Over a decade ago, Jerry Smart and Justin Johnson were talking over coffee after church. They’re both members of the Foursquare Gospel Center, an Evangelical Protestant church in Winston, and were thinking of a different way to try and make an Easter play for their congregation.
“I just said, ‘Why don’t we make a movie?’” said Smart. “How hard could that be?”
He calls himself a “chronic dreamer,” and didn’t anticipate how difficult it would end up being.
Years later, however, the two have worked together on five different films, the latest being “The Field,” an upcoming production that deals with the subject of human trafficking in rural communities.
Marion Pearson, the coordinator of the Douglas County Human Trafficking Task Force at the Mercy Foundation, saw the film and decided to sponsor it, working with both Four Square Productions and Roseburg Cinemas to host two screenings of the film, free to the public, on Feb. 9 and 13.
January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month, and although Pearson had hoped to hold the event sooner, she feels that hosting it in February doesn’t diminish any of the film’s importance.
“As a task force, every month is awareness month,” Pearson said. “We don’t just do stuff in January, we do stuff all year. We thought this could benefit our community immensely.”
Johnson, who was the screenwriter, cinematographer and did all of the post production for the film, said that the idea first came to him after seeing a presentation from the Human Trafficking Task Force in early 2018. Months later, he had a script written, and had begun to recruit members of the church along with Smart, who served as the producer.
“We wanted to show that this is a problem with towns like here,” Johnson said. “It’s not just a big city thing.”
Johnson and Smart said everyone who worked on the film was a volunteer from the local community, and the budget was “probably a negative number.” But they feel their achievement was worth the hard work.
“We’re just really proud of this community,” Smart said. “The sky is the limit right now for anybody in the arts.”
The film’s director, David Twitchell, lives in Grants Pass and is Johnson’s father-in-law. He’s 70, a self-described movie buff who sings the praises of films ranging from “Citizen Kane” to “Robinson Crusoe on Mars,” and he can’t wait for the public to see the new film.
“When you have a second set of eyes on something, it’s like someone’s looking at your little baby,” Twitchell said. “… It’s good to have somebody outside of the process look at your piece of work.”
The crew are proud of the film but are most excited about the potential change they think it could bring. After the premiere on Feb. 9, there will be a Q&A hosted by the Human Trafficking Task Force, who will be joined by detectives from local law enforcement agencies.
“This could literally save lives,” Johnson said. “It could help people know what to look for, activate their ‘spidey senses’ in a way.”
The two screenings are free to the public, but reservations are required. The Feb. 9 date sold out in just under four hours, but reservations for the second date, Feb. 13, can be made online at fgc.ticketleap.com/thefield. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the film begins at 6 p.m.
