“This is a very important film and a very important documentary, all rolled into one film that deals with a subject that needs to be debated.” Usually, in the long, inimitable emails he sends to his supporters, Donald Trump talks mostly about himself, his candidacy, or even himself as a candidate. But on this day in the summer of 2023, the former president urgently wants to recommend a movie to his fans. And not just any movie: Sound of Freedom (SoF), d’Alejandro Monteverde.
This choice is anything but innocent. Shot in 2018, for a budget of 15 million dollars, this B-series thriller had been shelved by its producer, Fox, following its acquisition by Disney: the executives were clearly not convinced by the artistic quality of the production. But, five years later, SoF is bought by Angel Studios, a specialist in Christian films based in Utah, a state with a 65% Mormon population, which is betting on distributing it on screens.
The film, presented as an independent production that had to fight against Hollywood to get a theatrical release, quickly found its audience, and its success even exceeded all expectations. When it was released on July 4, 2023, a national holiday, SoF does better than the fifth part ofIndiana Jones and follows the last one Mission : ImpossibleTo date, IMDB estimates its worldwide box office at $250 million.
“Pizzagate” whiffs
The success of SoF is a cleverly maintained blurring of reality and fiction. In his message, Donald Trump calls it a “documentary”. The film claims to transpose to the screen the exploits of a very real man, named Tim Ballard. A Mormon, a former federal agent, he founded and led Operation Underground Railroad (OUR) until 2023., a paramilitary organization supposedly fighting child trafficking and pedophile networks.
The name OUR refers to the history of the fight against slavery, and the clandestine network set up by abolitionists to help escaped slaves gain their freedom. These networks reached their peak in the years preceding the Civil War (1861-1865) and are said by historians to have allowed the exfiltration of 30,000 to 100,000 fugitives, according to historians’ estimates. However, for Christian activists of all denominations mobilized behind Trump, the phenomenon of pedophilia is the modern equivalent of slavery in the 19th century.e century. It is their second sacred cause, after the fight against abortion.
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