The hit film, “Sound of Freedom,” featuring the La Cañada Flintridge team of Tim Ballard — the subject of the film — and director Alejandro Monteverde, has exceeded box office expectations this summer.
The film, which has made more than $100 million domestically, is based on the true story of Ballard when he worked as a special agent undercover operative for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the world of child trafficking. The film was released on the Fourth of July.
“I never dreamed there would be a movie about it,” Ballard told the Outlook Valley Sun. “I was just doing my job.”
As the film depicts, Ballard was on a case in Colombia when he was told to come back to the United States and to stop working on the cases.
“I knew the only way I could work [on the cases] is if I just quit,” said Ballard.
He was able to successfully save 54 children from the case, and that is when Ballard got noticed nationally.
The heroic case took place in 2014 and just a year later, he was talking with Monteverde about making his real life into a movie.
Monteverde was already developing a script for a fictional movie about child trafficking before he met Ballard.
“I always say that there’s two kinds of movies: the ones that I want to make, and the ones that I’m called to make, and this was definitely a calling,” Monteverde told the Outlook Valley Sun.
The two La Cañadans met for lunch and Monteverde realized that Ballard’s “life was better than the feature I was writing, and that’s when I decided to shift gears. I put the older screenplay on the side, and I started from scratch.” Monteverde also directed the film “Little Boy” in 2015.
Both Ballard and Monteverde explained the next steps, which included Ballard telling everything that he had done in his work. The team spent three days straight in a cabin.
“I was crying because it was like a therapy session,” said Ballard. “[Monteverde] was opening up recesses in the dark corners of my brain … that had not been opened. I had not gotten the kind of mental health care that I should have gotten working this [job], and that kind of woke me up to it. It was therapeutic because I’m telling the whole story.”
Monteverde said that this film was especially difficult since he was working with someone who was alive and had input on how to structure the movie rather than past movies he has done of people who had passed.
“The most difficult part is how to write a movie about this dark subject matter in a way that is hopeful, and that the audience can digest it,” said Monteverde. “That was when we decided that we needed to create a cinematic experience to keep reminding the audience that they’re watching a movie about something that happened, but it’s still a movie that will leave you with a magical experience because movies are magical.”
Ballard made certain he had some involvement with the process of the movie, like making sure that there were no scenes of children being abused.
“They make me look way more badass than I am,” said Ballard, laughing. “I’m going to be honest because this is real to me, this is an actual mission. This isn’t about a movie.”
Ballard was even able to request actor Jim Caviezel to play the part of him in the movie, even though he looked nothing like Ballard.
“My first choice was Jim Caviezel,” said Ballard. “At the time, my favorite was ‘The Count of Monte Cristo,’ and faith is a big part of my whole journey. So I wanted an actor who I knew had that element as well. That was important to me.”
“He took the role so fast because it touched him because he adopted three children out of China, and got them out of trafficking situations,” he added. “None of us knew that. So he was very personally tied to the problem of child trafficking.”
The two, deep in their endeavor, eventually learned they had community ties to La Cañada Flintridge. Ballard had grown up in the city and his parents still reside here while Monteverde has been living here for seven years.
“It was meant to be,” said Monteverde.
The movie’s success has been a shock for Ballard, Monteverde and Ballard’s parents. Ballard didn’t even think the film would reach a cinema.
“Oh, I thought for sure it wasn’t going to happen,” said Ballard. “I think I saw a stat that said less than 5% of movies from concept make it to the big screen.”
The idea of making “Sound of Freedom” took a pause when COVID hit, along with the realization that the film tackles a difficult subject for some audience members to sit through. But Monteverde always said that the movie provided hope and awareness.
“It breaks my heart that this has become politicized,” Monteverde said. “This is children we’re talking about. We should not get stuck in the details, or into who’s behind the film.”
Ballard was very impressed with Monteverde’s work in “Sound of Freedom,” and got to hear real lines that were said to Ballard on his case: “Do you hear that? That’s the sound of freedom.”
“This last weekend was bigger than the first weekend, which apparently never happens,” said Ballard. “It’s supposed to progressively go down, but we’re going up and adding [the movie] to more theaters, and we haven’t even gone international yet.”
Melanie Ballard, Tim Ballard’s mother, thought the movie was done tastefully and believes that Monteverde is a genius.
“It’s touched so many lives,” said Melanie Ballard, who has seen the film four times with her husband, Dennis Ballard, since it was released. “It was the firm affirmation that there’s many people who have been in really toxic, frightening situations, and we’re not aware of it. So I think that we definitely need to join as a human family.”
“We thought the [movie] was fantastic,” said Dennis Ballard. “We know a lot of people involved in it, and it was great.”
The movie has been a life-changing experience for Tim Ballard.
“This is a long-haul kind of project. It could be in theaters for quite some time, and it’s changed my whole life,” said Tim Ballard, who graduated from La Cañada High School in 1994 and was an all-league basketball star for the Spartans.
He said that he has stepped away from the main nonprofit that he started, Operation Underground Railroad, and his organization, the Nazarene Fund, to be an independent consultant for any organization he wants.
“I’ve stepped away from both of the organizations that I was running, but only so I can fight more effectively in the same fight,” Tim Ballard said. “I’m now consulting on several organizations to help them get funding and do operations.”
He doesn’t want to stop his work anytime soon.
“I just want to keep this momentum going, because the world is waking up to a problem that’s been a problem for a long time, but it hasn’t received the awareness until now,” Tim Ballard said.
“I’m trying to strategize as best I can to take the goodness of what’s happening and convert that into more help, rescue and rehabilitation for victims,” he added.
“I think we live in such a polarized world now,” said Melanie Ballard. “But when it comes to children, I think we could unitedly join in upfront that they have to be protected.”
Monteverde encourages people to watch the movie and create awareness.
“I’m just very grateful to have met Tim and his whole family,” said Monteverde. “I’m also really amazed that his parents live only a couple of blocks from my house.”
First published in the July 27 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
