Moondance Alexander
Fox Faith
by Ken Wiegman

You may remember Michael Damien from his stint on the daytime soap Young and the Restless, or from his rock and roll days of pops stardom with Rock On, but get ready for a new side of the actor/rock star.

Michael grew up in a large family with nine children in all,with six girls and three boys. The family was, as Michael explained, a cross between the Osmond’s meet the Partridge’s. The family sang together and toured together much of his childhood. Michael also said that his mother was a concert pianist and she taught them an appreciation for music.

Michael caught his first big break on the TV show American Bandstand, hosted by Dick Clark. After his appearance on American Bandstand, Michael was approached by the producers of the daytime soap, The Young and the Restless,and asked to play a struggling artist character on the show. Michael enjoyed successes on TV,and in his music career with his first #1 record titled “Rock On.” Michael was also featured on Broadway in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Michael stated that through his interactions in front of the camera he was inspired to “expand and take it to the other side of the camera.”

Moving to the other side of the camera, Michael and his wife, Janeen, began writing scripts. Additionally, the two were working on a TV pilot in France for a show they had created. At the time they could not find a director for various reasons so Michael decided to take on the job, and the fever caught him.

Now, with the release of their first major family film, Moondance Alexander,the Damien’s have found a happy place. This film has already garnered them independent recognition with a 2007 Dixie Film Festival Award for Best Feature Film and the Newport Beach Film Festival Award for Best Family Feature Film among other accolades. The film has also received a big boost via 20th Century Fox, as far as distribution goes.

The film is about a story that was inspired by real events in Janeen’s childhood. In particular,about her adventures growing up with her horse Checkers. The story line is inspirational and shows true characteristics of courage, faith, and perseverance. As Michael stated, the story is about “not giving up your dreams.” Furthermore he explained, “sometimes you’re going to face challenges and obstacles in life and you have to find a way to work through them.”

Although the film is being distributed through Fox Faith, the primary intent of the film was not to be religious or outwardly Christian. “I don’t think a film has to be quote – unquote religious to be a film of faith,” said Michael. There are elements of faith in the film, but the primary drive of the film is to exhibit role models and good characters that people can connect with and be inspired by.

Moondance Alexander stars some well-known names including, Don Johnson, Lori Loughlin, and James Best and it features Kay Panabaker, staring in the lead role as Moondance, and Olympic Skating Silver Medalist Sasha Cohen. The quality of actors gives the film much credibility and each person embodied their characters well. In particular, Don Johnson and Kay Panabaker, with the two largest roles, did a wonderful job of dialoging together in a way that you could truly connect to the characters.

The feature overall is a good high-quality production with good acting, it’s well produced and believable, and the story is encouraging as the characters meet obstacles in their lives and face them with courage and for one character they discover redemption. The film does tie in well with Christian teaching and as a part of Fox Faith’s promotion there is a study guide that can be downloaded from their web site. The study guide covers several biblical lessons garnered from the film and at the same time it gives short stories about how life was on the set while filming the feature.

I would highly recommend the film for families and I do believe that there is a message of hope, redemption, and faith that can be gained from watching the film. My only reservation, or complaint, was that the character of the mother tended to be slightly new age with her religious views. There is nothing particularly endorsed by the character, but it was a part of her life and I would have liked to see her lean more or a Christian view of spirituality if she was going to exhibit any view at all.

Moondance Alexander is a good family film and a welcomed change in the direction of feature films. I too, like Michael,hope that people show support of the family film genre. For more information on this film you can visit the official website and for the study guide visit the Fox Faith website by clicking here.