Christmas In Carolina – A Black Holiday Movie This Holiday Season
It has been a tradition in my family to begin watching holiday movies on the Friday after Thanksgiving. This year I will be adding Christmas In Carolina to my Christmas holiday movie list.
Christmas In Carolina will be starring, Kellie Shanygne Williams and Darius McCrary of Family Matters, and will be released on November 1, 2020.
After losing her parents in a car accident, Elle (Joslyn Y. Hall of Atlanta), a career-driven investment banker has given up on love and Christmas until she meets Wesley (David L. Rowell of Com-pli-cat-ed), a former NBA player and CEO of a small marketing firm. Impetuously, Wesley invites Elle home for Christmas in South Carolina, with his parents (Kellie Shanygne Williams and Darius McCrary of ‘Family Matters’). With hesitation, Elle accepts and is given a much bigger present than she could ever have imagined!
South Carolina writer and producer, Stacie Davis, shares insights about making her first movie.
What inspired you to write and make, Christmas in Carolina?
I remember like it was yesterday. I was sitting in the family room with my Mom watching a Christmas movie and I said to her, “I can write a Christmas story.” Her response was “Yes, you can – all you have to do is write it.” I told her I would be back and left in the middle of the movie to begin writing Christmas in Carolina.
Movies are expensive to make! How did you do it?
The first thing you learn if you want to be an independent filmmaker is how to use all the resources at your disposal. After I wrote the script, I needed actors. My first stop was a site called Backstage.com (thanks to Backstage) and I also used social media (Instagram).
I contacted Kellie Williams (Laura Winslow) and received a phone call from her father, Mr. Ervin Williams. Kellie signed on to participate in the project. Weeks later, Kellie introduced me to Darius McCrary and he agreed to play the brother to Kellie’s character.
My Family, the Davis, and the White families, sponsored’ catering, ground transportation, lodging, props for film, set decorations, and the list goes on. My church, The Door of Hope Christian Church and The Christian Covenant Fellowship of Ministries also helped with catering, locations, and participated not only as our background extras, they also joined in the choral. For the music, my sister, Christina Faith Davis created five original songs that are placed in the film. Truly, it was an entire village.
After months of prepping and planning, and asking for (a lot of!) favors, it was time to shoot. And in the beginning of December 2019, we started.
What was a wow moment?
On the last day of filming, when we said “it’s a wrap!” I realized I had just seen my pages (script) come to life with actors portraying characters I wrote. It was such an amazing feeling because I remembered how I started this project, writing in my room, using Writer Duet. And even though we had little money, we had faith, a big dream, and ambition (work ethic) to make it possible. I truly believe all things are possible to those that believe. Matthew 19:26
Christmas in Carolina is now going to be available everywhere! How did this happen?
A couple of years ago, I made a documentary and when I was looking for a distributor I found Legacy Distribution. I connected with the company’s CEO, Dana Webber, who is one of the most dynamic business leaders, I’ve ever met. While my documentary wasn’t a match for her company at the time, we stayed in touch, and of course, she was the first person I called about Christmas in Carolina. After watching the early footage, she said YES! And she worked with me to get everything finished and approved – from the trailer to the film itself. For all the indie filmmakers out there, Dana and her company, Legacy, are is the best to work with!
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