Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Economic Culture and Civic Development Committee of the Mobile City Council convened on September 29, 2026, at 6:00 PM. The meeting was chaired by Councilman Corripean and Councilman Ben Reynolds. Also present were President Small, Vice President Gregory, Councilman Woods, Councilman Fleming, and City Attorney Jonathan Maples. The sole agenda item was a presentation by Kelly Shirazi, Director of the Mobile Film Office, to provide an overview of the office's activities, economic impact, workforce development, and stewardship of its $175,000 annual performance contract budget. The meeting lasted approximately 45 minutes.
Film Office Overview: Director Kelly Shirazi described the office as an economic development, workforce development, and community engagement hub that supports a wide range of productions (feature films, TV, commercials, music videos, documentaries, video games, etc.). She emphasized that the office helps recruit productions, coordinates location scouting, permits, crew hiring, and community outreach, and works to maximize local economic impact. The office operates with two employees.
Budget and Staff: Councilman Reynolds asked about the number of employees (two) and the current year's budget ($175,000 performance contract).
Impact of Budget Decrease: Councilman Corripean asked whether the budget reduction would affect services. Shirazi responded that all education programs are conducted voluntarily by local film professionals at no cost to the office, so the decrease would not directly impact those programs. She highlighted the dedication of the local crew, many of whom give back to the community.
Production Statistics: In the current year (2026), the film office recorded: 7 feature films, 15 TV shows, 426 commercials, 16 music videos, 14 documentaries, 9 proof-of-concept short films, 25 student films, 30 YouTube series episodes, and 20 creative content videos. These numbers represent only productions that interacted with the office; additional unrecorded filming occurs.
Film Recruitment and Process: Councilman Woods asked about the process for a production to film in Mobile. Shirazi explained that the office actively recruits productions (e.g., calling producers, sending location packages) and assists with the state incentive application process. She cited an example of a recent last-minute scout for a film that was assembled in under 24 hours.
Economic Impact Examples: Vice President Gregory asked about the direct economic benefits to local businesses. Shirazi described a recent film that purchased food from local grocery stores (Costco, Greers), used Barton Academy and Ladd-Peebles Stadium as locations (school system), rented a church as base camp, and even rented a therapist's office—whose earnings were used to provide free therapy to local residents. A slide shown listed categories of local businesses impacted, but the specific numbers were not fully detailed in the transcript.
Workforce Development: Shirazi highlighted the office's shadow program (50 students, ages high school to college) that provides real-world set experience, resume building, and IMDB credits. They have placed students on productions such as American Idol and the feature film Adulting. A quarterly student film showcase at the Crescent Theater drew 30 submitted films from across Lower Alabama and filled the theater.
Crew Base and Local Hiring: The local crew base numbers over 100 professionals who work nationally (e.g., on The Mandalorian). Shirazi expressed enthusiasm for productions that employ local crew, allowing them to work at home. She cited a film from the previous year that spanned Mobile, Dauphin Island, Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, and Daphne, housed in Mobile, and hired 46 crew members plus two of her shadow students.
Councilmember Comments: Councilman Fleming praised the film office's work, referencing Nicholas Cage films and the importance of state incentives in competing with Georgia. He and other council members expressed strong support for the office's efforts.
Good afternoon. Good afternoon and welcome. Welcome. We want to first of all, are you guys ready? Okay, great. This meeting is our economic culture and civic development committee meeting. The committee members are Councilman Corripean and Councilman Ben Reynolds. Other members present, we have President Small, Madam Vice President Gregory, Councilman Woods, and our attorney Jonathan Maples. And we have Councilman Fleming. Thank you all for being here. The purpose of this meeting, we really want to gain some insight regarding the City of Mobile's film office in terms of stewardship of resources, impact outcomes as it relates to quality of life and just what's happening in the program. I think that we presented some questions to you all earlier. And so what I was thinking is for this meeting, if you can give us a high level overview. I know you have a PowerPoint presentation, so we can get the high-level overview, and then immediately following that if we can get the responses to those questions that was sent to you earlier, and we can start from there. And is Kelly Shirazi? All right, great. She's the mobile film office director. And so Kelly, we'll turn it over to you so that you can share with us. So the film office left for that. Thanks. The film office is much more than a permitting office. It's an economic development office, workforce development, community engagement, and creative industry resources dedicated to strengthening mobile and lower Alabama as a place where filmmakers can work, local businesses can grow, productions can thrive, and local creatives can build sustainable careers at home. We support a wide range of creative productions, including feature films, television, commercials, music videos, documentaries, video games, and other forms of creative content. We work to recruit productions to the area while also supporting the local production companies, filmmakers, and creative professionals who call this area home. Once a production chooses our region, we help make that process of filming here as seamless as possible. We assist with locations, location scouting, crew vendors, hotels, permitting, government coordination, community outreach, and other production needs. Our goal is to provide productions with the resources and support they need to have a successful experience while also being good neighbors and ensuring that filming is a positive, positive experience for everyone. The economic impact of a production extends far beyond the production itself. When a film or television project comes to our region, it can create work for local crew members and creatives while generating business for hotels, restaurants, caterers, local artists. It really impacts a variety of different places, including doctors' offices, things that you wouldn't really think would be a thing. Our role is to help connect productions with these local businesses so we can gain the largest amount of economic impact for the communities. We work really closely with community partners and neighboring communities to provide economic throughout it. One of the things is when a movie touches down, no matter where it lands in Lower Alabama, it's going to impact Mobile in some way. Whether it's hiring the crew from here, it's working with vendors from here, the establishments, we get background actors from all over the community that come out. And then on the other side of things that we do, workforce development is really important to us. It's a big part of our mission. We're we want the next generation of filmmakers and creative professionals to have the opportunity to learn, gain experience, build relationships, and ultimately find meaningful work in the industry without having to leave the Gulf Coast. Through film education programs with our local schools, um, we partner with and the Mobile County Public Schools, we've partnered with Barton Academy. I'm in that classroom once a week, every on Wednesdays, where we work with six through ninth graders on making film projects and we bring in film local film professionals to make that possible. Um they get to learn real world skills through our shadow program, which lets high school to college age students um have the opportunity to work on real film sets. Um we have 50 kids in the program. They're all in a group chat with me. So I'm constantly interacting with them. We send them opportunities.