The four-part film series ‘Live Not By Lies’ shares Soviet survivors' stories of ‘resilience, faith, and the timeless battle against oppression.’
(LifeSiteNews) -- Vice-President JD Vance delivered a speech at the Washington, D.C. premiere Tuesday night for the new film series Live Not By Lies, a four-part movie about Christian dissidents in the former USSR based on a book by the same name written by Rod Dreher.
Dreher has been that guy, for over 20 years, saying that traditional things like community, faith, and farms keep us connected to what matters, more than dueling political fads and digital advancements ever could. So if the left isn't as much criticized as being peace-seeking, “crunchy," “earthy,” "or truth speakers to power" anymore, it might be because these traits have been rightly recognized as describing strengths of conservatives, with Dreher intellectually helping lead the charge in seeing these obvious facts.
Perhaps, then, it is not surprising that Dreher would have a focus of interest in significantly boosting the culture of telling the truth, or as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn puts it in a 1974 essay, “[living] not by lies.“
Solzhenitsyn’s instruction is at the center of Dreher’s thought in his book “Live Not By Lies,” even more so than in his other works “Living in Wonder,” “The Benedict Option,” and “Crunchy Cons.”
The documentary film “Live Not By Lies" is brought to screens by Angel Studios, the movie house that has released originals such as “Sound of Freedom,” “Homestead,” “Cabrini,” “Rule Breakers,” “The Riot and the Dance,” “His Only Son,” “Young David,” and early seasons of “The Chosen.”
What comes across in “Live Not By Lies” is the stripped-away fact that falsehood leads to devastation, a clarified picture of how it does that, and why humanity has an important challenge to tell the truth.
The president of Angel Studios, Jordan Harmon, described the response to “Live Not By Lies” by its million-member Angel Guild, who benefit as early viewers of its productions, as “nothing short of extraordinary.”
Dreher made an announcement, “It’s finally here! I owe you readers who contributed to the fundraising a couple of years ago a special debt of gratitude. Whatever good this film does, it is thanks in part to you believing in the project enough to back it with your donations.”
The documentary series “dives deep into the lived experiences of survivors of Soviet totalitarianism, translating their stories into a powerful narrative about resilience, faith, and the timeless battle against oppression,” states an Angel Studios press release.
“The series aims to not only recount the harrowing realities of past totalitarian regimes but also to explore how these lessons can be applied to the modern-day challenges of what Dreher describes as ‘soft totalitarianism’ in the West.”
A common yet grievous experience for many Americans in our time is that their opinions, which they earnestly want to broadcast, remain involuntarily under the radar and unseen societally, despite their taking to the same platforms as those whose opinions are allowed to dominate.
This censorship, which often targets the truth or important and legitimate questions and opinions, paves a way for effective propaganda, a one-two social engineering punch that scandalously still has its supporters in government.
Hundreds of millions dollars of tax-payers’ funds have been allocated to fight “misinformation” and “disinformation” as defined by officials.
Dreher suggests the historically proven answer for people who value unfettered veracity is to cultivate friendships and communities at scales large enough, but not too big, to preserve the value of truth telling, no matter what may happen to a civilization that embraces the false.
The author of “The Benedict Option” supports the idea of smaller village and even off-grid living, but “on-grid” Americans need not be left out of having a sense of tight-knit, high-trust community in which to share speech freely. Neighborhood, church, and online groups are fertile practice grounds for speaking authentic thoughts to other people.
The Mennonite parents of multiple children, for example, one of whose life was lost at a hospital, recently gave a personal interview to clarify and correct news media smears of their own family. Their words further uncover links between an ethic of truth in the face of gross external distortions, and life in a cherished community.
Why must the ethic of truth-speaking stop at the property line of any particular like-minded community, when living not by lies can spread like a wildfire and again become a basis for at least a small shared society.
Harmon, of Angel Studios, says, “We are confident this series will awaken viewers to the profound beauty of freedom while exposing the delicate vulnerability of our way of life under the shadow of communism.”
The on-the-ground production company for “Live Not By Lies” is Root/Cause, with Isaiah Smallman directing. RJ Moeller and Dave Jacobson are the series’ producers. Dreher serves as Executive Producer, stating, "This documentary series is not only about remembering the past but about equipping ourselves for the future. The voices of those who have seen the darkest aspects of totalitarian life must not be lost; they offer us a beacon of truth in challenging times."
According to the press release, the filmmakers are taken “from the streets of former Soviet territories to the homes of those who survived one of the deadliest centuries in history."
"Through personal interviews and historical footage, viewers will gain insights into the brutal tactics of Soviet control and the personal courage required to resist; the contemporary parallels where truth and freedom are subtly manipulated in democratic societies; and strategies for maintaining one's integrity and faith in the face of modern societal and ideological pressures," states Angel.
The film is available on Angel Studios’ platform starting April 1. It plays out in four episodes, per Dreher's announcement, with a new one dropping each week.
