This highly uplifting tale inspired by a true story set in Oklahoma in 1913 was Kirk Ellis’s choice for this Western Night viewing.

Sarah Rector (played by remarkable first-time actress Naya Desir-Johnson), is an 11-year-old firmly religious black girl who, being a descendant of the Muscogee Creek Nation, was granted 160 acres of land that she was certain God had put oil underneath. Soon, an oil company tried to steal it away from her, telling her no oil was there. Two wildcat drillers believed in Sarah and she in them. The wildcatters — Bert Smith (Zachary Levi), a wonderfully charming rogue, and his level-headed Hispanic friend Mace (Mel Rodriguez) — are firm in their desire to bring the black gold to the surface, until things turn ugly when oil executive Jim Devnan, (a superbly vile Garret Dillahunt), starts legal, and illegal, chicanery.

Greed, corruption and murder, as well as absolute belief in God’s goodness and mercy, drive director Cyrus Nowrasteh’s simply told yet powerful film, which he co-wrote with his wife, Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh, based on Tonya Bolden’s book, SEARCHING FOR SARAH RECTOR: THE RICHEST BLACK GIRL IN AMERICA.

Shot on location in Oklahoma (often in reportedly 110-degree heat), the film has a running time of 1 hour and 43 minutes and is available to rent on Amazon Prime.

Along with Kirk, Emmy winning screenwriter and producer, as well as author of the book THEY KILL PEOPLE about the making of BONNIE AND CLYDE, our group includes Johnny D. Boggs, record ten-time Spur Award-winning author and Owen Wister Award winner whose work includes his latest, BLOODY NEWTON, Kirk’s wife, Sheila, David Morrell, award-winning author and New York Times best-selling author of FIRST BLOOD, the novel that introduced the character Rambo, and Robert Nott, award-winning journalist and author of several books on Western films, including his most recent RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY that examines the production, themes and legacy of the film that launched Sam Peckinpah’s career.

Watch the trailer below