Author, The Drop Box, (2015)
Award winning director the documentary “The Drop Box”
Cofounder of Kindred Image and Arbella Studios
Published film critic
Recreational songwriter
Graduated from The Bryan Singer Division of Critical Studies at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts |
Guest Bio
Director Brian Ivie’s Transformation
CBN.com
–THE BOX FOR BABIES
“The Drop Box” is about a South Korean pastor who built a mailbox for abandoned babies in Seoul, South Korea. Brian actually learned about the story through an article on the front page of the LA Times in June of 2011. After reading through the article titled, “South Korean Pastor Tends Unwanted Flock” several times, all I could think was, “If I don’t do something, nobody else will.” Brian emailed Pastor Lee who personally responded to his emails with a Google translated response which basically said, “I don’t know what it means to make a documentary film, but you can come stay at my house if you want.” Brian wanted to make a film to help those babies, but he also wanted to be extremely famous. He and his friends began to raise money for the film. They raised $80,000 and then flew a team of 11 high school and college students 6,000 miles—few with legitimate film experience—to South Korea to film the movie.
While making the film, Brian’s heart and motives began to change. He even became a Christian. Brian hopes the film will allow people to experience God’s adopting love as a Father because that’s what changed his life. He also hopes people will be impacted by the film’s emphasis on the value and importance of all human life.
At 22, Brian won the Jubilee Award and it’s $101,000 prize at the 8th annual San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival in 2013. In his acceptance speech, Brian admitted that movies had defined his life for 21 years. He had made them his god, and it failed him. He says, “I'm done with that story. I'm done with that idol. And I promise in the fear of God that I will steward this investment, because I would rather tell the plainest truth with $100,000 than the most sophisticated technological lie with ten million dollars or one hundred million dollars.”
BRIAN’S DREAM
Brian grew up in Orange County, California. His dream was always to make movies since he was nine. Brian would invite the neighborhood kids over to make spoofs from such movies as Lord of the Rings and James Bond. “When I held a camera in my hands, I didn’t need to eat or even sleep. Every day was Christmas Eve, and I burned with anticipation and wide eyed wonder,” recalls Brian. When he entered high school Brian felt like nobody took him serious as an aspiring artist. He began to adopt the attitude, “I’m gonna show everybody.” At first, his parents were not comfortable with him pursuing a career in the arts. However, they knew Brian was passionate about making films so they became supportive of his goal.
Brian always figured he was a Christian. “I didn’t smoke cigarettes, I went to Mass with my dad and I watched Fox News with my mom.” Brian looked at religion as a way to empower him to live his life to the fullest. He didn’t think about religion as a way to transcend death. Brian always felt an emptiness inside that he tried to fill with girls and alcohol. When that could not fill him up, Brian turned to porn. He also had anger issues that came out in the relationship with his girlfriend.
When Brian first interviewed Pastor Lee instead of meeting superman he met a man he didn’t expect. “Behind the perfect teeth and the distinguished salt and pepper hair, Brian met a man who spent most of his twenties drunk, who played guitar as a way of chasing skirts and was generally kind of an angry jerk.” At the time, Brian did not see the parallels between their lives. After returning from South Korea, Brian began reading the Bible, going to church again and even asked God for self control. Yet Brian still did not have a relationship with God. Then one weekend Brian was listening to a sermon by Mark Driscoll. The sermon was called “What did Jesus accomplish on the cross?” As he listened to the sermon Brian became convicted of his sins and asked Jesus to forgive him. For the first time in his life, Brian realized he was just one of those abandoned kids too, with nothing to offer a perfect God except his sin. As Brian edited the film that summer, he began to understand how Pastor Lee could care for these abandoned babies. “Pastor Lee’s source of energy was so full that he could pour out without losing a drop. It was almost like there was constantly something being poured in. Pastor Lee was able to love those children who weren’t outwardly beautiful, mobile or able to speak. He didn’t need anything from them. He had everything. He could just give,” shares Brian.
Brian is thankful for the redemptive work God has done in his life. “When I started to make this film, I did it for all the wrong reasons. I wanted to be famous, but God made that beautiful too,” shares Brian. He is thankful that God showed him a better way to make movies, love, and live. In June, he will marry his fiancé Amanda which he says by God’s amazing grace is the only woman he now daydreams about.
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