Making a movie is a complex endeavor. There are many ways to think about it, but I liken it to building a house and writing a book at the same time. A book takes hours of careful research, structuring, and intense focus in order to maintain clarity of writing and the most helpful presentation of the thoughts. Building a house requires complicated collaboration with experts in multiple fields, operated on hurried timelines, where a new decision in one place can impact prior decisions in other places. It can be a massive balancing act! Making the feature-length documentary Culture Warrior: Don Wildmon and the Battle for Decency was no exception!
The first rumblings of a documentary film project about the life of AFA’s beloved founder Donald Wildmon happened sometime in 2018. We were in the midst of producing our documentary In His Image, but planning a future project about “Brother Don” (as he is known around the office) seemed like an exciting opportunity to bring this untold story to the screen. We sensed that there were many details to this story that would be vital for Christians today—but it was amazing to see just how many there were!
The research process for Culture Warrior was arduous. Unlike many public figures who already have biographies compiled about their lives, this would be the first time someone had organized the full scope of Don’s career since his retirement in 2009. His life and mission needed to be understood and pieced together from the ground up. This would include reading the full archive of the AFA Journal going back to 1977, listening to every debate or media appearance we could find featuring Don, and sorting through hundreds of newspaper and magazine clippings. This is partially why we didn’t film our first on-camera interview for Culture Warrior until May 2022!
When Don’s life was rudely interrupted one December evening in 1976 by the raunchiness of network TV, he realized that the Lord was leading him down a different path than the average smalltown preacher. It would be an uncomfortable path—a path that would include the sad knowledge of many things hidden from public view and vehemently guarded by those who profit from them. Pornography. Sexual perversion. Corruption. Obscenity. He would travel extensively, meet with all manner of people, and consistently follow the logic of the cultural decay he was witnessing.
As I researched, it was clear that this film would need to be about more than just Brother Don—it would be about the not-so-distant past and the seismic cultural shifts that have happened along the way. In other words, it would be about the culture wars of the late 20th century but told through the lens of one of the conservative leaders who led the charge. While Rev. Don Wildmon may not be a household name today, there was a time in the 1980s through the 2000s when Don was on a shortlist of most notable Christian leaders. His 1989 book The Man the Networks Love to Hate (Bristol Books) testifies to the reaction his name used to garner among television’s elite.
War always has a cost and Don’s battle for decency was no exception. He experienced hatred, lies, threats, unjust criticism, manipulation, and sometimes, a wall of apathy when he would plead with people about the dangers looming on the horizon. I have come to understand these as common aspects of the spiritual warfare that all culture warriors—if confronting true evil—have faced.
“What has pornography got to do with network television? What does that have to do with abortion?” Don asked a crowd in Birmingham in 1985. “We’re talking about whether or not our society is going to continue to be a society built on the foundation which is the Christian view of man.” With incredible spiritual insight, Don saw the connection between the individual battles and the larger scale spiritual war happening in America—a battle still raging today.
In bringing Brother Don’s story to the screen, we scoured every available media archive to uncover dozens of clips of him at the time—speaking with the urgency and prophetic voice of a man burdened by the Lord. Some of these clips have not been seen since the early 1980s. Yet I believe that viewers will find Don’s convictions to be clear and refreshingly straightforward, stirring Christians to action forty years after they were spoken.
As viewers watch Culture Warrior: Don Wildmon and the Battle for Decency, I hope they will appreciate the detail and care taken to present this story in a compelling way, a way that makes the case for why Don’s stand for righteousness matters. I say “matters” (in the present tense) because even though Don has left us—enjoying rest from his suffering and the full rewards awaiting the Christian believer in heaven—his legacy lives on.
To watch the documentary Culture Warrior: Don Wildmon and the Battle for Decency for FREE, go to culturewarrior.movie
