In 1996, a small rural community in East Texas called Possum Trot embarked on a mission that would transform their lives and the lives of countless children.
This deeply religious Black community, centered around roughly two dozen families at Bennett Chapel, began an adoption movement that saw 77 of the most hard-to-place children adopted out of the foster care system, giving every child within a 100-mile radius a safe and loving home.
The movement started with First Lady Donna Martin, inspired by her mother’s legacy of loving and caring for children, and grew into a church-wide initiative driven by faith, love and a commitment with her husband, Rev. W.C. Martin, to provide a family for the unloved and broken children in their midst.
Researchers studying the Possum Trot community found that faith played a central role in the families’ decisions to adopt. Their deep-rooted Christianity provided them with the strength and resilience needed to face the challenges of fostering and adopting children with complex needs.
“The parents are told in preadoption training of the serious difficulties their child or children have and will continue to have after adoption, and yet they adopt anyway,” researcher Kathleen Belanger noted. “These parents find their faith in God central to their lives and essential to their choice to adopt.”
The close-knit community provided additional support, alleviating some of the financial, physical and emotional burdens that come with fostering and adoption. Families often stepped in to help each other, creating a network of support that was crucial to the success of the adoptions.
The Martins’ home also became a sanctuary for children who had suffered unimaginable abuse and neglect. Terri, one of the children they adopted, came from a background of severe abuse and had been placed in multiple foster homes before finding safety and love with the Martins.
Now, the Martins’ story is being told on the big screen in Angel Studios’ newest film, Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot which was produced by Josh and Rebekah Weigel through Peacetree Productions, in association with 3.16 Productions.
In the beginning stages of the film’s production, Black Panther star Letitia Wright became involved with the project. As she was starting her production company, 3.16 Productions, in 2020, she reached out to other companies and eventually got connected with the team behind The Chosen. They shared the script and inspiring story of the Possum Trot community with her.
“I was super intrigued,” Wright said. “The script wasn’t really where it needed to be at the time, but I was intrigued with the story and just the sacrifice of this family really for kids, and it went from there.”
Wright’s personal experience with the foster care system began in London, through her aunt’s fostering efforts, which provided her with a unique perspective. Her aunt fostered many children, and Wright saw how love and care could change their lives.
“I saw what love did for these kids, and they were fully like my family,” Wright said. “They became literally like my cousins, to the point where we would be going abroad or my auntie would be traveling with her foster son, and people would be like, ‘Is this your kid?’ And it’s like, ‘No, but he is my foster kid.’”
Wright also knows that not every child in the foster care system has a happy ending. Currently, there are 400,000 children in the foster care system in the U.S. and roughly 100,000 children who are waiting to be adopted.
That’s a lot of children, but Wright and the team behind Sound of Hope know there’s a solution, and it starts with the Church.
“We have to ask ourselves, as a community, specifically as the Church, how do we rally everyone to step in for kids? Because they are the future.”
Wright believes the film will be a catalyst for that.
“It’s not just a movie,” she said. “We’re all calling it a movement. We want people to like take in the story of the Martins, be inspired by it and then say, ‘What are the next action steps I can do to help the situation?”
She highlighted several steps that individuals can take, from donating to organizations that help children to considering adoption themselves.
“Another thing this film does to help these families is that once everything is kind of sorted in the areas of investments of other people who have so beautifully and wonderfully given to make this movie come alive, the rest of the profits are going into different organizations to help kids,” Wright explained. “That’s also why I’m a part of this movie, because of how different it’s set up to help.”
At the end of the film, the real-life Martins appear on screen to offer a few different ways individuals can make an immediate difference in the foster care system.
“Once you’ve watched it, sit with God, and however he’s guiding you on how you can help this situation with helping children, please listen,” Wright urged. “Because I know He’s kicking my butt in prayer telling me about how I should help children.”
For Wright, working on the film about Possum Trot was a unique experience compared to her previous film projects.
“Each movie that is made is a blessing in its own right because movies are hard to make,” Wright said. “But being with the team on the ground and hearing the step-by-step ways in which they want to help makes this movie for me different to others.”
The dedication of the filmmakers was evident in their willingness to immerse themselves in the community. The Weigels, who wrote, produced and directed the film, even moved to East Texas to live with the Martins and gain a deeper understanding of their story. And after her own interactions with the Martins, Wright understands why their story has been so impactful.
