FILM FESTIVAL NEWS: Oliver Butler and Will Eno’s THOM PAIN Opens INDIE MEMPHIS’s 20th Anniversary line up is a blow out party with guests Rainn Wilson, Abel Ferrara and his band, Flyz, Mark Webber, Craig Brewer, and more!
Oliver Butler and Will Eno’s THOM PAIN Opens the Indie Memphis Film Festival presented by Duncan-Williams, Inc., (November 1-6) has announced its full slate of films for the 20th edition of the annual festival this year.
Oliver Butler and Will Eno’s THOM PAIN opens the festival, while Lynn Sachs’s TIP OF MY TONGUE is the Closing Night selection.
In between those two films and among the competition films, are a special salute to Abel Ferrara, a MLK50 series honoring the slain Civil Rights leader, a special sneak peak at Craig Brewer’s new television series, a special sidebar of shorts featuring the work of filmmakers from Saudi Arabia, a music-filled block party, and a full slate of screenings featuring many of the most critically revered and popular films from this year’s film festival circuit.
Oliver Butler and Will Eno’s THOM PAIN Opens INDIE MEMPHIS’s 20th Anniversary
Indie Memphis Executive Director Ryan Watt, said, “We felt a little more pressure for our 20th anniversary to present something special to the community and our loyal filmgoers – and our staff has really delivered. The festival features groundbreaking films that I believe Memphis has come to expect from us, along with some unique special events, premieres, and filmmaker appearances. Each year, we hope to inspire everyone in Memphis to block a week off from their schedule and immerse themselves in the very best independent cinema, awash with our local talent, and highlighted by the presence of amazing filmmakers from all over the world. This year’s edition is not to be missed.”
Oliver Butler and Will Eno’s THOM PAIN Opens INDIE MEMPHIS’s 20th Anniversary
Oliver Butler and Will Eno’s adaptation of Eno’s Pulitzer Prize finalist, THOM PAIN, offers Rainn Wilson (“The Office”) delivering, at Los Angeles’s Geffen Playhouse, a spare yet blistering monologue as he rambles from one rousing observation to another with plenty of non-sequiturs along the way. Wilson, Eno and Butler are set to attend the screening. Lynne Sachs’s TIP OF MY TONGUE, finds the filmmaker marking her 50th birthday by gathering a group of her contemporaries for a weekend of recollection and reflection on the most life-altering personal, local, and international events of the past half-century.
INDIE MEMPHIS’s 20th Anniversary line up is a blow out party
Films selected for the Narrative Competition, include Trevor White’s A CROOKED SOMEBODY, Karl Jacobs’s COLD NOVEMBER, Caroline Golum’s A FEAST OF MAN, Mark Webber’s FLESH AND BLOOD, Anthony Onah’s THE PRICE, Kentucker Audley & Albert Birney’s SYLVIO, and Theodore Collatos’s TORMENTING THE HEN.
Documentary Competition selections include Kimi Takesue’s 95 AND 6 TO GO, Jeff Onay’s THE CAGE FIGHTER, Laura Stewart’s DRIFTING TOWARD THE CRESCENT, Landen Van Soest and Jeremy Levine’s FOR AHKEEM, Erik Nelson’s A GRAY STATE, Adam Bhala Lough’s THE NEW RADICAL, and Robin Berghaus’s STUMPED.
INDIE MEMPHIS’s 20th Anniversary line up is a blow out party
The Indie Memphis Hometowner Competition – all World Premieres – include Anwar Jamison’s A BITTER PILL TO SWALLOW, Chase Gustafson’s FINDING TOBEY, Laura Jean Hocking and Melissa Anderson Sweazy’s GOOD GRIEF, David Brian Guinle’s FURRY LEWIS & THE BOTTLENECK GUITAR STORY, Joanne Fish’s MR. HANDY’S BLUES, and Shelby Elwood’s TRANS*CEND: A JOURNEY FROM GENDER TO SELF.
Among the tremendous list of special events are; indie film stalwart, Mark Webber attending a double feature of his film, FLESH AND BLOOD, and a 10TH Anniversary screening of Adam Bhala Lough’s Director’s Cut of WEAPONS, which has never been screened in the film’s intended form since its debut at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival; a 40th Anniversary 4K presentation of Dario Argento’s classic SUSPIRIA; a special preview screening of the first four episodes of Craig Brewer’s new television series, The You Look Like Show, which features two comics facing off in an insult battle with only one rule, you gotta start with “You Look Like,” including a live show with the comedians in-person; a short film series featuring two attending Saudi filmmakers as part of the “Desert to Delta” cultural exchange in partnership with the University of Memphis; and the “Grizzlies Female Fan Experience” – a short film series featuring Memphis’s popular NBA franchise from a woman’s perspective.
It had been previously announced that legendary American independent director Abel Ferrara would come to Memphis for a special film salute including the 25th anniversary screening of his landmark police thriller BAD LIEUTENANT (1992), and a 20th anniversary screening of THE BLACKOUT (1997) with Q&As afterward with Ferrara, cinematographer Ken Kelsch, and editor Anthony Redman. However, now Indie Memphis has added the International Premiere of his film, ALIVE IN FRANCE, as well as a performance of his band, Flyz, following that screening, as well as at Hi Tone on Sunday, November 5. The band is made up of Abel’s long time collaborators, the composer Joe Delia, actor/singer Paul Hipp and Abel’s wife and actress Cristina Chiriac. His background singers “The Dirty Blondes” feature PJ Delia and Mia Babalis.
Also previously announced, Indie Memphis and the National Civil Rights Museum will work together to present MLK50, a special program of films new and old which will commemorate the upcoming 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in Memphis while addressing the various legacies, completed and still unfinished, of the Civil Rights icon’s work. Indie Memphis will also host a block party from Nov. 3-5, closing off traffic along Cooper between Union and Monroe in Midtown. One of the highlights will be the Memphis premiere of THANK YOU, FRIENDS: BIG STAR’S THIRD LIVE… AND MORE, directed by Benno Nelson and featuring an all-star cast of musicians such as Robyn Hitchcock and members of R.E.M. and Wilco. The concert film will be shown on a large outdoor screen with Big Star’s Jody Stephens in attendance.
Passes are now on sale and information on the film festival can be found at IndieMemphis.com. Passholders are granted first access to film tickets beginning September 26th before they go on-sale to the general public on October 10th.
INDIE MEMPHIS’s 20th Anniversary line up is a blow out party
The 2017 Indie Memphis Film Festival official selections include:
OPENING NIGHT SELECTION
THOM PAIN World Premiere
Directors: Oliver Butler & Will Eno
Country: USA, Running Time: 75min
Thom Pain is just like you, except worse. One night, he finds himself on a stage, in the dark, in a theatre. In the audience are people who, just like him, were born and will die. Thom is going to try to make sense of it all. He’s going to try to save his life, to save their life, to save your life – in that order. A camera crew captures the night, as various forces align to produce a reckless and accidentally profound event.
CLOSING NIGHT SELECTION INDIE MEMPHIS’s 20th Anniversary
TIP OF MY TONGUE Regional Premiere
Director: Lynne Sachs
Country: USA, Running Time: 80 min
To mark her 50th birthday, filmmaker Lynne Sachs gathers a group of her contemporaries—all New Yorkers but originally hailing from all corners of the globe—for a weekend of recollection and reflection on the most life-altering personal, local, and international events of the past half- century, creating what Sachs calls “a collective distillation of our times.” Interspersed with poetry and flashes of archival footage, this poignant reverie reveals how far beyond our control life is, and how far we can go despite this.
