S. Illinois filmmaker films movie scenes in Cairo

If you hear booms resembling cannon blasts near Cairo, Illinois, don't worry. You didn't accidentally stumble upon a battlefield. It's just Brett Ray filming his moving, "Letters Home."

Ray, a filmmaker based in southern Illinois began filming "Letters Home" during the pandemic and recently shot scenes in Cairo for its historic Magnolia Manor.

The river town at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers served as the perfect spot for Ray's movie set at the beginning of the Civil War, he said.

"Letters Home" follows the cross-country adventure of two cousins at the start of the Civil War. The pair travels from southern Illinois to Charleston, South Carolina, where they witness confederate troops fire on Fort Sumter, therefore starting the war.

"There's a real nice setting in Cairo that has a lot of old houses that date back to the late 1800s," Ray said. "The house [Magnolia Manor] is just amazing, so we used that as our South Carolina."

Cairo businessman Charles Galigher built the mansion for his family in 1869.

The four-story, 14-room mansion constructed of red brick was what originally lured Ray to film in Cairo.

In a clip Ray shared on the movie's social media channels, actors dressed in historical regalia stroll down Washington Avenue in front of Magnolia Manor.

Throughout "Letters Home," the main characters witness stark changes in the places they visited before and after the start of the war. They document what they experience through letters written with a feather quill pen.

The movie's production began as a music video Ray produced for musician John Colbert. It then turned into a short film that later snowballed into a feature-length movie.

Now, more than 600 people make up the movie's cast and crew. Most are historical reenactors who volunteered to be in the film for free, which is how the film can operate on a small budget of $80,000, according to Ray.

"I guess I've got COVID to thank for that," Ray said. "A lot of the reenactors' events were shut down and they didn't have anything to do; so a lot of them pitched in and gave us props and supplies. It turned into this full-on production from there."

Ray co-wrote the movie with his friend, Denny Dardeen, and manages nearly all aspects of the movie, including producing, directing, editing and cinematography.

Ray runs Titan Entertainment. In the past, he's worked on crews of television shows including "Rescue 911," "America's Most Wanted" and a detective series starring Burt Reynolds, "B.L. Stryker."

Ray said he aims to have the movie finished no later than January. He's currently working with streaming services so viewers may watch the movie online. It will be available on DVD.