Photo Provided by Bill Meador
I’m not going to lie. I have mixed feelings about Smith Mountain Lake. It’s a 20,600 acre, man-made creation that engulfed towns, farms, and forests when it rose from the banks of the Roanoke River in 1963. Since then, it’s generated miles of McMansions and attracted an influx of Jersey transplants.
It’s not exactly the land of local culture or ecological responsibility, but still, it can be awfully pretty. A summertime sunset behind green mountains shimmering on the lake’s still surface–it’s a scene that melts away the tension. Toss in a cold beer and some grilled meat and you can see why Yankee’s have bought every square foot of shoreline.
It’s this side of Smith Mountain Lake–the slow moving, hammock loving, lake life–that inspired Sarah Elizabeth Timmins to make her indie film. “It all began three years ago, she says, “When a personal soul-searching journey and a reflective walk along Smith Mountain Lake awakened my soul.”
Timmins, a long time film producer, didn’t conceive the film Lake Effect around a plot line or character. She was inspired by a place, by the lake itself. “With simply an idea and location, yet neither script nor money, I committed to starting my own film company and jumped into Lake Effects.”
Vivian Tisdale played by Jane Seymour
She shopped the film to hundreds of funders and with writer Scott Winters began crafting a family story that was as moving as its location. In the film, Los Angeles attorney, Sarah Tisdale (played by Richmond native Scottie Thompson), is called home to Virginia when her father dies in a sudden accident. In the midst of grief, she and her sister come to understand why their father thought it was so important for them to be raised on the lake.
Their mother, who goes through her own journey of loss and reflection, is played by Jane Seymour. The most notable name in the cast, Seymour brings seasoned acting chops and star power to the film, but if you ask Timmins, the real stars are area locals.
“From day one, over two years ago, Smith Mountain Lake residents and businesses embraced the film,” Timmins explains in her press kit, “Individuals offered us the use of their boats, cars, trucks, and even a helicopter. Amazingly, these donations were made with sincere generosity, without any expectations of remuneration.”
To express her gratitude, Timmins is donating a portion of the films proceeds to cleanup efforts at the lake. Having already won recognition at the Omaha and Appalachian Film Festival, Lake Effects premieres tonight on Hallmark Movie Channel at 8:00 PM eastern/7:00 central.
If you watch the movie, tell us what you think. If you live at the lake, did you have any celeb sightings while Lake Effects was being filmed or did you help out with the movie?
We’d love to hear your stories.
The movie, while having an overall decent storyline, was extremely offensive to those of us who have actually lived here all of our lives. First of all, we are not Mountain folk, nor hicks or any of the other slurs that was thrown throughout the movie. Smith Mountain Lake expands over three counties and I have never understood why anyone says that they live on Smith Mtn. Lake. The proper names are Moneta, Union Hall, Penhook, etc..The people who built this county were hard working decent men and women who tried to make a better life for their families. The real story should’ve been big real estate developers buying up the land from the poor farmers for pennies on the dollar and now the land is so expensive that the locals can no longer afford to live anywhere near the lake itself. As for Smithy or whatever you called the lake monster, that is absurd!! I understand writers being creative and trying to make the story more interesting, but the fact that you did use real names of places as you did, will only make Franklin County Citizens look extremely foolish. By the way, most of the people who do live at the lake or on the lake as they like to say are from New Jersey, New York, Maryland and other Northen states, so maybe you should’ve clarified that while continuing to degrade those of us who are just trying to live and make the best of our lives without all of the hype and drama. The lake was once a wonderful place where all of the citizens of the county could enjoy. I do agree with one point made in the movie, you’re either the prey or the predator. In this case, the farmers were the prey and people like yourself are the predators.
Lets try to be civil when speaking of fellow Americans. Yankee, as you state rather,distastefully, is a slur. We won’t call you rednecks or Goobers – deal?
We’re a couple of those Yankees that can’t wait to relocate to our farm in Moneta so that we can spend our life’s savings, aka blood money earned the hard way up north. we’re hpoing that all that blood money will employ some young local couples and feed some good old American families.
A little respect and perhaps a slight hint of WELCOME to our neighborhood would ahve been nice.
And Yankees are rude?
The folks at Yankee Magazine or The New York Yankees might take exception with the assumption that Yankee is derogatory, but I won’t lie; in this case I meant it to have a little bite. The newer residents around Smith Mountain Lake have financed its transformation into a mess of strip malls, cul-de-sacs, and McMansions that will be crumbling in 40 years. (Though that last part might be a blessing.) As someone who remembers the way the lake used to be and honors the people who lived there before it was a lake, I’m a tad bitter. That said, it’s no excuse for name calling. I apologize.
I wonder, though, if you’re up for a deal. We’ll let you keep using “Johnny Reb” if we can hold onto “Billy Yank.”
; – )
I absolutely loved the movie. I watched and i’m Watching it again.