject is pretty heavy and dark, kind of like other Hollywood films, isn't it? I mean, it's like, taken like the idea of a lone guy who's opposing the forces of corruption and going against the system. I mean that's a really Recognizable Hollywood trope. So why, in particular, has this garnered so much negative attention? Once again, I believe, is because it was promoted ignoring the usual channels of promotion. Ie, this is almost like the Robert F Kennedy of movies Popularizing itself without having to go through the traditional gatekeepers. It's funded without the typical Hollywood backers and it contains a subject that evidently holds some tension in particular circles. It's a very extraordinary phenomenon, this, and to see it conflated overtly with conspiracy theory is interesting. Let's have a look at this in more detail.

Speaker 3: 10:51

Sound of freedom, the crowd-funded film, moved up the box office ranking in its second weekend in theaters A rarity for movies and a sign of the strong support for the film, particularly from right-wing audiences, despite the screw-in-it is faced for its lead actors ties to conspiracy theories. We spoke to Jim Cavies all. We'll show a bit of that in a minute. Sound of freedom took home the number two spot the box office this weekend and in 27 million dollars from Friday to Sunday and over 85 million dollars overall since it opened in theater.

Speaker 2: 11:17

That is crazy. Numbers like that is ridiculous. That's awesome.

Speaker 3: 11:21

It's on July, the 4th. According to box office mojo, that means there's gonna be more films like this because it's an economic success and this is proof of concept that there is a market for this type of content. So of course it's being attacked and smeared. Here's part of the fantastic conversation I had with Jim Caviesal and Tim Ballard. Let me know what you thought of in the comments. Can you tell me a little bit about the process of getting this film made, tim? Tell us, tell us how you've come to be in this position and, as well, touch on stuff and why you believe it's so important that people see, see sound of freedom.

Speaker 1: 11:53

Yeah, great.

Speaker 2: 11:53

So I spent 12 years as a special agent, undercover operator and I so the guy, if you don't know, kind of the story background. We have Jim Convys, so that's the guy, he's the actor and then the guy on the right, that is the actual guy that the whole film is kind of based on and All that stuff.

Speaker 1: 12:12

so you'll see that we get deeper and deeper as the years went on, trying to find the root of the problem, eventually started getting overseas and started doing overseas operations and in 2012, 2013, I was working. A case in Columbia got further than I was supposed to get and they said come home. And I said I can't, I've made myself the bait, I've, I've gone too deep. And and they said well then you have to quit your job if you want to continue the operation, and I did. It was a very difficult decision and we we went ahead and my wife, I, decided to quit and and we finished the operation as you know private citizens, if you will and and the operation was enormous. It ended on October 11th 2014 that was my birthday, october 11th in the biggest operation, the biggest rescue operation that I think I've ever heard of. There was over 120 women and children rescued, 15 traffickers arrested Wow.

Speaker 1: 13:08

And the mainstream media and in the United States, back when they, everybody thought it was still good to say child trafficking is bad they, they, they, they reported it's the craziest thing, it was all over the news If everyone was like, yay, we're helping kids. And one of the producers, eduardo Verastigui a lot, alejandro Monteverde, solve that clip with the mainstream media and that's how they found me, ironically, through the mainstream media, and said let's make a movie out of this. Nine years later, the same mainstream media is acting like well, I don't think it really happened or I hit the most bizarre Twist of events, but that's, that's how I got started and that's one of the things that the mainstream media has tried to do with this movie.

Speaker 2: 13:50

I don't know if you've seen any of the interviews or not, but I think there's a guy on CNN and he was talking about how that the he's like well, it's not that big of a deal. They're kind of over exaggerating. Like you can follow me here, no-transcript. If it's one little child, it's worth going through all the trouble to try to rescue, which he actually ends up doing in the movie.

Speaker 1: 14:12

And they came to me and said who, who do you want to play you in the film? And right out of the gate I said Jim Caviesel hands down. Jim Caviesel, I mean, it seems to me to be a pretty universal.

Speaker 3: 14:23

It's something around which we can universally agree that the safety of children is something that we know. It's not. A divisive subject really is the safety of children and their protected status and the necessity of preserving childhood innocence doesn't seem to me to be controversial, and so I'm. Obviously I can't ask you what the views of other people were, but what's your motivation in making this film, jim? Is it that you were compelled by the story, compelled by the issue? It does your own, but I'm assuming you're Christian, jim, does your own. Was your own Christianity a factor, and do you think it's a particularly Christian story?

Speaker 4: 15:07

Well, if you want to go to the biblical Story, no greater love of you than give your your life for another. No greater love my involvement in this film. I have three children, all adopted. I was became very well aware of of Nefarious activities, even in the orphanages and things around the world and the dangers that children undergo, and so I Feel like I Would in a heartbeat give my life for my family or my children and felt that I did. The dangers that they're gonna undergo now, and especially within the media that is not giving the truth of what's happening or Ignoring it that I Felt that this might be able to do something, and Tim, who's an incredibly special human being, sawed me out for the for this, because he saw the passion and he saw the count of Monte Cristo.

Speaker 2: 16:12

And those were two films that was probably the first thing I saw him in was the count of Monte Cristo, that was. That was a pretty cool movie. Look it up.

Speaker 4: 16:19

See like, and I didn't think, you know, being an actor when I was younger that this is where I was going to end up.

Speaker 2: 16:25

You know that oh, that was also the quote, one of the quotes that was in that movie. This guy in prison and the kind of Monte Cristo he was saying I Think Jim said to the old guy in in prison he said I don't believe in God and the guy said that's okay, he believes in you. I don't know why that stuck with me, but that was such a cool, like little, like little Saying it. It's pretty powerful.

Speaker 4: 16:48

This is but there was something there that was, you know, doing. The passion was like climbing Mount Everest, on the hardest side of the mountain. And you know I used to do comedies, russell, did you know that?

Speaker 3: 17:02

it seems like a stretch. Today, may it sounds like you've got the weight of the world on your shoulders, so plainly sound of freedom has ruffled some feathers. It's caused some consternation and concern. Is that because of the economic model or is that because of the subject? Maybe is a little bit of both, but that's so what do y'all think?

Speaker 2: 17:19

Do you think the mainstream media, people in Hollywood, do you think they're freaking out? Because Well, for instance, have you ever heard of Epstein Island? There's some people on that list that for some reason, still to this day, magically can't be found or proven, or Anything. It just it doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense.

Speaker 1: 17:52

Faith and failure's podcast.