Month: October 2013

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Beginning of the End?

The great war over the fate of Shelby County’s schools — one which has preoccupied activists of various kinds, the media, city, county, and state jurisdictions, and the judicial system — may soon be winding down.

And the winner is …

Dorsey Hopson

Actually, that’s a matter of opinion. As matters stand, with the Shelby County Schools board’s adoption Monday night of a plan by Superintendent Dorsey Hopson, there are several parties that might proclaim victory: the SCS board itself; the Shelby County Commission, whose majority has been litigating against the six suburban municipalities hatching independent school systems; and the majority of those municipalities, which seem satisfied with the plan.

If there is a loser, it is Germantown, which sees the territorial integrity of its municipal school system compromised by the absorption of three namesake schools — Germantown High School, Germantown Middle School, and Germantown Elementary — into the unified Shelby County Schools system.

Hopson announced his plan last week, and victory peals or alarm bells (depending on the source) began sounding almost instantaneously. But the outcome was not formalized until Monday night, when the SCS board finally sat in judgment over the plan.

Most unusually for a school board meeting of whatever jurisdiction, the evening’s main drama was not delayed by curricular or procedural minutiae at the jam-packed business session in the Coe Administration Building on Avery. Germantown, whose officials and citizens showed up en masse to prevent it, saw the seven-member SCS board turn down its plea for retaining the three schools, or at least for more time to discuss it.

Referring to debate on the matter as “a conversation just begun,” Mayor Sharon Goldsworthy, said, “We respectfully ask, even urge, that you delay a definitive decision about the schools within the city of Germantown.” She thereby led a parade of several fellow townsfolk in the board’s opening public period, which also featured spokespersons for other causes, including the rescue of South Side High School from the state’s ASD system, over which the board had no control, and for a K-through-eight expansion at Barrett’s Chapel, over which it did have jurisdiction.

The Barrett’s Chapel folks got their way, those from South Side couldn’t, and those from Germantown didn’t — despite some eloquent testifiers, including a Houston High parent wearing a Germantown Red Devil pullover in solidarity, and the young son of Tim Coulter, who followed his father with the affectingly simple line, “Please don’t take my school” (an echo of the South Siders’ own plea, “Please don’t take our school away”).

40-year Leases for Each Municipality

After the public period was over, there were reports — from board chairman Kevin Woods, from the chairs of various committees, and finally, the crucial one, the superintendent’s report, delivered in Hopson’s flat and measured phrasing.

After a typically understated reference to the “extraordinary level of angst” that had afflicted all sectors of the county during the school merger controversy, followed by a brief statement of the good news for the Barrett’s Chapel contingent, Hopson detailed, city by city, his plan for the six incorporated suburbs that aim to have their own municipal school systems in August 2014.

Beginning with Arlington and proceeding through Bartlett, Lakeland, Millington, Germantown, and Collierville, Hopson read out his formula: a 40-year lease on terms to be negotiated for county school buildings currently within the cities’ municipal limits and with each city responsible for defaults and damages.

In only two cases was the number of leasable properties less than the number within those limits. As had been revealed in Hopson’s bombshell announcement last week, Shelby County Schools intends to maintain responsibility for Lucy Elementary School in a community newly annexed by Millington and for three namesake institutions in Germantown — Germantown High School, Germantown Middle School, and Germantown Elementary School.

As Hopson and other SCS spokespersons explained last week, the choice of institutions to be retained was dictated by the system’s decision — for financial and various logistical reasons — to provide public education for the unincorporated areas of Shelby County and for the school-age populations in those areas. The four institutions chosen all contained majorities of pupils living in the unincorporated areas. (In an interview, though, Goldsworthy would contest that fact for Germantown Elementary.)

“In a nutshell,” said Hopson, “I have authorized myself and Ms. [Valerie] Speakman [the board attorney]” as negotiators with the suburbs.

“In the North … People Like this deal”

The first board member to address the Hopson resolution was David Pickler, representative of Germantown and Collierville. Pickler expressed himself as “deeply troubled” by a plan that had not been submitted to an “open, fair, and public conversation” but had been engineered with “a very specific guiding of what the outcome had to be.”

Pickler then made a formal motion for the board to delay voting on the plan, pending “a more thought-out public process.”

Board chairman Woods asked if there was a second, and there was none — a fact causing several of the Germantown advocates in the audience, who had applauded Pickler lustily, to gasp or cry out in disbelief.

The reason would be made obvious when, after a ritual endorsement of “a very thoughtful resolution” by Memphis board member Teresa Jones, Bartlett member David Reaves, in a regretful but firm manner, lowered the boom. “In the north … most of the people like this deal,” he said. “I sympathize, but I represent the north.”

