By: Aaron Brown
The faith-based film ‘The Hopeful’ is hitting cinemas across Australia, after already making an impact in the USA.
The film centres around the true historical story of William Miller, who, surviving a cannon blast during the war of 1812, embarks on a journey to discover faith, purpose and hope. After discovering a biblical prophecy about the return of Christ, he believes he has figured out the date of Christ’s return, so he sets about preparing people.
The story explores finding faith in the midst of disappointment and what it means to live in wait for Jesus. Along the way, William is joined in his mission by a young woman named Ellen who would go on to be a vital part of the birth of the Seventh Day Adventist movement.
The film is an international project – it’s set in America, was filmed in Canada, the director is Australian and it features original music by Swedish artist Jonas Myrin.
In the leadup to the film’s Australian release on October 17, myself and my colleague Chloe spoke to director Kyle Portbury and musician Jonas Myrin, whose songs are featured in the film.
Meet Australian director Kyle Portbury
Kyle Portbury (pictured) is an Emmy Award winning director based in Newcastle, Australia, who took on the task of bringing this remarkable story to life.
Chloe: “As a Seventh day Adventist yourself, would you call this a passion project?”
Kyle: “I don’t think I ever intentionally went to tell a story about my Adventist roots. It’s just that this was a really interesting story. When you really dug into who these people were, some of the things that they did and the wrestles and the struggles they had, I went, ‘Oh, these are people I can relate to’”.
“So regardless of whether that’s in an Adventist flavour or a Baptist flavour, a Methodist flavour or an evangelical flavour, it doesn’t really matter. You see people who are struggling and wrestling with big ideas and how they as people relate to spirituality and their faith and God and Christ and Holy Spirit and how all that works in with who you are as a person who still has to operate as part of the wider community around them.”
Aaron: “How do you navigate telling the story of real people who actually existed and are quite revered without creating fictional or untrue versions of them?”
Kyle: “So when I was growing up, the myth of Ellen White almost made her unhuman, you know? So I think what I wanted to do is go… ‘How do I actually find the humanity of this person so that they’re relatable on a human level?’
“Because regardless of all these big things that they did, there’s still the person who argues with their spouse, and questions and feels guilty about, you know, they’re going off and they’re doing all these amazing things and then abandoning their children. You know, like famously, she writes about this, about the almost depression that she went through from many, many years after her, their eldest son, Henry died at the age of 14.
“Her and her husband, James, were not present in his life to the extent that you would normally expect you would be. And so when they rock up at his deathbed, they are uncle and auntie Ellen and James, because the people he’s living with are mum and dad. And so that weighs heavily on her. And I think there’s more to be gained from understanding that just because you have this big ministry persona, doesn’t mean that you don’t still have the same doubts and fears and failings that everyone else does.
“Or that you love the same way that everybody else does. And that you experience joy the same way and that you laugh the same way.
“I read a lot of correspondence between these guys. They talk and correspond differently to how we do, in that they go into detail that we don’t. And so I’ve been able to read those and you can get a sense of who they would be.”
Soundtrack Songs by Swedish Artist Jonas Myrin
To help bring the story of The Hopeful to life, Kyle enlisted the help of Jonas Myrin to write some original songs for the film. Jonas has written songs for artists such as Barbra Streisand, Idina Menzel, Andrea Bocelli, Lauren Daigle and Nicole Scherzinger, and has written some huge worship songs that are still sung by millions today, including Hillsong’s Cornerstone and Matt Redman’s 10 000 Reasons.
Jonas shared about how he got involved with the film:
“So I was actually in Israel with the director of the film (Kyle Portbury), working on another project and he said, “one day we’re going to do a movie together.” And the day came where I got the phone call and he called me up saying, ‘Hey, Jonas, I’m doing this film, and I would love to see if you want to see it, see if maybe you get inspired for a song.’
“And I said, of course I’d love to see it. And I saw it and not only did I get inspired with one, I actually wrote two and sent him two songs. I think just a day or two days later. I had no idea if he was going to like them or if they were going to connect. And, and he called me back saying, ‘Uh, Jonas, I know I just asked for one song, but, we’re going to put both in the film’, so that’s how it started.
“And the movie came out in the U S in April and it was an incredible response. Top 10, I think on opening night in the U S main box office. The music from the film have done really well too, so it’s been a super encouraging journey to be part of and just watching a story of faith resonate so much.”
The Hopeful releases in cinemas across Australia October 17. You can find out more HERE. The soundtrack is available on streaming platforms.
Article supplied with thanks to Rhema 99.7.