Written, produced, and co-directed by Kniss and John Klein, the award-winning indie dramedy follows three siblings in their 30s—Michael (Josh Bywater), Ellie (Angela Morris), and James (Timmy H. Barron)—as they gather at their family’s cabin for a weekend visit. When their parents (Laura T. Fisher and John Lister) unexpectedly announce their divorce, the trip quickly unravels.

The 81-minute film blends humor with heartfelt moments as the siblings grapple with the news and confront long-buried tensions. Never Not Yours premiered in June 2024 at the Interrobang Film Festival in Des Moines, Iowa. It boasts an 8/10 rating on IMDb.

‘A warm hug of a movie’

Over the past year and a half, Kniss and Klein have taken the film on the road, screening it at festivals across the country, meeting audiences, and building connections.

Never Not Yours has earned multiple accolades, including Best Feature Screenplay at the Grand Rapids Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Award at the Naples (Florida) International Film Festival, Best Feature Film at the Iowa Independent Film Festival, and several honors at the Blue Whiskey Independent Film Festival near Chicago, where it was crowned Best Film of the Festival.

Kniss said the reception at festivals and screenings has been overwhelmingly positive. “A lot of what we hear is, ‘I finished watching your film and had to call my mom,’ or ‘I had to call a sibling,’” he said. “It’s a very personal film, not just for the two of us, but for everyone who worked on it.”

Kniss described the film as “a warm hug of a movie” that explores how difficult moments can ultimately bring people closer together.

“At the end of the day, what we remember isn’t our jobs,” he said. “It’s the relationships we had, the friends, the family, and the time we spent together. Those are what make lasting memories. That’s what we hope audiences take from this film.”

John Klein and Steve Kniss ’11 wrote, produced, and directed Never Not Yours. 

Film was shot in eight days

Kniss and Klein, who connected while in graduate school at DePaul University in Chicago, had previously written a script for a feature-length drama set during World War I. It was based on the life of Kniss’ great-grandfather, Lloy Kniss, who documented his experiences as a Mennonite conscientious objector in the book (Herald Press, 1971).

“Because it’s a period piece, it’s much more expensive than something the two of us are able to finance ourselves,” Kniss said. “We wanted to write something small that we could put together and own entirely ourselves.”

After some brainstorming, the idea for Never Not Yours began to take shape.

“It’s not the easiest film to pitch to an audience in terms of, ‘Come watch this dramedy about this couple getting divorced and everything that comes out of that,’” Kniss said. “What we like to talk about with this film is just how small it is.”

Filmed entirely in and around Nashville, Indiana, a town about an hour south of Indianapolis, the movie was shot in just eight days at the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“That’s a crazy short time to shoot a 110-page script,” Kniss said. “Most low-budget films are shot in 15 to 20 days. I don’t think it was until the third or fourth day, when we had shot roughly half the movie, that we started to feel confident our plan would work.”

During filming, the five-member cast and seven-member crew lived together in the same cabin where the story takes place. “Typically when you’re making a movie, you go to set, you wrap, you go home, you sleep, and return the next day,” Kniss said. “The 12 of us got really close because we were all living on set. It almost felt like summer camp.”

‘91����Ƶ was the perfect place’

Kniss, who is originally from Chicago, majored in vocal performance and digital media at 91����Ƶ. His parents, Fred ’79 and Rosalyn ’77, and older brother, Michael ’06, are alumni, and he said he had always wanted to attend 91����Ƶ.

“I chose 91����Ƶ because I wanted to be in a community and I wanted to become a better person, and I think 91����Ƶ was the perfect place for that,” he said. During his sophomore year, he was in India for his intercultural when his father was appointed provost.

In a November 2009 , Kniss wrote about how The Lord of the Rings trilogy and its director, Peter Jackson, inspired him to pursue filmmaking. He wrote that he’s seen each movie at least 15 times, “both extended and theatrical versions, with actor and director commentaries,” and was “absolutely enthralled” by them.

“That was my early film school, watching those behind-the-scenes documentaries to learn how these things even existed,” Kniss said in a recent interview. “I still consider those films to be huge inspirations for me because it was the most incredible thing to see an entirely new world created on film.”

After graduating from 91����Ƶ, Kniss worked at Rosetta Stone and TV3 Winchester. His desire to make films never left him, and in 2014 he enrolled in the master of fine arts program at DePaul University. He graduated with his MFA in 2019.

Kniss and his wife, Monica Stouffer Kniss ’09, live near Asheville, North Carolina, with their two children. He is in his third year as assistant professor at Western Carolina University, where he directs the film and television production program. Teaching gives him the summers off to create films, and he and Klein are beginning to plan what they’ll shoot this summer.

Lately, the directing duo has been screening their short film, (2025), around the country. As for future projects, Kniss said they’re still deciding which features to develop. They still have that script for the World War I drama about his great-grandfather tucked away, waiting for whenever they’re ready.

