The Story

Behind Our People

It was in stately Arlington, Virginia, at the Salvation Army’s US National Archives, that the dream of Our People grew legs. Leafing through yellowing old War Cry magazines from the 1890s, Peter Farthing suddenly realised there were hundreds of images to illustrate the Booth/Salvation Army story - many of them unseen for more than 100 years.

For five years he had dreamt of telling the William and Catherine Booth story for new generations, but hesitated to take on what seemed a huge project. Would it work? Was a quality documentary even possible? Was it a foolish dream? It seemed to be a call from God, yet Peter knew nothing about writing a documentary.

Then, in Arlington, a suburb of the city of Washington DC, archivist Scott Bedio showed Peter the old magazines, plus hundreds of superbly preserved photos. With each new find, Peter felt compelled to thank God. He now felt convinced he should press ahead.

The next week Peter spent several days in South East London, at the Army’s International Heritage Centre, where the helpful staff introduced him to their pictorial treasures. Photographic archivist Alex Von Der Becke handed Peter CDs with hundreds of photos already converted to digital files.

In a small store room, on the shelf of one cupboard, Peter made an exciting discovery—boxes of glass slides, used early in the Twentieth Century to tell the Salvation Army story. Here were colourised photos plus original colour art, of fabulous quality. It turned out boxes of slides were handed down from the Army’s second international leader, General Bramwell Booth, who, it seems probable, used them himself. Peter now realised it would be possible to tell the story visually, with powerful images very few people alive today had seen.

Returning home to Sydney Australia where he served as a Salvation Army officer, as Secretary for Personnel, Peter Farthing began to devote his spare hours to research. The next step was to begin filming interviews with historians and older Salvationists with stories to tell. For the first batch of filming, in London, John Anscombe and the Army’s UK Video Production Unit provided professional resources and skills.

When Peter was leaving, John urged him, ‘You need to find a director soon.’ Back home, Peter began to pray, and a few weeks later, Corey Baudinette walked into his office to discuss a completely different matter. Corey introduced himself as a producer/director, a partner in Radiant Films, and a committed, enthusiastic Salvationist. Our People had its director. The project now had a guiding hand who knew the business of making a film.

Subsequent filming took Peter and Corey, along with Peter’s wife Kerrie, to Boston, Ottawa, Los Angeles, London and Edinburgh. Historians such as Professor Dianne Winston of University of Southern California, amazed them with their insight and depth of knowledge.

All the while, Peter was hunting down photos and illustrations, spending hundreds of hours on-line, contacting museums and archives. Carolyn Hide, a colleague, sourced invaluable secular magazines which gave coverage to the early Army, and printed superb illustrations.

One colleague Salvation Army officer, Major Frank Moxon, travelled to Washington and London to do further scanning of the classic artwork and slides. Another, Major Heather Drew, took on the task of sorting the thousands of images collected.

But there were gaps in the story where no (or no quality) image was available. Enter the artists, gifted people such as New Zealand’s Major Haydn Rive or the UK’s Lieut-Colonel Peter Dalziel. All told, six artists have painted 30 original paintings, adding colour and life.

A crucial ingredient in any documentary is the story. Peter Farthing laboured at this for more than a year, reading advice from experts, working and re-working the events into a compelling narrative. An article by Ric Burns, who, with his brother Ken, co-produced the famous American Civil War documentaries, showed Peter how to take a long and complex history, and reduce it to a movie. Peter also received enormous help from Australian historian David Bennett’s two-volume biography of William Booth, along with the biography by American Salvationist Dr Roger Green.

Once the script was ready, Corey and Peter needed a narrator. Several attempts led nowhere: they wanted the right voice, and ideally a Christian, who could really feel the story. One afternoon, Peter asked his work colleagues to pray about it. When they finished praying, one mentioned there was a Christian actor who used to star on The Bill. That led Peter to a second Christian who had starred in The Bill. Russell Boulter who was living in Bristol, England, recently married, and anticipating the birth of their first child. Russ travelled to Sydney and gave a high quality, professional, yet also passionate voice to the narration.

By now, Peter and Corey had realised their story would interest people outside The Salvation Army as well as within. This was simply a terrific Christian story—a narrative with fascinating characters, and true drama. One chapter included national scandal, a court case and jail terms. Another saw the world’s leading atheist send 12 angry letters to the Times, attacking Booth and the Army. Ultimately though, this is the story of a boy who left school at 13 because of poverty, and ended up being given an honorary doctorate by Oxford University. It is the record of how God used William and Catherine Booth to take his love to the poor.

Music is one of the most powerful ingredients in any film. Our People has benefited from a number of gifted musicians. The opening scenes, for instance, feature William’s theme - actually a Nineteenth Century tune called ‘The Sheffield Apprentice’ - played on piano by Mark Glanville. Mark was a professional jazz pianist before becoming a Presbyterian minister. The next tune, Catherine’s theme, is another Nineteenth Century tune called ‘I must live all alone’. It is played on the violin by Canadian, Erin Goheen Glanville, who married Mark in 2009.

Altogether, more than 100 individuals have contributed to the project. The documentary has taken five years and several thousand hours to make.

Corey Baudinette, working in his offices in Sydney and Melbourne, has often worked long into the night, weaving the painstaking magic of making a movie.

He and Peter hope their film, Our People: The Story of William and Catherine Booth and The Salvation Army, will be used by God so that people will finish watching, then pray, ‘Lord, do it again!'.