Christopher Knight Says Working on His New Documentary About Williams Syndrome ‘Melted My Heart’ (Exclusive)

Christopher Knight brings smiles to families across the country with a heartwarming new documentary.

Knight, 65, best known for his time on the beloved sitcom The Brady Grouphe found a new role as a partner with the former Prodigy Media, which launched its first film last year True Love: The Moviea documentary about people with the genetic disorder Williams syndrome.

Williams syndrome, first identified by researchers in 1961, is a rare genetic condition that often coincides with a number of medical and developmental problems. Individuals with Williams syndrome often also exhibit “advanced verbal skills, highly social personalities, and an affinity for music,” according to the Williams Syndrome Association — where Knight and True love: cinematic subject Callie Truelove enters the picture.

“We didn’t set out to make the film to be part of Williams syndrome awareness, but we’re grateful that it can be used that way,” Knight tells PEOPLE.

The documentary revolves around Callie, a Georgia teenager with Williams syndrome who rose to social media fame after starting a Facebook page in 2014. After Callie’s appearance on the Special Books by Special Kids YouTube channel in 2017, Knight and his co-producer Phil Viardo became interested. for working with the family on a story about Callie’s impact on others. As it says on the film’s official website: “Callie grew up to see only the good and the positive in the world and the people around her.”

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True Love: Movie Poster.

Courtesy of the former Prodigy Media

“She melted my heart. She melted my wife’s heart,” Knight says of first meeting Callie. “She’s just amazing in that sense, because she brings people together – and it’s not just her.”

Knight tells PEOPLE he didn’t know about Williams syndrome before he met Callie. Upon further research into the condition, he “couldn’t calculate” that the effects of the condition show that “our genetic makeup, our personalities, our abilities to get along are also embedded in our DNA.”

The Real love team set out to film her experiences and meet others with Williams syndrome across the country whom she connected with through social media. The production was filmed in 2021 because the complications of the COVID-19 pandemic made production difficult due to the high-risk nature of people with the disorder.

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“The only audience we wanted to make sure was accepting of us was the Williams community,” Knight says of showing an early version of the film at a conference for those affected by Williams syndrome. “And there was a great outpouring of support on that issue. Not only support, but they also wanted it [the final movie] immediately, interestingly, for their own families to be able to show other members … to describe what it is that their child might have,”

True Love: The Movie launched Knight and Viard’s production company and marked Viard’s directorial debut. The film also won awards at the Beverly Hills Film Festival, the California Independent Film Festival and the Awareness Film Fest in LA live.

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Callie Truelove, Christopher Knight and Callie’s parents in ‘Truelove: The Movie’.

Courtesy of the former Prodigy Media

For Knight, the documentary provides a breath of fresh air for audiences, the film industry and the former Prodigy Media, which also released an animated narrative film titled Inventor in September.

“It is an extension of the struggle that was before me from my childhood that was presented in [The Brady Bunch]” says Knight, recalling that his mother thought his cult series was “simple and corny” because of its friendly portrayal of a fictional family.

“And I, as a 12-year-old, would ask her: ‘What’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with the family getting along?’ And she really didn’t have an answer, but she didn’t like sweets,” she adds. “But man, we live cruelly all the time, there’s no way to build societies.”

True Love: The Movie is now available as video on demand and streaming on YouTube, Tubi and Plex Friday. Those interested in learning more about Williams syndrome can visit the Williams Syndrome Association website for more information.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education