Film Friendly Nacogdoches

Pictured from left, Donna Maisel, NEDCO vice president; Bruce Partain, Nacogdoches County Chamber President/CEO; Carol Pirie, Texas Film Commission deputy director; State Representative Wayne Christian; Judy McDonald, NEDCO president/CEO; Mayor Roger Van Horn; Shirley Luna, program co-chair; Kim Luna Snyder, Chamber board of directors chair; and Melissa Sanford, Nacogdoches Convention and Visitors Bureau executive director.

Texas Film Commission deputy director Carol Pirie announced Friday, June 27, that Nacogdoches is officially a Texas Film Friendly Community. Only a half dozen communities in Texas have earned the designation, most of them near Austin.

Efforts by Nacogdoches County Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Bruce R. Partain and NEDCO Vice President Donna Maisel helped Nacogdoches earn the certification. According to Partain, "This was a good example of NEDCO, the Chamber, the City and the Convention and Visitors Bureau working closely together to bring new business to our community."

Nacogdoches had to meet three main criteria to earn this designation:
1) Attendance at a daylong Film Friendly Texas workshop by at least one official community representative, i.e., a member of city government, convention and visitors bureau, chamber of commerce, economic development council, etc.;
2) Passage of Film Guidelines, as approved by the Texas Film Commission; and
3) Inclusion of selected ten locations in the Texas Film Commission's online photo database. The photos often include a series of shots stitched together digitally to make a continuous panorama of around 100 to 180 degrees.

Maisel attended the workshop in January 2008 in Texarkana. She also organized a meeting of regional economic developers - including Texas Forest Country and Texas Forest Trails - after the June 27 Chamber luncheon.

Partain met Carol Pirie during a Save the Railroad event in Palestine in October of 2006. "In the Spring of 2007 Texas Film Commission location manager John Crowley visited Nacogdoches with Laurnie Durisoe, a Californian with East Texas land interests," Partain said. "Laurnie is also very interested in potential film production in East Texas." Partain and CVB director Melissa Sanford showed Nacogdoches locations to Crowley and Durisoe.
"John shot about six locations and later posted them on the Texas Film Commission site," Partain said. "Last month I shot another half dozen locations and sent them to Austin. So we had our required ten locations."

Partain said work continued with City Manager Jim Jeffers and other city staff, including Sarah O'Brien, Main Street Manager, to have the Film Guidelines placed on the June 17 City Commission agenda. The guidelines were passed unanimously.

Find more information about the Texas Film Commission's Film Friendly designation - click here.

Read story by Mystic Matthews, KTRE - Channel 9.

Read article by Michele Marcotte, The Daily Sentinel.

View more photos from the Nacogdoches County Chamber of Commerce Fourth Friday Luncheon held June 27, 2008.
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