Lawrence Cumbo has traveled the world to make movies. He has worked in war-torn Afghanistan, the rim of an active volcano in Guatemala, and the world’s largest prison in India. He wrote, produced, and filmed the 2002 Search for the Afghan Girl, the sensational story of Afghan refugee Sharbat Gula, whose photograph first appeared on the cover of a 1985 National Geographic magazine. Receiving a worldwide simulcast in over 120 countries and garnering over 250 million viewers during its premiere, the film was nominated for a 2003 Emmy and has won several awards.
Now executive producer for Tiger Aspect USA in New York, he produces and oversees production for series appearing on National Geographic Channel, A&E Network, TLC, Animal Planet, and other networks. But for Cumbo, there is no place like home. And home happens to be Shepherdstown, W.Va.
This autumn, Cumbo will begin inviting audio and video artists into a new media center on Duke Street in Shepherdstown. He and wife Julie purchased the building to create a space where creative professionals could share office space and resources in an atmosphere conducive to collaboration. If all goes according to concept, writers, website designers, video and audio editors, video producers, and other independent artists will become tenants in the space. Cumbo plans to outfit the space with cutting edge editing and equipment and software so that they are available at low-cost to the people who work there.
Plans also call for a state-of-the-art video conferencing service to enable Shepherdstown professionals to meet with clients and collaborators worldwide while sitting in Shepherdstown. “There are creative professionals living in the Shepherdstown area who often drive to Washington, D.C. or New York City for one-hour meetings. We see the video conferencing as adding to the green infrastructure for the Town,” said Cumbo, adding that the video conferencing and some of the other services will be available to the public—not just tenants. “Having different media arts people working under one roof could create great synergy, too,” said Cumbo. In the long run, that synergy could lead to new projects and more shared resources, said Cumbo.
For Cumbo, the weekly commute to New York, coupled with all the travel that goes with being a filmmaker, has added up to a lot of time away from home. The Cumbos have two young children, Gabbie, age 8, and 5-year-old Annie. “We love Shepherdstown,” said Cumbo. “We live here because it’s such a terrific place to raise a family. The new media center will make it possible for me and other Shepherdstown-area professionals to be more grounded at home.”
Cumbo will spend part of his week producing film projects at the new media center. He is currently in production of a new series for A&E Network, titled The Rookies.
The prospect of having television series produced in Shepherdstown for international broadcast might put Shepherdstown on the media map. But for the Cumbos, the project is a labor of love.
“Both of us come from education backgrounds,” said Cumbo. “Julie has 11 years of teaching experience; I spent several years teaching in Louisiana. We really see this as a way to begin dreaming about other educational projects. “During most of the 90s, I traveled all over the state teaching children how to use a video camera to tell their stories. It was a great job and  helped me buy food and film, but today that experience is a motivating factor for creating the media center.”
Who knows, with Annie starting school soon, maybe Larry and Julie will collaborate on a project one day. It might seem ironic that the couple would have to start a media center to find a way to collaborate, but that’s precisely the type of result they hope others will find at the new center.