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Tryon International Film Festival inspires producer to highlight the process of filmmaking 

 

TRYON––Movie producer Greg King will be producing a documentary about Tryon in hopes of releasing it in time for the annual Tryon International Film Festival (TRIFF).

Greg King of King Media approached Beau Menetre, co-founder of TRIFF and director of operations, just before last year’s event with the idea of making a documentary about Tryon and the film festival.

King flew out from Phoenix, Arizona to TRIFF last year and documented and interviewed people at the festival, got a feel of Tryon, and met judges and filmmakers. At the first of this year, King called Menetre and wanted to get this Tryon documentary off the ground.

Menetre is supporting King’s production by getting him in contact with filmmakers and judges, providing him with all the information and media content he needs to make the documentary happen.

Menetre says, “The point of this documentary is to show the journey of an independent filmmaker wherever you are in the world.” He says they’ve had people come from all over the world to premiere their films in Tryon.

Menetre explains that the Tryon documentary takes the journey of 3 filmmakers, telling their backstories, what they’ve gone through, and their process of making money for films. It also highlights the support from the community, editing, post-production, and all the disciplines you go through to make a film no matter what genre it is. He says the film features several of the Tryon International Film Festival judges, who are industry professionals. The project is not yet fully funded and is only a concept, though they’ve shot a lot of footage already.

“I do not want this film documentary to be a commercial for the TRIFF. I want it to highlight Tryon and how filmmakers come to Tryon to exhibit their films. We want to eventually take this film to other film festivals, and we want to highlight the community and culture of Tryon. The point is that people are coming to Tryon because of the Film Fest,” Menetre says.

When Greg King came to Gastonia to make a documentary about the small town, he fell in love with the Carolinas. He submitted his film to the TRIFF and started pushing toward making a documentary about Tryon. He said his first time there was to shoot footage and meet everyone.

“Everyone’s very friendly, and Tryon has a unique artistic community feel to it. What’s more fun than talking about making movies when that’s the business you’re in with all these people who have these different experiences?” King says.

“We’re hoping this movie will show off the community of filmmakers, show off Tryon, and maybe teach budding filmmakers how to do it or entertain people that don’t make movies,” he says.

Menetre adds, “We are very excited.”

King is currently in the process of fundraising money for the film documentary in hopes of premiering it this October for this year’s festival, but it is sure to be premiered at the 2023 event.