Summer 2009 issue of MovieMaker Magazine

From our 12th annual Indie Memphis Film Festival and other year round programs, to on-going partnerships and collaborations with organizations including Live from Memphis, the Brooks Museum of Art, Common Ground, the Memphis in May International Festival, the Memphis College of Art, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, the Memphis Chapter of the Recording Academy, the Memphis Music Foundation and the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission, 2009 was certainly our best year yet.

In the summer issues of MovieMaker Magazine, Indie Memphis joined the ranks of the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin and the 62-year-old Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland as one of the ”25 Coolest Film Festivals.” Even more recently, Indie Memphis was recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which produces the annual Academy Awards, with one of their Film Festival grants, the first awarded to a Memphis-area organization.

These two honors presaged the success of the October festival itself, which saw an attendance increase of more than 30% for the second year in a row — bringing the overall festival attendance to more than 7,200 attendees.

Scott Teems, Elvis Mitchell and Ray McKinnon

In addition to more than 50 films by Memphis-area filmmakers, the 12th annual festival showcased more than 90 features, documentaries, shorts and animated films from the South, throughout the United States and from the far corners of the Globe.

Over 80 filmmakers, industry veterans, panelists and special guests (including former New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell, Northern Exposure’s Barry Corbin, and Oscar-winning filmmaker Ray McKinnon) came to Memphis to screen their work, participate in panel discussions and conversations, network with local filmmakers and connect with other festival attendees and members of our community.

Indie Memphis’ roots run deep in the cultural landscape that our city is famous for, and this year our festival set new milestones connecting music and film:

Robyn Hitchcock

– Singer/songerwiter Robyn Hitchcock performed an intimate solo concert at Malco’s Studio on the Square, co-presented by the Memphis Chapter of the Recording Academy, and recorded two new songs at Ardent Studios as part of a documentary film project being produced by Indie Memphis and filmmaker Peter Gilbert (Hoop Dreams).

— Live From Memphis’ Music Video Showcase, a cornerstone of the Indie Memphis Film Festival since 2005, presented 20 music videos by Memphis filmmakers and featured the work of musicians from Muck Sticky and Skillet to 8 Ball and Snowglobe.

Alloy Orchestra

– The Alloy Orchestra returned to Memphis for this year’s festival to perform their live acclaimed accompaniments to silent film classics The General (1926) and Man With A Movie Camera (1929), thanks to the support of Dorothy Kirsch and co-presented by the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.

– Finally, in collaboration with the Memphis Music Foundation and with the support of the Tennessee Arts Commission, Memphis musicians were not just a part of the festival’s parties and receptions — but in the movie theater auditoriums themselves, exposing audience members to true, independent Memphis music as they waited for the films to begin.

As you are planning your final charitable gifts for the 2009 tax year, please consider Indie Memphis for an end-of-year contribution. Donations are critical to the continued success of our organization and, as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

Click here to make an end-of-year donation — or sign up to become a member today, if you’re not one already. To download a membership/donation form, click here.

We thank you for your commitment to Indie Memphis, and wish you all the best during the holiday season and into the New Year!

Sincerely,

Erik Jambor Executive Director	Les Edwards Board President

What: Li’l Film Fest 12: “Free Footage”

When: 2 pm, Saturday, Nov. 19th

Where: Brooks Museum of Art

Admission: $5 at the door

Find out who takes home the Jury Award ($500 in cash, presented by Indie Memphis and the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission) and cast your vote to determine the Audience Choice award-winner, who will walk away with the event’s ticket sales!

Program lineup:

“Black Fist,” dir. Kristopher Steward
“Algeria,” dir. Laura Jean Hocking
“Gooder,” dir. Jason Davenport
“Assault on the Senses,” dir. James R. Kimball
“(5) Days,” dir. Ryan Azada
“Who’s There?,” dir. Adam Remsen
“Egg That Car,” dir. Kevin Fowler
“Wax and Wane,” dir. R. Jason Rawlings
“Prestidigitation,” dir. Daniel Felts
“Adam and Me,” dir. Donald Meyers & Adam Remsen
“iSarah,” dir. Cat & Fish
“The Egg,” dir. Carl E. Walters
“To Mega Therion,” dir. Hunter Duesing
“Breakable,” dir. John Pickle
“Piggly Wiggly,” dir. Morgan Jon Fox
“Tempo,” dir. Robin Salant
“Pure. Uncut,” dir. Ryan Parker
“It Stays Growing,” dir. Johann Romer
“Bohater Pies,” dir. Corduroy Wednesday

The jury this time around features three out-of-town filmmakers who were in Memphis in October for the 12th annual Indie Memphis Film Festival: Kyle Patrick Alvarez (EASIER WITH PRACTICE), Kris Swanberg (IT WAS GREAT, BUT I WAS READY TO COME HOME) and Scott Teems (THAT EVENING SUN). Thanks to them for their participation!

LI’L FILM FEST sponsors:
The Memphis Tourism Foundation
The Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission
Indie Memphis
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art
Audiographic Masterworks

For complete details, visit click here.

Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 masterpiece, The Conversation, will screen at 7:00 pm on Thursday, Dec. 17th. Sponsored by the Memphis and Shelby County Film and Television Commission/Memphis ED, Tetro will screen at 3:00 pm on Sunday, Dec. 20th and be followed by a live Q&A via satellite with Coppola himself.

To order tickets in advance, call 901-544-6208 or click here.

Gene Hackman in The Conversation

The Conversation
(1974 / 113 minutes / Rated PG)
7:00 pm on Thursday, Dec. 17th @ The Brooks

Tickets: $7 for the General Public / $5 for Indie Memphis members and members of The Brooks.

A masterfully constructed portrait of one man’s descent into madness, this film ranks as one of greatest paranoid thrillers in the history of cinema, and deals with issues of privacy and technology that still resonate today. Gene Hackman stars in one of his most introspective performances as a surveillance expert who gets paid to invade the privacy of strangers. Sandwiched in between his two massively successful Godfather films, The Conversation cemented Coppola’s reputation as the great filmmaker of his time. The film won the Grand Prix at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for three Oscars.

“One of Coppola’s very best.”
– TV Guide

“As he is played by Gene Hackman in The Conversation,
an expert wiretapper named Harry Caul is one of the most
affecting and tragic characters in the movies.”
– Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Vincent Gallo in Tetro

Tetro **
(2009 / 127 minutes / Rated R)
3:00 pm on Sunday, Dec. 20th @ The Brooks

Tickets: $15 for the General Public / $10 for Indie Memphis members and members of The Brooks.

Francis Ford Coppola’s first film based on his own original screenplay since The Conversation (1974), Tetro, starring Vincent Gallo, is about the tensions within an Italian immigrant family living in Argentina. Fresh-faced and naive, 17-year-old Bennie arrives in Buenos Aires to search for his older brother, who has been missing for more than a decade. When Bennie finds his brother, the volatile and melancholy poet Tetro, he is not at all what the young man expected. In the course of staying with Tetro and his girlfriend Miranda, the two brothers grapple with the haunting experiences of their shared past and memories of their father Carlo, an acclaimed symphony conductor.

Sponsored by the Memphis and Shelby County Film and Television Commission/Memphis ED

** A live Q&A via satellite with director Francis Ford Coppola will follow the screening.

“A delirious surprise.”
– Michael Sragow, Baltimore Sun

“It feels good to see Coppola back in form.”
– Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Kyle Patrick Alvarez at the Indie Memphis '09 Awards Celebration at the Hi-Tone Cafe. Juror Elvis Mitchell looks on.

Film Independent has announced the nominations for its 25th annual Spirit Awards, which take place on Friday, March 5th, 2010.

Easier With Practice, which was awarded a Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast at Indie Memphis ‘09, was nominated for Best First Feature and director Kyle Patrick Alvarez received a nomination of his own for the Acura Someone to Watch Award.

Nominations for the John Cassavetes Award (given to the best feature made for under $500,000) include Tom Quinn’s The New Year Parade, which won the 2008 Indie Memphis jury award for Best Feature, and Humpday by Lynn Shelton, who directed the Indie Memphis ‘08 feature My Effortless Brilliance and is currently in post on $5 Cover: Seattle.

That Evening Sun, which won the jury award for Best Narrative Feature at Indie Memphis ‘09, received nominations for Best Supporting Male (Raymond McKinnon) and Best Supporting Female (Mia Wasikowska).

Finally, Bill Ross and Turner Ross‘ Indie Memphis ‘09 documentary fave 45365 was nominated for the Truer Than Fiction Award.

Hats off to ‘em, and to all the other Spirit Award nominees!

Click here for the complete nominee list.

Live From Memphis has announced the details for the next Li’l Film Fest — and it’s gonna be another fun one! This time, participants are being provided with 3 video clips and are required to use a minimum of 10 seconds of each clip in their submitted film.

Click here for details, to download SD versions of the clips, and to find out how to get your hands on the fancy HD clips you crave.

Theme: Free Footage
Duration: 5 minutes or less
Entry Deadline: Postmarked Friday Dec. 4th
(in hand by Monday, Dec 7th)

The Li’l Film Fest screening will take at 2 pm on Saturday Dec. 19 at the Brooks Museum of Art. Once again, the ”Grand Jury Award” will be accompanied by a customized, thematic trophy and $500 in cash prizes presented by Indie Memphis and the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission. The ”Audience Choice Award” will come with a trophy and the prize money is the cash from the door — so the more people that come to the festival the bigger the pot!

Congrats once again to H.G. Ray for taking home the Grand Jury award with “Spacecrane 2010″ and to Adam Remsen for winning the Audience Choice award with “Frankenstein vs. Dracula: The Opera!” at Li’l Film Fest 11 at the 12th annual Indie Memphis Film Festival last month. Hooray!

Click here for complete Li’l Film Fest details.

Idiots & Angels
Monday, Nov. 2 @ 7:30 pm at the Studio on the Square *Presented on 35mm film.

