Amish Grace | |
---|---|
Based on | West Nickel Mines School shooting |
Written by | Sylvie White and Teena Booth |
Directed by | Dylan Scharping |
Starring | Kimberly Williams-Paisley Tammy Blanchard Matt Letscher |
Theme music composer | Joseph Conlan |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Producer | Larry A. Thompson |
Editor | Anita Brandt-Burgoyne |
Running time | 88 minutes |
Release | |
Original network | Lifetime Movie Network |
Original release | March 28, 2010 |
Amish Grace is a television film that premiered on the Lifetime Movie Network on Palm Sunday, March 28, 2010. The film is based on the 2006 West Nickel Mines School shooting at Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, and the spirit of forgiveness the Amish community demonstrated in its aftermath. [1]
The film stars Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Tammy Blanchard, and Matt Letscher [2] and is based on the book Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy, Jossey-Bass, 2007, ISBN 0-7879-9761-7, by Donald Kraybill, Steven Nolt, and David L. Weaver-Zercher. [3] [4] Amish Grace was executive-produced by Larry A. Thompson, written by Sylvie White and Teena Booth, and directed by Gregg Champion. [2]
When a group of Amish schoolgirls are taken hostage and killed in their classroom, their parents and the Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, stun the outside world by immediately forgiving the killer. Ida Graber (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), mother of one of the murdered children, has a tougher time than the others accepting the tragedy, but in her anguish and pain, she begins a personal journey of renewed faith, ultimately accepting the heart-wrenching tragedy of losing a child after learning that her murdered daughter, Mary Beth Graber, had promised to pray for the perpetrator before her death; reconnecting with her husband (Matt Letscher), family, and community; offering forgiveness to the killer; and even showing kindness and compassion to the killer's widow (Tammy Blanchard) and children — all in the form of Amish grace.
The film was dedicated in memory of the victims of the West Nickel Mines School shooting.
Amish Grace broke network records in multiple demographics, with more than 4 million viewers, becoming the highest-rated and most-watched original movie in Lifetime Movie Network’s history. Households (3.8/2,916,449 viewers), Total Viewers (2.0/4,020,496), Women 18+ (3.5/2,729,834), Women 25-54 (2.7/1,156,363), Adults 18+ (2.4/3,649,266) and Adults 25-54 (1.9/1,585,667). [5] [6] [7] [8]
The film mostly received positive reviews; [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] however, it received criticism because the authors of Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy, Jossey-Bass, 2007, ISBN 0-7879-9761-7, distanced themselves from the production out of respect to the Amish community. [15] Others criticized the film for blending facts with fiction. [16]
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On October 2, 2006, a shooting occurred at the West Nickel Mines School, an Amish one-room schoolhouse in the Old Order Amish community of Nickel Mines, a village in Bart Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Gunman Charles Carl Roberts IV took hostages and shot ten girls, killing five, before committing suicide in the schoolhouse. The emphasis on forgiveness and reconciliation in the Amish community's response was widely discussed in the national media. The West Nickel Mines School was torn down, and a new one-room schoolhouse, the New Hope School, was built at another location.
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