Machine-gun preacher will screen movie in Winter Garden

The movie “Machine Gun Preacher” was just one way for Sam Childers to share his story. Gerard Butler played Childers in that 2011 drama.

But now Childers, who grew up in Central Florida, is telling his life story in another film called “The Machine Gun Preacher Documentary.”

Childers had 100 percent control over the documentary, and he’s happy that it leaves a few things openended.

“I believe God works everything out for the best,” Childers said. “We’ve been approached about doing a reality TV show or a documentary series. We will do one or the other.”

But first he will screen the documentary at 7 p.m. today and Thursday at the Garden Theatre, 160 W. Plant St. in Winter Garden. Tickets cost $12 each, and proceeds go to his six orphanages in Africa.

The documentary has been sold to a U.S. company and will be released to theaters in six to eight months, Childers said. But he wanted to have a screening in Central Florida, which he visits every year for Bike Week.

He estimated that the documentary cost $700,000.

"The documentary goes into depth about how bad of a guy I was," he said. "Thirty years ago, I was a bad guy, a thug, a drug dealer, just probably the meanest, awfulest guy you would meet. We want to show the world there is no excuse. You can change. But you have to want to change."