News

Historic mill stars in Carland's 'Shadows'

By Bill Moss, Published: November 20, 2014

If nothing else happens, we can always say that the historic Grey Hosiery Mill starred in a movie.

Ben Carland's science-fiction thriller, "Shadows on the Wall," premiered Wednesday night at the Carolina Cinemas in Asheville and went down in history as the first feature-length film set on Grove Street in downtown Hendersonville.
Palmer, played by Chris Kauffmann, is a quiet and determined engineering student who has outsized dreams, a pile of pirated electronic parts and a shortage of practical application. He's immensely helped by his math tutor and fellow student Alice (Nicole Durant) and funded by his wealthy roommate Chase (Tim Fox).
Carland's fascinating screenplay (he wrote and directed) traces the trio's efforts to master the electronics, mathematics and science to turn Palmer's idea into the riches that Chase demands or the purer goal that Palmer seeks.
The cool thing about the show if you know Hendersonville is seeing the town as movie set. We see the aging hosiery mill — it turns 100 years old next year — inside and out.We see the backside of Brunson's. We see Main Street. In breathless "War of the Worlds" type radio reporting, we hear a voice from our recent past, former WTZQ morning show host George Henry, and one from our present, station manager Mark Warwick.

Ben Carland wrote and directed 'Shadows on the Wall,' which premiered Wednesday night.Palmer is a mad scientist who is squatting in the old mill to run his experiments. He recruits Alice because she knows how to do the math that he needs to finish his project. Although mercenary minded, Chase ends up believing in Palmer's project.
The climax of Palmer's quest comes at the midpoint of the movie and is the best part. Once Palmer gets the electronic contraption working — an updated edition of the Professor Brown's time-traveling DeLorean in "Back to the Future" — the machine starts sending a signal a million miles and then 10 million and then a billion and then — oh, wait, switch to light years because the distance is too great .— 100 billion light years to the edge of the universe. That's when things get interesting.
"You mean we've reached across the universe and something is reaching back?" Chase asks.
Well, yeah.
Of course, that spells trouble, and trouble must invite a shadowy government agent, played by Damian Duke Domingue, to shut down the operation and make it all disappear.
In the hands of a Spielberg or George Lucas and their zillion-dollar computer generated imagery, Carland's imaginative scene of a new kind of signal racing to the edge of the universe would be more stunning. It's fun to see Hendersonville's Main Street and Jongo Java coffee shop and cameos by producer Anderson Ellis and Brittany Ellis and other townsfolk in a party scene.
It's fun to think, too, of what young Ben Carland could do if he continues down this movie-making road. Like Palmer, he could pursue a dream, connect the atoms and soar.