In a concession to Germantown sensibilities, Reaves did move to divide the board’s voting on the plan six ways, city by city. That motion failed 5-2, with only Reaves and Pickler voting for it.

Before the board’s vote on the Hopson resolution, former board chairman Billy Orgel, who had been honored earlier for his service during the board’s 23-member transitional phase, said he thought the Hopson plan would hasten a mutually agreeable resolution of the whole merger controversy. (Unmentioned Monday night was the fact of the ongoing county commission litigation against the municipalities’ school plans, still unsettled.)

Optional Status for Germantown Schools

Chairman Kevin Woods then posed a series of rhetorical questions to Hopson and attorney Speakman, addressing potentially contentious parts of the plan. That gave the superintendent the opportunity to note that the district would treat all three Germantown institutions as optional schools and that the staff and teachers at each would likely remain in place. For her part, Speakman affirmed that it was by no means unprecedented for schools within municipalities to function as parts of extraneous systems.

Pickler won one tenuous concession from Hopson — the superintendent’s somewhat tepid acknowledgment that theoretically the board, during negotiation, could consider revising the question of Germantown’s schools. The board then voted on Hopson’s plan, endorsing it 5-1-1, with Pickler the only no vote and Reaves politely abstaining.

In a colloquy with reporters later on, Goldsworthy talked of convening her lawyers and trying again to get public discussions on modification of the Hopson plan. She had no ready answer when asked if there was any legal alternative to acceptance of the board’s will. Asked if her city could run a viable school system minus the three affected schools and the state funding destined for students in the adjoining unincorporated area, she gamely suggested that, come what may, Germantown would succeed with its system.

Asked if there was any reason other than logistical for her city’s bearing the brunt of sacrifice in the Hopson plan, Goldsworthy only smiled cryptically. When her interviewer suggested he couldn’t interpret a smile, she answered, “Oh yes, you can.”

(For more on Superintendent Dorsey Hopson’s plan, see Viewpoint, p. 15.)

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Letter from the Editor: Tennessee Gay Couple Changes Everything

“I believe gay marriage should be between a man and a woman.”

— Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold was obviously a little confused when he spouted the timeless wisdom cited above. Lots of people are confused when it comes to gay marriage. But that’s about to change.

On October 21st, four gay couples, who were legally married in other states but who are now living in Tennessee, filed a lawsuit in district federal court challenging Tennessee’s laws preventing the recognition of gay marriage. It was the first legal shot fired against the gay-marriage ban in Tennessee, and it was just one of many such shots being fired in states around the country.

For example, in Ohio in July a federal judge ruled in favor of a gay couple’s legal marriage status, despite that state’s ban on same-sex marriage. Two Ohio men who were legally married in another state sought to be recognized as a legally married couple under Ohio law for purposes of obtaining a death certificate for one of them, who was dying of Lou Gehrig’s disease. The judge ruled that the Ohio registrar of death certificates had to accept the couple’s status as married and list the surviving spouse as just that, “surviving spouse.”

In his ruling, the judge cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision in United States v. Windsor, which effectively overturned the national “Defense of Marriage Act” as unconstitutional. The Ohio judge ruled that his state’s ban on same-sex marriage had “unjustifiably created two tiers of couples: 1) opposite-sex marriage couples legally married in other states; and 2) same-sex marriage couples married in other states. This lack of equal protection of law is fatal.”

Fatal it is, and fatal it shall be, in case after case, I predict, as gay couples in every state with gay-marriage bans are filing or planning to file lawsuits against such laws. It was Texas’ turn on Tuesday, as two gay couples sued to overturn that state’s ban. The dominoes are going to fall quickly.

After all, if this conservative-dominated Supreme Court has overturned DOMA at the national level, what chance do gay-marriage bans have at the state level? Probably not much of one.

As Bianca Phillips reports this week, one of the Tennessee couples that has sued is from Memphis. Their names are Ijpe DeKoe, an Army Reserve sergeant, and Thom Kostura. “Fairness and equality are the guiding principles of our government, and as a member of the armed forces, I have fought and will continue to fight for those principles,” said DeKoe, who served a tour of duty in Afghanistan. “After returning to Memphis with Thom, I was saddened to learn that Tennessee law does not live up to those ideals in the way it treats married same-sex couples.”

He’s right, morally — and sooner than many expected, he’ll be right, legally. Mazel tov, Arnold.

Bruce VanWyngarden

brucev@memphisflyer.com

Categories
News

Indie Memphis’ Big Weekend

It’s Indie Memphis Film Fest time, and it’s bigger, better, and more intriquing than ever. Check out the Flyer‘s cover story for details and previews.

Categories
Music Music Features

Grifters Reunion

As Meanwhile in Memphis: The Sound of a Revolution premieres November 2nd at the Circuit Playhouse as a part of the Indie Memphis Film Festival, fans of recent Memphis music history will have a triumph of their own.

