President Donald Trump is set to host a screening of the movie Sound of Freedom at his own golf course in New Jersey on July 19.
Trump, along with former Homeland Security Agent Tim Ballard, Eduardo Verastegui, the film’s producer, and Jim Cavieziel, the films lead actor who plays the role of Ballard, will attend.
The film, which is distributed by Angel Studios, tells the true story of how Ballard quit his DHS job and risked his life to rescue children from sex slavery.
It has surprised the box office, grossing more than $7 million on its second Friday in theaters for a likely weekend take of $81 million and total box office receipts of $100 million.
President Trump has shown public admiration for the film’s underlying message, of bringing global attention to the thousands of children who have met untimely fates due to sex slavery, as well as the life-risking effort it took to save them.
“This film is a powerful reminder of the horrific atrocities that are happening in the world involving slavery and the sexual exploitation of children and the heroic efforts of courageous individuals such as Tim Ballard, that risk their own lives to try and put an end to these acts of terror,” Trump said in a statement.
When asked about any apparent connection between the film and the conspiracy-theory, QAnon, Ballard rejected it definitively.
“The film was made, produced, written like five years, six years ago, way before anyone heard the name QAnon. I still don’t even know what QAnon is,” he said.
He believes that the Left refuses to have a proper conversation about such atrocities, noting that 85,000 unaccompanied children showed up at the US border in the past few years.
“I think that the Left, these media outlets — they don’t want to have a discussion about what this film is going to compel, a discussion about why 85,000 children showed up unaccompanied at the border,” Ballard explained.
Regardless of what politicization some may want to push, the film has shocked the box office and inspired a higher purpose among viewers, thanks to its compelling, hard-hitting story.
The screening event on July 19 could be another opportunity to bring this important message further to the public’s attention.