End of Youth is a faith-based film directed by Carlos Camargo that is set to be released for free on all platforms in 2022. It was entered into the Texas Film Festival and won it! Additionally, End of Youth received the Best Trailer Award at the Festival. See the award-winning trailer here:
This film falls into the Eschatology Sci-Fi Thriller category and focuses on the biblical Tribulation and end times in a dystopian future. According to their website, the plotline of the movie is as follows:
Jonathan, our hero, is a young twenty-something who (like everyone else) works for the government. His job exists to oppress others on behalf of the state. The one glimmer of humanity left in his life is his father, a widower who lost his wife during a pandemic.
One day, Jonathan stops hearing from his father. Days turn to weeks with no contact. Knowing full well that his father may have been reported and removed from society, Chris risks his “freedom” to go in search of his father, only to discover for himself what happens to the criminal class in this new world, and in the process discovering the true meaning of freedom.
About the Director
Carlos Camargo, the director of End of Youth, is originally from Mexico City, Mexico where he grew up in a Christian home and discovered for himself what it truly means to follow Jesus. He currently attends Master’s Touch Church in Federal Way, WA, and works as an independent film producer and videographer. You can find more of his testimony on the End of Youth website.
Camargo is also known for his short film, Look Up in the Sky, from 2012 where “a high school science class hiking trip must reunite ten years later to stop the end of the world.” As well as another short film, White Knights, also from 2012 in which “two brothers out for revenge get more than they bargained for.”
In an interview on the podcast Modern Living with Dr. Angela, Camargo dives deeper into the background and reasoning behind the movie and also gives us a glimpse into his own life. Along with being a full-time filmmaker and running his own production company, he is also a full-time husband and father of two girls with one child on the way. Instead of the movie being based on real-life events, he notes it was based on “pure inspiration.”
Camargo states that he was first interested in films in high school. He attributes it to his love of movies and the craft that goes into making them. He notes that he wasn’t thinking so much about the impact a movie would have on an audience until later when he started working on student films and then commercial projects.
Although End of Youth portrays quite an important message, Camargo admits that he doesn’t see making films as “a way of shaping public opinion”, but instead views it more as an art form. He wants to tell stories that “hit all the senses” and truly captivates people throughout the story. And rest assured, this film is going to do just that.
Interestingly, he wrote the script back in 2015, when he says he was at a completely different point in his life, going through a lot of transition, and expecting his very first child. This is where the title for the film, End of Youth, was born because Camargo states he was at the end of his own youth and stepping into adulthood. It was his goal to work hard in the later years of his twenties and make his first feature film, a goal he has now achieved.
As he made edits to the script and it eventually went into production, Camargo ran the title by his colleagues and friends who agreed that the title fits perfectly. After all, the storyline is, according to Camargo, about following along as an immature boy, Jonathan, changes into the man he’s meant to be. Therefore, Jonathan somewhat says goodbye to his own youth as he internally struggles with what comes next.
When asked about the intended target audience, the director says that while there is some violence in the movie, it is appropriate for most ages. However, he did test the waters a bit prior to showing the film at the festival and teamed up with a 3D graphic designer who specializes in creating “concept worlds.” After releasing these images, Camargo discovered they statistically resonated most with high school and college-age young men. This makes sense since the movie portrays a father-son narrative.
And while it is a faith-based film by a Christian director, Camargo acknowledges that the audience may not be Christian, and that’s okay. He explains how crucial it is to have stories from a Christian perspective and that there’s a lack of it right now.
Dr. Angela then asks about the main message of the film or what he would like the audience to take away from it. Camargo states it would be “the concept of freedom and being a free person in the world regardless of what gender or age you are” and that being free is one of the most valuable things in life. He notes that freedom is always under attack, and we are always at risk of having our freedom taken away. The motto for End of Youth is “freedom is the right to think, speak, and believe.”
The director also comments on the topic of manhood and how it plays an important role in the film. He talks about Jonathan “discovering what it means to be free, have faith, believe in, and stand up for something.” We will all have to watch and see what happens on Jonathan’s journey.
While discussing the theme and storyline of the movie with Dr. Angela, Camargo says the following:
“When it comes to the subject of the end times, everybody has a slightly different interpretation of what the end times looks like depending on what their biblical background looks like, you know, whatever their scholarly background looks like. And so, um, or denomination. And so, it was apparent that talking about the end times would be different depending on who the audience is, but everyone does agree that talking about the end times means graduating in your faith from being, you know, simply a follower of Jesus or a believer in Jesus and in the Gospel.
Talking about the end times means graduating that to a slightly higher understanding that it’s not just a Gospel that is here to help your life now, but it also has this continuation, it has this – there is a sequel to it, if you will, in what happens after the book of Revelation. Right? Like there’s this spiritual maturity that you have to have as a believer to dive into the study of the end times. And so, yeah, it definitely is this maturation, you know, that happens when discussing the end times and, you know, when watching a film about it, watching a story about it. That inevitably is gonna result in talking about it.”
Listen to the podcast here.
In regard to the official release of End of Youth, yes it will be released for free, but Camargo also states that the film will be shown in churches in Washington first and then across the Nation. Of course, people can donate if they would like, but it will be completely free.
The 30-year-old director feels strongly about the message of freedom that End of Youth will bring to screens everywhere.
