Chris Marchand talked to David Leo Schultz, director of the Ragamuffin documentary about the late RICH MULLINS

I shared all this with Dave and he asked, "What would it look like?" And if I hadn't been daydreaming six months before I wouldn't have had anything. That's where you look back and go God's hand was on this thing. That was kind of it, but then he said, "Hey, do you want to take a drive with me?" So I dropped anything about the movie and thought "I'm hanging out with Rich Mullins' brother!" But years later, because this whole process has been over four years, Dave said that if I didn't say yes to the drive he wouldn't have let me make the movie. I think, knowing Dave more now, he was investigating me a bit; trying to figure out if this guy was trying to make a buck off his brother's name or is this a real person. Because we were both sitting there looking at each other going, "I don't have any money and you don't have any money and the family doesn't have any money so this is kind of a nice fairy tale."

So to tie it in with the money stuff, I had no money options. I really felt like, God, you're going to have to work a miracle here, because I didn't know who to ask. But basically a few months after I met Dave, I get this random call from a guy I didn't know and he said, "I was involved in some of the financing on one of your last films. Do you have any more projects coming down the pipeline?" And I threw out a few ideas in terms of comedies but I also said there's this one thing I'd really like to do - it's more of a dream project. So I pitched it and he really liked it. Then I called up Dave and told him I'd still really like to do the film and do it with sustenance and meaning, even though I'd probably do another stupid comedy one day. And then he told me, "Let me talk to the family and I'll get back with you." Sure enough Dave calls me a few weeks later, really calm and collect[ed], "Yeah man, I think we'd like to go forward with it." And that's where I basically had nothing to say: "What-what do you mean?" I was just amazed.

David Leo Schultz

But it wasn't a done deal, as far as the investor goes. He was like, "Hey, I'm not handing you money, but I know some potential investors who might be interested."

CM: Now I assume these guys are Christians?

DLS: Yeah, I think every guy who invested was a Christian. There were a few companies who tried to [invest] at some point and those didn't work out. There were some companies who were like, "We'll give you a million dollars if you do this and this," and we just weren't willing to compromise.

CM: On the story itself?

DLS: I don't want to comment too much 'cause I don't want to throw out names or give too many clues, but enough to say it felt like a hijacking situation. And we said, "You know what, we don't need to do a movie. If we're going to do this we really want it to be a God thing; we really want it to happen in its own timing." There were several times when we could have had the pie in the sky, but we thought, we came this far, let's not compromise in any way.

I always wanted the normal life [as an actor]. I just wanted to audition for things and get jobs. And a couple of those things have worked out, but mostly things have worked out where I really had to work my butt off to make it happen.

Once I was hanging out with Brennan Manning when I met him in college. I kind of threw it out to him, "Hey, I'd like to go out on the road with you." It's so silly to think about it now - I actually did the same thing to Rich through a letter that I handed to Mitch McVicker [singer/songwriter and touring partner with Mullins]. It was one of these attempts where, man, I'd love to be a vagabond evangelist like you. With Rich it was like, "I can't do music but I'll be your roadie." And I remember that politely Brennan Manning basically told me to get a job. But what he said is, "If God has given you vision for something you have to work real hard to make that happen." But I feel like with this, you don't just show up and start making a movie. I MEAN this: it's a lot of blood, sweat and tears. I remember once where I cut myself really bad on set and I went, "Well there's the blood," because I had already had the sweat and tears many times over.

CM: Some of the questions I have been dying to ask about the film surround some of the details of Mullins' life, such is where is Beaker at [aka David Strasser, one of Mullins' closest friends, touring partner, and co-writer on numerous Mullins songs, most notable "Sometimes By Step"], and who are the record execs in the films because I know those aren't the real names of the actual people that signed him. My guess is that you tried to contact Beaker but he probably said "Eh....no thanks." And you also deal with Mullins' girlfriend. I remember as a kid always wondering why Rich Mullins wasn't married and then later finding out he was with somebody but it didn't work out. But you, you've put this up on screen. Can you give us some insight into how this works because it's touchy when you're dealing with people's lives?

DLS: These are fair questions and if the tables were turned and you were making the movie I'd be asking the same questions. I'll start with this: when I was nine years old I had a second cousin who was 29 and was like a dad to me. He committed suicide. What I always tell people is that if you came to me on a Monday and said, "Hey, I'd like to make a movie about your cousin," I would say no. But if you came to me on a Tuesday I might say yes. So, if people were involved or not involved with the film I don't look at it as a good thing or a bad thing but a personal thing.

I have never actually spoken to Beaker, but I reached out a few different times. I exchanged some very friendly Facebook messages with his wife Julie. I hate speaking about him not knowing him personally, but what I've heard is that after Rich passed away he chose to not be involved in any Rich Mullins projects. And I just have to go, whatever people's choices are, good for them, because like with my cousin analogy, it's a personal thing.

Now, when I first started out researching I thought I might have to interview like 50 people, but if I chose not to make the movie until I interviewed everybody, I don't think the movie ever would have gotten made - and I don't think that's an exaggeration. There's just so many people.

We named the romance character in the movie Jess, because what I learned after starting out was that there was actually more than one Jess. And as a fan you hear the romantic story from Rich where he says, "The woman I love married somebody else," but what we learned was there could have been 10 Jesses. And we kind of learned the same thing about Beaker. But let me say I do think Beaker was his best friend. Sometimes people have asked, "Man, why don't you reach out to Beaker," I just go, "He was the FIRST person I reached out to."