MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
We're adding to our memories of former President Jimmy Carter, who's being laid to rest this week. He loved movies. He watched a lot of them over his 100 years. Sofi Gratas of Georgia Public Broadcasting reports on his support for the film industry.
SOFI GRATAS, BYLINE: Carter's home state of Georgia got Hollywood recognition in 1972 with the release of "Deliverance"...
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GRATAS: ...An adventure-thriller filmed against the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
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GRATAS: After the film, people flocked to north Georgia's Rabun County, where the film was made. They came for white water rafting - tourism which is still alive there today.
LEE THOMAS: It brought money to a very poor part of the state.
GRATAS: That's Lee Thomas, director of the Georgia Film Office.
THOMAS: When Jimmy Carter saw that, he thought, you know, we should try to get more of this. It doesn't require roads to be built or factories or anything. It just kind of comes in and dumps money.
GRATAS: Carter, then Georgia governor, created the Georgia Film Office the following year in 1973. The office still finds permits and helps producers scout locations for all sorts of films.
THOMAS: Maybe glaciers are tough for us, but pretty much every location, we can find.
GRATAS: Georgia scored the scripts for classics like "Driving Miss Daisy," "My Cousin Vinny" and "Fried Green Tomatoes." In the early 2000s, the state legislature passed generous tax credits for film and TV producers that led to a Marvel movie boom. Christopher Escobar of the Atlanta Film Society says Carter carried his love of movies all the way to the White House, where he watched something like 400 films during his four-year term.
CHRISTOPHER ESCOBAR: You know, "Bambi" and "The Godfather," "Young Frankenstein," "Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid," "French Connection," "Star Wars," "True Grit." Oh, we also did "Rocky."
GRATAS: Oh, wow.
ESCOBAR: (Laughter) Yeah.
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GRATAS: And remember this for trivia night, as the first new president since the Vietnam War, Carter made history when he invited a highly decorated American filmmaker for a private screening of a soon-to-be-released film...
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GRATAS: ..."Apocalypse Now."
ESCOBAR: Francis Ford Coppola talks about how President Carter holds a special place in his heart.
GRATAS: In a condolence post on social media, Coppola called that screening a, quote, "high point" of his career. For Jimmy Carter, that affection for filmmakers like Coppola was part of his larger appreciation for the arts.
For NPR News, I'm Sofi Gratas in Atlanta. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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