How My Film 'Healing Hands' Allowed Me to Readdress a Trauma From When I Was Five

      Jordan Ochel is the writer-director of “Healing Hands,” a profoundly touching short film about a deaf young boy named Jonah (Alexander Campos III) whose parents (Mor Cohen and Ruben Javier Caballero) take him to a faith healer (Steven Pounders). In the following piece, Jordan Ochel shares the childhood memory that inspired the film, which recently debuted online through Omeleto. —M.M.

      How could I have anticipated that this moment would lead to the creation of the short film “Healing Hands”? I breathe unsteadily. I swallow. Beyond the bright lights and into the shadows, ten thousand people are watching, waiting for a five-year-old deaf boy to respond to the faith healer’s inquiry.

      An answer I knew to be false.

      Three decades later, this untruth transformed into the most significant truth I could convey, a truth expressed through film. Healing Hands portrays Jonah, a five-year-old deaf boy under pressure to affirm a faith healer’s miracle in front of a large audience. However, the process of creating this film was filled with its own share of heartaches, challenges, and unexpected blessings.

      **Heartaches**

      For thirty years, this incident remained a painful, dormant memory. When I was accepted into the master’s program at Baylor University, I decided this story would serve as my graduate thesis film. But when it was time to write the script, I found myself staring at a blank screen for weeks. How does one start nurturing a story that stems from a traumatic experience?

      I didn’t recognize it as trauma until, after months of auditions, my first lead actor, a five-year-old deaf boy, withdrew just a day before I planned to cast him.

      His mother expressed regret. “He says the script makes him too sad.” In other words, my personal experience was too distressing for a young child to act out.

      Those words reopened a wound I believed had healed.

      Admittedly, this speaks volumes about that boy’s empathy. But how could I begin anew with this revived hurt? From the start, it was essential that I find a deaf child actor; if I couldn’t, I would have to abandon the project.

      I came to realize the true challenge lay not just in sharing my story but ensuring I didn’t ask another child to bear its weight alone.

      With the compassionate support of my wife, parents, my thesis advisor Chris Hansen, and my mentor Maverick Moore (“My Dinner With Werner”), I reached out to the d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities online, once again asking for help in finding a deaf child actor for my film.

      “Healing Hands” director Jordan Ochel, left, and director of photography Davin Fitch. Courtesy of the filmmaker.

      Ultimately, two families emerged as possibilities, one of whom had two deaf boys who wore hearing aids. None of them had any prior acting experience.

      I was fortunate that the boy I chose, Alexander Campos III, delivered such a raw and extraordinary performance that I soon forgot he was reenacting my own experiences. He didn’t merely act as Jonah; he embodied Jonah. His performance was made possible by his family’s enthusiasm and complete support, as this story was significant to them as well.

      **Headaches**

      After securing a $10,000 grant, $7,500 in donations, and spending $5,000 of my own, I found myself entrenched in the logistical complexities of this project. My incredible DP, Davin Fitch, and I faced the formidable challenge of planning a shot for the auditorium and audience in the megachurch scene.

      During pre-production, several individuals suggested I set this scene in a smaller church. While that would have simplified logistics, it did not reflect my own experience. I aimed for viewers to feel the immense weight and pressure of a large, enthusiastic audience. Much like Jonah's biblical counterpart, I wanted the audience's expectations to feel as if a great fish was bearing down on him, ready to consume him if he failed to say or do the “right” thing. Based on my experiences, the megachurch setting was vital to conveying this in a short film.

      The only question now was how to achieve this?

      We found a stage at a local middle school, but the auditorium was too small and we couldn’t afford the hundreds of extras needed to fill the seats. My first assistant director, Dan Beard, recommended a VFX artist he’d previously collaborated with, Philip Heinrich. Philip is exceptionally talented and consistently exceeds expectations.

      His idea?

      Stick LED lights on a dozen actual auditorium chairs.

      Utilize a Steadicam for the reveal shot.

      Purchase a 3D model of an auditorium.

      Film a dozen or so seated extras against a green screen.

      He would track the lights, fill in the 3D model, randomly assign the green-screened extras to their seats, and rotoscope the stage, podium, and pastor.

      I could never have predicted how effectively this would work. I often get asked by other