Mount Pleasant Magazine March/April 2016

year in effect returned more than $60 million to compa-

nies that made movies in the Tarheel State.

This series of events stymied the growth of the film

industry in North Carolina and ultimately led many in

the business to take a hard look at resettling south of

the border in the Palmetto State. Among them was Kara

Williams, now chief executive officer of Meeting Street

Productions. A tenured producer, she has had a hand in

box office hits such as “The Hunger Games,” “Reckless”

and “We’re the Millers.” She moved from Wilmington,

North Carolina, to Charleston to take advantage of South

Carolina’s fertile film-industry environment.

Williams opined that “The friendly economic environ-

ment in South Carolina planted the seed, but the high

quality of life ultimately sealed the deal.”

Since settling in Charleston, Williams has been busy

overseeing films, commercials, TV series’ and music vid-

eos. In January, she rolled out a red-carpet movie screen-

ing at Cinebarre in Mount Pleasant of a feature film titled

“Union Bound.” Its cast included Oliver Stone’s son, Sean,

as well as a few local actors.

“Union Bound” was filmed across the Southeast and

leveraged myriad Charleston-based Civil War re-enactor

groups to tell the story of two Union soldiers who escaped

from Andersonville, a notorious Confederate prisoner of

war camp in Georgia, and eventually fled safely north back

to Union territory with the help of local slaves.

Michael Benson, a local actor who played a young

Union solider in “Union Bound,” got his first experience

“in front of the camera” while working on set. Traditional-

ly a producer, Benson got his start locally through Trident

Tech’s Film Production program. A caffeine junkie who

admits to consuming nearly five cups of coffee and two en-

ergy drinks each day, he enjoyed the high-paced environ-

ment of shooting a film over the span of 22 days. Benson

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