The Memphis indie film festival, once dedicated to the “Soul of Southern Cinema” but now embracing cinema from around the world, will begin its 26th season on Oct. 24 with about 60 feature films and dozens of short films – a glut of multilingual films. , panel discussions, parties and other events.
The variety ranges from a Memphis-set low-budget serial killer mystery (Princeton James’s Queen Rising) to a new feature from a recent Best International Feature Film Oscar winner (Ryusuke’s Evil Does Not Exist). Hamaguchi, who won an Oscar in 2022 for Drive My Car).
What to watch? You could blindfold yourself, stick a pin in the schedule, and probably not regret watching what you pinned. But if you need more guidance, here are some suggestions – 10 movies or categories of movies that can please your eyeballs, ear holes and brain cells.
“Road” to glory
Receiving rave reviews after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival from prestigious (The New Yorker, The New York Times) as well as industry publications (Variety, The Hollywood Reporter), the festival’s premiere film “All dirt roads taste like salt” arrives wrapped in Memphis mojo as well as critical acclaim: the script was largely written here after writer-director Raven Jackson, a Tennessee native, was selected in 2019 to participate in the 2019 indie Memphis Black Directors’ Residency for Screenwriters’ Grant by the Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins (Moonlight). Described as poetic and dreamlike, the film follows a Mississippi woman through decades of her life.
Celebrity sightings
Independent film festivals may be more focused on directors than famous movie star faces, but several films on the Indie Memphis lineup boast Oscar winners and A-listers.
Described by New York magazine as a “trap movie”. “May December” Natalie Portman stars as an actress who spends time with the scandalous woman she plays in the film, a woman played by Julianne Moore in the film; Directed by the esteemed Todd Haynes (“Carol”), the story is inspired by the case of Mary Kay Letourneau, a Washington State teacher who had an affair with a 12-year-old student whom she later married.
Also on the festival program is a surreal comedy “Dream Scenario” Star Nicolas Cage recently said it was one of five scripts he read “that I said, ‘I HAVE to do this.'” (the other four were Vampire’s Kiss, Raising Arizona, Leaving Las Vegas) , and “Adaptation”).
Also on tap there is “Taste of Things” with Juliette Binoche (Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung, director of The Scent of Green Papaya); documentary “Thank you very much,” about the late Memphis provoking conceptual comedian Andy Kaufman; and Cord Jefferson “American Fantasy” Based on the novel by the respected and uncompromising Percival Everett, Erased, it stars Jeffrey Wright, Issa Rae, Tracee Ellis Ross and Sterling K. Brown.
From Africa
Historically, African cinema—an absurdly broad category that includes everything from the pioneering silent films of Tunisia to the art-house masterpieces of Senegal’s Ousmane Sembène to the camp melodramas of contemporary Nollywood or Nigeria on Tubi—has been woefully underrepresented in cinema. film festivals and is virtually unavailable in the West. Indie Memphis is helping to close that gap this year by presenting a trio of acclaimed films from West Africa. The two new films are black and white films by CJ “Fiery” Obasi. “Mami Wata” inspired by Nigerian folk tales of the mermaid goddess; and Ramata-Tulai Si “Banel and Adama”. a love story set in a Senegalese village. The third is the recently restored house of Idriss Ouedraogo. “Yam Daabo” from 1982, which depicts sexual and family conflicts mainly in rural Burkina Faso.
from Bulgaria to Bluff City
Filmed in Memphis in 2021. “The smell of linden” This is the highly anticipated debut feature film from Tsvetana “Sissy” Denkova, a Bulgarian-born, Bluff City-raised writer and director. According to Denkova, this is an “ensemble black comedy.” The film follows a young Bulgarian fresh off the boat (played by Ivan Barnev) as he tries to adjust to life in Memphis. “Through his eyes, we see what the American way of life is like for a newly arrived immigrant,” Denkova said. “He sort of achieves his independence, but ends up in a community similar to Little Bulgaria, where the collective habits of the Old World conflict with the ideas of trust and individualism of the New World.”
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Made in Memphis
The festival has always supported local filmmakers in the Native category, which highlights work created by Memphis artists or produced in the Memphis area. Anthologies of new narrative shorts, documentaries, music videos and scary “After Dark” shorts will be screened, as well as several feature films with Memphis pedigree. Two intriguing feature documentaries from Jessica Chaney. “I,” a candid look at mental health issues in the black community; And “Youth: 5 stories.” by veteran Memphis filmmakers Joan Self Selvage and Sarah Fleming, a portrait of five teenagers spent years in the making experiencing homelessness, foster care, drug treatment and more as they navigate the juvenile justice system.
Cannes, are you digging this?
On October 25, the festival presents its Memphis debut “Anatomy of a Fall.” Director Justine Trieu’s French film about a murder trial won the top prize, the Palme d’Or, at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. According to NPR, although the plot centers on a murder mystery, the film “strongly suggests that every marriage is ultimately something of a mystery.”
Memphis blues again
Following on from the 2019 archival concert documentary Memphis ’69, which featured remarkable forgotten footage showcasing artists like Ferry Lewis and Rufus Thomas at the 1969 Memphis Country Blues Festival, comes the highly anticipated documentary. “Blues Society” explores the origins and legacy, music and mystery of the entire Memphis Country Blues Festival, an event that was held annually at the Overton Park Shell from 1966 to 1970, for the edification of white hippies and black octogenarians alike. Director Augusta Palmer is the daughter of the late critic and musician Robert Palmer, the festival’s founder.
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Down to the “River”
As the Mississippi recently dropped to a record low in Memphis, the documentary “Mississippi River Styx” may particularly resonate. Directed by Tim Grant and Andy MacMillan, the film follows a middle-aged man (accompanied by his pug Sapphire) on a 2,000-mile houseboat down a river. The man imagines this adventure as an epic conclusion to a life coming to an end due to cancer; but sometimes the truth, like cancer, can metastasize and the man’s story is not as “inspiring” as it seems.
What a doll
Unlike Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster Barbie, director Lageria Davis “Black Barbie” probably won’t make a billion dollars at the box office. But this documentary, which explores the origins and impact of Mattel’s introduction of the first color Barbie doll in 1980, is likely to generate plenty of discussion and opinion when it debuts in Memphis on Oct. 28.
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Many films at indie film festivals will be screened a second time, as an encore; Meanwhile, there will be encores of a different kind throughout the festival, as organizers revive such classics and cult films as Jacques Rivette’s 1974 masterpiece. “Céline and Julie Go Boating” and the stupid Wayans Brothers parody song “Horror film,” from 2000. Perhaps the most surprising revival is Michael Roemer’s recently restored comedy. “The Plot Against Harry” (1989), a “neglected masterpiece” (according to critic Richard Brody) about Kosher Nostra – Jewish gangsters.
For tickets, festival passes, film screenings and a complete schedule of events, visit indiememphis.org.