DANVILLE — ‘It was honestly epic,” Crystal Hughes said of her film premiere of ‘Children of the Cornfield,’ on Monday at the Fischer Theatre.
The day before the premier, temperatures had gone from mild spring weather to frigid with brisk winds — which continued throughout the premier. However, Hughes said it didn’t hold people back from the red carpet.
“It was frigid and awful, but we still had a lovely, wonderful turnout,”Hughes said. “We had a really great attendance.”
Hughes said the community really came out to support.
“We sold a lot of raffle tickets, and we had such generous donations from the community,” Hughes said. “It was just incredible. My mom was like, ‘So all these people just donated all this stuff?’ And I was like, yeah… it was just incredible.”
She said many local businesses donated to the film production, including but not limited to: Rich’s Family Restaurant, Turquoise Tequila, Dave’s Double Barrell BBQ, That Bar & Grill, El Toro, Rich’s Deluxe, John Jansky tattoos, Monical’s Pizza in Tilton, Hair It Is, Mad Goat, La Potosina, Molly’s Joint, and more.
The Obsidian, a local coffee-brewery, graciously hosted the cast and crew for an after-party, which Hughes says was “a blast.”
Salena Jones, Hughes’ sister and part of the production crew, agreed that the community support was good.
“Everyone was really kind and wanted the event to be successful and was really excited that something like that was here,” Jones said. “A lot of people were excited and curious about what was going on and excited to share the experience.”
Jones added people really “can’t wait to see the rest of it.”
And good news about the short feature, it will soon be available to stream on YouTube. As for the full feature, fans will have to wait. But Hughes said she is committed; they just need funding.
“It brought joy and fun, something to do between Christmas and New Year’s Eve,” Jones said about the premiere. “We need entertainment in Danville, so this brought something to Danville that was entertaining and fun for Danville.”