{"id":8631,"date":"2020-02-13T11:37:28","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T16:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=8631"},"modified":"2020-02-13T11:49:02","modified_gmt":"2020-02-13T16:49:02","slug":"the-grizzlies-finds-inspiration-and-most-of-its-cast-up-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/02\/the-grizzlies-finds-inspiration-and-most-of-its-cast-up-north.html","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;The Grizzlies&#8221; finds inspiration &#8211; and most of its cast &#8211; up north"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith and media:<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Qq8huOmTDUU&#038;feature=youtu.be<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>To Sir with Love<\/strong><\/em><strong> meets <em>Northern Exposur<\/em>e. <\/strong>That plot from one of my all-time favorite films mixed with a dash of a classic TV show sort of describes the plot to <em>The Grizzlies<\/em> (opening wide in theaters next month). Except <em>The Grizzlies<\/em> is based on a true story.<\/p>\n<p>The film is about a group of Eskimo students in a small Canadian town who are struggling to find their way. With nothing to do in their extremely tight-knit community, many of them turn to alcohol and drug abuse to ignore their problems. Arriving on a one-year teaching contract, culturally-naive Russ Sheppard (Ben Schnetzer, <em>7 Days in Entebbe<\/em>) stumbles onto the sport of lacrosse as a means to inspire them to achieve personal goals.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, except for Schnetzer and Will Sasso (<em>Mad TV, Mom<\/em>), the cast is made up mostly of indigenous people from Nanavut and the Northwest Territories of Canada. \u201cThe process of finding and training young actors for <em>The Grizzlies<\/em> was one of the most challenging, moving and exciting experiences of my life,\u201d according to director Miranda de Pencier. In fact, over 600 young people from over 25 local communities auditioned for roles. Is a future star among them? Time will tell.<\/p>\n<p>Check out more about the movie <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegrizzliesmovie.com\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em><span class=\"st\">Encourage one another and build each other up &#8211; <\/span><\/em><span class=\"st\">1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith and media: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Qq8huOmTDUU&#038;feature=youtu.be To Sir with Love meets Northern Exposure. That plot from one of my all-time favorite films mixed with a dash of a classic TV show sort of describes the plot to The Grizzlies (opening wide in theaters next month). Except The Grizzlies is based&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1],"tags":[9618,9612,9615],"class_list":["post-8631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies","category-uncategorized","tag-ben-schnetzer","tag-the-grizzlies","tag-will-sasso"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&quot;The Grizzlies&quot; finds inspiration - and most of its cast - up north<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/02\/the-grizzlies-finds-inspiration-and-most-of-its-cast-up-north.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;The Grizzlies&quot; finds inspiration - and most of its cast - up north\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith and media: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Qq8huOmTDUU&#038;feature=youtu.be To Sir with Love meets Northern Exposure. That plot from one of my all-time favorite films mixed with a dash of a classic TV show sort of describes the plot to The Grizzlies (opening wide in theaters next month). Except The Grizzlies is based&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/02\/the-grizzlies-finds-inspiration-and-most-of-its-cast-up-north.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-13T16:37:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-13T16:49:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. Kennedy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"The Grizzlies\" finds inspiration - and most of its cast - up north","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/02\/the-grizzlies-finds-inspiration-and-most-of-its-cast-up-north.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"The Grizzlies\" finds inspiration - and most of its cast - up north","og_description":"Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith and media: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Qq8huOmTDUU&#038;feature=youtu.be To Sir with Love meets Northern Exposure. That plot from one of my all-time favorite films mixed with a dash of a classic TV show sort of describes the plot to The Grizzlies (opening wide in theaters next month). Except The Grizzlies is based&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/02\/the-grizzlies-finds-inspiration-and-most-of-its-cast-up-north.html","og_site_name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","article_published_time":"2020-02-13T16:37:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-02-13T16:49:02+00:00","author":"John W. Kennedy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/02\/the-grizzlies-finds-inspiration-and-most-of-its-cast-up-north.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/02\/the-grizzlies-finds-inspiration-and-most-of-its-cast-up-north.html","name":"\"The Grizzlies\" finds inspiration - and most of its cast - up north","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-02-13T16:37:28+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-13T16:49:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/02\/the-grizzlies-finds-inspiration-and-most-of-its-cast-up-north.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/02\/the-grizzlies-finds-inspiration-and-most-of-its-cast-up-north.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/02\/the-grizzlies-finds-inspiration-and-most-of-its-cast-up-north.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"&#8220;The Grizzlies&#8221; finds inspiration &#8211; and most of its cast &#8211; up north"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/","name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - John W. Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8631"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8643,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8631\/revisions\/8643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}