NARRATIVE FEATURES COMPETITION
A CROOKED SOMEBODY Regional Premiere
Director: Trevor White
Country: USA, Running Time: 102 min
Michael Vaughn’s minister father always told him: Better to be an honest nobody than a crooked somebody. But intent on saving his floundering career as a spirit medium in the wake of a kidnapping, Michael attempts to make a name for himself as a TV psychic by solving the mystery behind a national scandal.
COLD NOVEMBER Regional Premiere
Director: Karl Jacobs
Country: USA, Running Time: 80 min
In rural middle America, 12-year-old Florence is eager to undergo the rite-of- passage of her first deer hunt. When Florence finds herself alone during a hunt, however, expectations dissolve into chaos as she must rely on her instinct and training to follow through with her decisions, pull herself together, and face becoming an adult.
A FEAST OF MAN Tennessee Premiere
Director: Caroline Golum
Country: USA, Running Time: 81 min
When wealthy New York playboy Gallagher dies unexpectedly, his five closest friends are summoned to his country home for a viewing of his video will. Each one will become a millionaire overnight, if they can unanimously agree to consume his dead body.
FLESH AND BLOOD Regional Premiere
Director: Mark Webber
Country: USA, Running Time: 88 min
Director and actor Mark Webber explores family dynamics using his real family as this drama about a man returning home from prison who attempts to rebuild his life while living with his activist mother and Asperger’s stricken teenage brother in inner city Philadelphia. A dysfunctional family tree soon emerges whose every branch is not only broken but likely unrepairable.
THE PRICE Tennessee Premiere
Director: Anthony Onah
Country: USA, Running Time: 92 min
Seyi, a bright young Nigerian-American working on Wall Street, must navigate the delicate balance of a dying father, a burgeoning romance with a white girlfriend, and dangerous new business opportunities. When his ambition pushes him into morally dubious waters, secrets threaten to erupt and shatter his world. A Samuel Goldwyn Films release.
SYLVIO Tennessee Premiere
Directors: Kentucker Audley & Albert Birney
Country: USA, Running Time: 80 min
When a small-town gorilla joins a local TV program, some on-air mishaps threaten to shatter his identity, sending him on an adventure of self-discovery where reality and fantasy start to blend. Co-directed and starring Memphis’s own Kentucker Audley, who won the Indie Memphis grand jury prize with Open Five in 2010. A Factory 25 release.
TORMENTING THE HEN Tennessee Premiere
Director: Theodore Collatos
Country: USA, Running Time: 77 min
When playwright Claire is invited to set her latest political work at a rural theatre company, her fiancé Monica tags along for a much-needed vacation. Upon encountering Mutty, an enigmatic neighbor with a gross lack of social boundaries, Monica’s hope for a quiet vacation, and perhaps her very sanity, are thrown into utter jeopardy.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURES COMPETITION
95 AND 6 TO GO Regional Premiere
Director: Kimi Takesue
Country: USA, Running Time: 85 min
In this affectionate portrait, filmmaker Kimi Takesue finds an unlikely collaborator while visiting her grandfather Tom in Hawai’i. A recent widower in his 90s, Tom seems content to go about his daily routines until he shows surprising interest in his granddaughter’s screenplay. In alternately funny and poignant discussions, Kimi’s fictional love story – and Tom’s creative revisions – soon serve as a vehicle for his past memories of love and loss to surface.
THE CAGE FIGHTER Tennessee Premiere
Director: Jeff Onay
Country: USA, Running Time: 81 min
A blue-collar family man breaks the promise he’d made years ago to never fight again. Now forty years old, with a wife and four children who need him, Joe Carman risks everything—his marriage, his family, his health — to go back into the fighting cage and come to terms with his past.
DRIFTING TOWARD THE CRESCENT Regional Premiere
Director: Laura Stewart
Country: USA, Running Time: 83 min
As the Mississippi River flows past the towns of Keokuk, Iowa towards Hannibal, Missouri, the birthplace of Mark Twain, an antebellum history languishes in the air. Drifting Towards the Crescent is about the place on the Mississippi River, where the North begins to drift into the South. As the diesel barges ply the waters, the river no longer needs the towns, but the towns still need the river.
INDIE MEMPHIS’s 20th Anniversary
FOR AHKEEM
Directors: Landen Van Soest and Jeremy Levine
Country: USA, Running Time: 90 min
Beginning one year before the fatal police shooting of a Black teenager in nearby Ferguson, Missouri, For Ahkeem is the coming-of-age story of Daje Shelton, a Black 17-year-old girl in North St. Louis. She fights for her future as she is placed in an alternative high school and navigates the marginalized neighborhoods, biased criminal justice policies and economic devastation that have set up many Black youth like her to fail.
INDIE MEMPHIS’s 20th Anniversary
A GRAY STATE Regional Premiere
Director: Erik Nelson
Country: USA, Running Time: 93 min
In 2010, David Crowley worked on a film about a future in which the government crushes civil liberties. When Crowley and his wife and child are found dead in 2014, conspiracy theorists speculate that they have been assassinated by the government.
THE NEW RADICAL Tennessee Premiere
Director: Adam Bhala Lough
Country: USA, Running Time: 116 min
Uncompromising millennial radicals from the United States and the United Kingdom attack the system through dangerous technological means, which evolves into a high-stakes game with world authorities in the midst of a dramatically changing political landscape. An Orchard release.
STUMPED Regional Premiere
Director: Robin Berghaus
Country: USA, Running Time: 72 min
When filmmaker Will Lautzenheiser’s limbs are amputated, his life is derailed and he turns to stand-up comedy as a therapeutic and creative outlet. Meanwhile, a world-famous medical team is performing transplants that restore bodies to unprecedented levels. Despite grave risks, Will agrees to undergo an experimental double-arm transplant in the hope of reclaiming his independence.
SOUNDS COMPETITION
INDIE MEMPHIS’s 20th Anniversary
BARRACUDA Tennessee Premiere
Directors: Jason Cortland and Julia Halperin
Country: USA, Running Time: 101 min
In this unsettling thriller a mysterious English woman arrives in Texas, ostensibly to reconnect with her half sister, although her real motives may be to stake to her claim to her country music star father’s musical legacy. An Orion Pictures and Samuel Goldwyn Films release
FLOCK OF FOUR Tennessee Premiere
Director: Gregory Caruso
Country: USA, Running Time: 87 min
Four young white men search for a legendary black jazz musician on Central Avenue, Los Angeles in 1959 and in the process learn about aspects of themselves and their society they weren’t aren’t quite prepared for.
A LIFE IN WAVES Tennessee Premiere
Director: Brett Whitcomb
Country: USA, Running Time: 74 min
Before the synthesizer-driven score of “Stranger Things,” and the multimedia robotics of Daft Punk, there was Suzanne Ciani, the five-time Grammy award nominated composer, electronic music pioneer, and neo-classical recording artist whose work has changed the male-dominated worlds of sound synthesis and computer music forever.
