Why Knoxville-filmed 'Light From Light' was written for East Tennessee and Jim Gaffigan

A Knoxville setting and a role played by Jim Gaffigan were on the mind of  director Paul Harrill long before his latest feature film, "Light From Light," debuted at Sundance earlier this year.

Harrill, who's a Knoxville native, wrote the movie's script in 2016 and 2017 with an East Tennessee setting due to his familiarity with the area.

He also pictured Gaffigan starring in the film after hearing a radio interview where the actor and comedian spoke about his life and career.

"The way he just talked about his life and work and different kinds of things, I just thought 'There's a complexity to him ... that we hadn't seen on screen, and that that would be interesting to see,'" said Harrill. "And he also has the physical presence of the kind of character I was thinking of when I just started drafting."

'LIGHT FROM LIGHT':Knoxville-filmed Jim Gaffigan movie gets closer to a theater near you

With the help of his crew, Harrill's vision came to life. "Light From Light" filmed at several locations in East Tennessee and stars Gaffigan, Marin Ireland, Josh Wiggins, Atheena Frizzell and others.

It's a drama about Richard (Gaffigan) hiring a paranormal investigator, Shelia (Ireland), to see if his late wife is somehow still with him at a Tennessee farmhouse.

The movie debuted at Sundance in early 2019 and will premiere in Knoxville on Friday at Central Cinema with showings continuing through next week, according to the theater's website. 

Knoxville's setting and people, Gaffigan, "Handmaid's Tale" actress and producer Elisabeth Moss and others aided Harrill in putting "Light From Light" together.

It all started with an idea to tell a different kind of ghost story.

How Knoxville shaped 'Light From Light'

Harrill's inspiration for "Light From Light" came from a radio interview with a paranormal investigator he heard and a desire to create something different.

"I was interested in telling a ghost story that was more about the living than the dead, and that was about the sort of dramatic elements of processing loss and also the questions of what happens, you know, what does happen after we die?" said Harrill. "So it's very much a drama and not, say, a horror film."

Harrill, who works as an associate professor of cinema studies at the University of Tennessee, imagined specific places in East Tennessee while he wrote "Light From Light."

'LIGHT FROM LIGHT':Knoxville-film starring Jim Gaffigan to premiere at Sundance

"To me, you can't separate the place from the story. That's the simplest way to put it," said Harrill. "From the writing of it to the filming of it, I mean I feel like the pacing of the film and the editing of the film has this kind of meditative rhythm, and ... to me, it's the slower pace of life that we feel ... in this region than anything elsewhere, so it's in the DNA. The place is in the DNA of this film."

In 2018, they filmed at several area locations including Strong Stock Farm on Rutledge Pike, another house on Middlebrook Pike, McGhee Tyson Airport, Buffalo Springs Fish Hatchery in Rutledge and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Harrill said the people he worked with from Knoxville were supportive and committed to the film. 

"We worked with a lot of people who are from here in terms of the group. There were a number of crew that came from out of town, but we tried to use as many people as we could from here, and that was great. ... I like making films here. It's a unique place to do it because of the support that you feel."

Jim Gaffigan and Elisabeth Moss

Moss joined the "Light From Light" crew as a producer in 2017 after chatting with the film's other producers on a different project. She had recently wrapped up her first season of producing and starring in "The Handmaid's Tale."

Harrill said Moss gave great notes on the script and was crucial in securing the right cast for "Light From Light."

"She was really frank about people that she thought would be good for the role or not, and I was bouncing ideas off of her. She was bouncing ideas off of me."

Moss also emailed Gaffigan about the film, sending him the script and encouraging him to take part.

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Gaffigan joined the project, taking on a more serious role than much of his previous work. He also shared a connection to his "Light From Light" character Richard, according to Harrill.

"He felt really connected to the film. He plays a widower, and ... his wife had been going through a very significant health crisis that thankfully she recovered from. He had been staring down the reality that he might be a widower just a year earlier, and so there was a real point of connection with the material for him," said Harrill.

"And so I think we all knew that he was doing something really special when we were making the film, and I think the reviews have recognized his performance is really a side of him that people have not seen."

His role might have been serious, but Gaffigan also provided some fun on set, according to Harrill. He also made some friends at the fish hatchery.

"He fit right in, and by the way, they loved him ... they were all big fans of him already," said Harrill. "They knew exactly who he was, and it was a big deal. It was so much fun for them."

Harrill said he's proud of how the film and the story he and the crew wanted to tell turned out.

"I'm excited for people to see it. It's very a very personal film. I mean ... it's a film about loss, and a lot of us making the movie in one way or another had felt that kind of thing before whether it's a death or a end of a relationship or whatever," said Harrill. 

"It was a story we all wanted to tell, and the way it's been received has been really gratifying for all of us."