'The Hopeful' Movie Demonstrates How Hope Can Change the World
So many times, throughout the course of history, we can look back in time and learn some highly valuable lessons that can be applied to our world today.
Such is the case with a new Fathom Movie Event. Releasing in 900 theaters nationwide on April 17th and 18th only, The Hopeful tells the true story of a community whose lives were transformed as they learn what it means to wait for Jesus. Set in 19th Century New England, the movie challenges audiences to imagine how hope can change the world.
Starring Tommie-Amber Pirie (Ginny & Georgia), Gregory Wilson (Well Suited for Christmas), and Bill Lake (Kodachrome), The Hopeful is directed by Emmy Award winning and three-time Australian Director’s Guild nominated Kyle Portbury.
I recently sat down with Portbury to discuss this heartfelt, compelling historical drama, some valuable truths that we can learn from it that are still applicable today, and what it truly means to wait for Jesus.
For every writer/director, there always seems to be a trigger, a tipping point, a moment where you say to yourself, “I have to make this movie!” For The Hopeful, what was that moment for you?
I think it was a series of moments, but if I boiled them all down to one thing, it would be, I'm always searching for ways to provoke myself. That's why these sorts of films that I go watch really challenge me. For instance, Oppenheimer recently. I love walking out asking myself, would I be one of the people that pushed the button? Or, would I be one of the guys who walked out thinking this is too dangerous. We may blow the world up even though it's a slim chance. I love to wrestle between it all with yourself. And that's the beauty of cinema, right? No one's telling you what to think or feel. And I think when I engaged with particularly one main character, Ellen, in the story, who the Smithsonian has recognized as one of the hundred most influential Americans of all time.
Her legacy is vast and wide. She's one of the most translated and published female nonfiction authors of all time. What I discovered in her was somebody that I could relate to. And as soon as you do that as a director, you're like, okay, so this is a real person who fights with her husband, doesn't get it right all the time, and yet somehow manages to persevere through. In her case, to hold onto this really beautiful, clear picture of the character of (Jesus) Christ that she encountered early on in her life. And so, through all the twists and turns of the story, finding that and being able to hold onto it, and finding her way back to that hope and healing picture of the character of Christ that she locked into, then you can relate to that. And I can tell that story. It's not a this happened or a that happened and some other stuff. They built something. This movement spawned a hospital and a church now 180 years later, right? That's not a story. It's a story, but it's not a cinema story. A cinema story is about the struggles, the grime, and the stuff that it took you to get to there.
The Hopeful is the true story of a community whose lives were transformed as they learn what it means to truly wait for Jesus. Do you believe the circumstances would be different today if this group of people approached waiting the same way?
No, I think it would be a hundred percent the same way. Actually, if you look around at where we're at in 2024, the same things that they were responding to are going on today. There's a lot of rhetoric and a lot of talk about judgment, God's wrath and fear, and prejudice. I'm really challenged and provoked by that. I was sitting at a conference a couple of weeks ago and I was really provoked by what I was hearing because it wasn't the picture of the character of Christ that I recognize from the Bible. And I put myself in the shoes of someone who was an atheist or of another faith, and I just went, I, I don't want anything to do with the God that I'm hearing about right now. This is not a picture of Christ that I think is even helpful or relevant in 2024. I think it should give us all pause for thought.
This group of people portrayed in the movie imagined how hope could change the world. Why is it so important for an individual, or a group for that matter, to approach life this way?
Well, what's the alternative? Like you imagine that fear is going to do it, right? Like that does not sound inspiring at all. And yet, I think so often that it's easier to be cynical and sarcastic about things than it is to be passionate and persevering. It's not easy today to be that person. You would not have heard me speak about my faith openly two or three years ago. It's just not something that I did. And so I think what's been fascinating to me is in the course of telling these people's stories, it has actually brought out in me what I feel is truly and passionately worthwhile about speaking about the faith background that I have. Which is that we have this question over the character of Christ, and these people wrestled with it just like I'm wrestling with it now.
