Ashley Barrett’s ‘Faith in Hope’ is a gorgeously crafted 90-second microfilm that manages to fuse spiritual testimony, cinematic grace, and poetic voice into something truly profound. It features Grace Gonzalez, whose presence is soul-bearing.
Told entirely through Gonzalez’s own voice, the film uses her real-life near-death experience – a devastating car accident – as a spiritual pivot. What emerges isn’t trauma-porn or cliché salvation tale, but a distilled moment of divine clarity. Gonzalez speaks not as a preacher, but as a poet in prayer. We see her in quiet devotion, writing in her religious book – a simple image, but potent, echoing the quiet endurance of faith.
Barrett’s direction is delicately attuned. The cinematography is stunning, every shot finely lit and beautifully composed – almost angelic like. There’s no cheap sentiment here. No sermon. Just a woman reborn in silence and sincerity.
The film is religious, unapologetically Christian, yet miraculously universal. You don’t need to believe in Jesus to believe in Grace. Her message is one of hope – utterly human, hauntingly relatable. ‘Faith in Hope’ is a whisper of something bigger, captured in the fragile breath between death and new life. It’s hard to make something this small feel this big. But Barrett and Gonzalez do it. Boldly, humbly, beautifully.