INDIE MEMPHIS’s 20th Anniversary
SIDEMEN Tennessee Premiere
Director: Scott Rosenbaum
Country: USA, Running Time: 77 min
An intimate look at the lives and legacies of piano player Pinetop Perkins, drummer Willie ‘Big Eyes’ Smith and guitarist Hubert Sumlin, all Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf sidemen. The film captures some of the last interviews and their final live performances together, before their deaths in 2011. An Abramorama Release.
THE GOLDEN AGE Regional Premiere
Director: Justin Connor
Country: USA, Running Time: 102 min
Allegedly inspired by true events and using a mélange of fiction and non-fiction techniques, director Justin Connor stars as Maya O’Malley, a notorious difficult recording artists who, after a string of incendiary remarks in the press, gets dropped from his music label, Aspect Records in the Fall of 2012, and seeks to claw his way back to relevance.
DEPARTURES COMPETITION
COMMON CARRIER Regional Premiere
Director: James N. Kienitz-Wilkins
Country: USA, Running Time: 78 min
In this kaleidoscopic portrait of various New York artists, a screenwriter, an actor, an urban shaman, and the director himself contend with everyday annoyances like broken appliances, FedEx dealings, and a sick parrot as they struggle to fulfill their creative tasks. Amid densely layered sounds and images—with radio broadcasts from WNYC and Hot 97 drifting in and out—Common Carrier takes a heady look at the work of being a creator in an unforgiving town.
I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW I FEEL Regional Premiere
Director: Su Friedrich
Country: USA, Running Time: 42 min
Su Friedrich has taken up the camera again in her ongoing quest to film the battleground of family life. Her mother Lore–who played the lead in The Ties That Bind (1984), a film about her experiences growing up in Germany during the Second World War–plays the lead again, this time kicking and protesting against being moved at the age of 94 from her home in Chicago to an “independent living” facility in New York.
OPUNTIA Tennessee Premiere
Director: David Fenster
Country: USA, Running Time: 60 min
OPUNTIA is a 60-minute film essay centered on conquistador turned shamanic healer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and his strange account of the New World. OPUNTIA follows de Vaca’s route from Florida to Texas to Chihuahua, tracing the physical markers of his journey and exploring history’s echoes and fictions encountered along the way. Through a mysterious alchemy, de Vaca’s spirit is called in to the prickly pear cacti, known scientifically as genus Opuntia. Together, de Vaca and cacti defy the weight of centuries and narrate a poetic meditation on colonialism, indigenous cultures, healing, death and mystical transformation.
RAT FILM Tennessee Premiere
Director: Theo Anthony
Country: USA, Running Time: 82 min
Across walls, fences and alleys, rats not only expose our boundaries of separation but make homes in them. RAT FILM is a feature-length documentary that uses the rat—as well as the humans that love them, live with them, and kill them–to explore the history of Baltimore. “There’s never been a rat problem in Baltimore, it’s always been a people problem.”
TONSLER PARK Tennessee Premiere
Director: Kevin Jerome Everson
Country: USA, Running Time: 80 min
This slow cinema portrait of the black staff members in the polling station at Tonsler Park in Charlottesville, Virginia, filmed during the US Presidential Election Day on 8 November 2016, observes rows voters pass as they hand out voting slips, the boredom of security members and the labor that democracy requires in Everson’s signature lugubrious, meditative style.
HOMETOWNER COMPETITION INDIE MEMPHIS’s 20th Anniversary
A BITTER PILL TO SWALLOW World Premiere
Director: Anwar Jamison
Country: USA, Running Time: 50 min
Filmmaker Anwar Jamison examines the epidemic of prescription drug abuse, its effects on the users and their families, and the consequences that often go unseen.
FINDING TOBEY World Premiere
Director: Chase Gustafson
Country: USA, Running Time: 75 min
FINDING TOBEY details the history of the Memphis skateboarding scene, the people and the eventual construction of the city’s first public skate park.
GOOD GRIEF World Premiere
Directosr: Laura Jean Hocking and Melissa Anderson Sweazy
Country: USA, Running Time: 53 min
The Kemmons Wilson Family Center for Good Grief helps children and teenagers who are suffering through the trauma of lost loved ones. This documentary tells the stories of clients and counsellors as they ask “What’s so good about grief?”
FURRY LEWIS & THE BOTTLENECK GUITAR STORY World Premiere
Director: David Brian Guinle
Country: USA, Running Time: 54 min
The story of how the slide guitar got to the Memphis/Delta region from Hawaii and the role Furry Lewis played in the evolution from the Hawaiian style to the bottleneck sound.
MR. HANDY’S BLUES
Director: Joanne Fish
Country: USA, Running Time: 60 min
Ten years in the making, Joanne Fish’s hour long documentary about W.C. Handy, known as The Father of the Blues, takes you into the often unrecognized career of one of greatest songwriters America ever produced.
TRANS*CEND: A JOURNEY FROM GENDER TO SELF World Premiere
Director: Shelby Elwood
Country: USA, Running Time: 65 min
Transgender/Nonbinary residents of Memphis, TN share their struggles against familial, cultural, and legislative oppression as they seek gender authenticity in this documentary feature, narrated by the filmmaker.
SPOTLIGHT
ABUNDANT ACREAGE AVAILABLE Regional Premiere
Director: Angus MacLachlan
Country: USA, Running Time: 80 min
North Carolina tobacco farmers Jesse and Tracy Ledbetter (Terry Kinney and Amy Ryan, both excellent) are mourning the death of their father. Soon, the unexpected arrival of three mysterious men sets in motion a series of events that will change their lives forever. A Gravitas Ventures Release.
DAYVEON Tennessee Premiere
Director: Amman Abbasi
Country: USA, Running Time: 75 min
Struggling with his older brother’s death, 13-year-old Dayveon spends the sweltering summer days roaming the streets of his rural Arkansas town. With no parents and few role models, he soon falls in with a local gang. Though his sister’s boyfriend tries to provide stability and comfort as a reluctant father figure, Dayveon becomes increasingly drawn into the camaraderie and violence of his new world. A Film Rise release.
LAST FLAG FLYING Regional Premiere
Director: Richard Linklater
Country: USA, Running Time: 124 min
Thirty years after serving together in the Vietnam War, Larry “Doc” Shepherd (Steve Carrell), Sal Nealon (Bryan Cranston) and the Rev. Richard Mueller (Laurence Fishburne) reunite for a different type of mission: to bury Doc’s son, a young Marine killed in Iraq. Forgoing burial at Arlington National Cemetery, Doc and his old buddies take the casket on a bittersweet trip up the coast to New Hampshire. Along the way, the three men find themselves reminiscing and coming to terms with the shared memories of a war that continues to shape their lives. An Amazon Studios Release.
LEMON Tennessee Premiere
Director: Janicza Bravo
Country: USA, Running Time: 90 min
The opening night film at this year’s Rotterdam Film Festival, Lemon announces the remarkable directorial talent of Janizca Bravo. After Isaac’s blind girlfriend walks out on him, his life goes into free fall, and he directs an unhinged staging of Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” attends the Passover Seder from hell, and attempts to woo a new flame. With Brett Gelman, Nia Long, Rhea Perlman, Judy Greer, Megan Mullaly, Fred Malamed, Jeff Garlin and Michael Cera. A Magnolia Pictures Release.
