Dirt Merchants films are based on true stories and real people, movies that feel authentic and are motivational, inspirational and transformational
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few years back we did a cover story on Henning Morales. At that time we dubbed him the Tony Robbins of Hollywood. Well that has come full circle as five years later Henning and his team of ‘gritty, pretty’ filmmakers has produced 11 motion pictures, including 6 feature films. When we found that out, we decided that this most definitely deserves another cover story. Henning Morales is the creator of the Dirt Merchants Film Series. He was a premiere motivational and inspirational speaker for well over 10 years during the 1990s and 2000s. He learned the ropes from some of the premiere speakers and sales trainers in the U.S. including Robert
Depew (Jim Rohn’s mentor), Tom Hopkins and many others. After retiring from the speaking circuit and settling down to raise a family, Henning launched an events production company in Los Angeles which he took public toward the end of the 2000s. During this time he showcased other speakers, filmmakers, music artists and authors in a barrage of red carpet events spanning an additional 10 years. There were well over 500 events including a children’s carnival event to benefit the LA Childrens hospital with 4,000 attendees, featuring Mario Lopez, a music award show at Paramount studios featuring Nick Canon and a world class personal development expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Ray Lerado, LeonWinters & HenningMorales at the set of Destinova
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Henning took the stories that he masterfully told during his years as a speaker and wove them into a novel which was published in 2015. This bestseller has received tremendous attention from schools, mentorship groups and fans clamoring for inspirationally true stories that involve young people coming of age in America. As a result Henning co-founded the Youth Mentorship Forum at USC and has become a sought after speaker covering topics related to teenagers and young adults. When encouraged to produce his first movie, Henning was reluctant, to say the least. Through the encouragement of his close friends, many of which are Emmy and Oscar winning producers, directors and music people he produced a short film, Romancery, a 19-minute musicallydriven drama. And since then he has not looked back. The characters of these movies are two friends – both high school juvenile delinquents. Spencer is based on Henning and the other we shall call Brandon. At age 17 Spencer meets some high powered motivational masters and turns his life around. He is recruited into a world of street sales and guys motivated out of their gore to sell. It gets him away from his troublemaker friends and sets him up for life lessons he will never forget. Brandon can’t be bothered with all that positive thinking nonsense and turns to a life of crime. He and his crew became infamous burglars, reportedly
