Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2008 / 'Gifted Hands' shot at St. Mary of Redford
'Gifted Hands' shot at St. Mary of Redford
by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published September 19, 2008
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Theresa Liptak
Movie technicians and a horse handler prepare to shoot a fantasy scene for the movie "Gifted Hands," with a back wall of St. Mary of Redford Church standing in for a medieval castle. |
Detroit — Hosting a movie crew at her parish for four days was "fun, challenging and enlightening," says Ada Taylor, pastoral minister at St. Mary of Redford Parish in northwest Detroit.
Actors and technicians involved in the filming of "Gifted Hands," based on the life of nationally known pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson, were at the parish Sept. 8-11, before moving on to other Detroit locales.
The movie, produced by The Hatchery LLC in partnership with Sony Pictures, is being readied for showing on the TNT cable TV channel beginning Feb. 7 and continuing with additional showings during February – Black History Month.
Raised in poverty by a single mother in Detroit, Carson now operates on more than 300 children a year at Johns Hopkins Children's Medical Center in Baltimore, where he is chief of pediatric neurosurgery.
The movie stars Cuba Gooding Jr. as Carson, Kimberly Elife as his mother, whose demands that he excel in school helped spur him to strive to rise above all obstacles, and Aunjaune Ellis as his wife, Candy.
Taylor says it was interesting watching the movie crew work as they set up to film scenes of Carson as a 10-year-old elementary school pupil and as a junior high school student.
"Part of our school was built in 1919, part in 1939, and part in 1957, so they were able to use one part as his elementary school and one as his junior high," she says.
The filmmakers also used rooms in the convent to film a doctor's office and a hospital room scene, and a courtyard between the church and the school to film a fantasy scene, with the church's Gothic architecture standing in for a castle wall.
It was Eric Jackson, a 1983 alumnus of the parish's former high school and now with Sony/Woodridge Productions, who suggested St. Mary of Redford as the location for the scenes of Carson's childhood and teen years, Taylor explains. She says she led Jackson and a group of his associates on a tour through the parish complex.
During the filming, which would start at 7 a.m. and continue until as late as 2 a.m., Taylor says it was IHM Srs. Loretta Schroeder and Ann Aseltyne, and parish bookkeeper Theresa Liptak who worked most closely with the production crew.
Although she declines to say how much the parish was paid for the use of its facilities, she says it was worthwhile for the parish.
Taylor says she was surprised both at how much behind-the-scenes work is involved in movie-making and at how nice the movie folks were.
"Overall, it was a good experience. They were very pleasant to work with, and I would not hesitate to work with them again," she says.
Tina Franco, parish secretary, says her main goal was to get her picture taken with one of the movie's stars. "My son is in the Army in Iraq, and he sent me a picture of himself taken with actor Gary Sinise, so I wanted to send him one," she says.
But since most of the filming at St. Mary of Redford involved scenes from Carson's youth, "Gifted Hands" star Cuba Gooding was only there briefly for the scenes shot in the converted convent rooms.
"So, I got my picture taken with the horse that was used in the fantasy scene," Franco says.
With all the child extras needed to fill the school room scenes, plus the professional actors and crew, feeding everybody was a big project each day. Franco says she and other parish staff appreciated that they were invited over each day for lunch.
"We all had a good time," she says of the experience.
Margaret Loesch, executive producer of the movie and one of the principals of The Hatchery LLC, calls Carson's story one of "aspiration and inspiration."
"If Ben Carson can overcome the obstacles he overcame, anyone can," says Loesch, a four-time Emmy winner with a history of involvement in children's television and who developed the Hallmark Channel before starting her current company. She is also on the board of Paulist Productions, the television and motion picture company founded by the late Paulist Fr. Ellwood "Bud" Kieser.
Loesch says one of the key incidents in Carson's life and in the film is an incident that happened when he was a teenager in junior high school.
"He lost his temper with a friend and jabbed him in the stomach with a knife, but fortunately hit his belt buckle and broke the knife right off. He then ran into the boy's room at his school and prayed and prayed. He felt very strongly that it was God's doing that put that belt buckle there, preventing him from hurting his friend and giving him a second chance in life," she says.
"That was a changing moment in his life."
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