Stars from “The Secret Handshake” walked down the red carpet in Lipscomb’s Allen Arena for the world premiere of the the movie Wednesday night, but they were joined by many Lipscomb professors, and students, too.
Nashville’s Town Square Pictures and Lipscomb University’s College of Entertainment & the Arts partnered to produce the movie which was filmed entirely in Middle Tennessee.
“When I came here seven years ago I never would’ve imagined that we would be launching a movie, a feature film, with another production company, but here we are,” said Mike Fernandez, founding dean of the College of Entertainment & the Arts.
The film stars Kevin Sorbo, best known as Hercules, and singer-songwriter Amy Grant, and is directed by Nashville native Howie Klausner.
Klausner said his family film that transports movie audiences through a journey of what it takes to be a man brings adventure, laughter and even some tears. He said it’s important to make films that are uplifting and have powerful storytelling.
This is something Fernandez said has been the mission of the Lipscomb’s newest college.
“We have started a brand new college, a College of Entertainment & the Arts, with a mission, and that mission is: Train independent, entrepreneurial artists to go out and create uplifting content in whatever their artistic talent might be, and to do that with a spirit filled with Christ,” Fernandez said.
“I believe in storytelling — I believe storytelling shapes culture, and for us to train young minds who want to go out and tell really powerful stories in the way that Christ would have is an ultimate calling.”
During the filming of “The Secret Handshake,” Lipscomb film students had the opportunity to work with Klausner and the cast and crew. Lipscomb’s filmmaker-in-residence Steve Taylor said students got to get out of the classroom for more hands-on work experience.
“A lot of our students in the graduate program actually crewed on the movie,” Taylor said. “We had others that were working in the office, and some that were working in publicity, and now their names are appearing up on the screen tonight.”
Even parts of the movie were filmed on Lipscomb’s campus. See a few pictures of a film day in Lipscomb’s Ezell Center taken in March of 2014 here.
Photo gallery by Erin Turner