LOVE AFTER LOVE Regional Premiere
Director: Russell Harbaugh
Country: USA, Running Time: 91 min
When their family’s patriarch loses a harrowing battle against a fatal disease, Suzanne (Andie MacDowell) and her middle-aged sons, Nicholas (Chris O’Dowd) and Chris (James Adomian), must navigate through their increasingly unstable lives without his support. Over the course of several years, their family must endure an emotional gauntlet of domestic hardships. They face painful break-ups, failed careers, and dangerously concealed depression. Through it all, one essential truth remains: even without a father figure’s presence, a family’s bond is the most important thing of all. An IFC Films Release.
MAYA DARDEL Tennessee Premiere
Directors: Zachary Cotler & Magdalena Zyzak
Country: USA, Running Time: 84 min
An internationally respected poet (Lena Olin) announces she is going to kill herself and needs an heir and executor. Young writers drive up the mountain to compete for the position and are challenged intellectually and emotionally. A Samuel Goldwyn Films release.
THE MISOGYNISTS Regional Premiere
Director: Onur Tukel
Country: USA, Running Time: 85 min
In a single, fully-stocked hotel room on the night of the 2016 general election, two Trump supporters celebrate the results that halted the ongoing “end of man,” in the latest from indie provocateur Onur Tukel. Led by Dylan Baker’s gleefully deranged lead performance, Tukel’s tongue-in-cheek exploration of a divided America digs deep into the night’s mass existential crisis, and leaves with some disquieting results.
MOST BEAUTIFUL ISLAND Tennessee Premiere
Director: Ana Asensio
Country: USA, Running Time: 80 min
An illegal immigrant struggling to begin a new life in New York City is offered a great opportunity, but as day turns to night, she discovers she’s been lured into a dangerous game. Winner of this year’s SXSW Film Festival narrative feature grand jury prize, Asensio’s debut, in which she also stars, is one of the year’s most suspenseful and quietly disturbing films. A Samuel Goldwyn Films release.
MR. ROOSEVELT Tennessee Premiere
Director: Noel Wells
Country: USA, Running Time: 90 min
After a death in her family, struggling LA-based comedian Emily Martin (Noel Wells, formerly of “Saturday Night Live”) returns to Austin. There she finds herself in the awkward position of staying with her ex and his new girlfriend until the funeral, while trying to close old doors from her past.
PERMANENT Regional Premiere
Director: Colette Burson
Country: USA, Running Time: 94 min
This comedy, set in 1983 in small town Virginia, centers around a 13-year old and her family. The story of a hairstyle gone incredibly wrong and a young girl’s plight to fit in while encountering bullies at a new school. A Magnolia Pictures release.
INDIE MEMPHIS’s 20th Anniversary
SUPER DARK TIMES Tennessee Premiere
Director: Kevin Phillips
Country: USA, Running Time: 100 min
Teenagers Zach and Josh have been best friends their whole lives, but when a gruesome accident leads to a cover-up, the secret drives a wedge between them and propels them down a rabbit hole of escalating paranoia and violence. A The Orchard release.
THE UPSIDE Tennessee Premiere
Director: Neil Burger
Country: USA, Running Time: 118 min
In this remake of the blockbuster French film THE INTOUCHABLES, two New Yorkers from opposites sides of the tracks, a wealthy but paraplegic author and investor (Bryan Cranston) and a sharp tongued felon (Kevin Hart) form an unusual bond after the former mistakenly hires the latter as an auxillary nurse. A Weinstein Company release.
MLK 50
ACORN AND THE FIRESTORM Tennessee Premiere
Directors: Samuel D. Pollard and Reuben Atlas
Country: USA, Running Time: 84 min
Community organizing group ACORN became a major player in the 2008 presidential election that resulted in Barack Obama’s victory. Conservatives took issue with the group, fueling accusations of voter fraud and government waste at the left-leaning organization. As one learns in this salient, non-fiction political thriller, the ensuing political drama spawned the now-omnipresent Breitbart Media, drove an even deeper wedge between Democrats and Republicans, and served as a prescient foreshadowing for much of today’s political climate.
THE BLOOD IS AT THE DOORSTEP Tennessee Premiere
Director: Erik Jeung
Country: USA, Running Time: 98 min
On April 30, 2014, Dontre Hamilton, a black, unarmed man diagnosed with schizophrenia, was shot 14 times and killed by a Milwaukee police officer responding to a non-emergency wellness check in a popular downtown park. His death sparked months of unrest and his family into activism. Offering a painfully realistic glimpse inside a movement born out of tragedy, this explosive documentary takes a behind the scenes look at how justice remains out of reach for Hamilton’s family and many like them.
INDIE MEMPHIS’s 20th Anniversary
KING: A FILMED RECORD… FROM MONTGOMERY TO MEMPHIS (1970)
Director: Sidney Lumet
Country: USA, Running Time: 185 min
This Academy Award-nominated documentary presents key events in the life of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. Beginning with the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, the production follows King through major steps in his struggle to promote racial equality. Including footage of King’s stirring speeches, the documentary is a fitting tribute to his legacy, and features clips narrated by numerous celebrities such as Harry Belafonte, Paul Newman and James Earl Jones.
MARVIN BOOKER WAS MURDERED
Director: Wade Gardner
Country: USA, Running Time: 112 min
Marvin Booker, a homeless street preacher, while being booked into the Denver Detention Center, was beaten to death by five jail guards – for simply wanting to retrieve his shoes. The event was caught on tape, and witnessed by more than 20 people. The city of Denver never indicted, nor reprimanded any of the deputies involved. In this explosive documentary, the Booker family refuses to settle with the city, pushing the case toward a stunning federal civil trial.
QUEST Tennessee Premiere
Director: Jonathan Olshefski
Country: USA, Running Time: 105 min
Filmed over the course of eight years, filmmaker Jonathan Olshefski chronicles the daily struggles and successes of the Raineys, an African-American family living in Philadelphia, whose triumphs and tragedies in Obama era America echo the fraught nature of a country where gun violence, and its effects on young families, are all too common.
UPTIGHT! (1968)
Director: Jules Dassin
Country: USA, Running Time: 104 min
Black militants in Cleveland, after a rash of police misconduct, build up an arsenal of weapons in preparation for a race war, only to be betrayed by one of their own in this remake of John Ford’s The Informers. With a score by Memphis’s own Booker T and the MG’s, Dassin’s movie was suppressed in its day. Boasting remarkable performances and technical credits to go with a narrative that is more timely than ever, this is a movie that deserves much wider recognition than it currently has.
THE WORK Tennessee Premiere
Directors: Jairus McCleary and Gethin Aldous
Country: USA, Running Time: 89 min
Set inside a single room in Folsom Prison, “The Work” follows three men from outside as they participate in a four-day group therapy retreat with level-four convicts. Over the four days, each man in the room takes his turn at delving deep into his past. The raw and revealing process that the incarcerated men undertake exceeds the expectations of the free men, ripping them out of their comfort zones and forcing them to see themselves and the prisoners in unexpected ways. “The Work” offers a powerful and rare look past the cinder block walls, steel doors and the dehumanizing tropes in our culture to reveal a movement of change and redemption that transcends what we think of as rehabilitation.
