00:00 - Jason, what specific story from the film
00:03 impressed you the most?
00:04 - You know, I think it was the courage
00:09 and the clarity and the compassion
00:14 that everybody shared with them.
00:15 I mean, everybody in the film really bore their souls.
00:18 Mary had this piece of her life review
00:23 where she saw 30 degrees out her life had impacted.
00:26 She only knew people one and two,
00:29 but did not know the rest.
00:30 And for her, it was this moment, this reveal,
00:33 this grace moment where the eternal God
00:36 gave her perspective that your choices on earth matter.
00:39 It makes a difference.
00:40 It impacts way more people than you can ever imagine.
00:44 And until you get to that, the next life,
00:46 you're not gonna have that perspective.
00:48 But if you can live like that now,
00:49 these people give this perspective,
00:51 this unique perspective they were given.
00:53 And if we can walk in that and believe,
00:57 you take their belief and be confident in that,
00:59 I think that's a great gift to humanity.
01:01 - Don, in 1989, you had a near-death experience
01:06 and you know what is life after death.
01:09 How do you remember those moments?
01:12 - What happened in 1989 are my most vivid memories of life.
01:17 They are so crystal clear and vivid in my mind
01:24 and in my heart.
01:26 It really was the beginning of the rest of my life.
01:29 I was a pastor before the wreck,
01:31 was on my way to church when the wreck happened.
01:34 So I was a believer, I was trying to make a difference.
01:38 And yet, when I came back,
01:39 I was in really sad shape for a long time.
01:42 34 operations, 13 months in a hospital bed.
01:46 That gave me plenty of time to think about why I came back
01:50 and why I came back to such a miserable existence.
01:54 And in the hospital, God spoke to me
01:57 and said, "This is not about you, it's about me.
02:00 "And what I can do through you now,
02:01 "I could never do before the truck hit you.
02:04 "You need to turn your test into a testimony
02:07 "and you need to take your pain and turn it into a purpose.
02:10 "Instead of shaking your fist at me,
02:12 "you should reach your hand out to other people
02:14 "because you will now understand how they feel."
02:18 And that's what I've been trying to do ever since.
02:21 - Jason, what can the audience expect from After Death,
02:26 from this documentary?
02:27 - I think people need to show up in the theater.
02:30 We made it to experience with other people side by side.
02:34 You know, we had the tall task of trying to represent words
02:38 from Don and Don in the film says,
02:40 "There are no earthly words to describe heaven."
02:43 It's a visual medium though,
02:45 so we had the challenge ahead of us.
02:47 So we tried to do our best to portray
02:49 what they were describing heaven to be like,
02:50 but then also the hellish near-death experiences.
02:53 You know, 23% of reported NDE experiences are hellish.
02:57 And that shocked me 'cause I had not been exposed
03:01 to those stories as much.
03:02 And people like Howard Storm and Steve Kang
03:05 and Paulo Heida bravely shared, I mean,
03:08 the most tormenting, scary, dark moments
03:11 of their entire lives.
03:13 They shared those and we tried to depict those.
03:15 And to me, it's the contrast of the hope and beauty
03:18 and the pain and isolation.
03:20 In this contrast really is where the beauty is.
03:22 And so as a filmmaker,
03:23 it was a delight to be able to tell these stories.
03:26 - Don, why do you think this movie is very important
03:29 right now at this moment in time?
03:32 - Look at the state of the world.
03:34 Wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes.
03:36 I mean, we have so many things happening
03:39 that the Bible says indicate nearly the end of the world.
03:44 And it could happen anytime,
03:46 like death can happen anytime.
03:48 We're going to take our last breath here
03:50 and we're gonna take our next breath somewhere else.
03:53 And we gotta be ready for that.
03:55 So I think this film is ready for that.
03:59 I think it helps people understand the fragility of life.
04:03 It helps them confront their mortality
04:06 and ask themselves the question, is there life after death?
04:10 Yes, and if so, where am I going?
04:14 I said, heaven's a prepared place for prepared people.
04:18 So they need to be prepared.
04:20 And "After Death" is set up to ask that question.
04:25 And hopefully people will be answering it,
04:28 if not in the theater, on their way to the car.
04:31 That's the urgency of it.
04:33 And it's an urgent movie.
04:34 I think it's incredibly powerful.
04:37 - Jason, what have you learned
04:39 working on a project like this?
04:40 - So I grew up with a faith that told me
04:44 there is an afterlife.
04:46 But if I'm honest, if someone would have told me
04:48 I died and I experienced this, I would have been skeptical.
04:51 And it wasn't until the last five years of making this
04:54 and sitting across and being behind the scenes
04:57 in the back of a van with these people
04:59 and understanding that they are the most authentic, real.
05:03 And I said this earlier today on another interview,
05:06 that these are the most present people.
05:09 That they've had New York time bestsellers,
05:12 they've been around the world.
05:13 They speak to tens of thousands
05:15 and yet they're the most present.
05:17 And to me, this is something I wanna learn from
05:21 and glean from, the ability to stay fully present.
05:23 Because ultimately they know what matters.
05:25 And they know when you look back
05:26 and reflect on the life here,
05:28 how should we act and how should we treat those around us?
05:33 And so I've been deeply encouraged and profoundly moved
05:37 by the faith that they've had
05:39 and then the corroborative evidence
05:40 that comes around the afterlife.
05:42 I mean, it's really strengthened
05:43 and it's given me a firm foundation.
05:46 - Don, did you ever lose hope?
05:48 - And there've been opportunities
05:52 to do just that, lose hope.
05:54 Last year, our 46 year old daughter died of kidney cancer.
06:00 So after all these years of me having been killed
06:04 in a car wreck and then trying to bring hope to people,
06:07 I've actually, believe it or not,
06:09 been called the minister of hope.
06:12 We lose our daughter.
06:13 She and I talked about heaven many times.
06:15 She had heard me speak about heaven many times.
06:17 And so we had hope, even in the midst of that,
06:21 most difficult thing that I can imagine,
06:23 the loss of one of your children.
06:25 We had hope because we know what happens next.
06:28 Heaven is real and we believe that Jesus is the way.
06:32 So she was prepared.
06:34 Heaven is a prepared place for prepared people.
06:37 There is hope.
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