We were lucky to catch up with Daniel Knudsen recently and have shared our conversation below.

Daniel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Some of the most basic questions of life are fascinating to me. Why are we here and where are we going? Sometimes life feels like a movie that we arrived late for. We missed the first act and are thrust into a story with an unknown beginning and an unknown ending. That’s why the most basic questions of life are worth considering and are often explored through narrative media. My career as a film director became an organic investigation into the universal human experience in relation to storytelling. This fascinated me and birthed the idea to make a documentary about my journey into the exploration of these ideas. This is why I produced my documentary about storytelling and religion titled; “Eternal Theater.”

In the documentary I share about my early childhood and my lived experience that included my Polish-Catholic and Christian upbringing. Then it expands to the universal human experience and the way we understand the world through the stories we tell. Though my journey is unique, the stories that speak to cultures all over the world throughout history have identifiable common themes. One of those themes is hope. The stories that speak to people offer some kind of hope about why we are here and how to make the best of it. My documentary “Eternal Theater” walks through this idea in more detail. My basic premise is that the stories that most powerfully speak to us reveal an aspect of the Divine source that created us. Saint Paul described the idea of Divinity in the book of Acts as the life force that animates all things. I have found the stories that share this concept are meaningful to audiences. This has been a really special project for me and I hope others who watch it will find it meaningful as well. Philosophers and preachers share their insights, but in the end, the heart discerns the answers. And the heart is best able to discern those answers when it analyzes these questions through narrative structures. Life is a story with the most rudimentary elements of our existence vailed in mystery, but at least we get to explore them.

Daniel, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I was interested in filmmaking from about as far back as I can remember. While I was finishing up high school I started getting more seriously involved in it. I got my first chance to work on set as a production assistant when I was 17 and I absolutely loved it. From there it has been an adventure becoming a director, actor and film producer. At this point I have directed and produced more than a dozen feature films including; Dinosaur Cove, Courageous Love, Christmas Coupon, and Creed of Gold. These movies have garnered millions of views from all over the world. My biggest role as an actor was starring along side Superman actor Dean Cain in the movie Skydog. I’m constantly working on developing new projects and that reinvent the Hollywood model for a new generation.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

NFT’s were the most important thing in the world if you listened to Gary Vaynerchuk about a year ago. I think they represent an aspect of the digital future that will be important to artists but may not be the answer in an of themselves. A year ago there were some wildly expensive NFT’s on the market that have become nearly worthless today. That pump & dump phenomenon is an element you see all over the crypto market. As with any high stakes gambling, some people get lucky and others lose their shirt. In my view it’s not the NFT’s that are significant, it is the blockchain technology that they are built on. When artists can monetize their work through the blockchain, I think it could be an important innovation that could enable artists to earn a living through their creative endeavors.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I had a difficult childhood and as a result I adopted a “noble failure” mindset. I embraced a martyr mentality in my personal life and leadership positions. Failure was an acceptable outcome if the situation felt impossible. While this thinking may be well intentioned, it is a damaging mentality for a leader to embrace. Years ago I read a book by a leadership coach by the name of John Maxwell. In his book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” he made the bold statement that leaders don’t get points for failing in a noble cause. He laid out this idea; if you cannot chart a course to victory as a leader – you should not be in leadership. That idea challenged my entire life. I needed to either figure out a path to victory or get out of the way. That insight started me on a journey of reprogramming my thinking. While it takes time to change, it has been a valuable shift in my life and career.     

Contact Info:

• Website: www.danielknudsen.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/danielknudsenDK
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/danielknudsenDK
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/danielknudsenDK
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/danielknudsenDK

Image Credits
All images courtesy of Crystal Creek Media, LLC