In 1972, Georgia’s Rabun County served as the backdrop for the film “Deliverance” starring Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox. The film would go on to be nominated for three Academy Awards, but its greatest impact would be the vision that it inspired in an unassuming peanut farmer who grew up roughly 250 miles south of the filming location.
When he saw the economic impact that “Deliverance” had on Georgia, then-governor Jimmy Carter knew that something special had happened. In a reception for the American Film Institute in 1977, he is reported to have said, “The movies have touched all our lives — mine as a farm boy. It gave me a vision of the outside world. I’m sure the first time I saw the White House was in the back seat of a movie theater.”
Carter established the Georgia Film Office in 1973 and launched a new and exciting industry in a state that was then better known for its produce than its productions.
Roughly 50 years later, the film industry now brings $4 billion annually to Georgia’s economy, and the Peach State has been the setting for such great films as “Driving Miss Daisy,” Forrest Gump,” and “Fried Green Tomatoes;” and it is all owed to Carter’s vision.
The former president passed away at his home in Plains on Dec. 29 at the age of 100, and Jan. 9 has been established as a National Day of Mourning in his honor. As we mark this day of remembrance for our former governor and president, we remember his noteworthy achievements including serving as the 39th president of the United States, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 and his volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity, but let us also remember the pivotal role he played in establishing Georgia’s creative economy.
To learn more about the history of the Georgia Film Office, please see this article that first appeared in the 2023 issue of the Creative Economy Journal.
