‘The Miracles on Honey Bee Hill’ tackles LGBTQI rights issues

Amid the current political campaigns, many citizens find themselves trying to decide what issues are most important and what can be done to help their cause.  Professor Bob Pondillo, electronic media communication professor, has recently tackled the issue of gay rights with a short film utilizing an unexpected element– a cast of children.

“The Miracles on Honey Bee Hill” is a short film written and directed by Pondillo and produced with the aide of several MTSU students. It has already been awarded Best Achievement in Short Screen Writing at the SoCal Film Festival inHuntington Beach,Calif., and received the opportunity to reach an even bigger audience. The first screening was presented as a “work-in-progress” by MT Lambda as part of the Spring Out celebration, with the premiere of the final product scheduled tentatively for early May.

The story focuses around a girl named Millie, who is desperate to find her true love.  She goes to church every Sunday and is well-liked by her peers. All of that changes when Millie meets her special someone, another female, and introduces her to the church congregation. They immediately condemn her and force her to leave. But when a force from above intervenes, the judgmental mob begins to reconsider what they had once believed so wholeheartedly.

With a cheerful narration and sharp-witted dialogue, the film successfully captures the gravity of the situation while providing comedic relief to the tension. The animated backgrounds and bold color scheme add a fairytale component that plays up the youth of its cast. Only one adult actor was featured in this movie, and at first, the reasoning behind that decision may not seem clear.  Pondillo said he believes the casting of child actors was essential to the message the movie is intended to portray.

“I think this is the civil rights issue of our time,” Pondillo said. “And I thought, if I could just take the sex out, it would be a different story. There would be a different sense of innocence and children. The children are this movie’s heart. They will show us, they will teach us by this example.”

The film was well received by the audience. Sydney Guinn, a junior majoring in mass communication and a blogger for gay rights, was emotionally overwhelmed by the story.

“I am that little girl. I’ve gone through all of those things,” Guinn said. “People need to realize that this is more than just a movie. This is a real issue.”