As far as debut features go, sisters Adamme and Adanne Ebo have come roaring out of the blocks with satirical religious comedy Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. Adapted from the 2018 short of the same name, Adamme wrote the screenplay and directed, with Adanne serving as producer.
After premiering to widespread acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival this past January, Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions stepped in to acquire distribution rights, with Peele’s Get Out and NOPE collaborator Daniel Kaluuya already on board as part of the producorial team through his 59% Productions Banner.
When you throw in three-time Emmy and Golden Globe winner Sterling K. Brown and Regina Hall in the lead roles as Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs and wife Trinity, then that’s quite the roster of talent attached to the film on either side of the camera. The story follows the megachurch heads as they navigate personal and professional troubles with a documentary crew following their comeback from a scandal, with much of the story rooted in the Ebo sisters’ upbringing and personal experience.
Ahead of Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. coming to theaters and Peacock this week, We Got This Covered had the chance to talk to the sibling filmmakers about their feature-length debut, which you can check out below.
Have you been finding yourselves getting impatient at all waiting for the movie to finally release, with Honk for Jesus getting rave reviews out of Sundance as far back as January?
Adanne Ebo: I mean, frankly, we’re just shocked that it’s being released at all! I don’t know, it feels fast, honestly.
Adamma Ebo: It feels pretty fast, and I’m not a patient person! So yeah, surprisingly.
How does it feel to have burst onto the scene with your first feature being supported by Oscar, Emmy, and Golden Globe winning talent on either side of the camera, never mind the backing of a major studio and streaming service?
Adamma Ebo: Dear god. When you put it like that…
Adanne Ebo: It’s, it feels wild. I don’t know. It all hasn’t sunk in yet, I feel like.
Adamma Ebo: I don’t think too much about it. Mostly because it just feels like working with like cool people, people who are into telling cool stories. Yeah, I forget about the Oscars and the Emmys. Maybe I shouldn’t!
The story is rooted in your personal experiences, but did you face any challenges expanding the short into feature length ensuring that it would be accessible to audiences everywhere? The themes and subtext are universal, but megachurches are widely regarded as a uniquely American thing.
Adamma Ebo: Yeah, I mean, not especially. And I think it’s because the themes are so universal, that I felt like the specificity of the world would just feel like either a learning experience, or a cool ride that people would just lean into, and then the actual themes, what the movie is actually about, would sort of like, wash over them.
Adanne Ebo: Sure. I think if people can fully immerse themselves in tales of dragons and wizardry, then this is not too hard to lean into!
The concept of “commodified religion” has been (and will continue to be) a talking point for a long time, and combining that with the documentary element gives Honk for Jesus an almost timeless quality. Was that something you were always aiming for during development and writing?
Adamma Ebo: Yeah, I mean, we are movie re-watchers. And so definitely, we love the idea of of creating something that would be continuously consumed. But it’s interesting, like the mockumentary or the faux documentary aspect of it, I think.
Adanne Ebo: Yeah, I never thought of it that way. I think with the faux documentary aspect we were interested in the theme of “what is truth?” and “who’s telling their truth>”, and “what is someone else’s truth?”. And so that’s kind of why we leaned into that. That’s part of why we leaned into that style.
Adamma Ebo: If that’s what helps longevity…
Adanne Ebo: Yeah, if that’s helps, then great!
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. will premiere in theaters and on Peacock this coming Friday, September 2.