We don't know if searchlights will be sweeping the sky outside the Senator Theatre this weekend as they used to when it hosted premieres, but the Belle of Govans is definitely presenting a marquee event this Saturday, Oct. 17, at 8 p.m.: the Baltimore theatrical debut of Gospel Hill, a 20th Century Fox movie with strong local ties.

Jeffrey Pratt Gordon has made a name for himself in Baltimore's film community, both behind the camera (doing props and set dressing for everything from Serial Mom to State of Play) and in front (as colorful longshoreman Johnny Fifty in the second season of The Wire). He's made some more substantial moves behind the camera in recent years as the co-writer, with fellow Baltimore area film-crew regular Jeff Stacy, and producer of Gospel Hill, the directing debut of esteemed character actor Giancarlo Esposito (who also has local ties, given his late '90s stint on Homicide: Life on the Streets).

The movie stars Danny Glover, Tom Bower, Angela Bassett, Julia Stiles, Adam Baldwin, and Esposito as residents of a small Southern town preparing to pay tribute to a civil-rights leader (Samuel L. Jackson) slain there during the '60s. The still-unsolved murder and the tensions built up by an encroaching real-estate development provide the drama.

Shot in South Carolina in 2008, the movie was released on DVD earlier this year, but everything looks better on the big silver, right?

Email Lee Gardner