‘Heathens’ Trailer: Non-Believers Defy Their Religious Backgrounds, Resolving “To Reclaim Their Lives”

EXCLUSIVE: In the new documentary Heathens, five strangers meet at a retreat in the Blue Ridge Mountains, each of them harboring a secret: they have eschewed their religious backgrounds, putting them at odds potentially with their families, communities, and Christian churches.

The documentary directed and produced by David Cowan and Shawn Hardin holds its world premiere on Saturday, October 24 at the United Nations Association Film Festival (UNAFF) in the San Francisco Bay area. From there, it screens at the University of Southern California on Oct. 27, and begins a theatrical run in Los Angeles (at Laemmle NoHo) on Oct. 30. Screenings are also planned in San Francisco on Nov. 6 with U.S. Congressman Jared Huffman (D-Cal.), and on Nov. 15 at the Center for Inquiry Los Angeles.

We have your exclusive first look at the film in the trailer above.

The five protagonists in Heathens are engaged in what can be called a coming out process – they are non-believers “seeking respite from the guilt, shame, fear, and loneliness of hiding who they are,” according to the UNAFF program. “Each has quietly rejected the religion that raised them, now fearing the cost of honesty: family, security, livelihood. They are not alone. Over 80 million American adults hide their religious disbelief or exaggerate their faith. By the end of the weekend, the five non-believers resolve to reclaim their lives, forging a friendship that carries them through the storms awaiting them back home. In this warm, funny, and unexpectedly joyful story, they rebuild community, inspired by the gospel music of home, reclaiming the slur ‘heathen’ as a proud new identity. For the first time in their lives, five Heathens discover who they truly are.”

The United States, of course, was founded on the principle of religious freedom, a right guaranteed in the First Amendment, which reads in part, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Courts have interpreted that to mean Americans are not required to believe in God or profess any faith. But it’s one thing for courts to affirm that and another for individuals to negotiate their lack of faith or loss of faith within the strictures of family, society, and church.

The largest religious denomination in the U.S. is now “none,” according to support materials for the film: “The religious ‘Nones’ in America are now 84 million strong and growing. Tens of millions identify as atheists, agnostics, skeptics and secular opponents of religion.”

“At a moment when Christian nationalism wields increasing power in American public life, Heathens asks what happens when a politicized faith treats non-believers as enemies in a culture war and as traitors to their families, churches and nation,” notes a synopsis. “The film moves from private closets to the Charlottesville rally to January 6 and back to a family kitchen, dramatizing where a culture of religious conformity can lead, and what it costs a society when people believe they have no real choice but to conform.

“Warm, funny and unexpectedly hopeful, Heathens is ultimately about what becomes possible when people decide they do have a choice: the losses that can come with telling the truth, the freedom that can follow, the discovery of a path forward, and the realization that you are not alone.”

Rebecca Cammisa, a two-time Oscar nominee for God Is the Bigger Elvis and Which Way Home, serves as executive producer of Heathens, alongside Brad Feld and Amy Batchelor. Director-producer David Cowan (Heist, Afghan Dreamers) is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and science philanthropist who serves on the boards of the Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Center for Inquiry. Director-producer Shawn Hardin is a filmmaker and former Television Academy governor. He co-founded the Producers Guild of America’s New Media Council and later founded OnlySky, serving America’s religiously unaffiliated.

Watch the trailer for Heathens above. You will notice it contains footage of the infamous Unite the Right white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, VA in 2017. That’s not a coincidence – that march unfolded within a 15-minute drive from the Blue Ridge Mountain camp that hosts people seeking to find community with other non-believers. The Unite the Right rally was constructed around a racist and exclusionary ideology that defines “real Americans” as white and Christian.