New film recounts football team’s faith during integration

When 80,000 young adults showed up in Dallas in 1972 to hear Billy Graham preach, Newsweek quickly dubbed the gathering the “Christian Woodstock”. “Young people shouldn’t be ashamed of the Gospel, of their relationship with the Lord”, he declared.

WOODLAWN tells the true-life story of Tony Nathan (newcomer Caleb Castille), who lands in a powder keg of anger and violence when he joins fellow African-American students at Woodlawn High School in Birmingham, Ala., after its government-mandated desegregation in 1973.

Still the story does pack an emotional wallop, made even stronger by the fact it is based on truth.

“Woodlawn”, a movie about overcoming racial division through faith in Christ, could contribute to “the next spiritual awakening in the United States”, Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd said during a simulcast to promote the film.

Castille said that he now has a found new respect for those that came before him.

“I really want it to make a difference in peoples lives”, said Sherri Shepherd. But they have faith in the future of Christian cinema and believe there is enough interest from audiences to continue making them on a bigger scale.

Christian Examiner: You made “October Baby” and then “Mom’s Night Out”. “Not only by Jon’s acting talent, but by the genuine compliments and the way he was encouraging to be on me”. Hank, who has been radically affected by the message of hope and love he experienced at a Christian revival meeting, tells the players a “better way” is possible through following Jesus. Gene Stallings was the coach and Jay Barker was the quarterback. The Woodlawn Colonels football team is a microcosm of the problems at the school and in the city, which erupts in cross burnings and riots, and Coach Tandy Geralds (Nic Bishop) is at a loss to solve these unprecedented challenges with his disciplinarian ways.

CE: And it seems to be a timely movie.

“I was kind of excited”, Devin said. Literally, scenes we were filming were playing themselves out on television. “Because what you’ll see is that a lot of things that happened back in the day really haven’t changed much, and it’s gonna be you guys and your leadership that’s gonna make the change going forward”. And it’s exciting to see it be so relevant. “History repeats itself. Our film has the message our world could use right now”.

“We shot the film for nearly nine weeks, and during that time, Jerry and I either talked on the phone or texted each other about once a day”, Sizemore said. What can Christians learn from that movement and from this movie? “If you get the chance, you mention things about your life and what worked for you”. The real-life story is incredibly inspiring. And as I began to study it I began to crave it for myself. But it’s also a football film. What did you do to set it apart?

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said “the movie is a reminder that today’s church leaders are in a very similar generation as the 60s and 70s”. So many times it doesn’t ring true as authentic.

Adding, “I think if your doing that, you’re living in a way that people who are non-believers can witness and see ‘there is something different about this person, there’s a genuineness to them, there’s love to them'”. His agent turned him on to the project, and Castille went all-out for the Nathan role, growing his hair out and working out to look like a football player again. We used a lot of technology to put the audience in the game. We’ve been dreaming of doing that for a long time.