Movie maker brings project to his Carolina Community home
Scene prep involves hours of consultation and thought, here involving, from left, producers Pedro Jovelli and Jesse Grainger, Lindsey Griffin, Devonte White, Jacques Selby, Sean Krumbholz, Kimberly Pitluk, Hayden Bogan, and Andrea Tuton. (Deuce Niven, TLT)
By DEUCE NIVEN
tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com
Jesse Grainger seemed at once comfortable and earnest as his small film crew worked on location near his Green Sea area home in the Carolina community recently.
Filming of the short fil, Southern Gothic has finished, months of post-production work lies ahead, and Grainger said he’s excited with the challenge.
“This is my first film,” Jesse said. “I’ve done some commercial work at my firm, but this is different.”
He’s traveled far since growing up in the Carolina Community, the son of Steve and Paula Grainger and winning awards for citizenship and educational excellence as an eighth grader at Green Sea-Floyds Middle School.
Now 41, Jesse said he’s beginning a new chapter and embracing the taking of risks at this stage of life.
Home setting
As twilight approached on a recent evening the Southern Gothic film crew was lined up in front of a barn as the films lead Lillian Kate Pitluk paced in front of it, time after time, her tone somber as Jesse said “action,” then “cut,” repeatedly.
“The farm is across the street from my grandmother’s house,” Jesse said. “The whole film is shot on my grandmother’s lance, or my dad’s, or cousins. It’s all in the family, you might say.”
A 2003 graduate of Green Sea Floyds High School, Jesse went on to earn a BS degree from the University of South Carolina in International Studies, followed by a Master’s in Journalism and Mass Communications from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He spent time with, and said he learned much from the late W. Horace Carter, a UNC graduate and Pulitzer Prize winning founder of this newspaper.
“I had a lot of conversations with him,” Jesse said of Carter. “He taught me a lot.”
But Jesse’s passion was not in journalism.
“As a kid I wanted to make movies,” Jesse said. “I wanted to write and make movies. I just didn’t for all of the reasons you can probably imagine.”
A movie maker from Carolina, essentially a suburb of the already small Green Sea community?
“It seems like such a big mountain to climb for those of us who come from smaller places, or are less connected,” Jesse said.
Crew and staff members Sean Krumbholz, Hayden Bogan, and Lindsey Griffin consult with film lead Lillian Kate Pitluk inside a Carolina community house. (Deuce Niven, TLT)
Rio Slum
Focusing instead on commercial production, Jesse founded Rio Slum Studios with Pedro Jovelli. Jesse is the CEO, Jovelli the Chief Creative Officer and works largely from his base in São Paulo, Brazil, and was actively involved in the Carolina community production of Southern Gothic.
That collaboration has resulted in international business, and Jesse’s relocation to Todi, described by Google as “a hilltop town in Umbria, Italy” with structures that date back to the second century B.C. and a population exceeding 15,000.
“There’s an old convent that’s being renovated,” Jesse said of Todi. I’m there with some people, we’re hoping to turn this into kind of an artists’ retreat, a place to try to get away from the noise, social media, and to reconnect.
“Painters, musicians, writers, sculptors, actors, a place to reconnect to a greater calling. Times are so chaotic, let’s create a place for people to get less chaotic.”
Living in Todi for three years, Jesse said he’s embraced the lifestyle.
“It’s much quieter,” he said.
For more on this story, and additional photos, see this week’s Tabor-Loris Tribune in print and online.
