NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID COLUMBIA, SC PERMIT NO. 939
320 Stanley Ave., Greenwood, SC 29649-2099 Change Service Requested
FALL 2009
LANDER UNIVERSITY
Making Movie Magic:
Samuel Lander bio-film nearing completion After nearly a year of research, filming and editing, final production is wrapping up Shown portraying the Rev. Samuel on S. Lander – His Life and LegLander is Michael Genevie, center, acy, a motion picture highlightLander associate professor of ing the life and times of the theatre, with co-producers Paul university’s founder, the Rev. Crutcher, left, and Dr. Robert Stevenson. –Photo by Rachael Hughes Samuel Lander. Using his own production company, Prestantia Pictures, Lander locksmith Paul Crutcher is co-producing the film with Lander’s Dr. Robert Stevenson, chair of the Department of Mass Communications and Theatre. Through in-depth interviews with historians and members of the Lander family, as well as dramatic re-enactments featuring local actors and Lander students, the film paints a vivid portrait of Samuel Lander and his determination to build an institution known for quality education. The filmmakers also focus on the university’s birthplace in Williamston and the people who were instrumental in relocating the school to Greenwood in 1904. “Our intention from the start of this process was to tell the story of Samuel Lander,” Crutcher said. “He had great courage and tremendous foresight to see his school through to the very end and to make sure his family, faculty, staff and students were all taken care of here in Greenwood.” The film will premiere at 2 p.m., Sat., Oct. 24, in Lander’s Josephine B. Abney Cultural Center, with a reception to follow. As part of the celebration, a collection of Lander family and Williamston Female College artifacts and documents will be on display in the Monsanto Art Gallery, including original Lander diaries and letters from 1850–72, historic photographs and a rocking chair handcrafted by Lander. For information on the movie, visit www.landermovie.com.
Setting up to shoot are, from left: Paul Crutcher, co-producer; David Wright, director of photography; Isaiah Harrell as a schoolmate; Isaac Braaten as young Samuel Lander; and Richard Whiting, executive editor of The (Greenwood) Index-Journal, as Samuel’s uncle and early educator. –Photo by Megan Price
Above: Bethany Mlinar plays a young college student away from home for the first time. Right: Lander students Heath Smith, left, as a college friend, and Elliott Sellars as Samuel Lander. –Photos by Rachael Hughes