“They’re dope, I love them,” Wright said. “I’ve been calling them Mom and Dad because they’ve got nurturing vibes. They’re lovely to spend time with. I even went to their home in Possum Trot.”
The time spent with the Martins reinforced the authenticity of the film and deepened Wright’s commitment to the project. The Martins’ nurturing and loving nature left a lasting impression and pushed the team to make sure they did justice to their story.
That meant getting into the nitty gritty, unpolished parts of the story. The Possum Trot community didn’t have an easy time adopting children.
First, many community members were already struggling to keep their bills paid. Adding more mouths to feed was a problem, but the community rallied together, making potluck dinners and showing up to one another’s homes to make sure everyone was fed.
Then there was the trauma of the children themselves. Most children in the foster care system — an estimated 90% — are removed from their biological homes due to cases of abuse and/or neglect, and thus victims are placed into foster care with minimal or no notice.
Approximately one in four children in foster care will show signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Becoming trauma-informed foster parents requires time and patience. It’s a difficult task to manage, which is perhaps why 27% of children reenter the system after an initial placement.
But the community of Possum Trot defied the odds, working through financial and emotional setbacks to adopt children in need. Their story has been an example of how churches and communities can eliminate the need for foster care group homes, and that’s why Wright and the rest of the cast and crew were so determined to get the story right.
That meant making sure not only was the script great, but the team bringing it to life had to be excellent, too. Several of the cast and crew members had a personal connection to the foster care system, including the directors, who have adopted two children, and actress Nika King, who played First Lady Donna Martin.
King’s mother was adopted by a pastor and his wife, so the story resonated with her on a deeply personal level. The story not only reminded King of her mother’s upbringing, but it also reminded her of the importance of pursuing faith over fear.
“The Bible talks about us not having fear and that God did not give us the spirit of fear,” King said. “Now we can be frustrated, we can be unsure, we can be doubtful, but fear is something that we all have to conquer. We have to know that faith is way bigger than that false evidence that appears to be real.”
With a strong script and a team dedicated to doing this story justice, the challenge became making sure the film was truly made with cinematic excellence. That’s a high bar for any film, but especially challenging for a faith-based film. After all, Christian movies haven’t always been synonymous with high quality.
That was something Wright and the Sound of Hope team were keenly aware of heading into production.
“If I keep it so real with you, I’ve never really found movies that felt predominantly super Christian to be quite good,” Wright admits. “It’s been poorly executed, and that’s kind of a shame because we all carry the Holy Spirit, so then it’s like, ‘Why does the film look like that?’”
But things are changing. As accomplished producers and stars like Wright pursue more faith-based projects, they’re determined to do it all with excellence.
“I think we’re seeing people’s desire to tell good stories and really leaning into the Holy Spirit to execute it well,” she said.
She points to successful Christian projects like The Chosen as inspiration that faith-based content can be done well. “Right now, we are seeing people make meaningful content with cinematic excellence, and then God gets glorified through it,” she said. “Because honestly, if you make something that’s kind of rubbish, nobody wants to see that. Just like if it was rubbish even if it wasn’t a Christian-based film. Once a film sucks, it sucks.”
After completing Sound of Hope, Wright is excited for future projects that tell more impactful and inspiring stories. She’s toying with the idea of producing a movie about the true story of a mother in China searching for her son after he was abducted.
She’s also exploring a completely different route, considering a sci-fi film set in Africa.
She’s excited about the possibilities.
“I just feel so grateful to have God on my side while tapping into my purpose,” she said. “Everything that I step into, I just pray about it. If it’s God’s will, it happens. If it doesn’t, I move on.
“I’ll just be real, I don’t know how people navigate without God,” she continues. “Life is kind of sticky out there. So for me, I just tap in and ask God, ‘What do I need to do?’ And then just trust that I can be guided by Him. Then I get up and then I dust myself off when it doesn’t go well. It’s simple, really. It’s not super complicated.”
Living a simple life with God is Wright’s motivation these days. She’s not trying to walk out anyone else’s calling, and she’s also not trying to make her calling in life something it’s not supposed to be.
“I think people make Hollywood out to be this scary place that you have to make these sacrifices and compromises to fit in,” she said, “It’s not; it’s just people trying to make money. So you just have to know who you are.”
“For me, I’m just going down the path that I think God wants me to follow,” she continued. “Because I can’t sleep at night if I compromise on something God told me to do. It’s quite simple. And I really don’t think we need to complicated life anymore than that.”
