During the March for Life Convention the motion picture A Distant Thunder was shown prior to a panel discussion involving Fr. Frank Pavone (Priests for Life), Nellie Gray (March for Life), and Jonathan and Deborah Flora.
Jonathan, an award-winning producer with Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment, took on the project after coming to terms his own with post-abortive experience and the discovery a few years ago that he and his wife were unable to have children. Flora struggled with the paradox. Here we are praying fervently for a baby while America is treating unwanted pregnancies like a common cold at the rate of more than 4,500 abortions a day. 95% of them elective, said Flora.
His wife Deborah is a professional actress and played the lead role in the movie. "We created this film in what many of those in the pro-life movement consider the belly of the beast Hollywood. God knows it wasnt made to further our careers or make money" , says Deborah Flora. "We made it so that through our craft, a terrible truth could be told so lives could be saved."
In addition to the Convention, the Floras spoke at a Capitol Hill reception, premiering the movie to members of Congress and their staff and answered questions at the Blogs4Life Conference following a short clip.
The movie itself is designed to be a supernatural thriller with provocative symbolism and a suspenseful surprise ending. It unmasks the horror of partial-birth abortion in a gripping court room setting by recounting the procedural steps from a medical perspective. After identifying with the main character, it becomes difficult not to accept the personhood and humanity of the unborn and question the morality of all abortion.
The Floras set out to make a difference by using their theatrical expertise to penetrate, in a thought provoking manner, into the modern culture without sounding preachy. A Distant Thunder certainly accomplishes this task and, at 35 minutes in length, is an excellent tool for productive discussion with teenagers and adults
Dr. Pia de Solenni, Director of Women and Life Issues at the Family Research Council notes, "One of the most powerful things about the movie is how the story of a soul is revealed. Jonathan has been able to illustrate the eternal element of the human being, the part that can't be captured in any sort of formula."
Interestingly, the Floras proved the doctors wrong and are now parents of two children. Their son, Benjamin, appears in the film via ultrasound and is listed in the credits.
A Distant Thunder is now available on DVD at Amazon.com, Netflix.com, www.adistantthunder.com, and Ignatius.com. For more information, call 818/822-9492.
On a personal note, I was privileged to talk with the Floras on several occasions and snapped the picture above during the March for Life in front of the Supreme Court.
