Father Dave welcomes veteran filmmaker and Catholic René Echevarria to discuss his latest project called “The Faithful: Women of the Bible.” René is a television writer and producer best known for his work on “Star Trek,” “Castle,” “Dark Angel,” and more. “The Faithful” is a three-part series on Fox that centers on five well-known matriarchs of the Old Testament.
René discusses what led him to this project. “It was something I put out there, both in my prayer life and sort of professionally, about eight years ago. I wanted to do something ‘faith-based,’ as it would be called in Hollywood,” he says. “A couple years later, Carol Mendelsohn, who’s my partner on this project, [reached out]. She is a big producer and a writer herself; She ran the CSI franchise for many years. She reached out to me and wanted to do a project on women of the Bible. As a Jewish, sort of secular woman, she was looking for a person of faith to partner with, and it’s been a great collaboration.”
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René discusses his journey of faith throughout his career. “I kind of wandered for some years from my faith. I was living a pretty secular life in Los Angeles and in Hollywood, but as I got married and had kids, life happened. I lost my mom. She was only 60 when I lost her, and I found myself drawn back to church,” he says. “I would go and sit there, and I felt like she was sitting next to me. Then I sort of tiptoed back into faith.”
They discuss how the mini-series focuses on five matriarchs of the Old Testament: Sarah, her servant Hagar, Sarah’s great-niece Rebekah, and Rebekah’s nieces Leah and Rachel. “The matriarchs felt like a place where the Bible starts to feel more relatably grounded in people,” René says. “Obviously encounters with the divine happened, but it also felt like it was the beginning of God calling his people to himself, so it felt right. We also liked the idea that it was three generations. The Bible often jumps hundreds of years at a time, so we thought seeing three generations of women would be more approachable.”
Father Dave notes how it can be hard for us today to understand the portrayal of women in the Bible. “God is the inspiring author [of the Bible], but it was through the human lens of the time, and the human lens was very patriarchal,” he says. “It’s great for us to help modern people make sense of faith, because I think a lot of the young people that I’ve heard from are disconnected because [they feel] none of that makes sense in our world.”
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René responds, “The issues are, in many ways, the same. One of the reasons Sarah’s story resonates — the story of wanting to have a child and not being able to — is that it’s very relatable. Many people struggle in that regard. We have modern solutions or options that didn’t [used to] exist, but the answer as she perceived it required putting her husband in the arms of another woman. Imagine what that must have been like.”
They discuss potential future seasons of “The Faithful,” and René asks Father Dave who he would like to see in the spotlight. “Mary Magdalene, in terms of the New Testament,” Father Dave responds. “She’s like Jesus’ first choice as someone who’s going to continue this enterprise. Given our thousands of years of history with a lot of patriarchy and still some clericalism in the Church, the fact that God chose a woman to be the first mouthpiece of this faith – I would love that [showcased.]”
