Carol of the Bells won the Audience Award for Best Feature at the San Diego International Film Festival. It was created by Joey Travolta — yes, one of the five siblings of John — who has made it his mission to help students “develop self-esteem, confidence, and creativity through acting and digital film making.”

So what’s it all about? Well, a troubled young man has been looking for his mother and is amazed to find out that she’s developmentally disabled.

Me, I was astounded to learn that Geri Jewell was in this movie. She was a big deal when I was a kid, showing up and making every episode of The Facts of Life into a very special episode.

Lee Purcell (Valley Girl), Donna Pescow (yes, from that other Travolta movie Saturday Night Fever) and a cast and crew that is made up of 70% individuals with developmental disabilities makes this pretty interesting.

This is the kind of movie with a message that we rarely review on this site. Mainly, we’re just about people exploding and leather gloved hands choking people. But hey — we can recognize a sweet movie when it comes our way.

Carol of the Bells is available on demaond and on DVD March 3 from High Octane Pictures.

DISCLAIMER: We were sent this movie by its PR team.