WORKING IN PROTEST Tennessee Premiere
Directors: Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley
Country: USA, Running Time: 80 min
Political turmoil in the United States takes on a movingly personal aspect through this judiciously edited archive of street marches and public demonstrations, shot since the 2000 Republican Convention by filmmakers Michael Galinski and Suki Hawley. Illuminating altercations between members of opposing factions – young men of Occupy Wall Street vs an old school liberal Democrat, Trump supporters vs detractors gathered for the inauguration – show us the problematic role of the police in protecting and suppressing dissent.
ABEL FERRARA: ALIVE IN MEMPHIS
25th Anniversary Reunion Presentation
BAD LIEUTENANT (1992)
Director: Abel Ferrara
Country: USA, Running Time: 96 min
The Lieutenant (Harvey Keitel) is a corrupt cop steeped in gambling debt who exploits his authority to sexually harass teenage girls, embezzle money and abuse drugs. His troubles come to a head when a mob lackey delivers an ultimatum: pay off his debt, or else. His fate appears sealed. But when The Lieutenant learns that a $50,000 reward is being offered to whoever catches a pair of thugs who raped a nun (Frankie Thorn), he jumps at the opportunity, hoping that he can still redeem himself. Presented in 35mm courtesy of Peter Conheim and Lionsgate.
20th Anniversary Reunion Presentation
THE BLACKOUT (1997)
Director: Abel Ferrara
Country: USA, Running Time: 98 min
Actor Matty (Matthew Modine), who is struggling with substance abuse, retreats to Miami. Hoping to straighten himself out, Matty proposes to his girlfriend, Annie (Béatrice Dalle), who reveals that she aborted their child without his knowledge. Shaken, Matty spends a decadent night with his artist friend, Mickey (Dennis Hopper), and returns to New York City with no memory of what happened. He begins attending Alcoholics Anonymous, but he’s troubled by what he might have done while blacked out.
ALIVE IN FRANCE International Premiere
Director: Abel Ferrara
Country: France, Italy, USA Running Time: 79 min
A selection of this year’s Director’s Fortnight in Cannes in this rich, self-directed concert documentary Ferrara transforms from internationally lauded cult film director into a grizzled rock singer while his six-person outfit tours France.
Special Screenings and Presentations
Special Family Presentation
44 PAGES
Director: Tony Shaff
Country: USA, Running Time: 96 min
A portrait of Highlights Magazine following the creation of the cultural phenomenon’s 70th Anniversary issue, from the first editorial meeting to its arrival in homes, and introducing the quirky people who passionately produce the monthly publication for “the world’s most important people,”…children. Along the way, a rich and tragic history is revealed, the state of childhood, technology, and education is explored, and the future of print media is questioned.
40th Anniversary Presentation
SUSPIRIA (1977)
Director: Dario Argento
Country: Italy Running Time: 98 min
In Italian horror maestro Dario Argento’s stylish, phantasmagorical classic, an American newcomer (Jessica Harper) to a prestigious ballet academy in Germany comes to realize that the school she is attending is a front for something sinister after a series of grisly murders. Presented in 4K courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox.
Sounds Special Presentation
THANK YOU, FRIENDS: BIG STAR’S THIRD LIVE… AND MORE
Director: Benno Nelson
Country: USA, Running Time: 95 min
A celebration of the musical legacy of Memphis’ best-known secret – Big Star – and their legendary THIRD album. Performed by a collective featuring members of Big Star, the dB’s, Let’s Active, the Old Ceremony, the Posies, R.E.M., Semisonic, Wilco, and Yo La Tengo with Kronos Quartet, Skylar Gudasz, Brett Harris, Robyn Hitchcock, Jessica Pratt, Luther Russell and others. Following the untimely death of Alex Chilton two days ahead of Big Star’s planned SXSW performance in 2010, famous friends and fans came from far and wide to play the gig in his honor. Much of that spontaneous ensemble, along with other musical titans, return to the stage in this triumphant film.
10th Anniversary Presentation
WEAPONS (2007) DIRECTOR’S CUT
Director: Adam Bhala Lough
Country: USA, Running Time: 85 min
Weapons presents a series of brutal, seemingly random youth-related killings over the course of a weekend in a typical small town in America, and tragically reveals how they are all interrelated. After competing in the 2007 Sundance Film Festival Dramatic Competition, it was acquired and recut by a now defunct distributor. It has never again been screened in its intended form until Indie Memphis 2017. Starring Nick Cannon, Paul Dano, Mark Webber, Jade Yorker, Amy Ferguson, Riley Smith, Brandon Mychal Smith, Tony Trucks, and Arliss Howard.
Special Sneak Preview Screening
THE YOU LOOK LIKE SHOW
Director: Craig Brewer
Country: USA, TRT: 40 min
Two comics face off in an insult battle with only one rule, you gotta start with “You Look Like”. A special event hosted by Craig Brewer, presenting a sneak peek of the first four episodes of “You Look Like”, plus a live show featuring the comedians.
SHORT FILMS
GRIZZLIES FEMALE FAN EXPERIENCE (TRT: 33MIN)
Short films highlight the Memphis Grizzlies NBA team from the female perspective and the audience votes for the winner. A discussion to follow with women who love the Grizzlies and defy stereotypes. Prizes and Special Guests TBA
MAMA BEARS
Director: Jeremy Burgess, Running Time: 7:20min
MY HERO
Director: Geoffrey Brent Shrewsbury, Running Time: 5:30min
SOUNDS LIKE HOME
Director: Phoebe Driscoll, Running Time: 5:10min
STEPHANIE LOVES THE GRIZZLIES
Director: Melissa Sweazy, Running Time: 3:57min
THE LAST FAN
Director: Laura Jean Hocking, Running Time: 4:59min
WHAT’S INSIDE THE CAGE
(2015 Winner – Best Hometowner Documentary Short)
Director: Suzannah Herbert, Running Time: 6:25min
SAUDI FILMS: DESERT TO DELTA
In Saudi Arabia, there are no cinemas available for the public to see movies and most artists upload their work to YouTube. However, a film community is growing with support from the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture arts centre in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Two Saudi filmmakers will travel to Memphis for screenings and talks as part of the “Desert to Delta” cultural exchange in partnership with the University of Memphis.
IS SOMYIATY GOING TO HELL?
Director: Meshal Aljaser, Running Time: 24min
OUD
Director: Abdulaziz Al Shelahy, Running Time: 35min
NARRATIVE SHORTS COMPETITION (TRT: 91min)
A MEDITATION
Director: Joe Petricca, Running Time: 15:47min
BIRTHDAY CAKE
Director: Brantly Jackson Watts, Running Time: 17:16min
MADE TO ORDER
Director: Alanna Murray, Running Time: 13:54min
MORDECHAI
Director: Benjamin Bee, Running Tim3: 13:50min
ONE UP
Director: Eimi Imanishi, Running Time: 14:41min
WENDY
Director: Michael Oshins, Running Time: 14:53min
NARRATIVE SHORTS SPOTLIGHT (TRT: 84min)
FRY DAY
Director: Laura Moss, Running Time: 16min
GEMA
Director: Kenrick Prince, Running Time: 13:26min
I LIVE HERE
Director: Shane Watson, Running Time: 17:46min
LAST CALL LENNY
Director: Julien Lasseur, Running Time: 12:30min
MRS DRAKE
Director: Caitlin FitzGerald, Running Time: 15min
NEW NEIGHBORS
Director: E.G. Bailey, Running Time: 9:25min
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS COMPETITION (TRT: 87min)
COWGIRL UP
Director: Nathan Willis, Running Time: 5:17min
ELECTION NIGHT
Director: Ryan Scafuro, Running Time: 7:40min
GAYS FOR TRUMP?
