From lawyer to moviemaker: The inside story of Henry Reaves III's Memphis thriller

A psychological mystery-thriller in which a traumatized young woman is haunted by memories of the infamous "College Town Slayings" that terrorized "Bluff City University," "Queen Rising" wants to make Memphis proud even as it makes moviegoers shiver.

Opening Friday at five Malco locations, "Queen Rising" was made in Memphis with an almost entirely Memphis cast and crew. Many of the creators are Black, as are most of the actors, including lead star April Hale, a graduate of Overton High School and the University of Memphis.

"For us to have the ability to put Memphis artists in a position to share their gifts with the world, that's what it's all about," said executive producer Henry Reaves III, a Memphis lawyer, who conceived and essentially financed the project.

"We tried to capture Memphis in the visuals so the film wouldn't just be in Memphis but it would feel like Memphis as well," said director Princeton James, in an interview from the Memphis set of the NBC series "Young Rock," where he is an assistant to the executive producer.

Shot in June 2021, on a budget of about $450,000, according to Reaves, "Queen Rising" stars Hale as a conscientious young schoolteacher who is convinced by a charismatic writer (Xamon Glasper, who grew up in Orange Mound) to collaborate on a true-crime memoir about the series of slayings that occurred when she was a student at Bluff City University. (The fictional college is "played" onscreen by Christian Brothers University, while Reaves used his own Whitehaven home as the central house featured in the film.)

As the teacher tells her story, the movie jumps back and forth in time, to revisit the woman's childhood and college experiences — and to reveal that murder and conspiracy are not confined to the woman's past. As the action progresses, Memphis viewers will recognize several locations, and perhaps be more likely than non-residents to think of soul singer Al Green during the film's "hot grits" incident. They also will get a laugh over several very specific local references, as when one woman complains that her mother won't accept takeout from the Dixie Queen on South Third because "she only eats at the Dixie Queen on Shelby Drive."

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Such jokes aside, "we tried to show some beautiful locations," Reaves said. "We're not trying to do a bunch of poverty porn, showing only the worst or grittiest aspects of the city."

Reaves, 42, appears in flashback scenes as the teacher's father. Onscreen, his character calls himself a "free African — not for sale." Offscreen, he calls himself "the only rookie in the cast," but he's being modest: Memphians who watch a lot of television may recognize him from TV advertisements for Reaves Law Firm, some of which play like mini-movies. A self-described "personal injury law firm," the Reaves company has offices in Memphis and Jackson, Mississippi, and employs close to 20 lawyers. The firm has been successful enough, Reaves said, to encourage him to invest his money as well as his time in his longtime dream of moviemaking.

He said the business slowdowns of the pandemic of 2020 "gave me a lot of time to reflect, and I kind of leveraged that time to pull the trigger on something I've wanted to do for a while." Inspired by a love of movies that was instilled by his father, the late Henry Reaves Jr., a career Navy chaplain's assistant who took Henry III to see "'Glory' and 'Driving Miss Daisy' and all different types of movies," Reaves decided to make a movie that could be shot in Memphis on a modest budget and that had commercial potential. He recruited Allison Chaney as co-screenwriter and James as producer-director.

"I surrounded myself with people who were much smarter than me and more experienced, and I gave them the necessary power to display their art," he said.

James, 35, appreciated the vote of confidence. Long active on the local film scene, James makes his feature directorial debut with "Queen Rising." "I wanted to create a diverse set and a diverse working environment that was conducive to growing our creative economy," he said, noting the production employed about 125 Memphis-based or Memphis-connected performers and crew members, including veteran cinematographer Jordan Danelz.

"It's so Memphis, my cousin did the music for the intro," said Reaves, referring to the theme that accompanies the montage of Memphis images that functions as the logo for Reaves' movie company, Nero Studios. Not only "so Memphis," but so family: "Nero" is the maiden name of one Reaves' grandmothers; and as for that cousin, he is veteran music maker Lawrence "Boo" Mitchell, owner of the city's justly famed Royal Studios.

Although "Queen Rising" references such subjects as female empowerment, sexism and racism, Reaves said he made what is primarily a suspense drama because "if I wanted to just deliver a message, I could write a Facebook post. I tried to make something that would take people through a range of emotions. If they're going to give me 90 minutes of their time, I want to give them something they can enjoy."

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Of course, making a movie is one thing; getting it to audiences is another. The Memphis-based Malco Theatres has long been supportive of local films, so "Queen Rising" on Friday begins a run of at least a week at the cinema chain's Collierville, Cordova, DeSoto, Paradiso and Stage multiplexes. Although Reaves believes the movie could find an audience in cities with "the right demographics," like Atlanta and Chicago, no other theatrical dates have been booked; instead, Reaves' plan is to shop the film to distributors, streaming services and home video purveyors at the annual American Film Market convention, Nov. 1-8 in Santa Monica, California.

In the meantime, "we're doing the marketing ourselves," Reaves said. "We're doing the ads, we're doing the billboards. We're testing it out and seeing if it's a concept that works."

"Queen Rising" isn't unprecedented for Memphis. In 2010, "N-Secure," a Memphis-made low-budget thriller with a Black cast, was the No. 1 film for a week at the area box office. Producer Julius Lewis, a veteran local concert promoter, said he planned to make more movies, but ultimately returned to the music business, discouraged by the uncertainty of the film industry.

That example notwithstanding, Reaves is optimistic. He said his first moviemaking experience was "intense," but inspiring. "We plan on turning on the machine and putting out movies consistently, with Memphis directors, Memphis producers, Memphis grips, Memphis audio..."

Said James: "I look forward to creating more work with our Memphis creative community. This won't be the last."

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis movie 'Queen Rising' opens at Malco theaters