After its controversial US box office hit Sound of Freedom, producer Angel Studios has put its weight behind another title that crudely mines child misery. Directed by Joshua Weigel, the film purports to tackle America’s broken foster care system through the true story of Donna Martin and her husband Bishop WC Martin, played here by Nika King and Demetrius Grosse. Living in Possum Trot, Texas, the Christian couple took in youngsters deemed too “difficult” to place within the foster system. More extraordinarily, they also galvanised 22 families in their congregation to follow their steps.
In the end, a total of 77 displaced children were adopted within the community. On screen, however, this fascinating story is superficially told through saccharine cliches. Though forceful in its pro-adoption stance, the film provides little practical guidance in helping traumatised children; instead, love and religious faith become the all-powerful elixir that will cure all. The lack of interest in representing the children’s points-of-view also creates an imbalance in the narrative, dampening the impact of King and Grosse’s otherwise able performances.
As with Sound of Freedom, this film relies on a pay-it-forward marketing strategy. Before the end credits roll, a brief video message appears, in which the real Martins ask viewers to scan a QR code, which is linked to Angel Studios’ official page where people can chip in and buy tickets for others who are interested in seeing it. On the website, the vaguely worded sentence “1 million tickets for 100k forgotten kids” has the ring of a charity cause but like the preachy script, this marketing tactic pays little attention to the realities of social work.
• Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot is in UK and Irish cinemas from 11 October.
