BENTONVILLE -- Mully is more than a film. It's a call to action.
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The documentary film received a standing ovation as soon as the credits began at the conclusion of its screening at the Bentonville Film Festival Saturday. It received another when Charles Mully, whose life the film was based on, walked to the front of the theater for a question and answer session after the screening.
Mully
Mully will be shown in 700 movie theaters across the country Oct. 3-5. It will be released on DVD and on video on demand in November.
About 40 short films tied to the film will be released on Facebook. The film’s Facebook page, Mully Children’s Family, has updates about activities related to the film and work of the Mully Children’s Family nonprofit organization.
Source: Staff report
The film takes the audience on Mully's journey from being an orphan in Kenya to becoming a successful businessman and oil tycoon to his decision to trade his wealth in order to take care of orphans -- thousands of them.
"We are one family. We are one people," Mully said to the audience after they sat down. "Love is so powerful. What we seen here is love put into work. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love the poor. Listen to their cry and the world will be a better place for our future generations."
Mully along with his wife Esther and eight biological children rescued and rehabilitated more than 12,000 orphans and street children over the last 27 years. They all call him Daddy Mully, and the Mully Children's Family is the largest rescue, rehabilitation and development organization in Africa.
"It's just an incredible story," said Elissa Shay, one of the film's producers, in a phone interview Thursday. "It's almost unbelievable."
Shay, along with producer Lukas Behnken and director Scott Haze were present for the question and answer session.
Mully was not only able to help children survive, but thrive, said Sean Wolfington, a festival-goer from Miami. Mully gave them not only food, shelter and clothing but also hope, dignity and education.
"The multiplier effect (of his work) is mind-blowing," he said, talking about how many children grew up to pursue higher education.
Paul Blavin, executive producer and with FOR GOOD, a distribution company working with the film, said he pulled Mully from the film festival circuit in June when FOR GOOD became involved in the project.
"We need to have a much, much bigger reach," he said Friday. "By doing the festival circuit, it would end up actually encumbering our ability to bring it very big."
Bentonville Film Festival was an expectation because the film fit so well with its mission and because of the sponsors behind the festival, Blavin said.
The festival's mission is to champion women and diverse voices in media.
Mully not only depicts the mother, Esther Mully, of the world's largest family, but it also includes several layers of diversity, including race and socioeconomic status, Blavin said.
The story is of an African solution to an African problem, he said.
"It's not the great white savior going to Africa to save people," he explained. "It's about a 6-year-old orphan who grows up and figures out all theses incredible ways to save lives... It pretty much tells you everything you need to know about diversity, that talent and potential is wide spread everywhere but opportunity is not."
Wal-Mart and other sponsors' support of the festival was another main reason Blavin wanted the film to screen at BFF. Their influence and resources can help propel the message Mully is attempting to spread to a larger audience, he said.
Audiences at film festivals are largely those who work in the entertainment industry where as "Wal-Mart reaches the people," Blavin said.
Plans to reach the masses are in the works. About 700 theaters throughout the country will show Mully on Oct. 3-5. Those with the film are also launching a social action campaign to give viewers an opportunity to act as well as bring awareness to orphans and those in foster care in the United States.
Mully was just one of several new activities of this year's festival intended to better include the black community.
Everything, Everything, directed by Stella Meghie, was screened, celebrating Warner Brothers' hire of an African-American director. Festival officials announced Saturday an encore screening of the film would take place at 2 p.m. today in Cinetransformer Apple Blossom.
STEP, a documentary chronicling the senior year of a girls' high school step dance team in inner-city Baltimore, showed to a sold-out audience Saturday.
Other films included the short film The Forever Tree and Tell Them We are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities.
BFF also partnered with Essence Magazine and Harlem's Fashion Row to hold "A Night of Style and Substance," which included a fashion show Friday night.
Harlem's Fashion Row in a New York advocacy group that pairs fashion designers of color with commercial opportunities, similarly like BFF does with filmmakers and distribution, said Paul Prado, BFF director of filmmaker relations.
The "Pioneers of African-American Cinema" exhibit at Crystal Bridges of American Art included special programming during the festival, but the main exhibit will be on display through May 29.
It includes work from the influential African-American directors Zora Neale Hurston, Spencer Williams and Oscar Micheaux.
NW News on 05/07/2017