Film

I attended the world premiere of Sunrise Animation and Angel Studio’s David with the expectation that it would be a sweet children’s film about a young boy’s miraculous defeat of a giant, and that’s where the story would end. How wrong I was. The new film, that has been more than 30 years in the making, not only explores much more of David’s story than that, but also approaches the realities of the giants we all face with a nuance and complexity that was as mesmerizing as it was moving.

The film opens on a beautiful day in the Judean wilderness, where a young David is taking care of his sheep. When danger creeps in the shadows in the form of a predator coming for his flock, he demonstrates courage beyond his years in the protection of his sheep. It is courage he will be called to use again and again throughout this story. Not just in the parts of his life that you remember well, but in some tales that you may not.

It is deservedly inspiring that David faced Goliath and that, with the odds impossibly stacked against him, he was able to persevere with God’s help. But there were many other times when David faced odds at least as stacked against him and moved forward with faith, even when the road to victory and God’s place in the circumstances were much less clear.

The film does an excellent job of exploring those grayer areas in ways that leave the audience hopeful and in awe of the divine, and yet also feeling seen in their own dark and difficult moments.

It did not surprise me to learn that the team took five trips to Israel in support of creating the visuals for this film. In addition to being beautiful and transporting, the details really felt so accurate to the Holy Land. Everything from the furnishings inside the ancient tabernacle to the flowers blooming at the characters’ feet felt true to that land and its people.

A similar attention was given to the music of the film, performed in large part by Christian singer/songwriter Phil Wickham, who did both the speaking and singing voice of the grown-up David. Though he has released over a dozen worship albums, Wickham said he’d never sung something quite like this before.

“It took a second for me to set [aside] my preconceived notions of what my voice should sound like,” says Wickham, “just trying to sound like Brandon [young David] first off, but then also to realize I’m telling a story more than I’m trying to sing a song well. I’m trying to relay a moment, whether it’s grief or joy. And it was challenging for me as a singer because I just I’ve done it so many times with a different mindset.”

By contrast, Wickham’s young David counterpart, Brandon Engman, came from an acting background and though the team initially continued the casting search for someone to play his singing voice, in the end, they couldn’t help coming back to Brandon for the possibility of doing both. The two performers from different backgrounds each undertook the other’s art, meeting in the middle in a way that feels so seamless, and the team is frequently asked whether the same person voices the whole thing.

The creative team behind this film were truly so impressive to hear from as we celebrated the film’s impending release at its world premiere event. Its directors, Phil Cunningham and Brent Dawes, clearly poured their hearts onto the screen with this project that was decades in the making.

Particularly, Cunningham said that the character of David’s mother was portrayed in the way she was because of how encouraged and inspired he was by his own mother.

“My mother was the most incredible mom,” he shared, “When I was 14, I can remember her saying to me, ‘Phil, by your age, David was fighting Goliath, what are you doing? You need to get out there and live by faith, have adventures’, and that was the kind of mom she was.” He expressed a hope that the mothers in the audience felt championed by this movie and saw by the example of Nitsevet (David’s mother), the power and influence they can have beyond the cinema stereotype of merely being protective.

And indeed, as a mother of three young sons myself, I was pleased to hear him say it, but could have guessed the intentionality of the choices behind her character. I was pleased to see Nitsevet as an example of strength and courage on the screen and a source of spiritual and intellectual insight to her son, adding more depth to a woman of the scriptures than we typically get to see.

Just like the influence a parent can have on a child, the team hopes this movie can be a significant source of influence to the rising generation. In fact, Angel Studios is helping to organize a “Pay it Forward” campaign to help achieve the goal of getting 1 million children to see this film. For more information on how you can participate in that, CLICK HERE.

Phil Cunningham’s wife and collaborator, Jacqui, was glowing with appreciation for the team that helped bring this film to life: “My favorite African proverb says, ‘if you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.’ And I would say the strength of any good story is the people…I think the richness that you [see in this film] is the tapestry of the lives woven in”.

And indeed, while many films get made by people merely seeking a paycheck, this film faced several seasons of serious difficulty that saw some of its team working for months or as much as a year with no salary. In the end, 400 people in 27 countries participated with faith and weathered the struggle to bring David to life.

Brent Dawes, the film’s writer and co-director, said, “When we made this movie, both Phil and I, felt like custodians of the story. We didn’t feel like we owned it. We didn’t feel like it was ours… There’s something else going on here and it is for us to be custodians of it. And as I wrote it, as we made it, as we feel like we shepherded it through, we wanted always to allow the space for God to do what He wanted to do with it.”

The result is a powerful one. David is a film that manages to convey the measures of mythical proportions that God will go to, to defend his people. But also demonstrates the intimate ways we must get to know Him and learn to trust Him in our own hearts. The audience seemed unanimous in their appreciation of this film’s messages and power.

One of the final hands to go up, as the Q&A came to a close, was that of Phil Cunningham’s childhood friend Vernon, whom he hadn’t seen in nearly a decade. Vernon shared with us one of the earliest seeds that was planted, 37 years ago in the African bush, that grew up to be this film.

He told of a night when he and Phil were young, when they were camping near the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe. They’d stayed up into the wee hours of the morning talking about the “stoic men of faith” in the Bible and particularly the stories of David. Phil had a dream to bring David’s story to the world so that people who’d never heard of him could learn from his example. As they continued to talk under a starlit sky with echoes of hyenas and lions in the distance, they heard a crashing coming through the bush behind them.

A bull elephant stepped into view, the moonlight shining off of its tusks. At the sight of them, the beast began to wave its trunk and flap its ears, preparing to charge.

Vernon said, “Without hesitation, Phil jumped off the rock and ran towards the elephant with his hands up in the air, shouting. He was about five meters from the elephant when the elephant stopped, looked at him, and something absolutely miraculous happened. It slowly turned away and just disappeared into the night… And in that exact moment, right there, I understood exactly what David was all about. And I understood that with faith and love and belief that there is no fear in this world.”

Separate from David itself being a powerful film; a film that will entertain and teach children as well as inspire adults, learning that its creators have strived to live with the courage and faith they teach about for a lifetime, made every effort of the storytelling that much more significant.

David hits theaters December 19, and I can’t imagine a better way to prepare to celebrate the birth of the King of Kings who would come in David’s lineage, than to support this momentous film and its creators by seeing it on the big screen opening weekend.

To find out where David is showing near you and get tickets, CLICK HERE.