Emmy-Winning Orthodox Producer on Faith, Filmmaking, and Saying No

What the video says

Father Christopher interviews Archon Nicholas Hurus, an Emmy award-winning producer and founder of Spectrum Films, about working in media while keeping Orthodox values. Hurus explains that the craft of filmmaking is the same for Fortune 500 clients and the Church, but faith guides his decisions and sometimes makes him say no. He describes filming major Church events like the meeting of Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew in Jerusalem and the Holy and Great Council in Crete, and says the Orthodox liturgy engages all the senses, which makes it easier to capture on film.

He recounts turning down pornography production at the start of his company in 1999, setting the rule that if their children cannot watch it, they will not produce it. He also describes the Orthodox Public Affairs Committee (OPAC), which he co-founded to defend persecuted Christians worldwide, including smuggling Bibles and supporting priests in the Middle East and Africa.

The conversation ends with Hurus calling for a collective Orthodox condemnation of the war in Ukraine and urging the Church to use every available platform to spread the faith.

Key moments

1. 0:42 Nicholas Hurus, Emmy award-winning producer and founder of Spectrum Films, has created over 200 documentaries for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and produces content for Fortune 500 companies.
2. 1:45 Hurus has produced coverage of Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew in Jerusalem, Pope Benedict's visit to Constantinople, and the Holy and Great Council in Crete, which had not convened in over a thousand years.
3. 2:50 His passion for the Church began at home with his mother and his parish priest of blessed memory, Father George Magakis; he says true faith is with you 24/7 and is your measuring stick.
4. 3:53 He finds the Orthodox Church easier to film than secular clients because the liturgy engages all the senses, everything has meaning, and nothing is by accident, so he must study the services to know what should be shown.
5. 9:04 At the National Religious Broadcasting Association, when marketing firms asked who the star of his program was, Father Christopher answered, 'Jesus Christ is the star of the program,' which surprised them.
6. 12:11 When his company opened in 1999, a California production company asked them to help produce pornography; the three partners decided in under 30 seconds to refuse, setting the rule: if their children cannot watch it, they will not produce it.
7. 18:57 Hurus co-founded the Orthodox Public Affairs Committee (OPAC), now in its fifth year, to make noise about the daily persecution of Christians worldwide; it has smuggled Bibles into certain countries, supported a priest in the Middle East who wanted a wall around his church, and shared footage of a woman in Africa beheaded for refusing to renounce Christ.
8. 28:25 Hurus calls for a collective condemnation within the Orthodox Church of the war in Ukraine, where Orthodox are killing Orthodox, and says clergy bear a heavier responsibility before God, as Chrysostom wrote.