Making An Impact: 20 Year Old Filmmaker, Lauren HavelMaking An Impact: 20 Year Old Filmmaker, Lauren Havel
Crossroads with Jenny Bushkell
Award-winning young filmmaker Lauren Havel shares how her faith-driven films speak to a spiritually hungry Gen Z and address issues like bullying and screen addiction. The conversation highlights her creative journey, reliance on God and desire to point people back to a solid foundation in Christ.
25:43•13 May 2026
Faith, Film and Gen Z: Lauren Havel’s Mission on Screen
Episode Overview
- Stories and media shape hearts, so choosing faith-centred films can gently steer people back toward truth and hope.
- Building life on Christ as a foundation offers stability when everything else feels like it is falling apart.
- Creative callings do not require perfection first; God equips along the way, often through closed as well as open doors.
- Community, prayer and family support can steady fear and overwhelm, especially in big, stretching projects.
- Even if one person is helped by a project, that impact is worth the effort and sacrifice.
“Christ has to be our foundation or else we’ll all fall apart.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation offers a fresh angle: through films that point hearts back to faith and hope. Here, award-winning 20-year-old filmmaker Lauren Havel shares how storytelling on screen can reach a generation that feels, as she puts it, "deeply disconnected, quietly searching, and spiritually starved." Her work is rooted in a strong Christian upbringing, but she’s very much speaking from inside Gen Z, not at it.
Lauren talks about her third feature, *The Ground Beneath Our Feet*, a story that shifts between the 1950s and today, linked by a diary and centred on themes of faith, identity and what happens when a culture drifts from its foundations. She explains, "Christ has to be our foundation or else we’ll all fall apart," framing the film as a gentle yet clear call back to faith, family and morality.
There’s plenty here for anyone in recovery or questioning their relationship with alcohol or other coping habits. Lauren’s earlier projects include a viral anti-bullying short and a feature on screen addiction, all shaped around the idea that what we watch can either pull us away from truth or point us towards it. She’s honest about fear, burnout and feeling overwhelmed on set, describing moments when she "couldn’t do anything" until her cast prayed over her and her clarity returned.
The tone stays warm, practical and down-to-earth: lots of talk about long filming days, casting via church Facebook groups, working closely with her mum as writer, and learning to trust closed doors as much as open ones. For anyone looking for hopeful, faith-filled stories that don’t feel cheesy, this chat offers a reminder that, as Lauren says, "even if one person is impacted by it, that’s enough for us." Ready to rethink what kind of stories you’re feeding your soul?
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