Director Jordan Mederich attending
The Captivating True Story of Addiction, Loss, and Redemption. Wisconsin is the most addicted state in America. There’s no minimum drinking age. DUI offenders get a slap on the wrist – until tragedy strikes. Those who survive are branded as felons for the rest of their lives.
Church of Felons follows four recovering addicts in a rural Wisconsin church who agree to reveal hidden truths about their criminal pasts. When they speak the unspeakable, the shockwaves reverberate from their own families through the entire Polk County judicial system.
Press
Church of Felons presents a light of hope in the true stories of four men, intertwining the humanity of addiction with the immortal idea of salvation.” —Amery Free Press
Director’s Biography
Jordan began his filmmaking career in college, where he studied Theatre and Mass Communications at College of the Ozarks in Missouri. After working in production on hundreds of commercial and informational videos for several local and Fortune 500 companies, Jordan returned to his hometown of Osceola, Wisconsin… unprepared for the reality he’d find.
He discovered that drug and alcohol addiction was taking a shocking toll on his hometown, where his mother is a schoolteacher and his father the pastor of an evangelical church. Many of the victims of this addiction epidemic, Jordan learned, attended his father's church. As he became more and more outraged about the tragedy of addiction and the seeming indifference of the legal system, he knew that he needed to put his filmmaking skills to use to bring awareness and change.
Church of Felons is Jordan's first feature-length film. Since its completion in late 2016, thousands have attended sold-out screenings at film festivals, churches, and community centers, followed by emotional discussions about the addiction crisis. The majority of the film’s gross income founded the basis of a grassroots addiction recovery fund for Polk County residents. Jordan's goal is to change our country's unforgiving policies toward addiction and the addicted, believing that everyone deserves a second chance.