“Obviously, I’m really close to that one,” Kniss said. “At some point, I’d love to make that film.”

“Never Not Yours” is also available to rent and purchase on . For updates about the film, including future screenings, visit its Facebook page at .

Watch the trailer below!

Dan Wessner, professor of international studies at 91����Ƶ

The lights flicked on, and 40 pairs of eyes shifted their focus from the auditorium screen over to Dan Wessner.

An hour and a half earlier, he sat down with his students to watch a movie. Now, as always, discussion will follow.

“So,” he asked, “where do you want to go with this?”

It’s quiet for a moment. “It’s not easy,” said Wessner, a professor of international studies.

Over the next few minutes, students volunteered their thoughts.

“Horrific,” one decided. “Disturbing,” offered another.

Similar scenes are playing out this week at universities in Iran, India, Vietnam and Indiana. Students at the other schools, however, might have different thoughts to share. But that’s just the point, Wessner says.

Foreign Film Series

Three years ago, 91����Ƶ partnered with other schools to “co-screen” films across cultures, Wessner says. Each participating school airs the movie, subtitled in English, and comes together as a class to write a paragraph on their impressions.

The discussion always starts in the classroom, but builds into an inter-cultural dialogue on the Internet, Wessner says.

His students will post their thoughts online in the coming days. They’ll read comments from students in other countries and respond.

“By the second post,” Wessner says, “we’re not talking about the film at all. It’s now about how we see each other.”

Which was, in fact, a central theme of Sunday’s showing.

Here Wessner leads discussion of an early film in the series.

The class watched “Focus,” a 2001 film staring William H. Macy. It’s based on the Arthur Miller novel of the same name.

Macy plays a character that is mistaken for a Jew in his Brooklyn neighborhood after he dons a pair of eyeglasses. It’s the final few months of World War II and his family finds themselves grasping to escape the violence and anti-Semitism that’s infiltrated the neighborhood.

91����Ƶ picked this film. The five universities taking part in the program this semester trade turns every three or so weeks during the school year when a new movie is shown. They rely on a few ground rules – no gratuitous sex, violence or language, Wessner says – but otherwise, controversial subjects are fair game.

Past picks include “Indochine” from Vietnam and France, “El Norte” from Guatemala and “An Inconvenient Truth,” among others.

In ‘Focus’

Wessner stood in the middle of the auditorium rows, pointing to one student after another, asking for feedback. “Is this one easier because it’s our culture?” he asked.

“It’s harder than the others,” answered Brian Hackman, a 21-year-old from Pennsylvania. “It hits closer to home.”

Alicia Hertzler chimed in a few minutes later. “It’s frustrating to watch this movie,” said the 21-year-old from Pennsylvania, “because we know it was based on the past. But we continue to do that today with different people

In the fall of 2003, I noted that Hollywood had made a slew of war movies in which the protagonists were heavy underdogs fighting a defensive war against a morally inferior invading horde.

Some of these films were historical: “The Last Samurai,” “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” and “The Alamo.” Others, such as “Matrix: Revolutions” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” take place in imaginary worlds. In each case, though, the narratives were constructed to present one side of the conflict as clearly in the right. Although garnering mixed critical reception, these films were mostly more commercially successful than was last spring

If you want to know the mind of the general public, you can do worse than go to the movies. Better yet, just watch the previews. They will tell you what the major studios think the American public wants to see.

War, not surprisingly, is a big topic in our upcoming winter entertainment. Whether the films portray conflicts that are historical (Master and Commander, The Alamo, The Last Samurai) or imaginary (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Matrix: Revolutions), they suggest that battles hold out the promise of big bucks.

On the surface, the preoccupation with war might seem strange given the increasing ambivalence and dissension surrounding the United States’ military involvement in Iraq. Aren’t movies and television supposed to provide an escape from the troubles and cares of the "real" world?

A closer look at the content of some of these trailers may help explain the appeal of the films they advertise – or at least what the studios think we might find appealing about them.

The first, most obvious similarity that all the conflicts in these films have in common is that the heroes, the ones who represent us, are heavy underdogs.

"Our enemy has more than twice our guns, more than twice our numbers," intones Captain Aubery (Russell Crowe) in the Master and Commander trailer. In both the Lord of the Rings trailer and the The Matrix: Revolutions, those involved in the formal, military conflict are convinced that they are hopelessly outmatched, yet determined to give their lives fighting to the end.

The Alamo trailer solemnly informs us that the Texans fighting in the fort were not soldiers, they were "husbands," "lawyers," "fathers" and "legends" who had to fight against "one of the most powerful armies ever assembled." The Last Samurai trailer begins with the main character, Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise), as a part of a military army but ends with him charging on horseback, wielding a sword, against the guns that he used to use.

Another theme that most of these films have in common is that the main characters are fighting defensively rather than aggressively. Gondor is being besieged in The Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King; Zion is being invaded by an army of machines in The Matrix: Revolutions. Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie are trying to save their homeland of Texas from Santa Anna