Ragamuffin

Color Green Films

Based on the life and legacy of contemporary Christian music singer-songwriter Rich Mullins, Ragamuffin releases on DVD May 6. The film stars Michael Koch as Mullins and is written by Ashleigh Phillips and David Leo Schultz.

“Ragamuffin is a stirring film that will touch audiences and challenge them to consider what is most important in their own lives,” says Schultz, who also produced and directed. “The movie’s heartfelt themes include redemption, forgiveness, faith and the true meaning of God’s unconditional love.”

Mullins, who died in a 1997 accident at the age of 41, grew up in Indiana as the son of a tree farmer father and Quaker mother. He performed with a touring Christian music group in his teens and then attended Cincinnati Bible College from 1974 to 1978.

After moving to Nashville in the 1980s, Mullins wrote songs for Amy Grant, Debby Boone and other notable Christian artists and recorded nine solo projects with Reunion Records. He was nominated for 12 Dove Awards throughout his career and had many No. 1 radio hits. His church standard “Awesome God” was voted one of the top three songs of the decade in 1989 by the Christian Research Report.

The film’s title is a nod to the name of a band Mullins formed late in his career, called A Ragamuffin Band, which was inspired by Brennan Manning’s book The Ragamuffin Gospel.

“The response [to the film] has been overwhelmingly positive,” Schultz says. “God is using this film to touch lives, which is what we wanted to do in the first place.” —Spencer Jones