BLAKELY — Driving through the vast expanses of farmland in Early County, one may never expect to happen upon a film festival, much less a celebrity.
But Ralph Wilcox, director of the Southwest Georgia Film Commission Office, thinks South Georgia is the perfect place for movie industry players to converge.
Wilcox’s third annual Jokara-Micheaux Film Festival drew producers, directors, writers and actors to a three-day run of movie screenings spanning the small towns of Blakely, Colquitt and Camilla.
“When you get a lot of industry people together, you run the risk of egos clashing,” Wilcox said. “Not here. In the South, all the noises of the city, the glitz and the glamour, are gone. It gives incredible opportunity for energies to flow.”
The 39 films screened during the festival ranged in length from 3 minutes to just over two hours.
The crown jewel of the weekend was the feature film “The Lena Baker Story,” which was shot entirely in Southwest Georgia and written, produced and directed by Wilcox. The movie was set to be screened at a Saturday night gala with 600 people expected to attend.
Oscar-winning actor Lou Gossett Jr. was slated as the keynote speaker of the evening event.
According to the movie’s Web site, the film is based on the life of Lena Baker, who was the only woman in Georgia to receive the death penalty by the electric chair for shooting a man in 1945. Baker was posthumously pardoned in 2005.
“The Lena Baker Story” stars Tichina Arnold, who plays on TV sitcom “Everybody Hates Chris”, and Beverly Todd, who appeared in the recent film “The Bucket List” with Hollywood heavy-hitters Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson.
Producer and former Florida Film Commissioner Paul Sirmons screened his film “Amazing Grace” Saturday morning.
Sirmons said Southwest Georgia is a prime location for faith-based and family film settings.
“It takes people to make movies, and you have a visionary here in Ralph Wilcox, who saw the potential,” Sirmons said.
Sirmons said the area is also an ideal setting for period films or “any Americana story.”
“ ‘Field of Dreams’ could have been shot here — you’d just see peanut fields instead of corn fields,” Sirmons said.
As Sirmons’ “Amazing Grace” was showing, a massive block party was under way around Blakely’s town square.
Country singer Shane Owens played from the lawn of the Early County Courthouse while hundreds walked the square browsing goods from food vendors, craft tables and shaved ice stands.
Some spectators even witnessed an on-stage marriage proposal during Owens’ show.
“Did I hear that someone here wants to get married?” Owens called to the crowd.
Owens then bent down to a man in the front row and handed off his microphone. Hordes of onlookers gathered to see the proposal, and though the young woman’s response wasn’t audible, the couple’s hugging and dancing was enough to let the excited crowd know a wedding was in the works.
Amid all the activity, three teenage girls fanned themselves under an umbrella behind the courthouse.
Tori Kilman, 13, traveled from Atlanta with her family and her two best friends in tow.
Tori, whose grandmother lives in Blakely, said that although she and her friends don’t usually listen to country music, their favorite part of the festivities was the bands.
“We love the songs — we’re here for the party,” Tori said.
It was her friend Elaina Caldwell’s first visit to South Georgia.
“I like it here,” the 14-year-old said. “It feels so homey and everyone’s really nice.”
