Cara Jones is an Emmy Award winning journalist who founded the production company Storytellers for Good. Her short films include “Surfing Possibility,” “Mama Hope,” and “Eat Grub.” “Blessed Child” is her feature debut.

“Blessed Child” will premiere at the 2019 DOC NYC film festival on November 9.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

CJ: “Blessed Child” is a personal film about my journey to finally break free from the repercussions of my childhood, more than a decade after leaving the Unification Church, also known as the “Moonies.”

Featuring never before seen footage from within the church and intimate home videos of my family’s upbringing, alongside Reverend Moon and his disciples, this film is my attempt to unpack the legacy of the decisions my parents, who are still high-profile members, made while challenging assumptions — yours and mine — about cults and family.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

CJ: When Rev. Moon passed away in 2012, I was at the Burning Man festival trying mushrooms for the first time.

As I got the news of his death on my drive out, I was haunted by two thoughts. 1) Rev. Moon was dead, and my life was still stuck because of my history in his church. 2) If I didn’t start telling this story now, I probably never would.

The next day I bought a plane ticket to attend Rev. Moon’s funeral and began this filmmaking journey.

I grew up with a lot of black and whites. There was blessed or fallen, true or false, good or bad. The seven-year journey of making “Blessed Child” has, for me, been about resisting the temptation to tell this story that way.

The process has instead been about discovering nuance and complex truths in a story that, in the media and my own head, has often been sensationalized and simplified. In these polarized times, I wanted to explore a narrative that left room for empathy and gray.

I never intended for this film to be so very personal when I began. I wanted to tell everyone’s story — those who had it much worse than I did along with those who had it easier. But I quickly discovered that the only story I could tell with the depth and honesty I aspired to was my own.

What I didn’t know when I made that choice was how it would force me to confront myself and my parents in a way I never had before.

W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?

CJ: I would love our audiences to leave questioning whether the assumptions they hold about people who believe differently than they do are true — whether those different beliefs be religious, political, or just personal.

I also hope that people will be inspired to re-examine the unresolved stories and relationships of the past and mine them for the deeper truths and healing they can hold.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

CJ: I left the Unification Church almost 20 years ago now, but my parents, who I deeply love, are some of the church’s earliest and still high-profile members.

When I decided to make “Blessed Child” a personal journey film, I underestimated how hard it would be to tell the painful aspects of my past honestly. I had to confront my life-long tendency of not speaking the truth for fear of losing people I love.

I lost many nights of sleep fretting about what felt like a choice between me and and my parents. I spent years in the edit not being able to figure out the story because of this tension and almost dropped the film a few times because of it.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.

CJ: We applied to about 100 grants. We got none. It’s a competitive world and hard to pitch personal documentaries among those addressing the compelling social issues of our time.

Persistence is what got the film made — not just mine, but a team of people who came together and devoted themselves to this story as if it were their own.

We did a Kickstarter and 400 people showed up to say this project meant something to them so we got the resources and wind in our sails to keep going. At that point there was no turning back.

We turned to friends and savings and deferred payments to get the rest of the way.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker? 

CJ: I started telling stories as a broadcast journalist and burned out on showing up at the doorsteps of people who had just had horrible things happen to them to ask for a comment for the local news.

I left the news industry, but couldn’t shake my love of storytelling and the awe I have for the way stories, in small and gigantic ways, can shift our internal and cultural narratives.

W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?

CJ: When we started this journey everyone seemed to want us to tell a sensational story about “the Moonies” that would sell. It was tempting.

The worst advice was from people who watched one cut of the film without really interrogating the footage or their own stereotypes about cult followers and suggested we drum up conflict where they perceived there was none.

The best advice was to more deeply examine the footage to see the more nuanced and interesting conflict that was there and draw that out. It can take a lot of work to find the story that is already in our stories.

So, in contrast to the worst advice, the best advice was to trust my instincts and make the film that was in the footage vs. try to create something that was not.

W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?

CJ: A mentor of mine told me once, “When you abandon your creative project, you abandon yourself.” Our culture teaches women to abandon themselves in so many big and small ways.

Find a project that means so much to you you can’t let it go. And then, no matter what, don’t give up on it or you.

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

CJ: “13th” by Ava DuVernay. I will never look at race, white supremacy, and the prison system the same way. It does what the best films do: informs, moves, and changes perspectives in a life-altering way.

Sarah Polley’s “Stories We Tell” was also a huge inspiration for me in turning a complicated family story into a powerful form of art.

W&H: What differences have you noticed in the industry since the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements launched?

CJ: #MeToo and #TimesUp have demonstrated the power of stories to destabilize and shift culture.

As someone who now works with others to tell their stories, I think there is deeper awareness that the #MeToo and #TimesUp stories can change things, and that all our stories matter.