Madera cop, former Fresno mayor, team up for movie

A Christian film, starring a Madera police officer in the leading role, is beginning to pick up traction and distribution.

The film, “Victory by Submission,” tells the story mixed martial arts fighter Tommy Hendricks as he struggles through adversity in the ring and finds faith in the process.

“It’s really a film that’s about redemption, and letting God take the wheel in your life,” said Officer Brett Prieto, who acted in the leading role, “rather than you doing everything in your own strength because you can’t do everything in your own strength.”

The movie was written, directed, and (primarily) produced by former Fresno mayor Alan Autry, who also plays Prieto’s character’s father.

“He was the puppet master in this whole thing,” Prieto said of Autry.

According to Prieto, the studio Pure Flix is in talks over distribution of the film, which has already been picked up for screening in China.

Filming for “Victory by Submission,” according to Prieto, began in 2013 wrapping in late 2015. Filming, he said, was difficult for him, as he had to balance his duties as an officer while he was acting, all while finding time for family.

“It was a juggling act because I had two kids in the whole process of this film, and on the final, final of it, I had my third kid,” Prieto said. “So I’ve had three, really, in the whole process from the beginning to the final cut of the film.”

The next screening of “Victory by Submission” will be 6 p.m., Sunday, at Northside Christian Church in Clovis.