Sandra Martin is known for creating made-for-TV magic during the holidays, but her newest venture — “It’s Christmas Again” — puts her faith centerstage, even if it comes in modern-day wrapping.
The film, which debuted in theaters in late November and is now available on DVD, starts the way any good Christmas movie does: with a love story. Jake Young, a teenager played by actor Lawson Touliatos, wants to spend Christmas vacation with his girlfriend, Abbey Walker, played by Leela Owen.
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Abbey, though, throws a wrench in the works when she volunteers for her church’s Christmas play while Jake is ready to skip the holiday season altogether. That’s when Jake’s plans are turned upside down — almost literally — as he finds himself in an alternate reality, one he’d only read about: in a field outside Bethlehem on the night Jesus was born.
And that’s what sets this movie apart — its focus on Jesus.
“I’ve been making movies for a while and I’ve even made two Christmas movies in the past,” Martin, the film’s writer, director, and producer, told CBN’s Faithwire. “But what really strikes me is, as many movies are being made and as many movies as people are consuming, there’s very few that include Jesus. That was something that was just put on my heart. I wanted that to be part of our Christmas story.”
Though “It’s Christmas Again” tells the biblical account of Jesus’ birth, it’s packaged in a unique way, as a musical complete with time-traveling teenagers.
Watch the trailer for the movie below:
“I wanted to — for those of us who have heard the story since we were young — I wanted to put a bit of a twist on it,” said Martin. “Not to change the importance of the credibility of the story, but just tell it in a fun way. … But it’s still about Jesus and how He came to earth.”
Martin is not new to recapturing biblical stories with modern twists.
In 2016, her first feature-length movie, “Trust Fund,” debuted. In it, she recasted Jesus’ Parable of the Prodigal Son, found in Luke 15:11-32, as a tale of two sisters who made very different choices in the wake of their mother’s death.
Looking to Scripture for inspiration, she said, was a no-brainer.
“For my very first film, I went to the Bible, because I feel like Jesus is the very best storyteller of all and one of His most popular stories is the Parable of the Prodigal Son,” Martin said.
She went on to explain her decision to put Jesus at the center of her new Christmas film was simply an outpouring of what she and her husband, Isaac Alongi, care about in their own lives.
“Just like anyone else, in whatever you do in your walk of life, I feel like it’s our ministry,” the filmmaker said.
To learn more about “It’s Christmas Again” or to order a copy of the movie, click here.
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