By Justin Fedich | The Selma Times-Journal

The movie “Woodlawn” premiered at the Walton Theater before it was released to the public.

“Woodlawn,” a movie that depicts a true story of racial integration at a Birmingham high school, through sports and prayer, garnered the respect of the people who came to see it this past weekend.

The movie was shown from Thursday through Sunday and will be showing again this Thursday through Sunday.

“Woodlawn” is a film directed by Birmingham natives Andrew and Jon Erwin that tells the true story of Tony Nathan, a black football player who goes to the recently desegregated Woodlawn High School in Birmingham in 1973.

Through faith, the team is able to put racial differences aside and spread their spiritual values throughout the school and the community.

Six teenagers from the Camp Perry Varner Education and Treatment Facility, a wilderness program in Selma for troubled youth, saw the movie at the Walton Theater this past weekend.

“They thought the movie was very educational, taught them a lot of working together, coming together to make things better,” said Jennifer Reese, who works with the Perry Varner Education and Treatment Facility.

Others came in groups as well, such as members from Truth Recovery Ministries and students from Meadowview Christian School and Morgan Academy.

Pastor John Grayson said many of Selma’s youth who saw the movie were able to relate to the lessons portrayed in the movie.

“They are used to sports and football, so they connect with the picture because it’s a football picture, and it also deals with some of the issues that we have here in Selma as well,” Grayson said.

Selma was lucky to be showing “Woodlawn” at the Walton Theater this past weekend. Grayson said the movie wasn’t released to the rest of the public until Friday at 12:01 a.m., but Selma was able to see the movie in theaters on Thursday.

The movie was originally scheduled to release to 1,500 theaters around the country and the Walton Theater wasn’t one of them.

Grayson was on a conference call with Erwin before the movie released, and Erwin decided to give Selma a chance to see a movie that many of its citizens can relate to.

“’I just feel led to let this movie come to Selma,’” Grayson recalls Erwin saying on the conference call. “’Let’s go and add 1,501 and add Selma on to this list of releases.’ And that’s how we got it.”

Grayson said that Walton Theater was the only single-screen theater in the country that was allowed to show the movie during the first weekend of the movie’s release.

“Woodlawn” will be showing again at the Walton Theater Thursday at 7 p.m., Friday at 6 p.m. and 8:15 p.m., Saturday at 1 p.m., 3:15 p.m., 5:30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. and Sunday at 4:30 p.m.