New Christian Film ‘Paul’s Promise’ Highlights Little Rock Nine in Civil Rights Movement
Read Time: 2 minutes 5 seconds
New Hollywood film ‘Paul’s Promise’ is an inspiring true story taking place during the 1960’s Civil Rights movement. As more and more Christian films start to dominate the Hollywood scene, the industry is waking up to the evangelical audience looking for Spirit-led movies.
“We are squarely standing on the shoulders of those who have come before us in this genre,” says actor Ryan O’Quinn. Quinn has been in the film and television industry for 27 years. He’s worked tirelessly to bring the gospel to Hollywood through his production company Damascus Road.
O’Quinn says that since ‘Passion of the Christ’, which was the top rated R film in the industry, Hollywood executives have been more apt to help Christian content. Now, with their new movie, ‘Paul’s Promise,’ they are hoping the audience will find a story that is “something bigger than them.”
For the secular community that comes out to see the film during its Oct. 21 release date, O’Quinn is believing they will find eternal salvation through the riveting true story. “We can argue with someone’s faith…but we most likely aren’t going to change someone’s mind,” O’Quinn says in a Charisma News podcast interview that you can listen to here.
O’Quinn plays the main character in the movie, Paul Holderfield, who was a former racist firefighter that was radically touched by God during his mother’s journey with health problems. In the movie you watch his path of becoming a pastor who started one of the first integrated churches in the South.
“As I read the screenplay, it was so fascinating in that Paul’s story very much paralleled my fathers story and the relationship with his mother,” O’Quinn says.
It wasn’t his original plan to play Paul in the movie, but as he sought God and found his own family falling within the storyline, it quickly became evident that it was God’s plan.
The movie highlights the 1950’s Little Rock Central High School crisis, where a local high school in Little Rock, Arkansas gained national media attention for desegregating the school on Sept. 3, 1957.
The historic Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Supreme Court case in 1954 paved the way for the Little Rock Nine to fight back against the unconstitutional segregation in public schools. The Little Rock Nine were the first nine African American students to register to attend Central High School in Arkansas.
The nine students were stopped by Arkansas National Guard from entering the school’s premises despite the Supreme Court decision. President Dwight D. Eisenhower later sent in federal troops to escort the students into the public school.
This was a historic moment for the civil rights movement. O’Quinn believes that as the world comes together to watch this true story unfold in the theaters that they will see what God did in the lives of the characters to cause a cultural change.
For more information on the movie go to www.paulspromisemovie.com {eoa}
Shelby Lindsay is an assistant editor for Charisma Media.
