SYLVA SCREEN: THE MOUNTAIN COMMUNITY FINDS A NEW AUDIENCE AFTER AN AWARD-WINNING MOVIE COMES TO TOWN.

AuthorPerlmutt, David
PositionTOWN SQUARE: Sylva

With the Plott Balsam mountains rising in the distance and North Carolina's most-photographed courthouse towering over Main Street, Rex Anderson could have chosen plenty of scenes to chronicle his visit to the charming Jackson County town. Yet there he is, nearly stopping downtown traffic, his aging Nikon set atop a tripod to capture the perfect shot: the Sassy Frass consignment storefront at the corner of Sylva's Main and Spring streets.

"I'm here because of, you know--the movie," Anderson says.

The "movie" he refers to is Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the quiet but unruly Oscar-winning motion picture about a justice-seeking mother named Mildred Hayes, played by Frances McDormand, who openly pressures the local police chief, played by Woody Harrelson, to crack her daughter's unsolved murder and rape case. Director and writer Martin McDonagh chose Sylva from 20 finalists to stand in for the fictional Ebbing--attracted in part by a $3.1 million grant from the state film office. The film has grossed more than $159 million worldwide.

Set builders spent a month turning Sassy Frass into Ebbing's police department, creating a fagade vastly different from that of the homedecor consignment store. That didn't stop Anderson, a movie buff from Huntsville, Ala., from shooting a dozen photos.

After watching Three Billboards for a third time in late May, Anderson drove five hours from his home to prowl Sylva, nearby Dillsboro and other film sites. "I would have driven across the country to find Ebbing," Anderson, 61, says. "When I found out it was filmed only five hours away, I couldn't sleep and told my wife I had to come."

In a town increasingly dependent on tourism --it's Jackson County's top industry, with an annual impact of $188.2 million and generating more than 1,800 jobs in 2017--Three Billboards has helped boost the local economy. The production company spent $12.6 million of a $15 million budget in western North Carolina, including $3.5 million for food, rent, set-building and other services. It created 353 jobs and hired 40 locals as extras.

Aside from that, there's plenty of anecdotal evidence of the movie's economic impact, says Paige Dowling, the town manager, and Nick Breedlove, director of the county's tourism development authority. "It's hard to quantify, but just from the numbers of people coming here, we know that the impact has been considerable," says Dowling, who, like Breedlove, is a Sylva native.

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