Five Americans who have quietly abandoned the religious beliefs they grew up with come together in the Blue Ridge Mountains to confront the fear of living openly in Heathens, the documentary directed and produced by David Cowan and Shawn Hardin.
The film follows people navigating the difficult journey from religious conformity to personal freedom, as they question what it means to be honest about their beliefs when family, friendships, and community ties are at stake. Rather than treating their experiences as a story of loss alone, the documentary explores how finding others who share their struggles can lead to unexpected friendship, belonging, and a fresh start.
Featured in the documentary are Sarah McTaggart, H.G. Roberts, Darante Martin, Allen Coffey, Nathlye Tatiana, with Dr. Darrel Ray, and Dr. Samuel L. Perry
Heathens makes its world premiere on October 24, 2026, at the United Nations Association Film Festival (UNAFF) in the San Francisco Bay Area. The documentary will also screen at the University of Southern California on October 27, followed by a Los Angeles theatrical engagement at Laemmle NoHo beginning October 30. Additional screenings are planned in San Francisco on November 6 and at the Center for Inquiry Los Angeles on November 15. The film is scheduled for a U.S. theatrical release beginning in Los Angeles on October 30.
Over 80 million American adults, roughly one in three, hide their religious doubts or exaggerate how religious they are (Schnabel et al., 2024). The same research found that the strongest predictor of whether someone hides their doubts is not what they believe but how much pressure they feel from those around them to conform.
Heathens follows five such Americans over the course of three years: a professional stuntwoman, two former preachers, the frontwoman of the alt-pop band Transviolet, and a Christian musician who first meet at a secluded retreat in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Some arrive under assumed names, without their families’ knowledge. Each has quietly left the religion that raised them, and each knows what honesty could cost: family, security, livelihood. Over a cathartic weekend of confessions, music, and laughter, the new friends resolve to reclaim their lives, taking back the slur “heathen” as a proud new identity. They return home to learn, one by one, just how much the truth will cost them.
At a moment when Christian nationalism wields increasing power in American public life, Heathens asks what happens when a politicized faith treats non-believers as enemies in a culture war and as traitors to their families, churches and nation. The film moves from private closets to the Charlottesville rally to January 6 and back to a family kitchen, dramatizing where a culture of religious conformity can lead, and what it costs a society when people believe they have no real choice but to conform. Warm, funny and unexpectedly hopeful, Heathens is ultimately about what becomes possible when people decide they do have a choice: the losses that can come with telling the truth, the freedom that can follow, the discovery of a path forward, and the realization that you are not alone.
Watch the official trailer for Heathens.
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