NASHVILLE (WordNews.org) April 11, 2012 – Jon Erwin recalls a conversation he had with NPR a few days before the March 23 release of “October Baby,” that he co-directed with his brother Andy Erwin.
The question centered on the timing of the film in the midst of a heated presidential contest in which contraception and abortion issues have taken center stage.
“I laughed,” Erwin told WordNews.org. “We made this film in 2010. We couldn’t get it distributed. Nobody would talk to us. Everybody called it polarizing. We had to do a limited release. We had to raise money. We’re releasing a film called ‘October Baby’ in March. You know, we didn’t plan this.”
Then, he delivered the punch line.
“So,” he continued with NPR, “If you think this is ‘perfect timing,’ then I’ll say God had something to do with that because it certainly wasn’t anything of my doing.”
The film has made nearly $4 million on 400 screens , more than four times its $800,000 production budget. On April 13, it will be shown on an additional 233 screens.
Erwin said the film has changed him.
“I’m avidly pro-life and have become an activist,” he said. “But it goes beyond that to how we value life in our culture now.”
He’s gotten mixed reviews. The New York Times ran a feature story “Film Inspired by ‘Abortion Survivor’ Is Quiet Hit.”
The Times story makes reference of the film’s “links” to “these groups”—Christian and pro-life—and quotes Naral Pro-Choice America’s Ted Miller, who says the film is tied to an extreme anti-abortion message.
Erwin said others have written that the film is “propaganda.
“In the age of cyber bullying and faceless comments with complete anonymity,” Erwin has read “these horrific comments that just devalue life, that just make fun and don’t take the issue seriously. It just shows me that this is so much bigger than a political issue or whether you have the right to choose.”
Some of those comments included:
* “My dad wanted to abort me and if I was aborted, I just wouldn’t be here to complain about it.”
* “They’re not special and neither am I. Nobody’s special.”
* “I don’t understand why these people see the human species being any more important than any other species.”
Erwin’s goal is to get people thinking.
“The main thing we wanted to confront with this film was indifference and apathy,” he said. “We want people to talk about the issue. I hope there can be a surge of conversation that goes beyond politics and see this as a human issue and as a social justice issue and to see it’s so much more than the difference between a Republican and a Democrat.”
Related:
Part 1: We knew it had to be in theaters
Part 2: Surprised by movie’s box office success
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