Director: Aaron Paul Lovett, Running Time: 16:44min
ISIS HAIR SALON
Director: Nicholas Coles, Running Time: 4:52min
JESSZILLA
Director: Emily Sheskin, Running Time: 7min
LESSONS INJUSTICE
Director: Karen Chapman, Running Time: 8:57min
MICKEY’S PETS
Director: Ashley S. Brandon, Running Time: 13:01min
REBUILDING IN MINIATURE
Director: Veena Rao, Running Time: 7:12min
SILO: EDGE OF THE REAL WORLD
Director: Marshall Burnette, Running Time: 10:43min
THE DUEL
Director: Sean David Christensen, Running Time: 5:50min
DEPARTURES SHORTS COMPETITION (TRT: 96min)
ANOTHER GIRL, ANOTHER PLANET
Director: Laura Jean Hocking (Memphis Filmmaker), Running Time: 7:10min
BWAKHAA!
Director: Jabriel E Woodall (Memphis Filmmaker), Running Time: 6:08min
COLLAPSING
Director: Brian Ratigan, Running Time: 0:55min
DAILY COMMUTE
Director: Scott Palazzo, Running Time: 0:55min
EVOCATION OF A NIGHTMARE
Director: Wally Chung, Running Time: 1:20min
GIRL BECOMES SNOW
Director: Bryan and Tyler Betschart, Running Time: 7:19min
HORSE DAD
Director: Anna Hudzik, Running Time: 2:17min
I KARDIA
Director: Sarah Christine Bolton (Memphis Filmmaker), Running Time: 7:49min
MOLASSES & LEMON
Director: Robert Sickels, Running Time: 4:06min
OK, CALL ME BACK
Director: Emily Ann Hoffman, Running Time: 4:47min
PATTERN FOR SURVIVAL
Director: Kelly Sears, Running Time: 6:30min
PLICKER
Director: Byungjun Kim, Running Time: 2:44min
RED VELVET CAKE
Director: Martina Boothes (Memphis Filmmaker), Running Time: 9:30min
SABINE
Director: Sissy Denkova (Memphis Filmmaker), Running Time: 2:15min
SESTINA
Director: Tom Varisco, Running Time: 1:42min
THIS IS YATES
Director: Josh Yates, Running Time: 12:10min
UGLY
Director: Nikita Diakur, Running Time: 11:54min
UNWORLDLY
Director: Sarah El Bakkouri and Cross Li, Running Time: 6:08min
AFTER DARK SHORTS (TRT: 92min)
BEAST
Director: Christopher Sferrazza, Running Time: 19:53min
BUCKETS
Director: Julia Jones, Running Time: 13:30min
DON’T EVER CHANGE
Director: Don Swaynos, Running Time: 9:49min
FATHER
Director: Chris Keller, Running Time: 9:50min
GREAT CHOICE
Director: Robin Comisar, Running Time: 07:21min
HIGH & TIGHT
Director: Luis Servera, Running Time: 15:13min
LIKE THE DINOSAURS
Director: Emilie Rosas, Running Time: 16:20min
MLK50 HOMETOWNER SHORTS (TRT: 87min)
AN ACCIDENTAL DROWNING
Category: Documentary Short
Director: Matteo Servente, Running Time: 6min
ARKABUTLA
Category: Narrative Short
Director: Katori Hall, Running Time: 14:27min
GET OFF THE BUS
Category: Documentary Short
Director: Robert Rowan, Running Time: 6min
GIRLS LIKE ME: A SELF/LOVE STORY
Category: Experimental Short
Director: Aisha Raison, Running Time: 7:03min
GREENWOOD
Category: Experimental Short
Director: Jairus B Burks, Running Time: 5min
HENRY
Category: Narrative Short
Director: Mark Goshorn Jones, Running Time: 7:29min
MYLES
Category: Narrative Short
Director: Kevin Brooks, Running Time: 7:35min
OVERCOME
Category: Documentary Short
Director: Jordan Danelz, Running Time: 11:30min
ROBERT
Category: Documentary Short
Director: Sarah Fleming and Joann Self Selvidge, Running Time: 7:48min
SENESCENCE LOST
Category: Documentary Short
Director: Kathy O. Lofton, Running Time: 7:08min
THE BLM BRIDGE PROTEST: ONE YEAR LATER
Category: Documentary Short
Director: Yalonda M. James, Running Time: 7:16min
HOMETOWNER NARRATIVE SHORTS COMPETITION (TRT: 95min)
DO NOT DISTURB
Director: Ellen Burns, Running Time: 20:22min
DRIVEN
Director: Will Robbins, Running Time: 10:59min
GRACE
Director: Kevin Brooks, Running Time: 8:50min
MUDDY WATER
Director: Nathan Ross Murphy, Running Time: 15m
TAKING BACK THE FUTURE
Director: Matthew Aaron Taylor and Mark Rzepka, Running Time: 15:09min
THE BUTCHER
Director: Kyle Taubken, Running Time: 12:02min
WE GO ON
Director: Matteo Servente, Running Time: 12:42min
HOMETOWNER NARRATIVE SHORTS SHOWCASE (TRT: 85min)
BIG AND TALL
Director: Clint Till, Running Time: 15:02min
FAVORITES
Director: Tracy S. Facelli, Running Time: 17:24min
GUILTY PLEASURE
Director: Jacqueline Quintanar, Running Time: 2:56min
JUST ONE DATE
Director: Rachel Hinson, Running Time: 10:52min
NIGHTHAWKS
Director: Sean Moore, Running Time: 18:21min
SARAH?
Director: Christian Walker, Running Time: 6:44min
WINDING BROOK
Director: Mark Goshorn Jones, Running Time: 13:15min
HOMETOWNER RISING FILMMAKERS (TRT: 92min)
COMPULSION
Director: Juliet Mace, Running Time: 4:20min
FOUL BALL
Director: Christie Caldwell, Running Time: 1min
GIRL IN THE PHOTO
Director: Keegon Schuett, Running Time: 8:17min
LOVE YOU, CALL ME BACK
Director: Klari Farzley, Running Time: 2:33min
OLD BLOOD
Director: Andrew Manning, Running Time: 6:26min
OUR NATURE
Director: Jay Lehmann, Running Time: 12:19min
PINEWOOD TEN
Director: Eyan and Ivon Wuchina, Running Time: 16:30min
THE PREACHER
Director: Jaron Lockridge, Running Time: 15min
THE QUANDARY
Director: Paul Williams, Running Time: 12:28min
TICK-TOCK
Director: Jake Hall, Running Time: 5:34min
WHERE ARE WE?
Director: Vic Matthews, Running Time: 7:05min
HOMETOWNER AFTER DARK SHORTS (TRT: 102min)
A GOOD MAN
Director: Christopher Smith, Running Time: 8:36min
ART MARTYRDOM
Director: B Siler, Running Time: 18:30min
CHILD FOR CHILD
Director: Juan Avella, Running Time: 10:53min
ENCOUNTERS WITH RIHANNA
Director: Steven (Rey) Simpson, Running Time: 8:01min
GAUNTLET RUN: BREACH
Director: Jyo Carolino and Garrett Atkinson, Running Time: 9:16min
GAUNTLET RUN: ORIGINS
Director: Garrett Atkinson, Running Time: 7:41min
H.I.D.
