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They meet, as dreamers often do, in a bar - and on Monday nights, when only hardcore dreamers gather in such a place. But every man, woman and eager little child in the Charlotte Film Community is intoxicated with the long-fermenting belief that the local movie industry ought to grow.
This idea isn't new. It's been simmering in various places since North Carolina became a Southern moviemaking center about a quarter-century ago.
But the CFC is new; Juli Emmons and Maggie Sargent founded it this spring. They expected dozens of committed advocates, but they've been flooded over the intervening months with hundreds of actors, directors, writers, cinematographers, composers, editors and other technicians, from accomplished workers down to ambitious wannabes.
The name sounds generic, and perhaps that's the point: The CFC doesn't want to exclude anyone with clout, contacts or workable ideas about the motion picture business.
I went to the October meeting at Alive in NoDa and literally bumped into folks I've known for years (writer-director John Foutz, who shot his first film at 12 with a Super-8 camera) or had been meaning to meet (Kent Smith, who co-directed "The Last Passport" with Dave Temple and saw it go from pre-production to final cut in an amazing 30 days).
We all watched the winner of the CFC's Creative Charlotte Film Contest, a short about 50-something parents who get "Back in the Saddle" dating-wise with a vengeance.
Then came the night's cleverest notion: Participants were given three numbers that assigned them randomly to small groups, which met for 10 minutes to exchange ideas or business cards. It's speed-dating for filmmakers, where lasting relationships will ideally ensue. (See? This can happen in bars.)
"We're for anybody who wants to be involved," says Emmons, who has done casting out of Rock Hill. "If you'd like to be in someone's movies, show up and meet the person whose movies you'd like to be in. You don't have to say, 'This is 100 percent of what I want to do with my life.' You can be a devoted filmmaker who does something else for your living."
That's mostly the case in this region, which doesn't attract enough feature films to support a huge crew base. The CFC isn't in a position to fund a feature or seek money for directors who want to make one.
"That's not imminent," says Emmons. "I'd like to think we could do that one day, but we focus now on getting people to make their own films and giving them a place to network."
Monthly roundtables
The CFC holds monthly roundtables, where a core of a dozen or so filmmakers can discuss issues that need to be addressed by the group, and it sponsors a script-to-screen session in which members can critique each other's projects (often features in early stages).
Actress Haven Wilson joined the CFC because she wanted work, though pregnancy sidelined that desire awhile.
"I did a music video through (meeting director) Ryen Thomas, who's in the group," says Wilson, who also volunteered to handle CFC's public relations. "The main help has been in learning the industry locally. I've built relationships without having people think I'm pumping them for work."
Linking to Wilmington
The city already has a film office that recruits business in Hollywood or New York. The CFC isn't stepping on toes: It's organic, trying to build a movie industry from the ground up.
Emmons hopes to start a similar community in Wilmington in January, though "getting them together may be harder, because they're already working so much there. We'd then have places that are strong individually with a bridge connecting them, so people can go back and forth.
"The goal, ultimately, is to get projects for the whole state. It's a long road, but we've really taken off with this. So many people have already found what they're looking for."
