Local filmmakers to make debut with Black Mountain Golf Course documentary

‘The Jewel of the Town’ explores Community’s Impassioned Support for Cherished institution

Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
July 3, 2025

“The Jewel of the Town,” the debut documentary of filmmakers Will Lance and Knox Moussette, explores the story of the Black Mountain Golf Course and its impact on the local community. The film will premiere, July 18, at Owen High School. Photo by Fred McCormick

Growing up in Black Mountain, Will Lance concentrated much of his time and energy on the performing arts. The 2022 Owen High School graduate, who studied film and theater before pursuing his bachelor of arts in the Western Carolina University School of Stage and Screen, never contemplated the nearly 100 acres of green space, towering trees and rolling hills he regularly passed his entire life.

“I’ve never swung a golf club in my life,” he said, motioning to the surrounding Black Mountain Golf Course. “I just kind of knew this place was important to a lot people around here, but I had no idea why.”

The course’s significance in the community was something the rising college senior would come to understand, intimately, as the nearly century-old facility became the focal point of his directorial debut, co-produced by his best friend Knox Moussette. When the duo premieres “The Jewel of the Town,” at 6:30 p.m., Friday, July 18, in the Owen auditorium, the documentary will explore the passion and complexities surrounding the town-owned property in the aftermath of Helene.

Tickets for the event are $10 at the door, with half the proceeds benefitting the Owen golf program, which has long utilized the facility as its home course.

Like many in his generation, Lance began creating content as a middle schooler, posting short clips of him and his friends.

“They were really cringy, so eventually I just took them all down,” he said. “But, that was how I figured out I wanted to get serious about this and learn everything I can about production.”

As a freshman in high school, he enrolled in a filmmaking class taught by longtime Owen theater teacher Lyn Nihart, and rigorously pursued the craft. By the time he graduated, Lance had starred in an unreleased short film project and landed a role as Prince Titus in a school production of Cinderella.

“I fell in love with it, and that’s how I felt every single day,” he said. “It gave me such a cool feeling, and I knew this was definitely what I wanted to do.”

Acting and writing became his primary studies in the field throughout his first three years at WCU, but as he returned to Black Mountain for his final summer as an undergraduate, Lance viewed his break as an opportunity to get behind the camera. He found inspiration in an unlikely place.

“I’m only here during the summer and one month in the winter,” he said. “So, last May, I was walking by the golf course and noticed it wasn’t open, and didn’t look like it was being used. It occurred to me that I hadn’t even seen it since the storm.”

The facility was one of many town-owned properties damaged, last September, by Tropical Storm Helene. It remained closed until the back nine holes were reopened, June 24. The future of the course was a hot topic among local residents when Lance began looking into the situation.

“I saw there were a few town meetings where the golf course had come up, and then I started seeing so many people, whether in those meetings or on social media, who were passionate about this place,” he said. “This town means so much to me, so I wanted to hear what they had to say and tell the story in a way that really captured people’s voices and their strong emotional connection to the course.”

Lance borrowed a camera from a friend and turned to Moussette to assist with the documentary. The team brought complementary skill sets to the project, culminating with the production of a 48-minute film.

Knox Moussette, right, and Will Lance review footage while editing “The Jewel of the Town,” a documentary that examines community support for the Black Mountain Golf Course. Courtesy photo

“Knox is my best friend, but we’re wired differently,” Lance said. “I’m very social and more likely to just go up and talk to anybody, but Knox is more to himself, and he’s the smartest person I know. He’s my day-one best friend, so I trust his opinion a lot.”

The inexperienced filmmakers envisioned a dramatic tale over local footage and a wide range of voices.

“Looking back now, I feel pretty dumb,” Lance said. “You know the saying, ‘work smarter, not harder?’ We basically did the opposite of that.”

They recorded approximately six to eight hours of video interviews and reviewed streams of town council meetings, including one in which dozens of supporters attended while many spoke out in favor of reopening the course. Mining the collection of stories and perspectives for suitable clips took weeks, according to Lance.

“It’s such a complicated situation, and nobody is really right or wrong, especially when you look at it from everyone’s perspective,” he said. “We ended up interviewing more than 14 people, and we had to sort through what each of them talked about. We wanted to put all of this into a cohesive narrative, and it was important for me to properly portray the complexities of the whole thing.”

While the ostensible subject of the documentary is the golf course, the final product reflects something bigger, according to Lance.

Will Lance gathered hours of footage focusing on the Black Mountain Golf Course, as the Owen graduate worked on his directorial debut, “The Jewel of the Town,” which will premiere, July 18, in the auditorium of his alma mater. Photo by Fred McCormick

“It’s really a story of Small Town, America,” he said. “It’s a moment in the lives of the people in this town, and how that love for something can be bring all different kinds of people together.”

“The Jewel of the Town,” which takes its name from an impassioned public comment at a town council meeting, explores the history of the property while reflecting on its present role in the growing community.

“It sounds naive now, but when I started this project I didn’t even realize the golf course was owned by the town and not its own entity,” Lance said. “Then, there are the other things a lot of us don’t think about, like how it brings people into town who then go to other local businesses, and that impact on the local economy. People sometimes complain about tourists, but tourism has been a huge part of Black Mountain since the beginning, and the golf course has always been a big part of that.”

Its use a venue capable of hosting fundraisers for a range a community causes, from Owen athletics to the local VFW, is another underrated aspect of its significance, he added.

“You hear stories from people who play in or organize charity tournaments, and so many of them are proud to be a part of of these traditions that bring locals together to support others in the community,” Lance said. “The more you talk to people about the golf course, the more you realize all of the ways its brings people together.”

Making the documentary, which will be screened for a second time at 2 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 20, at White Horse Black Mountain, before it is released on the Will Lance YouTube channel, was a painstaking but fulfilling experience for its creators.

“I really want the community to come watch this movie, no matter how much they think they know or care about the course,” Lance said. “One thing that really stuck with me through this process is that it’s the people who live here that make the town what it is. So, in a lot of ways, this documentary is about Black Mountain more than it’s about this one issue.”