South County Filmmakers is a non-profit organization dedicated to making movies that inspire, educate, provoke and entertain. The organization grew out of a class at OLLI in 2014 called “Let’s Make a Movie”. The history below, written by founding member Anita Russo, describes that journey.

From OLLI to the South County Filmmakers

Let’s Make a Movie! was the title of a course in the OLLI fall catalog of 2014. It sounded like fun, and so twelve audacious OLLI members signed up for the class. That was the beginning of what exists today as the South County Filmmakers, a film production group based in Wakefield, RI.

“So you think movie making is glamorous?” asked our instructor, Bob Haynes, on the first day. He and his wife, Joanne Haynes, were about to set us straight on the work that is involved in bringing a film to life. The goal of the course was to learn what it takes to make a movie by actually creating a film from the ground up.

The process includes coming up with a concept, developing a storyline, writing the script, casting, preproduction planning (including rehearsals, sets, props, costumes, and more) filming, editing and distribution. Every student had an assignment, or perhaps two or three. And there were only eight weeks in which to do it!

Luckily for us, we had a professional playwright in our midst, Rhode Island’s own David Christner. In one week’s time Dave wrote a screenplay for an eight minute movie called Tea Without Sympathy, a dark comedy about grown children conniving to take over their elderly mother’s finances. The role of the mother was played by Donna Freeman and that of her maid was played by Ellen O’Keefe. Kate Marion, Mary Catherine Volk, Margery Boyer and Kevin Carty played the children. Joyce Luzzi directed the action.

Before anything could happen in front of the camera, there was a whole lot that needed to be done behind the camera. Camera shots had to be set up (Jet Vertz, cinematographer), and the camera had to be managed (Anita Russo, camera operator). The sets needed to have the appropriate props and decorative details (Shari Lewis, set decoration), and the sound system needed to be set up, tested and managed (Linda Thomas, sound engineer). And buoying us up throughout the production were Bob and Joanne, directing us and acting as production assistants who did whatever was needed at any given moment. We wound up quite proud of our work, and Bob arranged for us to have a ‘premiere’ replete with red carpet at the Contemporary Theater in Wakefield!

But our film careers didn’t end there! In the spring of 2015, Bob taught the class at OLLI once again, and many of us took it for a second time. After all, it would be a totally different movie! Again, in eight weeks’ time we produced another eight-minute movie called Message Interrupted. It was during the filming of this movie that Bob suggested we start a short movie club. We students were intrigued by the possibility!

Later in 2015 the South County Short Movie Club (SCSMC), a non-profit 501(c) (3), was formed with eight members, and in the spring of 2016, we began work on our first movie as an independent film production organization. The members spent six months working with a complex concept to develop a storyline, characters and script of depth resulting in The Expiration Date, a drama of over twenty minutes. The movie asks the question, what would you do if you knew the date you were going to die? Then we took a bold step and entered three film festivals. We were thrilled when notified that our movie was an official selection of Rhode Island’s 401 Film Fest in 2016!

When we gathered in January, 2017 to start our new season, the world had changed. The earth was shifting – up was down and down was up! We followed the course of events and created our next film, Through the Red Door, a political satire. It’s a fanciful look at our new politics and took us a year to complete.

We worked with professional actors for the first time in addition to URI theater students and many extras. Also for the first time we hired a professional film crew. The experience gained from working with these artists was priceless. Rajah Samaroo from Pawtucket was our director of photography and he generously taught us more than we could imagine. Our film not only has a message, but it is a pleasure to watch thanks to the wonderful cinematography.

Feeling more confident, we entered five film festivals in 2018. Again we were very pleased that our film was an official selection of the 401 Film Fest. But when Through the Red Door was also named an official selection of the Mystic International Film Festival, in Mystic, CT, we were elated!

Recent Update: Before the premiere of Through the Red Door, we changed our name. When people heard ‘South County Short Movie Club’, they always asked, “Do you get together to watch movies?” (Is it our white hair?) We no longer get that question with our new name, South County Filmmakers!

In 2019 we produced another 15-minute file Second Chance Café. The film was premiered in November 2019 and highlights the ravages of war, the conflicts that are created, and how things could be different if we just gave everyone a second chance. At our premiere we included a presentation by three guest speakers who presented information expanding on issues posed in the movie in an open discussion with the audience.