When Thousand Oaks-based filmmakers Joshua and Rebekah Weigel heard that a church community in Possum Trot, Texas, had banded together to foster and adopt 77 kids, they knew they wanted to create a movie — and support a movement — to help even more children in the foster care system.
“It was something we felt compelled to do,” says Joshua by phone from Amsterdam, where “Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot” had just won awards in a film festival. “We had no idea if it would work well in the sense of a box office hit, but we knew it was a critical issue, and there was something about focusing on the cause of the orphan that was really moving.”
The “Sound of Hope” centers on Bishop W.C. Martin and his wife Donna and their tiny Bennett Chapel church in the woodsy east Texas town of Possum Trot. There, 22 families partnered together to adopt 77 difficult-to-place children in the local foster care system.
“The foster system is connected to so many other challenges in our society and things that break our hearts, like child trafficking and the homeless population and prison population,” says Joshua. “The vast majority of people caught in those places have spent time in the foster system. We felt that if we could concentrate on the root cause of so many of these things, and the breakdown of the family, and bring attention to it and invite people to get involved, then we really could see the crisis in America turn around. We are very confident about that.”
The film, executive produced by Letitia Wright (star of Black Panther), opened in theaters on July 4 and is rolling out on multiple streaming platforms.
For the Weigels, the call to write, produce and direct the film took them and their five biological and fostered children from Thousand Oaks to Possum Trot itself, where they moved in 2021 to research the story and live among the people the film would depict.
“Our main reason for moving was to immerse ourselves in the culture there, to get to know the characters and ensure that we honored them and did justice to the story,” says Rebekah.
The couple had lived in Southern California for 23 years, most recently in the Conejo Valley. They also became involved in foster care personally and professionally. In 2013, they fostered and adopted a sibling set, and in 2016, Rebekah began working for Care Portal, a foster care placement organization.
“When we adopted our kids in 2013, it really opened our eyes to the foster crisis in America and Southern California,” she says. “That’s really what motivated me to get involved and try to mobilize churches to care for kids. Southern California has the largest crisis in the entire country, with more kids in foster care than anywhere else. Many of these kids are in need of a family. These are modern-day orphans that the Lord has called us to care for.”
She came across the story of Possum Trot and invited Bishop Martin to speak at a luncheon. The audience gave him a standing ovation, and many signed up to get involved.
“We saw the power of this story to mobilize the church,” she says.
At the time, the Weigels were working on a feature-length version of their short film, the “Butterfly Circus,” but decided to put that aside for a while “and focus our efforts on fighting for kids,” Rebekah says. “We felt like this was something that was so important.”
With no funding for development — and with both Joshua and Rebekah working full-time jobs to support the family — they started writing the script on weekends and evenings in their small Thousand Oaks home.
“It was definitely a hard season for us,” Rebekah remembers.
Then came Ventura County’s draconian COVID lockdowns. When the couple visited Texas, they found the freedom refreshing.
“We were all trapped in our homes in California, and it was just miserable,” Rebekah says. “We went to Texas to research the story, and everyone was living life, and schools were open. It was kind of a double win for us.”
Moving there made all the difference in the story.
“We had gotten to a point where we felt we hadn’t quite captured the things we felt were necessary,” Joshua says. “We sensed there was more depth, but trying to do it from a distance and not know everybody as well as we could was a big factor. Significant progress was made once we moved to east Texas and got in deeper community with everybody and got to know more of the kids and hear more perspectives. That’s really what drove us there. It was a big commitment. We pulled roots up and left. It wasn’t just a visit. It was a calling.”
That commitment convinced the Possum Trot community that the filmmakers were sincere.
“They realized we meant what we were saying,” Joshua says. “It won a lot of trust. Spending time in life together had a huge impact. We were able to absorb much more of the culture. Going there allowed them to feel heard. Being face to face, going to church with them and all of those kinds of things ended up being critical to the story we landed with.”
The fact that the Weigels had fostered and adopted two children of their own resonated with the people as well.
“We could speak from experience and talk about things we went through,” Joshua says. “It was a lot easier for them to share with us, knowing we had faced certain challenges as well.”
Still, condensing the stories of twenty-plus families and seventy-plus kids was a daunting task — as was depicting reality instead of a sanitized, feel-good version of events.
“We felt strongly that it needed to be an honest, genuine depiction of what these families and kids experienced so that you know what you’re getting into, to some degree,” Joshua says. “We felt called to show some of the hard things kids are going through in this country and the trauma they experience, and not sugarcoat the foster-adoption process either. We didn’t want to draw people into something that’s really challenging and make it look easy. You’ll never totally understand until you jump in, but we wanted to make sure people knew that this was not just, ‘Call this number and adopt a child on the other side of the world.’ This is real life together.”
Funding finally came from a group of private donors passionate about helping solve the foster care crisis. Shot and edited in 2022, the film is distributed by Angel Studios and available on their app and at Angel.com/hope. It will soon open internationally and be available on major streaming platforms.
“We’re excited about the future,” says Rebekah. “We created this as a tool for churches and organizations to use to get involved with the foster crisis. Organizations all over the country are jumping on board.”
The Weigels continue to live in Nagadoches, near Possum Trot, and attend the Martins’ church. One day, they may return to Southern California to live.
“Our kids have the best memories of Thousand Oaks and still really miss it,” says Rebekah.
Several local churches, including Atmosphere Church and Anthem, have screened the film. Learn more at angel.com/hope.
What a wonderful story and life