Local filmmaker's latest project releases this week
Jaron Lockridge is Jackson Police officer who patrols the streets of the Hub City every day.
One of the ways he deals with the anxieties of the job of keeping the people of Jackson safe every day is through writing.
“I actually started writing in high school by accident when I was going to Bolivar Central High,” said Lockridge. “I took a drama class there one year and found out writing screenplays interested me.”
He wrote a screenplay for the theater class that year that they performed and has been performed in the years since Lockridge graduated.
As Lockridge began his law enforcement career, he got away from writing, but he turned back to it about a decade ago when he saw that developing and producing a low budget film had actually become a doable venture for someone who works a full-time job in West Tennessee.
He bought a $50 camera at a pawn shop and started playing with it and saw that shooting films was doable with the right digital camera equipment.
Fast forward to 2024, and Lockridge is about to release his 11th feature film, and it’s called “The Stix.” Lockridge is the writer, cameraman, editor and producer for the film, which he is for all his films so far.
“I came up with my own little system of sets with a small cast, and I try not to bite off more than I can chew,” Lockridge said. “As long as I keep things manageable, thing go pretty smoothly most of the time.”
Like most of its predecessors, The Stix is set in rural Tennessee and shot in rural West Tennessee – mainly in Jackson, Henderson and Bolivar.
The film is Lockridge’s second effort with The Stix Lockridge and his crew developed a web series of the same name online.
“You can go to YouTube and watch those episodes,” Lockridge said. “But it’s not like you need to see the series before you see the film.
“Other than having a few common characters, it’s not like one is a continuation of a previous story.
The film is about a county sheriff narcotics unit are pursuing a local king pin of a drug cartel while the king pin is also dealing with mutiny and possible betrayal within the cartel.
While none of Lockridge’s stories are based on specific events he or Jackson police have dealt with, he does draw from his experiences to ensure that the dialogue and plots are as authentic as possible.
“Our leadership knows what I’m doing and actually encourage it,” Lockridge said. “So I’d never do anything that would make me feel like I need to walk a tight rope or something to make sure I’m not violating a trust with them.”
The Stix is dedicated to the memory of Lockridge’s best friend, a late first responder from Jackson who acted in a number of Lockridge’s previous films that passed away just over a year ago.
“Larry Triplett was a fireman in Jackson that did a lot of acting in my productions,” Lockridge said. “He always pushed me to do something else with ‘The Stix,’ and so I’m glad we were able to put this together.”
The Stix will be released on various streaming platforms on June 28. Those platforms include Apple, Amazon, Roku, Tubey among others.
Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news
