Crowning Lori

BY SHELLY PAINO

You know you are working in God’s will when He pushes you to use your gifting, gives you a project that will point people to Him, and surrounds you with a sisterhood of women chomping at the bit to serve Him. That is the overarching picture of the team God has fashioned to create the film Crowning Lori.

Sit with this group of women long enough, and it becomes evident how much they’ve learned from each other since God brought them together. Their backgrounds are vastly different. Actress Candace recharges by hiking to waterfalls or praying in her closet, wallpapered with prayer requests. Tina, also an actress, is as likely to tell stories about Frank Sinatra as she would her beloved pups or beautiful quarter horse, Journey Boy. Editor and filmmaker Holly names among her most recent ventures film projects dear to her heart and a ranch house she and her husband built while living in a cramped travel trailer. Producer and photographer Christine can often be found traipsing to far-flung parts of the country with her two young adult actor kids. And Shelly traded her number-crunching day job and commute to sit with her laptop in her backyard typing screenplays.

COLLABORATION IS A GIFT.
WE NEED ENCOURAGEMENT TO STAY
IN THE RACE WHEN WEARY.

As varied as their backgrounds are, they all have two things in common: a love for God and a love for film. In the latter, there seemed to be a glaring problem. “We were actually all brought together by Candace,” recalls Holly, speaking of a time when the actress and her fellow thespian Tina noticed the abundance of film roles for ruthless female characters. Characters who would stop at nothing to get ahead, berate men, and attack one another. Roles they were turning down as they didn’t ring true to the core value in their hearts, which is to equip women to use their gifts for God’s kingdom.

So they came together, forming the genesis of a new goal: to create a production company and feature film about women lifting each other up rather than tearing each other down. They would call their endeavor TriLight Pictures.

From several story ideas, Crowning Lori emerged. This is the story of a once teen pageant queen whose bitterness over having lost the big pageant decades earlier, along with her obsession about what could have been, clouds her view of all she is blessed with and nearly causes her to lose everything. Finding herself in competition with her former teen rival, God reaches her heart, showing her who she truly is as she finds peace. The tale pokes fun at jealousy and discontentment (and their new fake friend, social media) in a humorous, true-to-life, and heartwarming way, intending to point women to the source of their true worth.

BY PRAYING TOGETHER, THAT SPIRIT
OF CONFUSION CAN’T GET IN.

Ironically, the ladies on a mission to create Crowning Lori found themselves challenged to walk out the same message they set out to portray on film—that of lifting one another up. Soon after the script was finalized, Tina became hospitalized with a lifethreatening illness. Her friends immediately came together to pray. After agonizing weeks, Tina began to recover and emerge from the fog. Logging back online, she was amazed at the many well wishes huge and powerful and that we had a missing piece; we were asking each other to pray individually about this project, but we weren’t coming together in prayer. People see the manifestation of what prayer does. Without it, we can drift and get separated, allowing the enemy the opportunity to create confusion. By praying together, that spirit of confusion can’t get in.”

It reminds Candace of the story of Moses and the Amalekites from Exodus, Chapter 17: “In order to overcome the trials and obstacles of this world, we need Aarons and Hurs in our lives to hold our arms up. We need to fix our eyes on God and link arms together if we are to run this race with a victory.”

So, using conference calls and Zoom, the ladies, separated by thousands of miles and three different time zones, began meeting weekly to pray. Finding a time that worked for everyone resulted in calls sometimes before the sun came up, often without makeup, in curlers, and in cars—between errands, on the road, and sometimes with the entire family in tow. The practice requires dedication but has been a solid foundation as the years progressed.

Yep. Years.

“Several times I’ve marveled at how much work this is, but we do not run this race alone.” Candace asserted, reflecting on the fact that what they thought would be a short endeavor proved to be a more lengthy undertaking than they realized. “We do need each other,” she adds. “Collaboration is a gift. We need encouragement to stay in the race when weary.”

“These incredibly talented women have become like family to me,” confides Holly of their progress despite inevitable difficulties. “We share everything in our lives as we pray together weekly. I’m constantly blown away by the kindness, sincerity, talent, tenacity, and beautiful hearts of these women, but our strongest bond is our faith in Christ Jesus.”

Along the way, the group has reached out to other like-minded women to partner with them. They started with renowned director Lisa Arnold, who already had professional relationships with some on the team, relationships that have become more personal as she’s joined them in prayer when able. Then, in a lightbulb moment, Tina, who had contributed to Voice of Truth, thought to reach out to co-CEOs Kimberly Hobbs and Julie Jenkins. The alliance seemed like a no-brainer. “It was natural to partner with them,” recalls Shelly of the rare unanimous decision by the group. At each step along the way, Kimberly and Julie prayed and sought God’s guidance, reminding Tina of one of her favorite Bible verses, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him and He will direct your paths (Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV).

In a natural progression, the team now seeks to welcome their future viewers into the process. This film about women and by women is now coming together with women to help bring it to life. Giving levels and perks can be found on the website CrowningLoriMovie.com—donations toward the creation of the feature film will also support Women World Leaders’ mission.

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us (Ephesians 3:20 NKJV).