The Hopeful
A film about what happens when everything falls apart.
Most stories about faith are stories about certainty. This one isn't.
Set in 19th century New England, The Hopeful follows William Miller, a man who spent years convinced he had worked out something that would change everything, and then watched that conviction collapse in the most public way imaginable. Alongside him is Ellen Harmon, a 16-year-old who has every reason to stay quiet and chooses not to.
What director Kyle Portbury captures is not the triumph of getting it right. It's what happens to people who get it spectacularly wrong, and keep going anyway. The doubt. The grief. The slow, disorienting process of finding something unexpected on the other side of a belief that didn't hold.
The true story behind the film
The events in The Hopeful mark one of the most significant turning points in modern Christian history. If you find yourself curious about what actually happened, and what those people believed they had found, there's a free five-lesson course that traces the same story in more depth.
Each lesson is around 15 minutes. No prior knowledge needed.
