Carolyn Homra has owned her 120-acre Sugar Creek Farm in western McCracken County for 25 years. She has seen a lot happen in that time, but one of the more interesting stories she shares is how her property became a filming location for the recently released movie Burning Kentucky.
The film by Lexington native Bethany Brooke Anderson, tells the story of a sheriff's son who encounters the runaway daughter of an eastern Kentucky bootlegger in the woods, falling in love with the girl before discovering a dark family secret and being forced to make difficult decisions.
Homra said it was a friend who reached out to her about the project.
"The Kentucky film commission reached out to our Paducah Tourism Board, who reached out to Luke Voorhees who knows me in Paducah, and he said 'I know a place'. And so he brought Bethany and another local, Josh Robinson, and maybe one or two others out to the farm one day," Homra said.
Homra says the award-winning film deals with some dark and deeply rooted issues, but it also casts a glimmer of hope in what might be seen by some as a hopeless situation.
"There's deep eastern Kentucky addiction, heroin, death, hope, loss. It's an amazing movie," she said.
Homra said the film crew arrived in August of 2017 with a semi truck full of equipment. It was something she wasn't quite ready for, as she explains.
"They arrived in a semi truck and unloaded rails and huge cameras," Homra said. "Apparently that was one of special things about this film, is that they had gotten really excellent funding to use top level equipment from the beginning. I think that when you see it you'll see that there's real cinematography in this movie. Parts of it are so beautiful, even if it is my place."
Homra didn't just let the 50-person crew use her place, but she actually cooked all their meals while they were shooting.
"It was pretty amazing. In the cottage I set up tables across the kitchen, and I cooked three meals a day in that cottage for nine days." She said.
Although she was a bit reluctant at first, Homra said the size and importance of the project, and her opportunity to be a part of it are what made her decide to welcome the crew onto her property. She said it was a great experience she will never forget.
"It was so inspiring and so huge what they wanted that I couldn't think of anywhere else where they could go," She said. "I really realized that it was fate, and so I said yes."
You can find out more about Burning Kentucky, as well as Tuesday's auction at the links below.
On the Net:
Burning Kentucky Facebook PageRare Auction Group
