Can faith and football heal a racially divided community? Absolutely — according to a new movie made by and about Alabamians.
Due in theaters nationwide Oct. 16, “Woodlawn” tells the true-life story of revival and reconciliation at Woodlawn High School following government-mandated desegregation at the Birmingham school.
Birmingham filmmakers Jon and Andrew Erwin shot most of the movie in Birmingham in fall 2014.
The Erwin Brothers are a writing, producing and directing team who create faith-based and inspirational feature films. They are the sons of former Alabama Sen. Henry Eugene “Hank” Erwin Jr., a Christian evangelical broadcaster who served as Woodlawn’s chaplain during the 1973 and 1974 events that sparked the movie.
“‘Woodlawn’ is a story of redemption and overcoming through Christ in a very racially charged climate,” Andrew Erwin told The Alabama Baptist. “When we set out to make the movie, we had no clue of the timely relevance. We felt we needed at least another six months to prepare for the film but one of our executive producers and spiritual advisers, Pastor Michael Catt, told us the time was now. God wanted us to make the film immediately.
“So with our marching orders in hand we set out to make the movie,” he said. “The second week of filming, [the] Ferguson [unrest] hit the headlines and we realized the importance of the story we were telling. Not our story but a real story of what God did in the past. Our prayer is that God would move in our country and around the world like that again today.”
The movie depicts the turmoil accompanying the first African-American students’ entry into the school. Primary characters in the movie are Coach Tandy Gerelds, who was then a cynical agnostic struggling with a powder keg of anger and violence within the Woodlawn Colonels football team, and African-American football player Tony Nathan, who was eventually recruited to play for the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide and then went on to play in the NFL.
More importantly “Woodlawn” traces the spiritual movement that swept through the football team and eventually united the team members, the school and the community. It is an example of what happens, as one character says, “when God shows up.”
Hank Erwin was there when God showed up, accompanying Birmingham evangelist Wales Goebel, who had been asked to address the players at their fall football camp. “We didn’t really know what to expect,” Hank Erwin said. “Wales gave a powerful testimony in the gymnasium and the athletes responded by coming down out of the stands and kneeling around Wales and giving themselves to Jesus Christ as their Savior. Nearly the whole team came down. It was the most powerful thing I’ve seen in my whole life.”
To help the newly converted athletes learn “how to walk the talk,” Hank Erwin became the team’s chaplain and experienced the transformation from a front-row seat. (In the movie, the fictional “Hank” combines the historical roles and persons of both Goebel and Erwin and narrates the story.)
Bedtime stories come to life
Hank Erwin’s experiences became fodder for bedtime stories for Jon and Andrew when they were children.
“The stories were so colorful and so profound,” Hank Erwin said. “When the boys were real small and wanted a bedtime story, instead of telling them monster stories, I told them Woodlawn stories. They’d go to sleep at night with that in their heads and soon they would tell me, ‘Daddy, I’m going to make that into a movie one day.’”
‘More than a movie’
Fast-forward several decades and the bedtime story is now a movie, and at a reported production cost of $25 million, the movie’s production values and explosive sports action should satisfy even secular moviegoers. But “Woodlawn” is unabashedly a Christian film produced in partnership with Christian movie studio Pure Flix and Provident Films, which develops, produces and markets faith-based films. The partners are determined to do more than just sell movie tickets. They want the movie to spark another spiritual revival.
“‘Woodlawn’ is more than a movie. It’s a movement” — this motto heads the resources page on the “Woodlawn” movie website, which offers both free and for purchase resources for churches, students and individuals. And in an effort to send 1 million students and student-athletes to see the movie free of charge, “The Woodlawn Movie Fund” has been established by the National Christian Foundation. Donations to the fund are tax deductible.
Several books also are being released in conjunction with the film.
As the clock ticks down to the premiere, the Erwins are deluged with phone calls and emails and people clamoring for their attention. Through it all though they aren’t going Hollywood, Hank Erwin said.
“I’m mighty proud of them,” he said of his sons, “for their skill, for their determination to serve the Lord and for their character.”
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