Don’t be concerned about that casket resting inside the Community Arts Center. It’s a prop from the 1995 CBS series American Gothic that is now part of the latest exhibit from the Wilmington Film Museum.

The exhibit, recently extended through Sept. 23, is designed to raise awareness of the contributions of local crew members and the initiative to find a permanent home for such displays. 

Both the exhibit and proposed permanent museum are projects of the Cape Fear Independent Film Network, a local nonprofit that has hosted a film festival for years.

CFIFN’s Richard Gehron, who organized the exhibit with his wife, Kathleen, acknowledged that
another, bigger exhibit is already on display a few minutes away at the Cape Fear Museum.

“This year we wanted to complement, as best we could, what the Cape Fear Museum is already doing,” Gehron said.

That exhibit, on display until October 2017, explores the history of the local film and TV industry with artifacts from Firestarter, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dawson’s Creek and others. So the Gehrons tried to focus on some lesser-known ones such as The Handmaid’s Tale and Virus, while also stepping beyond southeastern North Carolina to look at projects shot around the state, including The Last of the Mohicans.

Richard Gerhon said this year’s exhibit is “completely different” from last year’s show, though its structure is similar. 

Aside from the casket and a handful of other props (many on loan from local crew icon Jeff Goodwin), a “window wall” features photos, facts and posters from a variety of local projects, including One Tree Hill and Matlock.

That casket, though, is near to Richard Gehron’s heart. 

“I’ve always been a big fan of American Gothic,” he said.

And while his goal is still to “find space to have a permanent exhibit up at least in some scope,” he and his wife have been able to set up smaller reminders of Wilmington’s screen past at other local venues.

“Some of our materials from last year are on display at Ironclad Brewery and Hell’s Kitchen,” Richard Gehron said, pointing out that both locations have played home to production crews. “We’re trying to incorporate the city of Wilmington.”

Richard Gehron wants to set up more displays tailored to their specific locations around downtown Wilmington.

This exhibit comes as Wilmington experiences a lack of filming. 

Two TV projects – TNT’s Good Behavior and History Channel’s Six – wrapped production on their first seasons last month. And though a fresh round of grant money is available from the state legislature, no other work for 2016 has been announced. And even if those series are successful, their returns to the area to film are not certain, especially since both of their production companies denounced the state’s polarizing HB2 law.

But as the community honor holds out hope that new memories will be made in the region soon, the Wilmington Film Museum exhibit offers a reminder of the good times they’ve had so far.

The Wilmington Film Museum summer exhibit is on display through Sept. 23 at the Hannah Block Community Arts Center, 120 S. Second St. Admission is free. Hours are 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday; and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday. Visit cfifn.org for more information.