Tracey Eaton, the documentary filmmaker behind God Bless America, Baby spoke about how the movie shows the importance of the Pollock family’s Christian faith and how it “helped them endure” persecution by the federal government after the January 6, 2021, Capitol protest.
During an appearance on Breitbart News Saturday, Eaton explained that the movie follows Ben Pollock, a hay farmer in Polk County, Florida and his family, particularly his children, Olivia and Jonathan Pollock, who were at the January 6 Capitol protest and went on the run.
“I wanted to try to accurately portray their story. Originally, the title of this documentary was, Red, White and Angry, and I like that title, but as I got into the documentary and got to know Ben and his family, I realized that, yeah, they were angry in certain moments, but the story really isn’t about their anger. The story was — another important element was the importance of their Christian faith and how it helped them endure the years-long prosecution by the government. And, so I changed the title to, God Bles America, Baby,” Eaton explained.
Eaton explained that the title of the movie is a quote from Ben Pollock, which Eaton thought “was a more fitting title” than the original name, “Red, White and Angry.”
“At one point he went to Mar-a-Lago, and he was at the airport and he was filming, doing a home-video of Trump’s plane and just spontaneously kind of blurts out, ‘God Bless America, Baby.’ I thought that was a more fitting title than, Red, White, and Angry. Because a lot of times in the media — I’ve worked in mainstream media for years and years, we would tend to kind of downplay religion and in this case, I decided to just follow the story, follow who they are, not who I maybe thought they were.”
Eaton went on to explain that Ben Pollock’s children, Olivia and Jonathan, went on the run because they felt they “weren’t going to get a fair trial,” adding that Jonathan, who went on the run first, learned “not to go to big box stores.”
“They were charged, and because they thought they weren’t going to get a fair trial, they eventually decided to just go on the run. It’s really interesting talking to Jonny and Olivia about — Jonny said he would sometimes wear disguises, he would learn not to go to big box stores because they have all the cameras, so he would go to little mom-and-pop joints if he needed something.”
“And, he said he traveled around, he had support from other Americans, and he went from state to state. He was on the run first, and then later Olivia cut off her ankle bracelet and joined him, along with a family friend Joseph Hutchinson. So, all three were, at one point, on the run together and they were working on a ranch in Florida. And, according to Ben someone — there was reward money, and someone told the FBI where they were.”
The film’s trailer can be found on YouTube, and information on God Bless America, Baby can be found at IMDb. The film is streaming on Relay. The film can also be found on Tracey Eaton’s website.
