Cast and crew members behind the film “Freetown” participated in a Q-and-A following the film’s premiere Monday at the Megaplex Theatres at Jordan Commons.
The panel, which included director Garrett Batty, producer Adam Abel, writer Melissa Leilani Larson, two of the real-life missionaries whose experiences the film is based on and several other cast and crew members, answered questions from the audience and shared insights into the true story and the experience of participating in the film’s production.
“This film has been a labor for the past 18 months for me, and it’s a joy to be able to share it now with you,” Batty said as an introduction.
Panel members addressed lessons they learned during the process and themes they hope viewers see in the film.
“I feel that what I’ve taken away from this story is that God is in the little things that you don’t expect,” Larson said. “It’s the little miracles that we take for granted every day.”
Batty added that the film also portrays the theme “keep moving forward.”
“Faith is hard and it’s exhausting, but that’s not an excuse though. We keep moving forward day by day, checkpoint by checkpoint, and we’ll get through it,” he said.
Marcus Menti, one of the real-life missionaries, told of special help they received to keep moving forward. The film includes a character named Momulu, who was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who participated with the Liberian rebels and also helped the missionaries on their journey to safety. Menti said Momulu is based on an actual person who, like many church members at the time, was involved with the rebels for “practical reasons” of survival. Menti said the real-life Momulu eventually saw that there was no end to the war, went home and was “later involved in a great deal of church activity.”
“We will always remember him,” he said.
Menti said Momulu was just one example of many people who helped them at “certain strategic locations” along their journey.
“We went through close to 50 different checkpoints, and there was always a Momulu there — somebody who knew us, somebody who was connected to us in one shape or form,” he said.
Abel said that the film’s themes are “relatable to anyone at any place” despite the fact that the film’s themes are told through the story of Latter-day Saint missionaries. Henry Adofo, who plays Phillip Abubakar, the Liberian church member who drove the missionaries to Freetown, Sierra Leone, is an example of that.
“I’m not LDS, but now I feel a part of the family,” Adofo said.
Adofo said that many experiences throughout the filming process left him with the impression that “there’s something greater that this film has done” for him as he has found inspiration through the missionaries’ story of survival.
“My faith has been pushed to another level because now I don’t have an excuse,” he said. “I don’t have an excuse to say, ‘I cannot do that’ because anytime I want to give myself an excuse, I go, ‘Have you forgotten you played Abubakar? Have you forgotten what the missionaries said to you?’ ”
Roberto Chanipo, another one of the original missionaries in attendance at the premiere, indicated that each of the missionaries continued to survive and serve. Four of the eight missionaries still live in Africa, three live in the U.S. and one lives in Canada, according to Chanipo, and each has remained active in the church and served in various capacities, including branch, district and elders quorum presidencies.
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