Filmmakers responsible for the faith-based movie "I'm Not Ashamed" have been trying for almost a year to get YouTube to allow its trailer to be shown on the video website, and say the Google-owned site rejected the promo and associated web channel because of "anti-Christian bias."
The producers have been trying since last October to convince YouTube to reinstate the video about the movie, which recreates part of the Columbine High School shooting, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
The filmmakers say the channel was reinstated this past week after The Reporter contacted YouTube, but it may be too little, too late.
"At the time the movie trailer for 'I'm Not Ashamed' was removed from YouTube in October of last year, it had over 5 million views," attorney Garrick Stotser said in a letter to YouTube. "My client was never provided with any clear explanation or substantiation of why the movie trailer was removed. YouTube's removal of the movie trailer has interfered with promotional activities of the film."
The movie is the true story of Rachel Joy Scott, the first person killed in the deadly 1999 shootings in Columbine, Colorado.
The movie's trailer does contain a brief look at killers Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris making a video before their rampage, as well as a snippet showing the school shooting.
Google last week admitted that it sometimes makes "the wrong call on content that is flagged by our community. When this is brought to our attention, we review the content and take appropriate action, including restoring videos or channels that were mistakenly removed."
Film producer Chuck Howard said he created a channel on YouTube last year for the movie and put behind the scenes video and an official trailer on it to promote the film. In October, though, Howard received a notification that the video violated the website's standards, and YouTube then blocked it.
The movie, distributed by Pure Flix Entertainment, best known for distributing the two "God's Not Dead" films, is to open on Oct. 21.
YouTube has reinstated the video, but it still has given the movie's channel a "temporary penalty" and warned that other videos could lead to the account being terminated, so the filmmakers hired legal counsel to determine why the trailer was determined to be offensive.
In his letter, Stotser also asked YouTube for "compensation for 11 months of lost online marketing for the movie."
The filmmakers also said YouTube may be reacting to pressure from a Change.org petition that claims the movie's trailer "evokes a sense of glorification and entertainment" about Columbine.
The online petition was signed by 1,868 and delivered to Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper.
But Howard denied glamorizing the killer, but rather that the filmmakers "basically portrayed everything the way it happened."
Atheists online are also slamming the video as portraying Scott as a "Christian martyr," but the film references Scott's journal, where she wrote of her desire to practice her faith at school.
In the film, Scott is the only classmate mentioned by name by Klebold and Harris, when they refer to her as Rachel and say she and another female student, who was not shot that day, as "Christian, Godly little whores."
Howard, meanwhile, called YouTube an "information monopoly" and said Google skews "what people can see or do."
Further, he said there are many more objectionable videos on YouTube, including ISIS recruitment videos, but the movie's channel was removed because the video contains the world "Jesus."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.