'We're going to put on the show of our lives': Director of ‘Bull Street’ returns to Summerton to encourage attendance of upcoming feature film

There is an infectious charm to small towns. Whether it's the close-knit community or the wholesome hospitality or the rich history embedded in each nook and cranny of its town line, small towns pack a big punch when it comes to making an impact.

And that's precisely what Lynn Dow got by choosing Summerton and its neighboring towns as locations for her first feature film, "Bull Street."

The New Yorker, alongside executive producer Wendy Tucker Tannock, who hails from Bermuda, will bring the film to South Carolina theaters on June 7, and they require the power Sumter, Clarendon and surrounding counties possess to keep the film there or risk it being pulled from theaters entirely.

"We need to prove to Regal [Cinemas] that South Carolina really has interest in this movie and they're willing to come out and see it," Tannock said. "If they come out and see it that first week, [Regal] is watching, they're judging, they're trying to see where this movie stands and its importance to the people in South Carolina, which also means its importance to us."

Its importance to Dow and Tannock stems from long before the pair established their independent film company, Up The Road films. As a little girl, Dow would venture from New York's concrete jungle for a summer of ease in Summerton with her great-aunt. Her love for Piggly Wiggly, the fields of green grass that ran for miles and the time to "catch up" with herself, slow down and be "healed" made the experience an unbeatable one. Memories of the good times are plenty, yet the one that sticks out to Dow is her great-aunt chastising her to settle down or she would take her to Bull Street. Given the name, Dow assumed the place her aunt threatened to take her was a zoo, only piquing her interest. It wouldn't be until she was older that she would understand.

Founded as the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum in 1821 until its renaming to South Carolina State Hospital for the Insane in 1896, doctors admitted just shy of 8,000 people into one of the United States' first public mental hospitals on Bull Street - including Dow's two times great-grandmother. While navigating her grief following the passing of her maternal grandmother, Dow was also overcome with guilt about being emotionally unable to speak at her funeral. To make up for it, she used her writing talents and began researching her family history, discovering her familial ties to Bull Street.

"I found out it was [my grandmother's] grandmother who died in 1958 on Bull Street. I was just like, 'Wait, what?' Everything started clicking. I found out when she was in Bull Street [hospital], she lost all her land while she was there," Dow explained.

The more she learned, the more Dow realized many families throughout the state have similar ties and endings with the Bull Street hospital. She also realized that she couldn't and shouldn't sit by idly with this newfound information. She had to find some means to honor her grandmother and her lineage and bring a profound message to the world. So, she decided to write.

Regal states the film, starring Loretta Devine, Amy Madigan, Malynda Hale, Arielle Prepetit and Gary Ray Moore, follows LouEster Sadie Gibbs, a 39-year-old small-town personal injury lawyer, played by Hale, whose mother died in childbirth. Her grandmother, Mrs. Big-Gal, played by Devine, has raised her in their family home "with love and a rich spiritual tradition." When an entitled Ivy League lawyer questions their ownership of the home and its surrounding land, "the stage is set for a clash of privilege against family." Judge Motley, played by Madigan, must determine whether Gibbs' lifelong home is her birthright or if the handshake transfer of land doesn't hold up in court. Dow digs deeper, explaining overarching themes of generational wealth, loss of family values and mental health - all issues that are relevant in this country. The film also includes songs by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, country music artist Patsy Cline, the Chapel Hart band and Summerton's Taw Caw Church Choir, and it was filmed with help from Matt Storm of the South Carolina Film Commission.

Time passed, and Dow returned to Summerton, her "safe place," with a script in hand and hope in her heart that the small town would open their arms to receive her, her film and her mission. But they did so much more.

Mac Bagnal, mayor of Summerton, was on board with Dow's film before the script was finished. With so much passion behind her pen and a world of options on where she could produce such a film, for her to choose Summerton felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to showcase what the town was all about.

"From my standpoint, not just as a mayor but as somebody that loves this town and lives in this town, it was an opportunity to draw people into our restaurants, gas stations, hotels - it was opportunity for people to be in a movie," Bagnal said. "Summerton is more than just a town; Summerton is a community because we rely on people within a 20-mile radius to make our little town go. So [this movie] was opportunity for us to pick ourselves up when your head gets down sometimes."

But Dow has another perspective. Surely, Summerton benefited by having the actors in town; even some of its elements, like the pesky gnats, helped immerse actors further into their characters. Bagnal and Dow further agreed that Summerton was not looking to erase its past but more so move forward. They were looking to come together to be a part of history in a different way, and what better way than supporting independent film makers in their pursuit of purposeful moviemaking?

But it was the actors, Tannock and Dow who benefited most by having such hospitality at their fingertips, from the mayor ensuring lodging and transportation to residents opening their hearts and homes to the cast and crew to businesses supplying their usual stellar customer service when accommodating their new residents. During their three months of production from May to July 2022, the crew turned several historical sites into filming locations, including Clarendon County Courthouse in Manning, Pinewood Train Depot and Summerton Diner. Locals lent a hand where they could, providing vintage cars for certain scenes and even reciting a few lines themselves. When it came time to deal with the Southern heat and the area's many critters, they provided home remedies to keep them all at bay or tips on how to embrace them. Being enveloped in a community "with great hospitality and people looking after you," as Dow described, is second to none and a concept production companies are unfamiliar with in the big cities.

Many naysayers felt Dow and Tannock's desire for a huge rollout for the film in South Carolina was risky. Hollywood heavy hitters - whom Dow was nervous to direct in the early stages until their words of wisdom to "direct us" eased her nerves - deserve turnouts of substantial size and weren't sure the state could provide that. And while attendance at premieres in Los Angeles, California, were grand, and even featured a few folks from South Carolina flying out for the occasion, the duo thought the love shown to them throughout their months of filming will increase tenfold once "Bull Street" hits theaters Friday, June 7 - and it's important that it does.

"I needed Summerton, and Summerton needed me, and so together we made this movie," Dow expressed. "The protection I had down here, that's one of the reasons why I said I'm going to give back. I'm going to open it up here, I'm not going to forget … I'm going against everything they think they know of here, but I know Summerton saved me with this movie, and so I am going to give back, and we're all going to do it together, and we're going to put on the show of our lives."

"This movie is amazing, it's phenomenal, it's a classic that everyone should see. It transcends race, culture, religion; it's one of those movies that you can watch and then you want to see it again, and the discussion that it provokes after you've seen it is amazing," Tannock added.

With the movie completed and exactly as Dow had envisioned all those months ago when she ventured back to town with her script, the time has come for folks to witness their and the town's hard work.

The film will be in select South Carolina theaters on Friday, June 7, and you can find showings near you at https://tinyurl.com/yby8km47. For more information and updates, follow Bull Street Movie on social media.