The promotion of the new film "Amazing Grace: The Story of William Wilberforce" looks a lot like social activism, what with its fundraising for human rights groups, a petition drive, screenings for members of Congress, large-scale days of prayer in the U.S. and England, even high school history lessons and church sermons. In fact, the sales pitch and the goodwill are so intertwined here that it's hard to know where one ends and the other begins. And maybe that's the point.
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A freedom fighter heard centuries later
MOVIES
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday February 28, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 72 words Type of Material: Correction
'Amazing Grace': An article in Friday's Calendar section about a charity campaign associated with the film "Amazing Grace" said that 75% of the money raised would benefit the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and the U.S. State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking People. Those groups will not receive donations from the fund drive. Instead, that portion of the donations will go to indigenous groups working to abolish slavery around the world.
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Bristol Bay Productions executives bristle at the term "marketing." They say their movie is an altruistic effort for social change and to honor the life of Wilberforce, a British pioneer in political activism and one of Abraham Lincoln's role models. That's why the release was timed around the 200th anniversary (on March 25) of Wilberforce's success in ending the slave trade in Britain. It's also the reason Bristol Bay staffers spent months traveling the country, reaching out to activist organizations and screening the movie for people and groups as disparate as evangelical Christians and animal rights activists.
The film, directed by Michael Apted and starring Ioan Gruffudd and Albert Finney, opens today. Organizers of the "Amazing Change" campaign expect the release to boost awareness of social activism and increase donations to groups working to abolish the modern slave trade in such areas as South Asia and Africa. But interest has been building for weeks, primarily through four websites. More recently, the film has gotten decent reviews from mainstream media and family- and faith-based outlets, including the influential Heartland Film Festival and the Dove Foundation.
Clearly, the movie is helped by the fact that Wilberforce was such a unifying personality with appeal that bridged race, politics and religion. He was an evangelical Christian who founded more than 60 nonprofits, including the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In his work to abolish slavery, Wilberforce inspired change by means that are still used today, with petition drives, slogans and boycotts.
"I don't know of another film that brings together as many different causes and elements as this one does," said Dick Rolfe, chief executive of the Dove Foundation.
