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.
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.
'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.
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.
