The Movie That Saved More Than a Thousand Lives

There’s a little independent film you can still catch on Netflix and DVD that’s actually saved more than a thousand babies.

Jason Jones, Hawaii-based president of Movies to Movement (found at moviestomovement.com), spends most of his time these days pushing positive, life-affirming films.

But when he and friends a decade ago put together the touching, tender-hearted movie “Bella” — about a desperate young lady who feels she has to abort her unborn child and her male co-worker who will do literally anything to save that baby — they had no idea just how life-affirming it would be.

In fact, they had a simple goal for the film.

“Our goal was to know the name of one baby whose mother chose life because she saw our film within 10 years of our theatrical release,” Jones told CBN News.  “But within five years – and we stopped counting after five years — we received over a thousand letters from women who were scheduled to have an abortion, saw 'Bella' — whether on DVD, Redbox’d it or in the theaters — and decided to keep their baby.  Over a thousand!”               

The ‘Bella’ Babies

Those who worked on the film and around Jones call them the “Bella” babies.

The movie is still touching people.   Jones’ sister texted him the other day.  “She told me she just went to a shelter in Chicago for unwed mothers,” Jones said.   “And in every room there was a ‘Bella’ DVD.”

Some of the girls and women who saw “Bella” and decided to become mothers rather than get abortions have reached out and touched Jones’ life personally.

He recalled a time last year when he was in Washington D.C. to emcee a Students for Life of America conference.    And his assistant informed him a young lady from Philadelphia had just taken a bus then a train then another bus to Jones' location in Washington and was insisting on meeting him no matter how busy he was emceeing.

"So this young girl, she comes up to me,” Jones remembered.  " She says, “Mister, I Googled you.  I saw you were going to be so close to where I am.  So I came down here  just to let you know that I was going to have an abortion.  Then I saw “Bella" in my Spanish class.’  Then she says, 'You want to touch my belly?  Here’s your next baby, your next "Bella" baby.’”

The Miracle of Chrissie, Bella & Millie

Some of these young ladies have become fast friends of Jones and his family.  One was Chrissie, who got to know Jones after seeing “Bella” and choosing life for her unborn twins.

But when she was about to give birth to the babies, her heart suddenly began to fail.   A good friend was with Chrissie and tracked Jones down to a movie set where he was working.  It’s ironic what scene the movie-makers were shooting at that moment for the pro-life film “Crescendo.”

“It was the birthing scene,” Jones said with a smile.  "So we were on Universal City’s studio lot, getting ready to shoot a birth scene when this young girl who was choosing life because of ‘Bella’ was actually going through labor with twins, her heart was failing, and we said, ‘Can we pray together with you on speaker-phone?’”

Jones continued, "So we had the entire crew — cameramen, construction coordinators, actors, makeup artists — all were on-set praying for Chrissie.  And as we were praying, everything normalized, and she gave birth to her two beautiful daughters, Bella and Millie.   I see them all the time.”

The Cause of ‘Because of Gracia’

Right now, Jones is pushing a new pro-life movie, even though he had nothing to do with its creation.

"Several months ago I got to see a screener of this beautiful little movie called ‘Because of Gracia,’” he said.  "It’s in theaters right now.   And we’re trying to get students all across the country to go see it.  You can actually go to becauseofgracia.com and donate to buy tickets for students.   But it’s not my film.  I’ve been involved in over 40 films — this isn’t my film.  But I’m a FAN of this film.”

Here’s a trailer: 

Jones said of the movie, "Beautiful dialogue.  Beautifully shot.   The soundtrack’s just amazing.  It’s really going to touch young people.  And it shares the Gospel, too.”

So 10 years after Jason Jones helped create a movie that saved more than a thousand babies, he’s still pushing positive movies that can change, and maybe even save, more lives today.