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!

Theater at 91����Ƶ is presenting six performances of its spring mainstage production, “Dancing at Lughnasa,” by Brian Friel.

Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Apr. 8-10 and Apr. 15-17 in the mainstage theater of the University Commons. Thomas P. Joyner, assistant professor of theater at 91����Ƶ, directs the eight-member cast in this intense study of the lives of five impoverished women set in 1936 in Ireland’s County Donegal in the fictional town of Ballybeg.

91����Ƶ the play

The play is loosely based on the lives of dramatist Friel’s mother and aunts who lived in the Glenties on the west coast of Donegal. The play depicts the late summer days when love briefly seems possible for three of the Mundy sisters (Chris, Rose and Kate) and the family welcomes home the frail elder brother from life as a missionary in Africa.

However, as the summer ends, the family foresees the sadness and economic privations under which they will suffer as hopes begin to fade.

The play premiered Oct. 15, 1990 at the Lyttelton Theater at the Royal National Theater in London on 15 October 1990. The production, produced by Bill Kenwright and Noel Pearson, then transferred to the Phoenix Theater, London, on Mar. 25, 1991. In 2009, a run opened at the Old Vic from Feb. 26 to May 9.

The play opened on Broadway at the Plymouth Theater on Oct. 24,1991, where the production won the Tony Award for “Best Play” in 1992. “Dancing at Lughnasa” was adapted for film in 1998 starring Meryl Streep as Kate Mundy.

Ticket info

Tickets are available from the 91����Ƶ Box Office, 540-432-4582 or ordered online at www.emu.edu/boxoffice.

The Thursday, Apr. 8 performance will be offered at no charge, donations accepted; come as you are, pay what you will. For the remaining nights, reserved tickets are $10 for adults, $12 at the door, and $8 for seniors and non-91����Ƶ students ($10 at the door).Group rates available.

Information regarding age appropriateness for 91����Ƶ events is available through the Box Office.

In the play, a contemporary take on the adventures of Odysseus from Homer’s epic tale, a young refugee called Anon enters the U.S. by being swept ashore, having survived a boat crash. Like a contemporary Odysseus from Homer’s epic tale, Anon must live by his wits, his instincts, fortitude and humor to survive.

Junior Steve Kniss directs actors junior Brent Anders and sophomore Brandon Habron. (Photo: Erika Babikow)

Steve Kniss, an 91����Ƶ junior vocal performance and digital media major from Chicago, Ill., is directing the 11-member cast with an original score and sound design by Michael Swartzendruber, a junior theology and philosophy major from Kalona, Iowa. ( in The Weather Vane, 91����Ƶ’s student newspaper.)

This stunning lyrical saga is unflinching in its gritty determination to come at you with the absurdities of life. “Anon” ricochets off one chaotic situation, then slam bangs into another. It’s a dream. It’s a nightmare. It’s life. It’s the stuff of epic adventures – and real ones.

Tickets and other information

General admission to the one act, 90-minute play is $5 at the door. Advance tickets are available by calling the 91����Ƶ theater office, 540-432-4360 or email: theater@emu.edu.

Directing. To me, it is fun. I have had such a great time through only a week and a half of rehearsal. Each night raises its unique challenges, but every it is also an adventure, and that is what I love about directing.

Junior Steve Kniss directs actors junior Brent Anders and sophomore Brandon Habron. (Photo: Erika Babikow)

However, I have been surprised to find that the biggest challenge comes from making a schedule for each week. There is so much to organize. Which scenes are more important to work on? Which characters do I need to further develop? Who can come which night? Scheduling is definitely not something that I had foreseen being such a challenge.

Anon has been such a great experience for me so far. I want to pursue directing after I graduate, probably more in the form of film than theatre. However, when I agreed to direct Anon, I knew I would be challenging myself, both time-wise and vocation-wise. If I really did not truly love directing, I knew that this experience would show me. So far, I still love it.

When I was talking with a couple friends Sunday night, I was saying the reason I love directing and theatre is because it allows me to create a world that is entirely my own.

I am not saying I do not love the real world, because I do, but the movies that inspired me to want to pursue film making were the Lord of the Rings franchise, directed by Peter Jackson. I suppose I will just come right out and say that I have seen each of the movies at least fifteen times, both extended and theatrical versions, with actor and director commentaries, and no, that is not an overstatement. I was absolutely enthralled by these films. They showed me that there were no boundaries when creating movies. Any world is possible to make. Any character is possible to create. Any movie is possible to direct.

Another thing that I have been discovering is the difference between film directing and theatre directing. Film directing requires slightly more organization with a larger crew, more equipment, and usually, a greater number of actors.

However, theatre requires more precision. During a play, each performance is live. Therefore, each night, the actor has one chance to deliver each of his or her lines, and if it is delivered poorly, there is nothing that the actor can do to change that. In film, a director can take as many shots of a scene as he or she wants. Eventually, they will pick the best shot and that is what the global audience will see. Have you ever thought of what a movie would look like if a director only took one take of each scene? Maybe not, but that is the type of thing that sometimes occurs to me. It tends to blow the mind.

As I continue to direct, I look forward to the challenges and questions that will be raised each night. How do I get this character from here to there? How do I incorporate this part of the set? How should the audience be seated? Where do I put my musicians? Who is going to run the sound and light boards? How do I motivate the actor at this point? These are questions that I have to ask myself on a nightly basis, and I cannot wait to see if I have answered them correctly come opening night.

Learn more about theater at 91����Ƶ…