There should have been tissues in the theater.
That was how LaWana Harris felt after watching “Bull Street” on Oct. 24 at the Old Mill Playhouse, adding she felt she could see herself throughout the film.
“I had no idea the level of emotion and nostalgia it would provoke,” Harris said. “It was a very emotional experience. It wasn’t just about emotion, it was a visceral response because it was so relatable.”
Barely anyone’s emotions were left untouched as the audience laughed and cried together during the special screening of the nearly two-hour indie film about generational wealth. The opening night also included a question-and-answer session with Lynn Dow, the film’s writer and director; Wendy Tucker-Tannock, the producer; and Gary Ray Moore, the lead actor.
The fact that the script spoke to a wide audience is one thing that struck Tucker-Tannock, she said during the question-and-answer session.
“(The script) actually spoke to me,” she said. “I felt this was something the world needed to see. It just seemed to apply to everyone, and that it could make a difference in someone’s life.”
The film, starring Loretta Devine, Amy Madigan and Malynda Hale, highlights the concept of working to leave a legacy and tangible items for your offspring, along with the grief that comes with obtaining that wealth.
For Dow, the film is a form of generational wealth.
The Bull Street story was inspired by Dow’s experience of losing her grandmother, whom she grew up with in Summerville, South Carolina.
“My grandmother was everything to me,” Dow said. “She would cry and I would cry. Fast forward to when (my grandmother) died, grief had paralyzed me.”
“Grief is bipolar to me,” she said. “Grief was playing on me, telling me it was my fault. My grandmother came to me in a dream and was telling me to write, write, write. It hit me just to write her story.”
Although the film’s setting of Puckney, South Carolina, doesn’t exist, Bull Street does — as do several of the Deep South traditions woven throughout the movie.
“I will send you up to Bull Street,” Dow said. “I later found out that was called the (South Carolina State Hospital, located on Bull Street in Columbia).”
After her grandmother’s death, Dow realized how tightly intertwined Bull Street, the insane asylum, was in her own family story.
“In traveling back home, I’d found out that her grandmother, who would be my great-great-grandmother, died on Bull Street,” Dow said. “She actually was committed because she was fighting with the sheriff, who wanted to take her land. I think it was at that moment, I knew I had my story.”
“When I would go to South Carolina when I was a kid, there was a place Piggly Wiggly’s, and there was a group of women who were always playing bridge in the middle of the day,” she said. “ I thought I really wanted to capture the South, not in a negative way or anything like that, but I wanted the comfort, the essence and upbringing that’s in the minds of the locals there.”
During the Q&A session, many echoed that the movie reflected parts of their own lives — from loss of a loved one to loss of family land after death.
Donna Richards, of the Village of Hadley, said the film was well done.
“It was a real story that had everything you would love,” she said. “The acting was tremendous and the story line was well executed.”
Dow said her experience of working on her first feature film has been rewarding.
“For our first feature film to have all these legends in Hollywood, just to have their guidance, that’s what it was about for me,” Dow said. “There’s just been a love here. I was excited to bring it (to the Villages) and this community.”
Since the movie’s 2024 release, the film has screened in West Virginia, Arizona and the United Kingdom, with a screening scheduled in Ireland for Black History Month.
Dow and Tucker-Tannock, who have produced short films together previously, said they are already working on their next co-project while still screening and promoting “Bull Street,” encouraging new fans to stay tuned.
“Things are happening,” Dow said. “This movie is very personal, and it’s a wonderful story this audience will want to hear.
Staff writer Brea Jones can be reached at 352-753-1119, ext. 5414, or brea.jones@thevillagesmedia.com.
