Production Company with a Purpose: Sisters Team to Make Meaningful Movies

Interviewed for Risen Magazine

Risen Magazine: You and your sister, Andrea, founded Mustard Seed Entertainment. Talk about why you chose to do that and what’s the overall goal.

Alexandra Boylan: Oh, I love that question. Thank you. So in 2014, God called me to make faith-based films. It wasn’t quite the trajectory I was on, but I really was like, “Okay, God just called me to make films.” And my sister and I were talking and we were looking at the landscape of faith-based back in 2014 and not really seeing ourselves represented the way we felt like it was organically for women. And we really felt like, you know what, we’re going to start making a female-driven faith-based films for moms and that they’re not the side character. They’re the main character and tell their struggles. And of course, since we’re women, who better to speak to than women. So we really went into ministry with our films to speak to women. Catching Fate is our first faith-based film that we shot in 2014. And it is about a woman, even though it’s about football, and her son, but it stars a woman and her struggles as a mom and her need to keep up with society, to be perfect, because we all put that upon ourselves as women to be perfect. We don’t want anyone to know that anything is not perfect.

But then in the movie, she crumbles and allows people to see that things are not perfect and she needs help. And that movie went on to do so well to speak to so many women, not just in America, but we were invited to Cuba on a movie tour where women were just so impacted by the story. We got messages from South Africa. Literally just the other day, we got a message from a woman in Columbia. So it really spoke to us that we were doing something that was sort of an empty place in the marketplace for faith, for speaking into women. And then teen girls. And so much of Switched and our Christmas movie, Wish for Christmas, which also stars a teen girl, is that when I was a kid, as a minister’s kid, my parents were very strict about what I watched and that was good, but there wasn’t anything that really felt like I wasn’t missing out on Dirty Dancing that would have spoken to me.

So much of my passion is to make movies that young girls and boys can feel proud to call it theirs, to show it at a slumber party and be like, this speaks into my faith, but it’s also super fun. And it’s just as good as what they’re seeing on Disney without feeling like they’re missing out. I want to make God cool to young people. You know what I mean?

RM: Absolutely. Having worked in the industry for 17 plus years… seeing how far we’ve come, which is fantastic, but you’re right… there’s always been this distinction between the two. And I felt like with Switched… I was watching a really well-made film without any other distinctions on it, other than I’m going to learn about anti-bullying —

AB: People say it makes them feel delightful, hope, joy. We do a call to action of how we can be good to one another. Thank you for all those things that you said, because that means a lot to me, especially with such a passion project and it was really different. It’s very different than what the faith industry has been putting out. And we really stepped out in faith, and I know this will hit in a really good place. And someone’s going to talk to the youth. We’re living in the most illiterate time for the Bible for young people. And when I was a kid, I had Amy Grant and she is my everything. And because I had Amy, I did miss out that I wasn’t listening to Madonna or Paula Abdul. I had Amy Grant. She was my Madonna. And I want to do that for young people who don’t have something that can show at a slumber party. Well, now we get them clean, fun entertainment that also speaks into their faith.

RM: Switched is on demand everywhere and streaming now on PureFlix.

AB: Yes, we are exclusively streaming on PureFlix and you can also get the DVD on Amazon or Walmart and it’s playing in anywhere you get video on demand.

RM: Thank you so much Alexandra for taking the time and I wish you continued success. And I can’t wait to see your next film. I know you must be working on something.

AB: Yes. We actually shot a movie in July of 2020 in Georgia called The Inheritance about this strange family that all returned home to bury their mother, but really to get their inheritance. And when they get home, they found out that she has buried the deed to the estate somewhere on the property and left them clues and challenges that they have to do together as a family to find it. And ultimately she wants to bring her family together and teach them that the only thing we inherit on earth is the kingdom of heaven. And it stars Mena Suveri and Jaleel White. It has a great cast. It’s hilarious. It’ll be out later this year.

Switched is now streaming on PureFlix.com and available on demand