Directed by David Cowan and Shawn Hardin, the 87-minute documentary explores the personal cost of religious doubt, the pressure to conform, and the freedom people seek when they choose to live openly.
The Hidden Cost of Religious Doubt
For many Americans, questioning religion is not simply a private matter. It can affect family relationships, friendships, careers, and a person’s sense of belonging. Heathens, a new documentary from filmmakers David Cowan and Shawn Hardin, examines what happens when people begin to question the beliefs they were raised with—and decide they can no longer hide those doubts.
The film opens with a striking statistic from research by Schnabel and colleagues published in 2024: more than 80 million American adults conceal religious doubts or exaggerate their religiosity. The research cited in the film’s promotional materials identifies perceived pressure from others to conform as the strongest predictor of whether people hide their doubts.
Rather than approaching the subject through statistics alone, Heathens follows five people navigating the consequences of leaving their religious backgrounds behind.
Five Lives, One Shared Experience
The documentary follows a professional stuntwoman, two former preachers, the frontwoman of alt-pop band Transviolet, and a Christian musician. Their paths converge at a secluded retreat in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, where they begin sharing experiences they have often kept hidden from the people closest to them.
Some arrive using assumed names and without their families knowing where they are. Each has quietly moved away from the religion that shaped their upbringing, yet each faces a different version of the same dilemma: how to live honestly when the truth could threaten family ties, financial security, or professional opportunities.
Over a weekend of conversation, music, laughter, and confession, the group begins to form a community around their shared experiences. They reclaim the word “heathen,” transforming a term of condemnation into an identity they can embrace on their own terms.
But the retreat is only the beginning. Once they return home, each must confront the practical consequences of being more open about what they believe—or no longer believe.
Religion, Politics, and the Pressure to Conform
Heathens places its personal stories within a wider examination of religion’s role in American public life. The documentary considers the relationship between religious conformity, Christian nationalism, and political division, asking what happens when people who reject a dominant belief system are treated as threats to their families, churches, or country.
Its narrative moves between intimate personal experiences and larger public events, including the Charlottesville rally and January 6, before returning to the setting of a family kitchen. These shifts connect political conflict with the everyday decisions people make about honesty, belonging, and self-expression.
The film’s central concern is not simply whether individuals believe in religion. It is what happens when expressing doubt feels unsafe, and when people believe they have little choice but to maintain an identity that no longer reflects their convictions.
Finding Freedom Without Losing Connection
Despite its difficult subject matter, Heathens is presented as a warm, humorous, and ultimately hopeful portrait of people searching for a way forward. The relationships formed during the retreat offer the participants something many have lacked: the reassurance that their experiences are not theirs alone.
The documentary does not suggest that telling the truth comes without consequences. Instead, it follows the tension between what can be lost through honesty and what might become possible afterward. For its subjects, the journey involves more than leaving a faith; it means reconsidering their relationships, rebuilding their sense of identity, and discovering where they can find community.
Featuring Sarah McTaggart, H.G. Roberts, Darante Martin, Allen Coffey, and Nathlye Tatiana, the film also includes Dr. Darrel Ray and Dr. Samuel L. Perry.
Festival Screenings and Los Angeles Release
Heathens has its world premiere at the United Nations Association Film Festival (UNAFF) on Saturday, October 24, at 3:30 p.m. at Mitchell Park Community Center in Palo Alto, California.
A screening is scheduled for Tuesday, October 27, at 7 p.m. at the Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles. The film is also scheduled to open at Laemmle NoHo in Los Angeles on October 30.
Additional events include a Bay Area screening with U.S. Congressman Jared Huffman on November 6, with the location still to be announced, and a November 15 screening at 11 a.m. PT at the Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan Theater at the Center for Inquiry West in Los Angeles.
Directed and produced by David Cowan and Shawn Hardin, the documentary lists Rebecca Cammisa, Brad Feld, and Amy Batchelor as executive producers. Its runtime is 87 minutes.
Watch the Trailer
Further information about the documentary and its screenings is available through the film’s official website.
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