Students at the School of Visual Art and Design at Southern Adventist University, an Adventist institution in Collegedale Tennessee, have completed production of a feature film, “Angel in Chains,” to be released this fall for national distribution.

Based on a 1974 true story, later published in Arizona Highways magazine, “Angel in Chains” is the first commercial production for the students and Southern Adventist University, and will be released under the name “SAU Films.”

The film centers around a motorcycle gang, whose leader has burned out his clutch and stops at a lone house in the Arizona desert, the home of a mother and her six-year-old daughter. Having no fear, the daughter ventures out of the house and becomes a go-between for the gang and her mother. Over the course of the next two days the gang’s leader is reminded of his own daughter whom he abandoned.

“I liked the fact that it was a true story,” says David George, the film’s producer and film instructor for the university. He says the story was chosen because it was basic to the human experience. While not a Christian story per se, “It portrays someone making the right choice,” says George.

“It’s a very direct mission effort,” says Wayne Hazen, dean of the School of Visual Art and Design at the university. “It looks like it can be a major prison ministries tool,” explaining that many biker groups visit prisons, show a movie and share their testimony.

The school produces one film every year. The class picks “life-changing stories where the Holy Spirit can work on a person’s heart,” says Hazen.

Filming lasted one month and was shot on location in Sonoita and Elgin, Arizona, some 50 miles southeast of Tucson. Thirty students and faculty were involved in production. The soundtrack is written by Michael Bonagura of Nashville, Tennessee.

“Angel in Chains” will be distributed by Pacific Press Publishing Association based in Nampa, Idaho, through Adventist Book Centers. More information can be found at the SAU Films Web site,

http://art.southern.edu/films/