Indie Memphis sets festival, movie dates
Indie Memphis, the area's premier film organization, has set the dates for its 20th annual film festival and its second "Youth Film Fest," and also extended its slate of "Indie Wednesday" screenings through May.
With investment banking service and brokerage Duncan-Williams Inc. returning as presenting sponsor, the 2017 Indie Memphis Film Festival will take place Nov. 1-6 at the Orpheum's Halloran Centre, the Malco Studio on the Square, the Circuit Playhouse and other Midtown venues. (Plus, the Malco Ridgeway Cinema Grill and other East Memphis or suburban theaters likely will be involved, too.)
The early November booking represents the continuation of a recent Indie Memphis tradition, but the six days of the festival will be one fewer than in 2016, when the festival opened on a Tuesday rather than a Wednesday night. Only two screenings took place that Tuesday, however, so the shorter run time is unlikely to trim the festival's roster of 120-plus narrative and documentary features and shorts.
Filmmakers interested in showing their work during Indie Memphis should visit the festival website at indiememphis.com. The "early bird" submission deadline is April 28, while the final deadline is Aug. 12.
Meanwhile, the 2017 Indie Memphis Youth Film Fest is set for Sept. 9. A sequel to last year's successful event at the Halloran, the daylong youth fest provides a public showcase for the Mid-South's youngest filmmakers; it also teams the young artists with professional mentors for workshops, seminars and lectures. In the words of Indie Memphis executive director Ryan Watt: "By helping to encourage and inspire these students, and letting them see their films in a large, beautiful auditorium with their peers and other moviegoers, we feel like we are building something for the future that could have a great impact. It could go beyond Memphis in terms of what these young people are able to create." Filmmakers in grades 7-12 who are interested in submitting a film or otherwise participating should visit the Indie Memphis website.
But wait! That's not all! Indie Memphis also has announced the nine films that will be screened in April and May as its "Indie Wednesday" series continues
"Indie Wednesday" is devoted to (mostly) recent independent films that didn't reach Memphis or that deserve a second chance. (The series began Feb. 1 with the Jim Jarmusch documentary about Iggy Pop and the Stooges, "Gimme Danger"; a story about the films chosen for February and March appeared earlier in The Commercial Appeal.) Admission prices and venues vary, but all screenings start at 7 p.m.
The newly announced "Indie Wednesday" films include:
April 5: MicroCinema: Ottowa Animated Shorts. Crosstown Arts, 430 N. Cleveland. Selections from the world's largest and arguably most prestigious "cartoon" event, the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
April 12: "Gip," Studio on the Square. A hit at last year's Indie Memphis festival, this documentary chronicles the battle with city hall that ensues when nonagenarian "gravedigger by day, party animal by night" Henry "Gip" Gipson is ordered to close the weekend juke joint he's operated for six decades in the backyard of his small-town Alabama home.
April 19: "The 4th," Crosstown Arts. A planned Independence Day backyard barbecue goes horribly awry in this Sundance-premiere comedy from writer-director Andre Hyland.
April 26: "The Red Turtle," Ridgeway Cinema Grill. A nominee for this year's Best Animated Feature Oscar (the winner was "Zootopia"), this beautiful international production played for only a week at the Malco Cordova Cinema; it deserves a second chance. Essentially wordless, the movie, which is brought to life mostly through old-school hand-drawn animation, tells the story of a castaway whose isolated life on a tropical island is forever changed after a fateful encounter with the title reptile.
May 3: "The C Word," Malco Paradiso. Church Health Center founder Dr. Scott Morris is among the Memphians who appear in this documentary, which will "forever change the way you view cancer."
May 10: Hometowner IndieGrant Shorts, Crosstown Arts. This anthology of seven short films by local filmmakers whose work was supported by grants from Indie Memphis was one of the most popular and eye-opening programs at last year's festival.
May 17: "Gabo: The Creation of Gabriel Garcai Marquez," Crosstown Arts. Colombia is the honored country for this year's Memphis in May International Festival, so Indie Memphis is screening this documentary about Colombia's most acclaimed author, a Nobel Prize-winner whose literary best-sellers included "Love in the Time of Cholera" and "One Hundred Years of Solitude."
May 24: "Embrace of the Serpent," Ridgeway Cinema Grill. Another Memphis in May-connected selection, this black-and-white Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film was shot in the Amazonia region of Colombia. A drama that spans three decades in the early half of the 20th century, the movie follows an Indian shaman during his encounters with German and American explorers who aren't quite prepared for the mysterious beauty and danger of the Amazon.
May 31: "The Wind Journeys," Studio on the Square. The May series ends with another Colombian film, a 2009 Cannes Film Festival debut about a traveling musician on a mystical quest across the Colombian Carribean to return a devil-cursed accordion.