Chattanooga Times Free Press - ChattanoogaNow
Dalton filmmakers celebrate movies
“The Art of the Cinema” exhibit that opened at the Creative Arts Guild in Dalton, Ga., last month is a collection of posters, props and memorabilia collected by four friends whose love of the movies can be traced to the CAG itself.
Mark Hannah remembers looking through the viewfinder of his dad’s Regular 8 movie camera back in the early ’70s and seeing his future.
“The light went off, and that was it,” says Hannah, who grew up in Dalton. “I knew what I wanted to do.”
He later discovered a kindred spirit in classmate Jeff Burr. By eighth grade, they’d heard about another student a grade lower who was also making movies.
“We were like, ‘ Hey, that’s our thing,’” Hannah says.
Hannah, Burr and Allen Posten became fast friends through their love of film, and pretty soon they found themselves getting $ 100 grants from the CAG to spend their summers mak- ing movies. The CAG also gave them a place to show off their finished films.
They were joined in those summer efforts by fellow schoolmate Tommy Kaye. All four grew up to work in the film industry in some capacity, and they’ve all contributed items they’ve collected over the years to “The Art of the Cinema,” which runs through February.
The two- part exhibit opened last month with items focused on animation and adventure. Over the weekend, those were swapped out and replaced with posters, props, lobby cards and other memorabilia related to horror, spy and exploitation films. A second opening reception is set for Friday, Feb. 3.
Two films will be screened with this part of the exhibit as well. The first is one was made by Hannah and Burr in Dalton in 1991 called “Island Girl,” and the other is an unannounced ’60s spy classic.
Hannah says the four budding filmmakers were fortunate to have grown up in Dalton because of the CAG and its support of the arts, especially for young artists.
“It’s really neat because that was our first studio, if you will, and now we are able to give back. That was our starting point. We were fortunate to grow up there to have that support on that level.”
He says having the backing of the CAG not only gave them cash, it gave them cache to go to the local businesses they wanted to use as locations for their films.
“We could go to Eckerd’s (drugstore) or Kroger and say, ‘Hey, we’re making a movie for the Creative Arts Guild’ and they’d say ‘Sure, come in.’ The name alone opened doors for us. That was worth more than money, being able to use real locations.”