Directors Robert Allen Parker and Nan Hackman’s biggest coup may have been convincing local indie-rock godfathers the Grifters to reunite after more than a decade of inactivity. The band was both one of Memphis’ biggest local draws and most successful exports of the 1990s, releasing several LPs, EPs, and singles (the 1994 full-length Crappin’ You Negative received rave reviews from publications like Rolling Stone and Spin) and touring extensively until around 2000, when exhaustion and the emergence of new projects and opportunities led the Grifters to slow things down and ultimately disband.

“We toured a lot,” the band’s singer/guitarist Scott Taylor says. “When we first took a break from all the touring, we weren’t in a hurry to get back in the van. The musical atmosphere had changed, and the stuff we were doing people weren’t as interested in — it got harder to get good shows. And we were all excited about our new bands.”

So the members of the Grifters went out on their own — Taylor with the Porch Ghouls (“We toured with Kiss and Aerosmith for almost two years,” he says) and Chopper Girl/Memphis Babylon; singer/guitarist Dave Shouse with Those Bastard Souls, the Bloodthirsty Lovers, and, most recently, >mancontrol<; and the rhythm section of Tripp Lamkins (bass) and Stan Gallimore (drums) with Dragoon.

Earlier this year, however, the group received an intriguing offer from the directors of Meanwhile in Memphis, who were looking to book bands for an after-party for the film’s premiere.

“Nan and I decided to make them an offer, even though we knew that the odds of it happening were slim to none,” Parker says. “There were even some people in the Memphis music community who told us that it could never possibly happen. I sent letters to each of the Grifters proclaiming how important they are to our documentary, to their fans in Memphis, and to the legacy of Memphis music altogether.”

“None of us were particularly interested in reliving the past,” Taylor says. “We were more into moving forward in our own directions. With a few exceptions, I’m not really into the ‘cool ’90s band goes back on the road’ thing. It didn’t seem cool to be like, ‘Hey, look at us. Look at what we did in the ’90s.'”

“Never say never,” Parker says.

“The reason we’re doing a reunion now is the documentary,” Taylor says. “The movie talks about our role in the Memphis scene of the ’90s. We all felt it was appropriate to play the show in conjunction. Over the years, we’d get these phone calls from out in the wilderness,” Taylor says. “Some guy would call and say, ‘You guys were my favorite band. I want you to play my wedding.’ It was never anything serious. Of course, we are hard to get in touch with, so maybe that was it too.”

Whatever reluctance the Grifters may have felt at one time about getting back together, the band is definitely enjoying the experience of reviving the project now — at least for one night.

“Practice has been really great. The songs sound better than ever, I think,” Lamkins says.

“It’s amazing,” Taylor agrees. “It’s been refreshing to come back to some of the songs. We’re all pleased that the material doesn’t sound too dated. We were always a band that tried to write timeless songs, songs that weren’t stuck in a particular genre.”

“I expected, at some point (but not knowing when), the Grifters to play again due to the sheer awesomeness and intensity of the band as a unit,” says Sherman Willmott, founder of Shangri-La Records, which released Grifters records through the ’90s until the band signed with Sub Pop.

The Grifters will perform this Saturday at the Warehouse for the Meanwhile in Memphis premiere after-party, along with local heavy-hitters the Hi Rhythm Section, Al Kapone, and Hope Clayburn. What happens with the group after that, though, is anybody’s guess.

Willmott sees the band getting much-deserved recognition.

“Because the Grifters’ hiatus dovetailed with the explosion of the internet (circa 2000), the post-Napster generation knows nothing about the power of this band,” Willmott says. “Given the intensity of today’s digital word of mouth, if the Grifters Mach II is one-fourth as good as their first go-round, there is no doubt in my mind that they will have thousands of new fans overnight.”

“We’re not ruling out doing more shows,” Taylor says. “Nothing is off the table as long as we’re enjoying ourselves.”

One recent highlight is a series of videos based on recordings from their album One Sock Missing. Each song is directed by a different person. One is directed by bassist Lamkins.

“It’s been fun,” Taylor says. “Sherman came to us and said he was tired of seeing our songs on YouTube without any real videos, just stills or homemade stuff. I’m glad we’re doing it. A lot of local filmmakers have done amazing jobs on the videos so far, and the project is moving along very organically.”

www.shangrilaprojects.com/the-grifters

Meanwhile in Memphis After-Party With The Grifters, The Hi Rhythm Section, Al Kapone, and Hope Clayburn’s Soul Scrimmage The Warehouse, Saturday, November 2nd, 9 p.m.

Categories
Cover Feature News

Meanwhile At Indie Memphis

What: A four-day multimedia event with dozens of film screenings, entertainment and technology panels and discussions, parties, live music shows, and food programs.

