A Yellow Day is taking both the challenges and the triumphs encountered in a day and using them to become a better person. The new movie Yellow Day shows people who have faced tragedies and overcome them. It’s a partially-animated movie based on true stories in the outreach community, made for parents and children to watch together, to show children how they can make their day Yellow and become better people in the process.

Bible Gateway interviewed Jeff Galle, writer/executive producer of Yellow Day (@yellowdaymovie).

Why is the movie titled “Yellow Day”?

Jeff Galle: The Yellow Day title comes from an incredible young lady named Krisanna Roberts. As a young girl, Krisanna Roberts was a bright spirit, someone who was known for bringing incredible joy to the people around her. When she was still a young girl, tragedy struck. Krisanna was diagnosed with an extremely rare brain tumor. The rest of her life would be spent in this battle. Nevertheless, she kept an incredible spirit and faith, and kept a magnificent light around her.

One of Krisanna’s favorite places in the world was Camp Grace. She spent summers there, participating in Camp Rap-a-Hope. There she could be among friends and be herself. When she was 15 years old, she was told she only had 6 months left to live. Her doctors asked her to use a color to describe her favorite days. That color was yellow.

Krisanna is in heaven now, but her legacy lives on around her. People still talk about her light and life, and her spirit is still celebrated at Camp Grace and by her community. A Yellow Day is not a day when everything goes right, but a day when one takes the good and bad, and by accepting God’s grace, allows it to shape them into who he or she is meant to be.

It was Krisanna’s concept of a bright sunshiny Yellow Day that impressed and inspired the creators to use the title and theme of her life in the movie. The movie is not a biopic of her life, but rather a movie that Krisanna can take her friends to. You can read more about Krisanna here.

How did the Bible sustain Krisanna and her family during their long ordeal?

Jeff Galle: Krisanna and her family are very close to God, and the Bible is a deeply important part to this faith component of her journey. Krisanna was very close to her “Mr. God,” and her entire journey is steeped in biblical concepts and language. It’s safe to say that the Bible and biblical principles were instrumental during her trials.

What role does the Bible have in the inspirational message of Camp Grace?

Jeff Galle: Camp Grace is a place based on biblical principles. Out on the lake at Camp Grace is a gigantic and beautiful cross; there to remind people of why they are there and what the Camp stands for. On top of the camp outreach, retreats are held there throughout the year. Part of the reason that Camp Grace hosts all the organizations at no cost is because of the Christian faith of the Camp owners.

What do you hope people will experience when they watch Yellow Day?

Jeff Galle: The Yellow Day movie features true stories of people who have overcome astonishingly difficult things in their life through the power of grace. What we hope is that parents can talk about the difficult issues in a way that shows kids redemption in the face of suffering, and hope in the face of great obstacles. We want people to be able to walk away from Yellow Day with an incredibly joyful spirit, having had fun watching a wildly imaginative film, but also understanding that by accepting grace, God will take all that the world throws at us, and allow it to shape us into who we’re meant to be.

Can you speak specifically to Bible verses and examples that contributed to the story (in real life as well as the movie)?

Jeff Galle: Our film teaches principles of faith, hope, and love, as found in 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 (NIV):

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Our film teaches about, and is based upon, the principles of grace, as found in Ephesians 2:8-10 (NIV):

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Our film teaches about putting aside darkness and shows a person putting on the armor of light, as it says in Romans 13:12 (NIV):

The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

What are your thoughts about Bible Gateway and/or the Bible Gateway App?

Jeff Galle: Bible Gateway is awesome! I use it regularly. I think that ensuring a fast way to find verses and understand them is a huge and necessary tool for all of us on the Internet! Great job!

Is there anything else you’d like to say?

Jeff Galle: We’re so excited to be putting together a movie that kids can learn from and parents can enjoy. Please check in with us at yellowdaymovie.com and makeitayellowday.today and like us on Facebook!

Bio: Jeff Galle is a creative producer and entrepreneur. He’s worked across media for over 15 years, producing, designing, promoting, directing, and creating. He’s a huge fan of too many things to count, but here are a few: art, theology, philosophy, history, code, production, animation, creation, composition, and many others. Following Yellow Day, he’s looking forward to producing great new content.