What A Child Really Feels In Foster Care {A Short Film: ReMoved}

One of my greatest joys in life is encouraging one another to simply love. As I watched this film today, it broke my heart to think of any child suffering and living broken hearted in the foster care system. There are thousands of children in North America removed from their families and growing up with foster parents. We can live out-loud James 1:27 with the support of the local church and community loving big with children who are desperate to be loved. If you are a foster parent, I hope this film validates you, encourages you and inspires you on your journey. Thank you foster parents for your radical hospitality! After you watch the short film, I’d love your thoughts … did you feel it was accurate and helpful?

ReMoved

A short film about a girl’s journey through extreme hardships in the foster care system and later toward healing and restoration, was the winner of the Best Film for the 168 Film Festival and recipient of an award of up to $1 million to go for production of a feature length movie.

“It would be impossible to fully understand the life and emotions of a child going through the foster care system, but this short narrative film portrays that saga in a poetic light, with brushes of fear, anger, sadness, and a tiny bit of hope.” -Santa Barbara Independent

We made ReMoved with the desire that it would be used to serve in bringing awareness, encourage, and be useful in foster parent training, and raising up foster parents. 

Originally created for the 168 Film Festival, ReMoved follows the emotional story through the eyes of a young girl taken from her home and placed into foster care.

“ReMoved” is also based on Hebrews 12:2, an explanation of Jesus Christ’s motivation for enduring the cross. The film compares the vision of joy and hope that emerges as the main character, Zoe (Abby White), proves willing to navigate the shame and pain of her life to move toward healing and restoration, say filmmakers.

After winning Best Film and Audience Choice at the 168 Film Festival, as well as winning Best Film at the Enfoque Film Festival and being an official selection at the Santa Barbara Independent Film Festival, we’re extremely excited to share ReMoved online.

This short film wouldn’t be possible without the help of some of my incredible friends.

First, my wife, who schemed this project up with me, and was willing to do me the huge favor of writing and producing it. Without her partnership, this would not have happened, and definitely would not have been such a fun process. We were inspired to create this film while in foster parent training.

And then of course Tony Cruz. I asked him early on if he’d be willing to tackle this with me. I wasn’t sure if I was really going to pursue it unless he said yes. He graciously agreed and was, to me, a huge source of confidence in knowing this project would turn out well. He and I discussed everything during the pre-production, and i counted on his creative mind to keep me on the right path. He even persuaded another key creative on the project, Greg Pickard, to join us. On Set Tony was my right hand man. On set, if I just wasn’t feeling it, I had the trust in him to be able to just hand the scene off to him and know he would make it work. And he stepped in plenty of times when i just needed a break, or a separate perspective. Some of the best moments in the film are of his doing. Go check him out at tonycruz.co

We were very fortunate with Abby White, the young actress. Without her we wouldn’t have a film. Her parents were so amazing as well. I don’t think they anticipated how much involvement it would take on their end, but they stuck with it the whole way. Abby’s dad, Andy White from Good Times Guitar, even recorded Abby’s Voice Over for us in his studio.

Check out the Behind The Scenes video:

If you would like to use the film for any of these reasons, the answer is yes.
If you need a downloadable version, you can download it here:

Are you a foster parent? I’d love to share your story … and to learn more about foster care, please email me.