The story behind Possum Trot, the town where 22 families adopted 77 hard-to-place foster children

By Abby Amoakuh

Updated Aug 19, 2024 at 04:54 PM

Reading time: 4 minutes

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Image courtesy of IMDb

In Possum Trot, a small unincorporated community in southeastern Texas, 22 families decided to adopt 77 of the hardest-to-place children in the local foster system from 1998 through 2000. They were inspired by the example set by the Martin family, a core pillar of their church community.

However, with every tragic movie based on real events comes the challenge of exploring the characters’ hardships without exploiting them. Adapting the story of Bishop W.C. Martin and his wife Donna Martin, into a screenplay was no different. Their story feels like a legend embroidered in the fabric of America’s social-political consciousness, as it cuts into poverty, homelessness, addiction, and abuse, and is held together by personal strength, solidarity and the safety that can be found in community.

Yet, this story isn’t just about overcoming hardships. According to Joshua Weigel, who wrote, directed and produced The Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot, this is first and foremost a story about love.

“We felt we needed to capture the authentic story, especially since we had adopted two of our kids and knew personally what this takes,” Weigel started when I asked him about his research process for creating the movie. “We immediately went to Texas, met the community, and connected with everyone we could. Lady Dawn and Reverend Martin were amazing, touring us around and introducing us to everyone. We tried to get as much of the story relayed by the kids and families who did the adoptions.”

Still, Weigel’s research did not stop there: “After working on it for several years, we realised we hadn’t reached the deepest parts of the story. So, about three years ago, we moved near the community to capture the real authenticity that we knew was important.”

Filming took place in Macon, Georgia in the fall of 2022, with a budget of $8.5 million. The Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot made $3.1 million on its first weekend and achieved a cumulative win of $11.6 million so far with many favourable reviews from critics.

The cast includes Euphoria star Nika King as Donna Martin and Elizabeth Mitchell from Netflix’s First Kill and Lost as Susan Ramsey.

One look at the reviews reveals that this film invoked intense emotion, by highlighting an often-forgotten layer of American society: children lost in foster care. As of March 2024, 368,500 children were in care in the United States, according to the Administration for Children and Families. This is a steadily decreasing, yet still staggeringly high number of kids without families. Facing an even harder time of being placed are children of colour whom this movie is about.

When it came to authentically depicting all of these children, costume designer Ellen Falguiere took on the Herculean task of dressing an entire community.

“It took several weeks of preparation. It takes a long time to prep something like that. I did a lot of research, starting with Bennett Chapel and creating character boards for each character, starting with the reverend, the First Lady, and their family,” Falguiere told SCREENSHOT.

“I pulled clothes from the 90s, researching popular trends, Life magazines, Sears catalogues, JCPenney catalogues, music, movies, and culture of the time. My process includes research, selecting clothes, deciding on colour palettes, starting with the Reverend’s robes and the First Lady’s outfits, and making sure everything works seamlessly together,” she continued.

“People should know this was a low-income neighbourhood, a collection of homes in the woods in the southern US—a common setting. This working-class, low-income community made the story so powerful. These weren’t people who had everything they needed or were fully trained for what they were about to take on. Despite that, they did what needed to be done.”

But as the movie started to take form, another challenge exposed itself to director and screenwriter Weigel. How do you create a film that has religion at its core without creating a ‘religious movie’?

“Very few people might relate to or be interested in the faith-based genre,” Weigel started. “I think what you’re reacting to, and I have a similar reaction, is the assumption that religious movies prioritise the message over the movie itself. This is a common problem: they put the religious aspect first and stumble over the cinematic elements, not knowing how to integrate or wield them effectively. This approach often misses the mark. To respect the art form, we must allow it to be cinema first.”

He continued: “We assembled a team that wasn’t focused on the faith aspect; we were drawn to the plight of the children and the monumental task of parenting children who’ve experienced severe trauma,” emphasising the importance of grounding religious elements and prioritising authenticity in religiously-heavy storytelling.

Someone who felt immediately attracted to this approach was The Silent Twins star Leticia Wright. After stealing the spotlight as Marvel’s newest Black Panther, Wright decided to try her hand behind the camera at this Angel Studios production as an executive producer.

It was a wild project to be involved in logically, considering that half of the cast were children exploring such emotionally complex subject matter.

“The kids will make or break it,” Weigel declared. “Anytime you see a child actor who doesn’t pull it off, it undermines the whole movie. Acting is crucial to stories, and it’s a priority for me. We struggled to find the right actor for Terry. Then we found Diaana Babnicova from London. Her audition was incredible. We had a coach work with her because I wanted to explore specific places, and I knew it would be a lot for a 12-year-old. She nailed it,” the director said proudly.

In the end, there was nothing left to explore other than what this movie is really about. One viewing of the trailer proposes different answers to this question. Is The Sound of Hope a religious drama? A thriller? Tragedy porn? Or a Black prestige coming-of-age story that moves dangerously close to descending into an exploitative melodrama?

According to Weigel and Falguiere, this is a story about “love” in its diverse expressions, but here best represented in its fierce and sacrificial forms.

Weigel affirmed multiple times that he doesn’t want movie-goers to be clouded by their preconceptions of the drama or faith-based movie genre. “There’s no heavy-handed preaching, just an opportunity for the audience to observe and experience,” he noted.