Downtown Bel Air isn’t generally known for its gritty, dystopian atmosphere, but last weekend, the town became a backdrop for the filming of a movie short called “Moving Her Remains,” a sci-fi thriller set in a future post-civil war America.

Jamin Mears, a Fallston native, hopes to use the 17-minute movie as a proof of concept for a full-length feature film. He raised more than $40,000 in a Kickstarter campaign and assembled an award-winning production team and a cast including Mehcad Brooks, from 2021’s “Mortal Kombat,” and Catherine Curtin from “Orange Is the New Black” and “Stranger Things.”

“The movie is the near future. It’s meant to kind of hold up a mirror to some of the things going on today,” said Mears, 45, who now lives in Perry Hall and is working with New York-based production team Prodigium Pictures, including John Trefry, who’s brought films to South by Southwest (SXSW) and the Tribeca Film Festival.

The plot is about a “disillusioned smuggler” who must get a mysterious body across the border. Visual effects are being done by Chicken Bone FX, which worked on hit series such as “The Queen’s Gambit” and “Westworld.”

The town of Bel Air gave a heads-up in a Facebook post that Thomas Street would be closed to traffic last Sunday, though people could still access local businesses.

A film called "Moving Her Remains" was filmed in downtown Bel Air. (Jamin Mears/Courtesy)
A film called “Moving Her Remains” was filmed in downtown Bel Air. (Jamin Mears/Courtesy)

Mears said he didn’t get reactions from passersby during the filming, which included, for example, scenes of armed militia-style men guiding men, women and children at gunpoint. A fictional law-enforcement van was labeled “A.F.S. Federal Police.”

The filming definitely benefited the local economy, said Bel Air’s Economic Development Director Angela Robertson. She said crew members from New York spent the night in Harford and Baltimore counties’ hotels, rented equipment from Laurel and shopped at Bel Air grocers and other businesses. Also, more than half of the actors employed were local, she said.

Perhaps the last time Bel Air was a target for a significant production was during filming for the series “House of Cards,” more than a decade ago. At one point, hundreds of people lined Main Street for major casting calls for that show at the Bel Air Armory.

Aside from Bel Air, filming locations for “Moving Her Remains” included Bowleys Quarters, Fallston and Perry Hall.

Mears said he chose Bel Air because, for one thing, he once lived at Franklin Street and East Broadway. He said the themes of the movie, such as “empathy and compassion,” speak to his own experience, including knowing “people I care deeply about” with various political views.

“Just because someone may not agree with me politically, that doesn’t take away from the fact that we need to be able to treat everyone with decency and respect,” Mears said.

Have a news tip? Contact Bryna Zumer at bzumer@baltsun.com.