Charleston’s history, culture to be featured in documentary

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Charleston’s history, culture to be featured in documentary
June 20, 2009
Index-Journal

CHARLESTON -- City Film Productions, a studio specializing in documentaries on America’s 13 original colonies, will soon begin filming a documentary on Charleston.

"Charleston - The Soul of a City” is set to premiere in April 2011 and tells the story of the city against an architecturally authentic backdrop, bringing to life the city’s illustrious and sometimes notorious past.

Randy Jarvis, the studio’s director of photography, said the production team’s goal is for the film to be "an emotional archaeology” unearthing the very heart of Charleston’s past.

"Over the past year we’ve culled stories and images that are beautiful, amusing,

curious, compelling and eloquent to convey the drama and grief as well as the horrors and victories of the city’s past,” Jarvis said. "The studio’s goal is to produce a film that’s comprehensive and accurate and no matter race, culture or age, keep all captivated.”

The studio began pre-production about a year ago.

Through 3-D architectural renderings, the studio will re-create Charleston’s streets, homes and businesses as they appeared in the late 1800s. Archival and private image collections and vintage broadcast footage will be blended with ground and aerial cinematography. Filming will be done in Charleston, and throughout South Carolina, Barbados and Washington D.C.

The studio’s goal is to have more than half of the images coming from collections that have never been seen by the public before.

"We believe there to be a significant cache of images sitting in people’s attics and chests so the studio will have an ongoing campaign to get the word out about our search for portraits, photographs and 16-millimeter home film footage,” Pat Anderson, the film’s publicist, said. "In exchange for their use in the film, we not only provide a duplicate copy of the image or footage restored on DVD to the owner but also provide a restored copy to the South Carolina Historic Society for their collection.”

Accompanying the story will be music from dozens of renowned artists, including

Yitzhak Perlman, singer/songwriter Edwin McCain and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

A portion of the soundtrack also will come from many of the local churches and choirs.

The film will be submitted to about 150 festivals throughout the U.S. and abroad, as well as tour 4,000 colleges.

It also will be available at Barnes & Noble Stores, boutique bookstores, Amazon.com, Netflix and a multitude of retailers throughout South Carolina.

Tickets to the premiere will be $3 to $5 range.

The studio is also making arrangements with a local theater so those with hearing disabilities can enjoy the film.

The documentary will include two bonus tracks. The first, “Charleston n The Soul of a City n Classroom Edition,” will be specifically designed for educators and broken down into chapter-by-chapter episodes with online lesson plans, activity ideas, a unique search interface with the Library of Congress and archival sites, and other resources to help students delve more deeply into Charleston’s rich history.

The classroom edition will be designed by 18 teachers throughout the state and made available to school systems throughout South Carolina.

The second bonus track, “Charleston, S.C. Today,” will be an eight- to 10-minute presentation featuring dozens of people describing, in their own words, what it’s like to live, work and play in the Holy City.

To see the trailer, make a tax-deductible contribution or learn how to submit materials for use in the film, visit www.TheCharlestonFilm.org or contact Pat Anderson at (843) 270-6168.