Christian Review Magazine Issue 3 - March 2015 | Page 8

AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH

BRIAN IVIE
THE DIRECTOR OF THE DROP BOX
Christian Review (CR): How did
you get into filmmaking?

CR: What inspired you to make
“The Drop Box”?

Brian Ivie (BI): I have wanted to
make movies since I was nine. For
me as a kid, movies were larger
than life. Every summer, I would
knock on doors and wrangle all
the neighborhood kids together
to film our own versions of “The
Lord of The Rings,” “Harry
Potter,” or “James Bond.” We
didn’t mean for them to be
spoofs, but they ended up being
complete spoofs. At the start, it
was never really about the end
product for me. We didn’t have a
script. We found the story, kinda
like a treasure hunt. But that was
more of the point anyway. It was
never about art. It was about
adventure and getting caught up
in a battle with your best friends.
After we finished editing, my
friend Evan’s dad would always
help us put on a screening with
every family in the neighborhood.
My parents didn’t know it then,
but I was planning to make that
circus the rest of my life.

BI: One morning, I read an L.A.
Times article over breakfast called
“South Korean Pastor Tends an
Unwanted Flock.” It was all about
this man in South Korea who had
built a depository for babies with
disabilities. I couldn’t believe it. I
was haunted by the image of this
man reaching into a box that held
a baby. At the same time, I was
compelled. I’ve always loved
powerful stories and used to
watch a movie a day in high
school. The images from this story
got into my bones the way the
best movies did. It was like I was
seeing real courage for the first
time in my life. Courage displayed
on a battlefield that I actually
understood: a normal
neighborhood. Not Gettysburg,
not Iraq. Just someone’s
neighborhood. But the stakes
were high – it was a matter of life
and death. I immediately sent an
email to the L.A. Times and a
Korean correspondent got right

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