An encore showing of Poor & Hungry and several interesting documentaries highlight Sunday’s IMFF schedule.
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Month: October 2010
The refurbished, 10th anniversary edition of Craig Brewer’s career-launching The Poor and Hungry was a sellout last night at Playhouse on the Square, with Brewer and most of the film’s original cast on hand to treat the audience to lots of his own stories about the making of that movie. Brewer also let his hometown audience be the first anywhere — outside the film’s own production — to see clips from his forthcoming studio feature Footloose, playing a five-minute “sizzle reel” of clips from the work-in-progress remake, which he had left the Atlanta set of only hours earlier.
If you tried to get into last night’s Poor & Hungry screening and weren’t able to — a condition that afflicted many — then you’ll get another chance today. Indie Memphis director Erik Jambor decided last night to schedule an encore screening of The Poor & Hungry for 2:30 p.m. today, at Playhouse on the Square.
Two other encore screenings for tonight are the documentary Thunder Soul at 8:15 and a repeat of last night’s Shorts Program #3 at 8:30. Both of these are at Studio on the Square. For a full schedule of today’s events, see IndieMemphis.com.
And, now, our guide to the rest of the Sunday film schedule:
Pick of the Day: Freedom Riders (5:30 p.m., Playhouse on the Square)
A feature-length documentary about one of the most daring passages of the civil rights movement, acclaimed non-fiction filmmaker Stanley Nelson’s Freedom Riders might serve as an essential companion piece to the classic civil rights doc series Eyes on the Prize. Via interviews with the riders, then Alabama governor John Patterson, Kennedy administration representative John Siegenthaler, and ordinary citizens who bore witness, as well as through archival footage and photography, Nelson tells the story of the first wave of Freedom Riders, black and white Americans who endured harassment, beatings, and imprisonment for simply traveling on buses together in the South in defiance of Jim Crow laws. There are few examples of heroism as humbling as those of Diana Nash, Jim Zwerg, and others like them — young students who boarded the buses in full knowledge that they were risking their lives. This festival screening is in advance of a scheduled May 2011 television debut as part of PBS’ American Experience series. — Chris Herrington
Trailer:
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earnestine & hazel jazz
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Indie Memphis Fest — Saturday
Among Saturday’s offerings at the Indie Memphis Film Fest are Craig Brewer’s The Poor & Hungry and Tim Burton’s Ed Wood.
The biggest day of the Indie Memphis Film Festival is so packed that we’re doubling up our picks in each category. As always, for a full schedule and ticketing info, see IndieMemphis.com.
Picks of the Day:
The Poor and Hungry (7 p.m., Playhouse on the Square)
We’re expecting this to sell out, so hopefully you have your tickets already. Suffice it to say, Craig Brewer’s first completed film not only launched the most meaningful career in Memphis film history, it also spurred the growth over the past decade of both the homegrown filmmaking scene and the very festival that is hosting this screening. The film is required viewing for anyone who wants to be culturally literate on modern Memphis, but hasn’t been screened publicly in several years. Brewer will be departing his Atlanta-based Footloose production for one night to attend this screening and conduct a post-screening chat session, with most of the film’s original cast and crew in attendance. I wrote more about the new Poor & Hungry here. You can read Chris Davis’ original cover story about Brewer’s trip to the Hollywood Film Festival here. — Chris Herrington
Ed Wood (10:30 p.m., Studio on the Square)
Tim Burton’s 1994 black-and-white fantasy biopic of spectacularly failed filmmaker Ed Wood (creator of grade-Z ’50s “classics” Bride of the Monster and Plan 9 From Outer Space), with Johnny Depp in the lead role and a tour de force turn from Martin Landau as big-screen Dracula Bela Lugosi, will screen on a 35-millimeter print Saturday at 10:30 p.m. at Studio on the Square. The screening is being hosted by one of the film’s screenwriters, Larry Karaszewski, in town for a couple of festival panels. Karaszewski has a history with the city, having co-written the Memphis-shot The People vs. Larry Flynt. — Herrington
Trailer:
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George’s Reunion
Memphis’ now-defunct first gay bar, George’s, is having a reunion party Saturday night at, um, Minglewood. Check out details here.
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George’s Reunion This Weekend
These days, folks gather at Backstreet, Senses, Dru’s Place, or Crossroads. But none of today’s local gay bars would be possible without George’s, Memphis’ first gay bar.
What later became George’s originally opened at 1786 Madison as the Twilight Lounge. It went through several incarnations, locations, and a few police raids along the way. But antiques dealer George Wilson’s bar eventually became THE place for gay nightlife in Memphis. Vincent Astor has written an excellent history of George’s, available on the Friends of George’s website.
George’s moved to Marshall in 1979, where it remained a gay hot spot until it closed in 1987. The bar’s next incarnation — GDI’s On the River — served as a replacement for several years, but it shuttered its doors in 1990. The crumbling paint of the GDI logo on its former home at Front and Huling is all that remains.
On Saturday, Oct. 23rd at 8 p.m., former George’s patrons (and probably a few Memphis transplants and young folks who wish they could have been patrons) will gather at Minglewood Hall for the first George’s Reunion party. The party features an all-star cast of George’s Showgirls and plenty more. For ticket information, go here.
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Griz Links and Notes
As I gear up for the final stretch of season-preview material — both here and in next week’s print edition of the Flyer — let’s pause to toss out a few recent notes and links of potential interest to Grizzlies fans:
For starters, if you missed it, we’re giving away a couple of pairs of tickets — choice seats! — to Wednesday’s home opener. Check that out here.
The Grizzlies waived free agent roster invites Damien Wilkins and Josh Davis yesterday. The Davis move is disappointing. The team had one open roster spot and Davis had performed well in the preseason. He also could have filled a situational role — a frontcourt floor-stretcher — that no-one on the current roster could fill. The sense I got was that Davis was highly regarded throughout the organization. I don’t know for a fact that the team wanted to keep Davis and the owner vetoed spending the extra money to keep him, but that’s what I suspect. I also have a hunch — and only a hunch — that if Lionel Hollins had his way the team would have kept Davis and Wilkins, even if it meant buying out a current player (such as Hamed Haddadi). This team needs more solid veterans, even if those veterans are only on the back end of the rotation. If Davis was cut loose as an ownership mandate, then you have to ask: How can you demand playoffs and not do minimum things to give your coach the tools he wants to make that happen?
“Green Onions” Goes Beale Street Blue: The Grizzlies also announced yesterday the entertainment lineup for opening night, featuring the great Booker T. Jones playing as part of the halftime show. Check here for the full lineup. Also, if you want Chris Wallace and Lionel Hollins to bag your groceries, then check this out.
NBA.com’s John Schuhmann points out that the last 11 teams to go through preseason with one of fewer losses have made the playoffs — potential good news for the Grizzlies, who are 7-0 heading into their final preseason game tonight against the Detroit Pistons. Schuhmann also shows that the Grizzlies have looked good defensively in the preseason.
This 82Games.com article from a few seasons ago backs up the assertion that there’s a correlation between a really good preseason record and regular-season success.
This actually makes a lot of sense. We become the Memphis Kings and they become the Sacramento Grizzlies. It makes too much sense to actually happen, of course, but still… And I’d love to watch the Priscillas Dance Team.