Is the character of Christ I'm being presented on a daily basis accurate? And is it actually useful and helpful in the way that I go and interact with the wider community and the people in my sphere of influence? Sometimes people walk away from that, sometimes they struggle with it, and sometimes they doubt it. Is this the faith background that I got from my parents as to who Kyle and his adult life wants to be? I think that those provocations of people that really lived and really struggled through these same big issues, like the main characters in this movie all struggle essentially with that thing that's very human, which is when we anticipate something, it doesn't always pan out the way we expected it to.
After your main character William Miller survives a harrowing battle during the War of 1812, he goes on a search for wisdom, one that leads him to an amazing prophecy. What is that prophecy and how does it guide him even though he is mocked and scorned by many?
Can you imagine the context of 1844? At the time there's 17 million people in the continental United States, and the estimates are that anywhere up to a million of them were like, this is happening, right? So, can you imagine if 1/17 of the U.S. population today were like, ‘Yep, we're on board. This is a thing.’ That’s crazy. And so we look at that today and we go, ‘Oh well, no man knows the day or the hour. So why did they do that?’ It's a very similar mistake to the First Century Christians who had an expectation of Christ to come, kicked the Romans out, and set up an earthly kingdom that was going to sort them out.
So these guys, particularly in the way that William Miller discovered this, lived through this huge explosion that happened, killing everyone around him. He was untouched. This was in the War of 1812. So, he comes back from that. He's a gentleman farmer, so he is quite well read. He gets into his library, he reads things like Voltaire, and basically ticks every major philosopher of the time off the list. And almost in desperation he goes and picks up the family Bible that's in the house. It’s just decoration because he is a deist. He doesn't really believe that there is a God. And if there was, he probably just set it all in motion and took off again. So he reads this, and in his own words, he found a friend in Jesus.
So we see that fervor again. It comes down to the character of Christ, because he's seen such a beautiful picture of Christ that he's never engaged with before. He starts digging in and he gets into prophecy. He looks in all these areas and comes up with this data. And actually, when you look at the charts that he did and really research it, you realize he spent a lot of time pouring over this. It wasn't two minutes of just going, look at this but still finding errors. But what's fascinating about that era is when you look at it, God was able to use that era for something today.
This movie is set in 19th Century New England, not exactly a period of time that much resembles today. What are some valuable truths we can learn from this era that are still applicable today?
Many years ago I interviewed a theology professor from Fuller Theological Seminary, Dr. Archibald Hart. And he challenged me with this really interesting take on creativity. He said, “If you can't be bored, how are you ever going to possibly be creative?” And I was like, you're a hundred percent right. I'd just been in Southern Sudan and had been filming in a refugee camp there. I was marveling to him about the creativity of these kids in this refugee camp. They could take a can of coke and a couple of bottle tops and make the most elaborate cars and trucks. You name it. The toys that they had in there they built from necessity because they had nothing else. And that's what opened that conversation up. If you want to be able to contemplate, and you really want to just assess and think about who you are and how you want to operate in the world, take time out every week to actually rest and not be distracted or manipulated.
These guys had that for nothing because they lived in an era where your biggest distraction was a horse and cart that rolled past your house every hour or two. That was probably the most interesting thing that happened to them on a given day. So, you'd be peering out the window and see brother Hiram and brother Crozier going by. I wonder where they're off to. And then that would be a day's worth of conversation. And you probably wouldn't see them for another week. So, by the time that neighbor came back and you actually found out what they were doing, all sorts of fantastical ideas had popped into your head.
I think that's what we can really learn from this era is how do we stop and pause because not even they could do that effectively, right? There's arguments in the film between the characters, husband and wife, who are talking about not wanting to do the mission that they feel like they’re called to and raise their family properly. I don't want to go do this. And the other one is saying, “No, you have to.” And there is that tension between the two and a crying baby on your hip. You say to yourself, ‘I've been in that situation before. I got a wife and kids.’
After audiences have had a chance to see The Hopeful, what would you like to see people take away from that experience? What is your greatest hope for the film?
That they walk out inspired and say, “Okay, so in my little sphere of influence, in my little part of the world that I'm about to walk out of this cinema into, the world is a bad place and there's lots of stuff I can't do, but what's the little bit of hope and the little bit of healing that I can take out right now?” That's what I would love for people to walk out and think. Just that real sense that there is something that I can do. And even if it's just small in a little localized context, that's a big deal. So just that sense of I can do something that only hope and looking forward with the positivity it can bring.
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