Melissa McCarthy’s ‘Relighting Candles’ sheds light on one man’s charity

Relighting Candles: The Tim Sullivan Story is a documentary short produced by Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone, which highlights the remarkable story of Timothy Sullivan.

The film focuses on Sullivan's triumph over alcoholism and his efforts to provide employment opportunities to unhoused and newly sober community members through his candle-making business, Timothy Jay Candles.

“We were immediately in,” McCarthy tells PEOPLE of boarding the short film midway through the process as executive producers. “In today’s world, society tends to focus on the negative, so to help shine the light on love and kindness felt like a gift.”

He adds, “Kindness and second chances are some of our most powerful tools and Tim reminds us of this each day at his candle shop.”

Speaking to PEOPLE, Sullivan described the process of sharing his life story with Newman and Thomas as "extraordinary". He spent eight hours straight unspooling his journey, which turned out to be an eye-opening experience for him. Sullivan jokingly remarked that he was not aware of accomplishing so much in his life.

“I've never felt it so easy to be so honest and truthful about my whole life — from my time in New York when I was a child to when I was in advertising to when I came out here and got sober in 1981. And it was just a wonderful, wonderful thing to go through," he said.