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Morals and Moot Court
Christian film 'Come What May' debuts at Franklin Park: George Escobar knows Hollywood, and he knows media. He also -- since he was 16 -- knows Christ.
Why is it, he asked himself, that no big-budget Hollywood films are directed by Christians? And he means by that real Christians, not lip-service Christians.
Because, he was told, there are no good Christian directors. Thus movies that lend themselves to a Christian development -- "Chronicles of Narnia," "Amazing Grace" --are directed by agnostics, he said. They're first-rate movies, but they would be better, and richer, if a Christian director plumbed those depths, Escobar argues.
He has a plan to fix that. He founded Advent Film Group, which his Web site describes as "an independent film production and distribution group established to create excellent Christian films and by raising up excellent Christian film makers."
Escobar, who moved to Purcellville in 1999 and just enrolled his eldest son at Patrick Henry College, looked around and concluded his best resources were right next door. The home-school community, he is fond of saying, turned the "public education monopoly" upside-down. Who better to do the same for cinema?
Patrick Henry, the collegiate home for Christian home-schoolers, was the answer. Administrators, Escobar said, liked his idea -- use home-schoolers, and use the Patrick Henry campus to produce Christian films and to train Christian filmmakers.
But he would have to find his own money. "If the Lord wants this to happen," Escobar said, "He will have to finance it."
The Lord did. Escobar went to Hollywood and talked to 12 possible investors. They all put money in. In Hollywood, that's a phenomenal rate. Miraculous, Escobar would say.
Thus was born "Come What May," filmed almost entirely on the Patrick Henry campus (the Supreme Court scenes were shot at a newly constructed court replica at Liberty University in Lynchburg). Home-schoolers from around the country joined 16 Patrick Henry students on the crew, and filming took just five weeks in 2007. A small cadre of professionals mentored the students -- the next generation of filmmakers.
"Come What May" follows students competing in moot court, a nationwide debate discipline in which students simulate arguments to an appeals court. They focus on the application of law to evidence.
In the film, a Patrick Henry student argues at the National Moot Court Championship -- which Patrick Henry teams won in real life in 2005 and 2006 -- to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that prevents states from outlawing abortion in most cases.
Simultaneously, his mother argues before the U.S. Supreme Court against a law mandating parental notification in the case of a minor seeking an abortion.
There's more than the conflict of ideas, values and law. The film includes a love interest (conflicted by the young man's moot court partner's Christian ideals of courtship rather than dating) and conflict within the family.
The film's theme is its title: "Do the right thing, come what may."
Peter Forbes was a rising junior at Patrick Henry in the summer of 2007 when he joined the crew as second assistant director and unit production manager.
He had originally wanted to go to a film school, Forbes said, but realized why he had been led to Patrick Henry when Escobar put out a call for filmmakers.
He came to Patrick Henry to major in literature and to learn how to write a good story, Forbes said. "I figured I could learn the film aspects later." Suddenly, the film came to him.
Prior to his work on "Come What May," Forbes had focused on acting and writing. He then learned that he could be a manager and make all the behind-the-scenes work happen, and happen on time.
He met a lot of young people who share his interest in "making quality films that are Christian without necessarily beating you over the head with a Bible," he said. They keep in touch, and are collaborating on film projects around the country.
Escobar and Advent Film Group have at least five more projects in the planning stages. Several will do at least part of their filming at Patrick Henry.
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