How Opryland USA fans, new film pay homage to long-gone Nashville icon
The debut screening sold out so fast last year that the Nashville Film Festival immediately added another screening off site that week.
The second screening, at the Belcourt Theatre, sold out 300 seats within hours.
So the Belcourt Theatre decided to show the documentary, "Opryland USA: A Circle Broken," a few months later, in December last year. And that screening sold out so quickly that the Belcourt added showings for the next two consecutive nights.
The documentary's producer/director/editor, Brandon Vestal, who grew up in Franklin, Tennessee, loving the theme park, knew many longtime Middle Tennessee residents might be enthusiastic about his movie.
Still, Vestal said afterward, "It's interesting how rabid the community is about Opryland."
Indeed. Though Opryland USA theme park closed in 1997, to be replaced by the Opry Mills outlet mall, there are still two active Facebook groups — one with 50,000 members, the other with 19,000 members — where people in Nashville and nationwide still share pictures and memories from the park.
A March 29 Facebook post on the Opryland USA page , "So how about bringing back Opryland? We'd rather have that vs. the mall!" generated 2,600 likes and more than 400 supportive comments.
That same month, Nashville's public television station, WNPT, aired "Opryland USA: A Circle Broken" as part of a fundraising drive.
And the Nashville Film Festival has set up yet another two showings of the film at the Franklin Theatre, for April 18.
Why so much interest in a theme park that closed 29 years ago?
Vestal said he thinks for many longtime Tennessee residents, the 1997 Opryland USA theme park closure represents the death of "old Nashville."
"Opryland was the last chapter of the Nashville that felt small, local and ours," he said. "When Opryland closed, Nashville stopped being a hidden gem and started becoming a brand."
Many Nashvillians resented never having a chance to have a last visit to the park; owners announced Opryland would shut down after it closed for the season in 1997, and there were no goodbye events held afterward.
The documentary reignited those feelings, said Barry Amato, who performed at the park for five seasons in the late 1980s.
"This project has opened Pandora's box for people in Tennessee," Amato said, "the level of disappointment and resentment over the fact that decision was made that didn't need to be made."
The filmmaker, Vestal, grew up going to Opryland USA every year starting when he was 4 until the park closed when he was 17. His parents started dropping him off for the whole day in the summer when he turned 12, a move that many parents made, turning the park into a babysitter for many Tennessee tweens and teens.
Vestal really liked the indoor Chaos rollercoaster, with its peppy, new-age soundtrack. "We'd sometimes ride that all day," he said.
After graduation, Vestal launched a career in video productions, and in 2020, he saw a map of Opryland USA pop up on his eBay feed. That launched a wave of nostalgia and memories that Vestal rode into creating the documentary.
He solicited pics and home movies from members of the Opryland USA Facebook groups, and Vestal found some key Gaylord Opryland players to interview. Sifting through more than 400 hours of home movies and those interviews, Vestal put together his 75-minute documentary.
The film tells the story of the opening and closing of the theme park, mostly through the eyes of a handful of park performers and employees.
Vestal said he's grateful for the interest his film has generated. And he has hopes of finding investors and creating a more in-depth and more professional version for nationwide distribution or streaming. To that end, Vestal is asking Opryland USA fans to keep submitting pictures and video to him at brandon@vestalvideo.com .
Vestal feels the documentary can serve as a warning to other cities and towns that might be in danger of losing key pieces of their culture to the whims of newer residents.
"It is a cautionary tale," he said, "about people moving to a place and not knowing what they have."
Reach Brad Schmitt at brad@tennessean.com .
If you go
What: Screening of "Opryland USA: A Circle Broken" and a question-and-answer with filmmaker Brandon Vestal
When: 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. April 18
Where: Franklin Theatre, 419 Main St., Franklin
Tickets: franklintheatre.com
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Opryland USA documentary to be shown April 18 at Franklin Theatre
