Crew gets approval to shoot short film at Oak Grove Cemetery

FALL RIVER — For one reason or another, Oak Grove Cemetery is becoming an increasingly popular spot for film crews.

The presence of famed city native Lizzie Borden’s grave may attract its share of attention, but Fall River Director of Cemeteries Christopher Parayno said it only makes up a portion of the filming requests the city receives.

Parayno's office has fielded three separate filming requests just in the last four months. One was for a documentary program on Borden that filmed at Oak Grove in April.

The cemetery recently received a request from the reality TV and documentary-oriented network TLC to film part of a show there.

“We’ve gotten quite a few of these recently,” said Parayno.

The TLC production was to feature a Fall River resident in places relevant to them, including the cemetery. The name of the program was never disclosed to the city’s Board of Park Commissioners, which approves film requests.

Because they had not been provided the additional filming details they requested from TLC at their last meeting, the city’s park commissioners did not approve the channel's request at their meeting this week. However, they did approve an entirely different request submitted by a local filmmaker.

Kyle Gregory was approved by the board to spend 12 hours filming at Oak Grove Aug. 12 as part of his addiction-focused short film “Blood Brothers.” Gregory described he roughly 20-minute film as a psychological thriller. The shoot is expected to bring a film crew to the cemetery between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m.

“I’m aware of the fees and certain protocols they have with not showing names on the tombstones,” Gregory told members of the Board of Park Commissioners Wednesday.

Gregory will also be required to halt activities in the event of any funeral procession traveling through the cemetery while his crew is there.

Parayno said the city has yet to hear any new information on what TLC plans to film. The network’s request has yet to be withdrawn. In addition to Oak Grove, TLC also planned to film at Veterans Memorial Bicentennial Park. The network provided local officials with possible filming dates. The production crew later notified Parayno that the visit would have to be rescheduled, though it did not provide alternative dates.

Fall River is no stranger to the spotlight. The unresolved 1892 Borden hatchet murders have drawn TV crews from around the world for many years, including "Ghost Adventures" and "Kindred Spirits." Aerosmith shot part of the music video for its 1993 hit "Cryin'" inside Central Congregational Church. In 2018, the city hosted filming of "Jungleland," a film about a bare-knuckle boxer played by Charlie Hunnam.