CineForge Co-op -Soap, Sweat, And Sentimentality: Why Westville Is The Time Machine We Can’t Afford To Lose

By Paul Rowe, a soap-slinging filmmaker who didn’t know he’d care this much.

Five years ago, Historic Westville, a charming, living history museum in Columbus, closed its gates thanks to the pandemic. The world paused. Time stood still. And once the pandemic was over and time started again, I, somehow, found myself standing on its grounds twice for film productions, with a third shoot coming up (2025) that I can only describe as …historically sweaty.

Let me back up. Like many southern schoolchildren with a paper-based field trip permission slip, I, too, was carted off to ye olde Westville back when it was still in Lumpkin, Georgia. Eighty glorious acres of pioneer reenactments, basket weaving, sheep shearing, and let’s be honest- soap-making. That’s the one common thing everyone remembers. Not the blacksmithing. Not the bonnets. SOAP. 

After that, I pretty much forgot about Westville. I moved on. I grew up. I bought deodorant.

Then, Westville up and moved to Columbus, riding a $10-million relocation wagon. Just in time for COVID. 

Fast forward to the day my buddy Andy Carpenter decided to direct his first film, West of the New Kansas, and said, “Hey, let’s shoot it in Westville.” I agreed, thinking, “Great. Nostalgia and sunburns.” What I didn’t expect was a full-blown spiritual awakening brought on by heatstroke and cinematic magic.

Imagine four days in July, no air conditioning, no shade, just pure Georgia humidity. We were delirious. We were dehydrated. We were in love with Westville. There’s something about creating fictional worlds inside a preserved real one that makes the whole thing feel like time travel. Except with more camera gear. 

Then in late summer 2024, we went back for my first feature film, A Southern Horror, now dramatically retitled It Wants Nightmares because subtlety is for soap operas, not Southern Gothic cinema. We filmed in a tiny house beside one of two churches, and once again, we slipped through the cracks of time. An iPhone resting on a 19th-century loom. LED panels shining on hand-hewn beams.

Only our cast and crew will know what it was like during those days. The heat. The jokes. The hard work and long hours of filmmaking. We lived it. We left something behind, and Westville left something in us. Dust. But also… meaning. 

I’ve been back to Westville YET again, this time not with a camera, but a broom, sweeping dirt and dust with Oscar-worthy flair. Helping prep for its grand reopening, I was hit with that same magic. Funny how our appreciation for places like this changes through time. I’ve seen Westville as a kid, a filmmaker, and now a volunteer…and I’m not done yet.

Westville matters. It matters to Columbus, to history nerds, to filmmakers…everyone. 

And let’s not forget its VIP neighbors: the National Infantry Museum and Oxbow Meadows. Together, they form a trinity of unforgettable experiences and tourism less than a mile of one another. 

When it reopens, and it will reopen (more on that below), there will be sights, sounds, and tastes you can’t stream. Things you can only learn and experience by being there. YouTube walkthroughs and virtual reality are cute and all, but they don’t smell like Westville. They don’t make your hands sticky from real beeswax. 

It’s a rare, breathing example of how our stories, both old and new, deserve a place to be told. It reminds us that in our increasingly electronic, virtual world that present and tactile experiences can bring us back to something within ourselves which cannot be replicated through silicon. 

Westville reopening is on the horizon – this year – starting small, just a couple of days a week, but it’s enough to get the wagon wheels turning. And it will have a new name: Historic Westville Village. The catch? It’s funded for the first year. To keep it alive, they need more than visitors – they need believers. While longtime supporters are stepping up, this is the community’s moment to be more than spectators. Help Westville thrive, and trust me, it’ll give back more than you ever expect. It has already happened to me and, speaking on behalf of all of our cast and crews from previous films, to them as well. 

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Donations to support Westville can be made through the Living History Fund following the directions below:

The primary purpose of the Living History Fund is to provide annual support to Historic Westville, Inc., for interpretation, capital improvement, and preservation.  To a lesser extent, other 501(c)3 living history organizations in the Chattahoochee Valley may apply for support. It differs from an Endowment fund as it will be a stand-alone support fund at the Community Foundation of the Chattahoochee Valley and will be managed by an appointed Board of Advisors. All contributions are tax-exempt and will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $5 million.

Checks should be made payable to:
Living History Fund at the Community Foundation of the Chattahoochee Valley, Inc.

1147 6th Avenue
Columbus, Georgia 31901

Community members interested in learning more can contact April Kirk, Executive Director, directly at historicwestville@gmail.com.