Off to the Races
A note from the directors after the world premiere
On Saturday night 10/24/26, United Nations Day, Heathens had its world premiere at the United Nations Association Film Festival in Palo Alto. The room was full, with people standing along the back wall, and for 87 minutes we got to watch several hundred strangers meet Sarah, H.G., Darante, Nathlye, and Allen for the first time. They laughed, and they cried, and afterward they stayed for a long, generous Q&A.
We have been waiting for this night for a while. We finished the film at the end of 2025 and spent the months since looking for the right place to bring it into the world. UNAFF turned out to be that place, and the selection itself was only part of why.
Founded in 1998 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UNAFF is one of the oldest documentary-only festivals in the United States. It has an eleven-day program, an independent jury, and a commitment to the principles of the UN Charter: human rights, civil rights, and civic action. Over the years it has given early screens to dozens of films that went on to Academy Award nominations and wins. Several of our own team, including editor Ken Schneider, consulting producer Jason Cohen, and executive producer Rebecca Cammisa, are UNAFF alumni. And we are Bay Area filmmakers, so this was a hometown premiere.
This year’s festival theme is Passion for Change. We could not have asked for a better frame. Five people in our film go through extraordinary change on camera, and they let us witness it with a vulnerability that still humbles us. Our thanks to Jasmina Bojic and the whole UNAFF team for seeing that, and for giving us UN Day.
What the audience talked about
Two things came up again and again in the Q&A.
The first was music. Our five Heathens grew up inside gospel music, and one of the quiet joys of the film is watching them reclaim it, carrying the songs of their childhood into new, secular lives and making them their own. Set against Tom Disher’s original score, the music is, as more than one person put it on Saturday, the sixth character in the film.
The second was the animation. Under animation director David Lux, a talented team worked for years to build a second visual layer for the film, in several distinct styles, that lets us go places a camera cannot. Audiences noticed, and asked good questions about how it was made.
Where we go from here
The premiere is the starting gun. Here is what the next few weeks look like.
On October 27 we screen at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. For Shawn, this is a homecoming: he went to film school there, and bringing this film back to campus means a great deal.
On October 30 we open a one-week theatrical run at the Laemmle NoHo in North Hollywood, with three screenings every day through November 5. The theater sits a block from the Television Academy, where Shawn spent several years on the board, co-founding its Interactive Media group and helping create the first Emmy Award for interactive programming. It is a good neighborhood for a first run.
On November 6 we come home to San Francisco for a screening and conversation at the Commonwealth Club with Rep. Jared Huffman, the only openly humanist member of Congress. We are grateful he is giving us his time.
Then New York, then London, then Amsterdam. Dates and tickets for every screening are at heathens.movie, and if you want to bring the film to your own town, campus, or congregation, that is the place to start.
We have been living with these five people for a long time. Starting now, we get to share them with the world.
Shawn Hardin and David Cowan
Producers & Co-Directors, Heathens