Editor’s note: This is part three of a three-part series on the film industry in Columbus. Read part one and part two on ledger-enquirer.com.
Making Columbus the third leg of Georgia’s film industry became a goal in 2019, but the pandemic — followed by strikes — made building a local workforce and bringing in productions difficult.
The goal was for Columbus to utilize a $5 million film fund, a studio, an annual film festival and workforce development to lure more productions to Muscogee County and develop a sustainable industry, Peter Bowden, president and CEO of VisitColumbusGA, said in a 2019 statement .
“This is still a goal,” Joel Slocumb, commissioner of the Columbus Film Office, told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email. “But as the industry changes, we have to be flexible and adapt our strategy to maintain focus for success.”
The film industry is different from other industries like manufacturing or retail, Slocumb said. It’s about building relationships, he said, which Columbus is working on.