Every year the Victory Church comes together to raise a considerable amount of money to bless both a local and international non-profit. We were all sitting in a meeting with the director of missions when he told us the two organizations we’d be giving funds to this year, half to the Neighborhood Co-op Ministries and the other half to missions in Africa. He explained the ministry does the typical food, clothing and grocery assistance, although he also told us a beautiful true story about a mother and daughter on the run from her abusive husband. How NCM was able to offer emergency housing and financial assistance, job assistance and counseling. This inspirational story sucked the air out of the room, we all felt it. I immediately knew, this was the story we had to share with the congregation.
So, my team and I at Victory wrote a raw, emotional re-enactment about their escape, ultimately rescued by local police and introduced to NCM. We filmed in a parking lot in Dacula and the rest in our studio in Norcross. It starred the incredible Denise Santos, Sam Salary, Marlee Mattadeen, Suzan Norton and myself. I remember calling Denise from another shoot in the LA desert very excited to cast her in this project.
I wasn’t ready for the amount of people it would deeply touch and help. Several people approached me to share that this was also their story. As children, they were also on the run with their mother. Heartbreaking.
We filmed on our Alexa Mini LF and Kowa Anamorphic lenses. Filming went about 3-4 days. Remarkably the church raised the most it had ever raised in 30 years, $850k to split between NCM and a ministry in remote Africa.
We’ll never truly understand the depths of how many people this film actually helped. From a bag of groceries to a safe, secure, new place to live, this film had an impact and we were ALL grateful to be a part of it.
Thank-you Tradewinds Coffee & Victory Church!