New Pro-Life Film Leaves Its Mark
As we strive to build up a culture of life here in Virginia in our new post-Roe world, it is worth noting that a good story can often shape hearts and minds more readily than good data can. So, while we can draw on numbers that illustrate how a pro-life Virginia is more conducive to healthy, prosperous families, it is helpful to have good stories in the media marketplace that demonstrate just how valuable preborn life proves to be, especially when they’re true stories.
Coming to theaters across Virginia this Friday, Lifemark tells the adoption story of David Scotton, who decides to learn more about his birth parents when he turns 18 and discovers an incredible story of pain, fear, hope, and love that has shaped the lives of everyone connected to the blessing that is his life. The film stars The Family Foundation 2019 Gala speaker Kirk Cameron as David’s adoptive father, and was co-written by the Kendrick brothers, known for films like Fireproof, Courageous, Overcomer, and War Room. Lifemark itself is based on the short documentary film, I Lived On Parker Avenue.
Though the film clearly illustrates the positive impact David’s life has had on so many around him, it explores, to its credit, the complex and complicated feelings his birth parents experience surrounding the circumstances of his birth and when he reconnects with them as an adult. His birth mother reflects, in harrowing detail amid sporadic flashbacks, how she almost aborted him. Lowrey Brown, playing the adult version of David’s birth father, stands out as a man tortured by the decisions he made when he was younger, details of his past that he has kept hidden from his wife and family, the sorrow and angst exuding from his eyes overshadowing everything he says.
Stories like this are far from neat or pretty (though David’s adoptive home life does look like something out of a Hallmark card), but they flesh out the very real messiness and beauty of welcoming a human being into this world and the infinite benefits that accompany that precious gift of life.
Lifemark is playing in theaters across Virginia on Friday, September 9. In the Richmond area, that includes the Regal West Tower Cinemas on Broad Street, the Regal Virginia Center in Glen Allen, and the AMC Dine-in Midlothian 10.