Director: Chad Allen Barton, Running Time: 25m
THE GAME
Director: Rob Rokk, Running Time: 13:32min
HOMETOWNER DOCUMENTARY SHORTS (TRT: 79min)
BIKE LEE
Director: Lauren Squires Readt, Running Time: 8:20min
BLACKOUT DAY
Director: Graham Uhelski, Running Time: 7:29min
BRICK IN THE WALL
Director: Jordan Danelz, Running Time: 18:04m
CAT/YOGA
Director: Edward Valibus, Running Time: 2:40min
LANGSTON MILES
Director: Perry Kirkland, Running Time: 3:20min
OBLITUS
Director: James Barker, Running Time: 2:52min
SCREEN USED
Director: Richard A Lester, Running Time: 17:40min
THE LITTLE MAN PROJECT
Director: Kierra Turner, Running Time: 5:46min
VOICEMAILS FROM HOME
Director: Blair Fisher, Running Time: 3:07min
HOMETOWNER MUSIC VIDEOS (TRT: 101min)
“Alternative Facts” by Infinity Stairs
Director: Graham Burks, Running Time: 3:32min
“America’s Perverted Gentlemen (Drawls)” by MonoNeon feat. AWFM
Director: IMAKEMADBEATS, Running Time: 1:32min
“Appointments” by Julien Baker
Director: Sophia Peer, Running Time: 4:34min
“Bactine” by NAMAZU
Director: George Hancock, Running Time: 3:29min
“Cake” by Marco Pavé
Director: GB Shannon, Running Time: 3:54min
“Crazy Train” by Brennan Villines
Director: Andrew Trent Fleming, Running Time: 3:53min
“Covered In Flames” by China Gate
Director: Noah Miller, Running Time: 3:47min
“Earth Boys Are Easy” by Letterman Jacket
Director: Isaac and Hanna Erickson, Running Time: 3:46min
“Exits (feat. ZER0)” by XVII TRILL
Director: SHAM, Running Time: 3:15min
“Green Eyes” by Fredd Velvet
Director: Erica Qualy and B Siler, Running Time: 3:19min
“Harbor Hall” by Don Lifted
Director: Lawrence E Matthews III, Running Time: 4:26min
“How Do I Get There” by Don Bryant
Director: Tyler Russell, Running Time: 3:47min
“Humble (PARODY)” by Tutweezy
Director: Lloyd Ambrose Jr., Running Time: 2:45min
“I’M A GOD (내가)” by TELISU
Director: Quintin Lamb, Running Time: 2:52min
“I’ve Been Wrong So Long/See Why I Love You” by The Love Light Orchestra
Director: Laura Jean Hocking, Running Time: 5:09min
“Kids These Days” by Chris Milam
Director: B Siler and Chris Milam, Running Time: 3:47min
“Mother Sang To Us” by IMAKEMADBEATS
Director: Gift Revolver and Okito Kudakwashe, Running Time: 3:55min
“Moving So Fast” by Me & Leah
Director: Jeff Hulett, Running Time: 3:40min
“Mr. Mystery” by Lisa Mac
Director: Melissa Sweazy, Running Time: 3:26min
“Neon Lift Off” by IMAKEMADBEATS
Director: Noah Glenn, Running Time: 2:18min
“Not of This Earth” by Alyssa Moore
Director: John Pickle, Running Time: 2:58min
“Parasite Inside” by Aquarian Blood
Director: Benjamin Rednour, Running Time: 3:04min
“Regret” by Jolt
Director: Justin Malone, Running Time: 4:26min
“Ruler of the Ball” by Crown Vox
Director: Mitch Martin, Running Time: 4min
“Sweet Love” by Alan Scoop
Director: Katori Hall, Running Time: 3:20min
“Take Control of Me” by Don Lifted
Director: Kevin Brooks, Running Time: 4:11min
“The Wile” by Aaron James
Director: Aaron James, Running Time: 3:53min
“We Were In Love” by Snowglobe
Director: B Siler, Running Time: 3:01min
SOUNDS MUSIC VIDEOS(TRT: 75min)
“30 Cents” by Eli Raybon
Director: Markus Thorington, Running Time: 3:30min
“Apocs: Hurrican Goddamn!”
Director: Scott Upshur, Running Time: 6min
“Burn The River Down” by Elli Perry
Director: Shawn Engler, Running Time: 3:43min
“BWA” by Soniamiki
Director: Marcin Starzecki, Running Time: 3:30min
“Colour My Love” by Shaela Miller
Director: Laura Combden, Running Time: 4:59min
“Cost Of The Summer” by Night Things
Director: Zach Shields, Running Time: 7:47min
“Famelica” by Basculante
Director: Basculante, Running Time: 4:04min
“Fourth of Julivar’s” by Tomo Nakayama
Director: Tony Fulgham, Running Time: 4:45min
“Heard” by Kaye the Beast
Director: Hope Leigh, Running Time: 4:25min
“High Ideal” by Big Bliss
Director: Nick Ray McCann, Running Time: 5:03min
“Instinct” by Belle Noble
Director: Jessie Oldfield and Adam Murfet, Running Time: 4:07min
“Life is Better Blonde” by Fires
Director: Natalie Erika James and Benjamin Morgan, Running Time: 3:29min
“Mountains” by mac/glidden
Director: Laurie Berenhaus, Running Time: 3:47min
“Oaks & Willows” by Fortunate Ones
Director: Tatjana Green and Nazar Melconian, Running Time: 4min
“Parallels” by I.R.L.
Director: Jack Chapman, Running Time: 3:51min
“STARDUST” by NEXT is BEST
Director: Etienne Fu-Le Saulnier, Running Time: 4:15min
“Summertime” by Laura Galindo
Director: Carter Tate, Running Time: 3:19min
“Try A Little Tenderness” by Alice Tan Ridley
Director: Roy Wol, Running Time: 3:43min
HOMETOWNER YOUTH FEST WINNERS (TRT: 60min)
AMBER
Director: Haley Parker and Tina Quarles (Center Hill), Running Time: 12:13min
Youth Fest Award: Best Performance – Haley Parker
CHIPS
Director: Chris Sims, Thomas Bongiolatti (Schilling Farms Middle), Running Time: 2:07min
Youth Fest Award: Best Middle School Film
CLEAN
Director: Emi Otsuki (Homeschool), Running Time: 9:07min
Youth Fest Award: Best Drama
MEIULK PT II
Director: Kade Banbury (Central), Running Time: 1:46min
Youth Fest Award: Best Experimental
MOMENTS
Director: Stuart Collier (Hutchison), Running Time: 6:03min
Youth Fest Award: Best Editing
“No Diamonds” – trillcloud
Director: Galen Hicks, Michael Price, Sam King (Central), Running Time: 3:20min
Youth Fest Award: Best Original Music Video
PROBLEMS
Director: Andrew Cunningham (Appling Middle), Running Time: 4:15min
Youth Fest Award: Shangri-La Projects Award for Talent to Watch
SPOILS
Director: Nubia Yasin (Gateway) and Jasmine Watson (East), Running Time: 8:21min
Youth Fest Award: Special Jury Award
SQUIRM
Director: Nubia Yasin (Gateway), Jasmine Watson (East), Shanice Wilson (Whitehaven), Mickele Bridges (Overton), Jermey Wilbourne (Melrose), Running Time: 1:46min
Youth Fest Award: Best Sound Design
“Steps” – Epps
Director: Vivian Gray (St. Mary’s), Running Time: 4:31min
Youth Fest Award: Grand Jury Prize, Audience Award
WAKE UP
Director: Charles Heiter (Lausanne), Running Time: 1:12min
Youth Fest Award: Best Lighting
WHO WE ARE
Director: Katharine Nowak (Houston High), Running Time: 1:14min
Youth Fest Award: Best Animation
WOMEN VS THE MEDIA
Director: Maggie Lathem (Germantown High), Running Time: 3:38min
Youth Fest Award: Best Documentary
SHORTS BEFORE FEATURES
COMMON CARRIER (Departures Competition)
Preceded by:
LANCE LIZARDI
Director: Xander Robin
Country: USA, Running Time: 8:22min
A young man takes his love for lizards to the extreme.
