It was fitting that Lander University sponsored the first ever showing of the film Long Shadows for its premiere in Greenwood last week.
The writing, production and now release of the film has provided an education in all things filmmaking to Lander students for the past few years.
Screenwriter Shelley Reid, of Abbeville, has spoken about the film at Lander’s annual film festival for the past three years. For two of those years, he was joined by actor and producer Grainger Hines, a fellow Lakelands native.
The Department of Communication and Languages, housed in Lander’s College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences sponsored the first showing of the film at Greenwood Premiere Cinema 10, giving students, staff and faculty a look at the traditional Western with a fresh new twist. Prior to the showing, Hines and Reid posed for pictures and addressed movie-goers from the red carpet, emceed by Dr. Robert Stevenson, professor of journalism at Lander. As a homecoming for the two filmmakers, Greenwood Mayor Brandon Smith presented a proclamation making the week “Long Shadows Week.”
Hines said the film was indebted to Lander—the success of the premiere showing sponsored by the Department of Communication and Languages led to more showings selling out the same evening and the film eventually being extended in Greenwood for a week.
“It does my heart good to know that people in my hometown see this movie,” Hines said.
“I really, really wanted to bring it here so I’m really grateful that Premiere Cinema and Lander provided that for us.”
Dr. Misty Jameson, associate dean of the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences and professor of English and film studies, said that being able to see two people who have come from small towns—Hines and Reid—do big, great things is worth students’ time.
She pointed out that students have had the opportunity to hear from them during the film festival and learn about the movie bit by bit.
It’s not just something that magically appears when you sit down and open Netflix, she pointed out.
“It takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of effort but it’s worthwhile in the end,” Jameson said.
“We have a lot of talented students at Lander and I could see some of them someday being up on the screen or being behind the scenes as well.”