The cast and crew are all Michiganders, many from Lansing. 'Wild Faith' is a Michigan production, and not just because of the locations. “They mentioned they were looking for extras and needed volunteers,” Beaird said. One of the center’s employees, Whitney Beaird, the manager of the cabin, was even in the movie as an extra. “They filmed on site at the Outdoor Education Center for five days, and it was fun to have them here,” Santner said. The cabin at the camp now was based on the original. It took the director, Jesse Low, weeks of scouting to find a cabin that would work for the movie.Ī pioneer cabin from the early 1800s was brought down to the campground in the 1970s from Alpena, said Matthew Santner, the events and day program coordinator at the center. It was beautiful, and we appreciated their enthusiasm in bringing us on board.”Ī lot of the filming happened in Historic Charlton Park in Hastings and a frontier cabin at the Battle Creek Outdoor Education Center campgrounds in Dowling, which is between Hastings and Battle Creek. “We had to find areas of Michigan that had historical parks and could look like it was untouched by time,” Hagedorn said. It follows Emmett Murphy, a Civil War veteran struggling with his memories and his community as he tries to keep his family together, including a black woman and her daughter whom he has taken in.

'Wild Faith' is an independent Christian movie set in Michigan in 1875. “I’ve even had cast and crew going ‘This has never happened on any other film I’ve worked on.’ We’re just glad to have the opportunity on this earth to create, and God provides those opportunities.' “I can honestly say that, every film that we’ve done, the weather has done exactly what we needed it to,” said Hagedorn, who also is a producer for the film, which was shot in and around Hastings and Battle Creek. It only rained once during the filming of 'Wild Faith.' It lasted 30 minutes and then stopped.įor a movie filmed mostly outdoors in unpredictable Michigan weather, that seemed like an unexpected miracle to many among the cast and crew.

Wild at heart film locations