MAYA DARDEL (Spotlight)
Preceded by:
MIDWINTER
Director: Jake Mahaffy
Country: USA, Running Time: 17min
A pregnant woman returns to her family’s empty cabin to spend time alone, only to find her estranged mother already there waiting for her. What begins as a tentative reunion on the shortest day of the year quickly turns dark.
BARRACUDA (Sounds Competition)
Preceded by:
I TURN TO JELLO
Director: Andrew Betzer
Country: USA, Running Time: 12:54min
A short film about a cello player who is horrible at auditioning….and even worse at knowing when to stop auditioning.
SUPER DARK TIMES (Spotlight)
Preceded by:
A MIDNIGHT SERVICE – HOME INVASION
Director: Brett Potter
Country: USA, Running Time: 7:13min
THE MIDNIGHT SERVICE is a scripted true-crime series about the unknown across America. In “HOME INVASION”, a broke Miami comedian’s retreat into the Everglades is interrupted by an uninvited visitor.
THE PRICE (Narrative Competition)
Preceded by:
DRIVE SLOW
Director: Terrence Thompson
Country: USA, Running Time: 13:41min
“Drive Slow” follows a teenager from the South-Side of Chicago attempting to finish his college essays. As he struggles to boil down his complex surroundings in 500 words, his friends’ disparate opinions, racist news narratives, and the threat of lingering danger only complicate the process. Based off the pilot script of the same name, “Drive Slow” seeks to challenge certain stigmas surrounding Chicago communities, as well as tell the diverse stories of young people from this great city.
TORMENTING THE HEN (Narrative Competition)
Preceded by:
INTERIOR TERESA
Director: Meredith Alloway
Country: USA, Running Time: 14:27min
Teresa is having strange spiritual visions. When she meets an intriguing boy who’s also stuck on sanctuary cleaning duty, she starts to realize what these visions might mean, and how they’re connected to her unexpected, new friend. Inspired by the true story of Saint Teresa of Avila.
MOST BEAUTIFUL ISLAND (Spotlight)
Preceded by:
TRUE BLUE
Director: Chris Osborn
Country: USA, Running Time: 18:49min
A pyramid schemer’s dark night of the soul in Atlantic City.
DAYVEON (Spotlight)
Preceded by:
MÖBIUS
Director: Sam Kuhn
Country: USA, Canada, Running Time: 15min
A moth eaten tale of magic and mutation half remembered by a teen poet who’s beloved lies lifeless in a stream.
MR. ROOSEVELT (Spotlight)
Preceded by:
THE PRIVATES
Director: Dylan Allen
Country: USA, Running Time: 12min
A band struggles with a radioactive energy in their music they can’t control.
95 AND 6 TO GO (Documentary Competition)
Preceded by:
SUNDAYS WITH RIKI
Director: Brandon Barr
Country: USA, Running Time: 19:40min
In a documentary that captures the intricacies of mother-daughter relationships, Ivy thinks it is time for her aging mother Riki to enter a new stage in her life, but Riki won’t give in that easily.
STUMPED (Documentary Competition)
Preceded by:
FAMILY REWRITTEN
Director: Yasmin Mistry
Country: USA, Running Time: 13:15min
Despite battling Cystic Fibrosis, Camilla, age 16, identifies as a typical middle-class American teenager until the thread that holds her family together suddenly snaps. Just months before her 18th birthday Camilla finds herself in foster care, but instead of being ashamed, she makes a conscious decision to not let her situation define her.
FURRY LEWIS & THE BOTTLENECK GUITAR STORY (Hometowners Competition)
Preceded by:
THE MAN IS THE MUSIC
Director: Maris Curran
Country: USA, Running Time: 19:07min
This short documentary is an experiential reflection on art as a way of life. The artist and musician Lonnie Holley is a product of the environment in which he was raised – Jim Crow Alabama – and his work reflects the impact of being socially discarded. Through his unique perspective and the process of creating beauty, Lonnie draws us into his captivating world.
LIFE IN WAVES (Sounds Competition)
Preceded by:
ABBY, THE SPOON LADY
Director: Justinsuperstar Johnson
Country: USA, Running Time: 10:19min
You’ve never seen anyone play the spoons like this! Asheville-based Abby Roach is one of a few in the world who makes a living clacking a pair of flatware together. Often underestimated, Abby’s incredible life story is anything but dull.
SUSPIRIA (Special Screening)
Preceded by:
THE RETURN OF THE FLESH EATING FILM REELS
Director: John Pickle
Country: USA, Running Time: 8:47min
In 1975 writer director S.S. Wilson (Tremors, Wild Wild West, Short Circuit) unleshed his student film ‘Recored live aka Flesh Eating Film Reels. In the 1980’s HBO would later begin to screen his short film between feature films to kill time. Unknowingly creeping out an entire generation of 8 year olds (John PIckle) who were lucky enough to witness a man being hunted by an otherwise inanimate object.
TRANS*CEND (Hometowners Competition)
Preceded by:
TWO BIRDS
Director: Caitlin Stickels
Country: USA, Running Time: 8:30min
Ellie and Rose like each other. The only problem is that they have never met, even though they both frequent the same coffee shop. The question is – who will make the first move?
THE YOU LOOK LIKE SHOW (Special Screening)
Preceded by:
STAND UP GUYS
Director: Alexandra van Milligen and Sammy Anzer
Country: USA, Running Time: 13min
A micro-sitcom from the city that brought you Elvis Presley and violent crime, Stand-Up Guys follows a group of ragtag comedians trying to make it big in Memphis, TN.
A BITTER PILL TO SWALLOW (Hometowners Competition)
Preceded by:
MADE IN MARIANNA: THE LEGEND OF SUPER WOLFE
Director: Greg D. Hammond
Country: USA, Running Time: 26:46min
In 1956 WDIA transmitted soul music past the Mighty Mississippi; 58 miles away into Marianna, Arkansas. There a 6 year old James E. Wolfe, Jr. listened intently while working with his family in the cotton fields of Lee County. A battery powered transistor radio was the genesis of a desire and a goal for Wolfe.
Oliver Butler and Will Eno’s THOM PAIN Opens the Indie Memphis Film Festival presented by Duncan-Williams, Inc., (November 1-6) has announced its full slate of films for the 20th edition of the annual festival this year.