Kevin:
Producer, latest, Woodlawn
Actor, latest: Faith of Our Fathers
Has appeared in several faith-based films including Six: The Mark Unleashed, Midnight Clear, The Moment After 2, Thr3e Courageous, Silver Bells and Moms' Night Out
Producer: The Moment After, Mercy Streets, Like Dandelion Dust, The Lost Medallion
Director: Amazing Love, Six: The Mark Unleashed
Wife: Catherine
Sons: Nathaniel, Benicio, and Joshua
Caleb:
Actor, latest: Woodlawn
Model: Print; Russel Athletics; Sprint; Commercials; Nike, Air Jordan |
Guest Bio
Movie Woodlawn Tackles Racial Tension
CBN.com
–MOVIES WITH A PURPOSE
Kevin:
Well known for his role as Shane Fuller in Courageous, Kevin Downes has been acting, producing, directing and writing films for over 20 years. He majored in theater for his first two years of college and moved to L.A. when he was 20. Kevin said, “What I started to learn was that I wanted to do things that mattered. I wanted to make decisions that mattered.” After being cast in a faith-based film at age 22, he says he fell in love with the entire production process. “I was really touched by the lives that were being affected by the work that I had done in the film and the film itself. It was from that point that I knew that this is what I wanted to do for a living.” Through the years, he worked on several projects and learned the film industry. He now produces, directs, and stars in top-notch faith-based films. “I just feel really blessed and very fortunate to be able to do what I love,” he said.
Caleb:
It seems like fate that Caleb Castille would play Tony Nathan. Two generations of Castille’s family—his father, Jeremiah, and his two older brothers, Tim and Simeon—played football at the university of Alabama and went on to play in the NFL. Caleb was a corner back for the legendary Crimson Tide, but Caleb didn’t share his family’s dreams of playing professional football. He wanted to become an actor. In 2013, he left his college football team and began auditioning for roles.
Caleb, a strong Christian, passed up roles that conflicted with his ideals or were derogatory depictions of young African American men believing, as his sister Leah would say, "God's got something better for you." When Caleb heard that the Erwin Brothers were casting for Woodlawn, Caleb sent an audition tape for the lead role of Tony Nathan. To Caleb’s dismay, another actor was cast for that part. Still, Caleb went to the film's open casting call for football players and was chosen as the body double for Tony Nathan. On September 28, Caleb signed the script sides and "claimed the role.” Over the next two weeks, Caleb trained with Ellis, the onscreen football players, and co-stars Richard Kohnke and Marcus Henderson until October 31st when casting director Andrew Erwin called to meet. After learning the original actor had fallen out, the Erwins said Ellis had pointed them to Caleb's audition tape, which they had not previously seen, and after watching it, they decided Caleb Castille was their Tony Nathan.
WOODLAWN
In this riveting true story of courage, strength, and football at the height of racial tension in Birmingham, Alabama, Todd Gerelds, son of Coach Tandy Gerelds, shares his father’s story that inspired the movie,Woodlawn. In the midst of violent, impassioned racial tensions in Birmingham, Alabama, new football coach Tandy Gerelds was struggling to create a winning football team at Woodlawn High School-one of the last schools in Birmingham to integrate. Coach thought the team he was handed did not have the caliber of players he needed to win, until he saw Tony Nathan run. Tony was African American. Coach Gerelds knew that putting him in as running back would be like drawing a target on his own back and the back of his soon-to-be-star player. Coach saw something in Tony, and he knew that his decision to let him play was about more than football. It was about doing what was right for the school and the city.
Soon, the only place in the city where blacks and whites got along was on Coach Gerelds’s football team. With the help of a new school chaplain, Tony looked beyond himself and realized that there was more at stake when winning a game.
In 1974, Coach Gereld’s interracial team made Alabama History drawing 42,000 Fans into the stadium to watch them play. It was this game that triggered the unity and support of the Woodlawn High School Colonels that finally allowed a city to heal and taught its citizens how to love.
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