Columbus-based film wins Silver Telly Award, reveals haunted location
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — A central Ohio filmmaking team is celebrating winning a Silver Telly Award for the short period piece “Showdown in Amherst” and the movie's producer has revealed a spooky backstory about the potentially haunted Columbus location where the picture was shot.
In a news release, executive producer and writer Amy Drake shared that the Columbus-based production about renowned American poet Emily Dickinson and her literary mentor, Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, was selected for the prestigious honor from over 12,000 entries worldwide.
Directed by Kingsley Lims Nyarko, assistant professor and film chair at the Columbus College of Art and Design, the film delves into the complex and often tense relationship between Dickinson and Higginson. The pair's “historic meeting” is depicted, and Higginson's dismissal of her groundbreaking work as not “real poetry” due to its unconventional rhymes is explored.
Filmed on location at the historic Thurber House in Columbus, the project drew on Columbus-based actors and CCAD students. The script, a quarter-finalist in the Sun Vale screenplay competition, was written by Tiana Coreus, a CCAD undergrad.
Drake, whose story inspired the film, related a spine-chilling behind-the-scenes tale via a post on Medium.com, a social publishing platform.
“Choosing the location to shoot the film was easy: Thurber House, the childhood home of humorist writer James Thurber, now a museum, provided the perfect setting,” wrote Drake. “The staff was very accommodating. There was, however, one odd clause in our contract: we were not to taunt the ghost.”
The ghost in question is said to be Thomas Tracy Tress, a Columbus jeweler and previous owner of the home, who reportedly died in a tragic gun accident in the home in 1904.
“Thurber House staff and visitors have since seen a man in the museum wearing old fashioned dress who vanished at a second glance,” noted Drake.
Drake said Tress’s presence “had quite a sense of humor” when subtly making himself known to her.
“We used authentic late 19th century clothes from my personal collection as costumes for the film,” Drake said. “The man’s coat, worn by actor Douglas Fries, had secure buttons when it left my house. During the shoot, one of the buttons fell off. The back of the button was engraved with the name Tress(e), as, I discovered, were all the buttons.”
The Arts professional decided to permanently acknowledge the supernatural manifestation within the production.
“In the film credits, I thanked Mr. Tress for his cooperation,” added Drake. “I believe he just wanted to be remembered and involved.”
“Showdown in Amherst” stars Ohio-based actors Courtney Lucien as Dickinson, Douglas Fries as Higginson, Gaynelle Sloman as Mary, and Amy Drake as Dickinson's sister Lavinia. Director Kingsley Lims Nyarko also served as cinematographer.
Additionally, the film was selected for the Student World Impact Film Festival and was made possible by a grant from the Greater Columbus Arts Council and the support of the Columbus College of Art and Design.
A screening at the Bexley Drexel is tentatively scheduled for Dickinson's birthday anniversary in December. The evening will be devoted to showing the film and other Dickinson-related activities. It is not yet streaming.