- Lauren Havel started filmmaking at just 13.
- She has won two awards and has amassed millions of views.
- "The Ground Beneath Our Feet" is the third feature film by 18-year-old director, Lauren Havel.
- For more information on this project and previous projects you can:
- Visit Havel's website here.
- Follow the film's official Instagram here.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
For many people to watch movies, they would watch it on their TV or their cellular device. Some might just head to their closest theater and see some of the hottest hits. or sometimes just go see some of the classics. But, Lauren Havel creates her own movies. I'm your Eagle neighborhood reporter Alexander Huddleston, and I met up with the young director to discuss her new upcoming feature film, "The Ground Beneath Our Feet".
"I don't know. It's a passion. It's just something that kind of overtook my life from the moment I started," said Havel.
Lauren Havel, eighteen years old, is currently wrapping up her third feature film, after beginning production earlier last year.
Havel explained, "The Ground Beneath Our Feet is going back and forth between the 1950s and today, kind of showing what happens when you take god out of a nation. The respect for authority you lose and all those kinds of things."
Havel’s journey in the film industry started when she was just 13.
"I kind of thought she was just dreaming, well I thought I would give her the benefit of the doubt," said mother Jennifer Havel.
While enrolled in a private film camp, Havel’s instructor noticed her gift.
"He told my parents I should go into filmmaking," said the teen.
After several months of messing around with a camera making small projects, Havel decided to make a short film that was loosely based on her mother’s experience growing up being bullied for her dyslexia. being dyslexic herself, Havel wanted to show everyone what she could do.
Havel said, "It was super fun. It took months. It was exploring what it was like to make a film and I didn’t expect anything to happen with that film."
But in a matter of months, “I HATE KATE” had amassed over 7 million views on YouTube and thousands of comments from fans who were impacted by the short.
"But when she came to me and said “Mom I want to make a feature film” I just thought she was crazy," said Jennifer.
But Jennifer Havel watched on as her daughter began working on two more films that eventually were placed on streaming sites and brought in a first and second place for the Young Filmmaker's Award at the Christian Worldview Film Festival. But it's not the accolades that push Lauren to make movies.
Lauren smiled saying, "I think it's because I see the value in it, and I see the way it changes people, and I see the way films really truly impact people. That's what makes it special to me. It's not just a beautiful art form, it's also something that can really make the world a better place."
Havel with the help of her family has been working on “The Ground Beneath Our Feet” for a little over a year now, even through setbacks. The loss of her grandparents and her mother's own diagnosis of cancer. But that didn't stop the motivated teen filmmaker and her supportive family.
"No matter how stressful it got, we knew we had to make it to the finish line," said Jennifer.
Havel says the ground beneath our feet is planned to be released early this summer.
