Meet William Jacobs | Filmmaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with William Jacobs and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi William, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I come from Peoria, Illinois—the Heartland of the United States. I would like to believe that “heartland” means land of the heart in addition to the heart of the land. That is the existence which I familiarized myself with while being brought up in the Midwest: living by the heart. Midwesterners are charitable and obliging people. I was blessed with a family that serves as an epitome. “Family is the most important thing in your life,” was one of the adages my grandfather often repeated to me. This truth is lost in the din and distraction of our modern preoccupations. There are those that see being surrounded by cornfields as a curse; I came to see it as a sanctuary. I was raised by Christian parents, whom I am most indebted to, and the faith they helped foster is the only certainty I have in a world of increasing uncertainties. My parents also encouraged the development of my imagination as an only child by allowing me to build LEGO creations on the living room floor, giving me art supplies to paint with, and a camcorder to make videos. My mother expressed that I had a proclivity for introspection and romance. I recall sitting in the pews at the Presbyterian church I grew up in, leafing through The Apocalypse of St. John and attempting to envisage what Christ’s return might look like. I had a rich inner world, which cinema eventually appealed to.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Creating Poet in a Modern World has been an experience of becoming the man necessary to direct the picture. When I was in my early twenties, I aspired to write a film that would transform me. The story concentrates on the metamorphosis of the soul, as reflected in the opening scene where the protagonist revisits his childhood home and speaks to the elderly homeowner, who remarks, “I see all of life as preparation for saying farewell.” Therefore, I, as the filmmaker, had to transfigure myself in the making of this project. I pray that this work is a testament to my personal transformation and that of the cast and crew through these last four years of production. This film is a seasonal film, and it only made sense that it would take so long to photograph. The stains of time had to be present in each scene. Someone might glean the aging of Wes Brooks, the actor portraying the young student. This observable maturation is necessary for the story. Even while I was in the middle of the sea, fighting the waves of the unexpected, verging on the state of hopelessness, thinking that all was unraveling and falling to pieces, I, in retrospect, having now broken through the midpoint of production, came to the realization that all of it had been for its perfection. Perfection requires the surrendering of one’s will and the adoption of God’s will. This is a painful process. The initial actor portraying the art instructor withdrew from the project. Pieces of filmmaking equipment have failed across various shooting days. I had to endure several month-long interims between filming, which is akin to asking an athlete to cease running a marathon for half a year until they can continue. Despite the quasi-catastrophes I have been met with, I am grateful for everything. God has revealed through these experiences of utter humiliation that I indeed possess the patience and strength to be a filmmaker. That is the very thing I prayed for before setting out to make Poet in a Modern World: to see if this was truly a feat that I had the heart to surmount. Only He knows the entirety of our strength. I have the hope that I can continue making films, but it doesn’t matter to me if this is my last project. If anything, this is the only film I need to make. If I can complete it and die, I will die with contentment. Whatever God wills!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If I were to share Peoria, Illinois with a visitor, ideally during late spring, I would first take them to breakfast at Sweet Basil Café at Sheridan Village. We then would bicycle through Rock Island Trail. The Dunlap and Princeville portions reveal the sublimity of the Illinoisan countryside. After a picnic under a specific tree overlooking a quiet and beautiful expanse of farmland, we then would attend a Bach Festival concert at Westminster Presbyterian Church—hopefully a performance of St. Johannes-Passion with Dr. John Jost as conductor. Following the performance, we would enjoy dinner at Cyd’s in Donovan Park and have a glance of the cosmos at its small observatory.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
John Donne famously wrote, “No man is an island, / Entire of itself; / Every man is a piece of the continent, / A part of the main.” How can I choose a single individual when hundreds of lives have given me their love and encouragement—friends, family, audiences, teachers, students, priests, children? There are souls that I have not the slightest idea of who have prayed over my life. Perhaps they are the ones that deserve to be recognized, but I do not know their names. Though there is only one who I can attribute all of my success to, and that is God alone. If I did not have Christ, I would be nothing. If I did not have Christ, I would not know love. If I did not have Christ, I would not be creating art. He has given me my life, my gifts, my hope, and my joy. What is success in this world? The only triumph is Christ. Our achievements are dust in the wind if we do not offer everything to Him. This is tremendously difficult when entire industries have become antichrist—especially the film industry.

Website: https://mourningdovefilms.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mourningdovefilms/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mourningdovefilms

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9W1HGq6tQFVWJIzjSYmeNA

Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7ERGWZMYQNsCp7IY0Xduov?si=c6b80dd35c2446ee

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/mourningdovefilms

PayPal Fundraiser: https://bit.ly/support-poet

Image Credits
Wes Brooks, William Jacobs