$5 for the General Public
/ Free for Indie Memphis members and Memphis College of Art students with valid ID

Bill Plympton is scheduled to attend and participate in a Q&A after the screening.

Idiots & Angels

In Bill Plympton’s latest feature, Idiots & Angels, a selfish and morally bankrupt man, wakes up one morning with wings on his back. Even more troublesome than their embarrassing appearance is the wings’ tendency to want to do good deeds.

After much ridicule, he desperately tries to rid himself of the good wings, but eventually finds himself fighting those who view the wings as their ticket to fame and fortune. Is Angel’s misguided soul capable of being rescued?

Told through Plympton’s trademark animation style Idiots and Angels is a dark comedy about a man’s battle for his soul.

Bill Plympton Lecture
Tuesday, Nov. 3 @ 7:00 pm at the Memphis College of Art

Free and open to the General Public.

Bill Plympton

Legendary animator Bill Plympton’s work is instantly recognizable. The simple beauty of the pastel sketches set in motion is often in stark contrast with the filmmaker’s fevered surreality and sharp humor. Plympton began his career as an illustrator and syndicated cartoonist in the 1970s before realizing his dream to become an animator with 1983’s Boomtown. In 1988, he received his first Oscar nomination for the now-classic animated short Your Face. His short Push Comes to Shove won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1991, and was later incorporated into The Tune, which became the first animated feature entirely hand-drawn by its creator.

On Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 7:00 pm, Bill Plympton will speak at the Memphis College of Art as part of their Visiting Artists Lecture Series. Plympton will show short films from throughout his career, talking about each film and how to enjoy them. Free and open to the public, the one-hour lecture will take place in Callicott Auditorium.

Indie Memphis members and newsletter subscribers are also invited to attend Bill Plympton’s Master Class, which will take place Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 9:00 am, also in Callicott Auditorium. In the three-hour Master Class, Plympton will show his short films, talk about the creative and business aspects of his work, and do live drawings to illustrate the secret of his success. He will also show an exclusive sneak preview of his new work-in-progress feature film Cheatin’. Attendees of the Master Class will get a free Bill Plympton drawing.

Admission is $5 for Indie Memphis members and members of The Brooks, $7 for non-members, and is free with Indie Memphis ‘09 Silver or Gold Pass or Brooks VIP Film Pass.

Jules and Jim

Jules and Jim
Thursday, Oct. 22 @ 7:30 pm
at the Brooks Museum of Art

** New, restored high-definition digital transfer.

Hailed as one of the finest films ever made, legendary director Francois Truffaut’s early masterpiece Jules and Jim (Jules et Jim) charts the relationship between two friends and the object of their mutual obsession over the course of twenty-five years. Jeanne Moreau stars as Catherine, the alluring and willful young woman whose enigmatic smile and passionate nature lure Jules (Oskar Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre) into one of cinema’s most captivating romantic triangles.

An exuberant and poignant meditation on freedom, loyalty, and the fortitude of love, Jules and Jim was a worldwide smash upon its release in 1962 and remains as audacious and entrancing today.

The Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal
Thursday, Oct. 29 @ 1 pm & 7:30 pm
at the Brooks Museum of Art

** New, restored high-definition digital transfer.

Disillusioned and exhausted after a decade of battling in the Crusades, a knight (Max von Sydow) encounters Death on a desolate beach and challenges him to a fateful game of chess.

Much studied, imitated, even parodied, but never outdone, Bergman’s stunning allegory of man’s search for meaning, The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde Inseglet), was one of the benchmark foreign imports of America’s 1950s art-house heyday, pushing cinema’s boundaries and ushering in a new era of moviegoing.

Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival.

La Strada

La Strada
Thursday, Nov. 5 @ 1 pm & 7:30 pm
at the Brooks Museum of Art

** New, restored high-definition digital transfer.

There has never been a face quite like that of Giulietta Masina. Her husband, the legendary Federico Fellini, directs her as Gelsomina in La Strada, the film that launched them both to international stardom. Gelsomina is sold by her mother into the employ of Zampano (Anthony Quinn), a brutal strongman in a traveling circus. When Zampano encounters an old rival in highwire artist the Fool (Richard Basehart), his fury is provoked to its breaking point.

With La Strada, Fellini left behind the familiar signposts of Italian neorealism for a poetic fable of love and cruelty, evoking brilliant performances and winning the hearts of audiences and critics worldwide.

Winner of the first official Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film, awarded in 1956.

Rashomon

Rashomon
Thursday, Nov. 12 @ 7:30 pm
at the Studio on the Square

** New, restored 35mm film print.

Brimming with action while incisively examining the nature of truth, Rashomon is perhaps the finest film ever to investigate the philosophy of justice. Through an ingenious use of camera and flashbacks, Kurosawa reveals the complexities of human nature as four people recount different versions of the story of a man’s murder and the rape of his wife.

Toshiro Mifune gives another commanding performance in the eloquent masterwork that revolutionized film language and introduced Japanese cinema to the world.