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Homegrown ‘The Psycodelics The Movie’ to Debut at Charleston’s Terrace Theater
Published: September 23, 2024

This Sunday, September 29th marks an exciting milestone for Charleston’s creative community, as the locally-produced feature length film The Psycodelics The Movie will make its debut at the Terrace Theater. Produced by Cory Schwartz and Cameron Johnson of The Grilled Cheese Productions, the film documents the rise of one of Charleston’s finest, funkiest, most exciting bands: The Psycodelics.

The film includes interviews with the band and their associates, teachers, family members, and fans, plus archival live footage of The Psycodelics and various early formations of the musicians dating back to their high school days. It focuses on the grassroots, independent and most importantly, local connection that The Psycodelics have.

Enjoy the trailer below, and read on for our interview with Cory and Cam of The Grilled Cheese Productions, detailing the story of the film, the backstory of long-standing collaboration, and Charleston’s deep well of community support.

Making The Psycodelics The Movie

This film is a major milestone for all parties involved, but especially for The Grilled Cheese Productions. The name of the company comes from the former James Island sandwich shop, Cory’s Grilled Cheese, owned by Cory Schwartz, which regularly hosted local musicians. It was there that they first met the future members of The Psycodelics, and planted the seeds for this movie.

“When I had the shop, the guys, Noah, Cam, Whitt, and some of their peers would come in and jam with their band, Man Child,” Cory recalls. “When the restaurant closed I found myself back on my original career path, which is filmmaking. After I had gotten my skills to the point where I needed them to be to make the movie, they were always on my mind as a good topic to make my first movie about.”

Cory says that both their personal connection and the volume of archival footage made them the perfect candidate, especially considering the band’s surge in popularity in the years since the pandemic. Anybody who has seen The Psycodelics live can attest to their powerful, funky performance, cohesiveness as a group, and Cam Wescott’s undeniable star power as a frontman.

“We get to make it with The Psycodelics. There’s not another band,” Cam Johnson of The Grilled Cheese says. “I just think that everything else was all just like, we had to do this with the Psycodelics.”

The Psycodelics NPR Tiny Desk Submission (Winter 2024)

Who Are The Grilled Cheese Productions?

Cory Schwartz and Cam Johnson of The Grilled Cheese Productions. Photo by Ruta Smith of the Charleston City Paper.

After the sandwich shop closed in late 2018, Cory’s Grilled Cheese pivoted into the digital world and began hosting The Grilled Cheese, an online variety show featuring comedy skits, shorts, live performances and more from across Charleston’s creative community. Cory alongside Cam have created a multifaceted digital and physical hub with The Grilled Cheese, offering a valuable platform for local artists to gain exposure.

Cory has a professional background in filmmaking, with a fine arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania and several years of experience working in video and film in New York City prior to opening the sandwich shop.

The Psycodelics in particular have appeared on The Grilled Cheese twice now, with their 2022 live session at Return to Zero being the most popular video on the YouTube channel, and the most well-known showcasing of the group’s talent currently available, in addition to the NPR Tiny Desk submission above, which was also produced by The Grilled Cheese.

The Psycodelics live at Return to Zero (Fall 2022)

Friendship and Collaboration

Cory and Cam of The Grilled Cheese have been friends for over 10 years, and the collaboration has roots in their former shared duplex on James Island, where they always talked about ideas like the one behind The Psycodelics movie. They had started to film band documentary-style footage, and once the pandemic set in, The Grilled Cheese Show truly began.

“We actually formed the Grilled Cheese as it is now before the pandemic, but it wasn’t really until the pandemic that both of us had all the time on our hands and, and a fair amount of disposable income, and we were like, let’s fucking get creative,” Cory recalls.

During this time, they produced The Grilled Cheese Show in variety show format, which allowed them to hone their skills. Many of the skits feature Cam as the main character, and the duo collaborated on all the writing. In their words, Cory is the video guy, and Cam is the audio guy for The Grilled Cheese (though Cory did the audio for the feature film).

“By the time the pandemic was over, we had high end equipment and professional skills,” Cory says.
“Hopefully this movie is just the start, you know, the first movie.”

In addition to video and audio production, The Grilled Cheese also hosts regular live shows with Charleston artists, at various venues around town including The Royal American, Tin Roof, and more.

Closing Thoughts

This Sunday’s premiere at the Terrace Theater will feature a big red carpet celebration at the ideal location for this project to debut. The independent movie theater is known for its support of the grassroots film community, and it’s right across the street from the Charleston Pour House, a venue that is featured prominently in the film and has also been an integral part of the journey for the band and its members.

“This is a Charleston homegrown thing,” Cory closes, “The community was able to provide a petri dish for this stuff to grow, you know? The support for us, all the people who helped us with the movie and were on board with it. And for the Delics — people have supported them along their way. Cameron has had a lot of community support behind him, from the church scene, and it’s been really cool to see how everybody just loves these guys. But it’s really a Charleston thing, you know, through and through.”

The Grilled Cheese has plans to take The Psycodelics The Movie on the road, with several film festivals having already approved the film, including the Vancouver Black Independent Film Festival, Documentaries Without Borders, and a few online festivals. There are also plans to visit colleges across the country to introduce both the film and the music of The Psycodelics to people everywhere.

Don’t miss your chance to be part of this exciting debut and celebrate Charleston’s creative community. Get your tickets here.