When: Thursday, October 31st, through Sunday, November 3rd

Where: Numerous Overton Square venues, including Playhouse on the Square, Malco’s Studio on the Square, The Circuit Playhouse, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, and Local Gastropub; and downtown sites, including Earnestine & Hazel’s and The Warehouse

Full schedule: IndieMemphis.com

The 2013 Indie Memphis film festival kicks off not with a movie but with food. At 5 p.m. on Thursday, October 31st, the “Best Bites” reception at Playhouse on the Square features selections from winners of this year’s Memphis Flyer “Best of Memphis” poll (shameless plug). For the rest of the evening, you have your pick of the horror films (this being Halloween night) Escape from Tomorrow, James Whale’s classic Frankenstein, and Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, the TV pilot to Fox’s J.J. Abrams-produced Almost Human (which won’t air for a few more weeks), Touchy Feely, a buzzy ensemble drama starring Rosemarie DeWitt and Ellen Page, and local indie-pop group Star & Micey, who are starring (and Micey-ing) at an after-party concert at Earnestine & Hazel’s.

Thus, Indie Memphis in a nutshell: killer movies that haven’t opened here, classic films you can’t usually see on the big screen, the best of local music and food, and scores of filmmakers (note: Polanski will not be in attendance), performers, patrons, and scenesters all ambling between a diverse set of venues magnetized to Overton Square.

When Indie Memphis wraps up Sunday evening with an awards show and encore screenings of the fest’s best, it will have presented 50 feature films, 82 shorts, 13 panels, conversations, and seminars, and 11 parties and social events. It’s fiercely local — see our significant artistic talent on display in short films such as I Wanted To Make a Movie About a Beautiful and Tragic Memphis — but notably national, with Memphis premieres of major, Oscar-contending films (August: Osage County, Nebraska, and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom), indie behemoths (Drinking Buddies, As I Lay Dying, Zero Charisma, The Sacrament), critical darlings (Short Term 12, Touchy Feely, Computer Chess), and diverse documentaries (Hit & Stay and The Great Chicken Wing Hunt).

It is a multimedia, multisensory extravaganza, arguably (or maybe definitively) the Mid-South’s annual cultural high-water mark.

What follows is a list, admittedly subjective, of some of the highlights. You can sleep on Monday.

— Greg Akers

Meanwhile in Memphis directors Nan Hackman and Robert Allen Parker

Meanwhile in Memphis: The Sound of a Revolution

Saturday, 6 p.m., The Circuit Playhouse, with a filmmaker Q&A after the screening

Would you like to see Tav Falco take a circular saw to his guitar while onstage with Mudboy & the Neutrons? Or tug on the narrative thread connecting Furry Lewis to contemporary Memphis rap and indie rock? Or would you just like to hear an amazingly powerful, sometimes terrifyingly aggressive collage of sounds that prove without question that the music didn’t leave Memphis when the music industry did?

Fans of modern Memphis music, especially those who were drawn to Chris McCoy’s Antenna documentary, a hit at the 2012 Indie Memphis film festival, will want to check out Meanwhile in Memphis: The Sound of a Revolution, an exhaustive look at the Bluff City’s underground music scene in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, directed by Mid-South musician Robert Allen Parker and videographer Nan Hackman. The film features engaging and insightful interviews with Falco, Jim Dickinson, Sid Selvidge, DJ Spanish Fly, Monsieur Jeffrey Evans, DJ Squeeky, members of the Oblivians, the Grifters, and the Klitz, and numerous other scene-shaping performers. While Antenna captured the essence of Memphis’ punk and DIY culture as it coalesced in the ’80s and ’90s, Meanwhile in Memphis looks far beyond the iconic Midtown venue to consider the music itself, the musicians, and the not always evident connectedness between generations and genres, which makes the scene seem like a sprawling, occasionally dysfunctional family.

Meanwhile in Memphis introduces viewers to a city in decay: Stax is closed and American Recording is boarded up. But there’s life in the ruins. Weeds spring up in abandoned lots, and the musicians who came of age in Memphis in the ensuing decades were every bit as hearty as wild grass.

Meanwhile in Memphis, Jim Dickinson

It’s the first feature film for both Parker and Hackman and was shot over a period of seven years. Like the subject at hand, what’s missing in terms of polish is more than made up for in smarts and substance.

“I really wanted these musicians to tell their story,” says Parker who, when not working his day job selling records at the Memphis Music store on Beale, plays guitar in three area bands.

The film tells the story of two distinct scenes with common roots, evolving alongside one another and sometimes converging in surprising ways: the predominantly white Midtown/downtown rock scene as defined by artists ranging from Alex Chilton to Alicja Trout and the buck-and-crunk scene that blew up in North Memphis and Orange Mound.

Meanwhile in Memphis, The Grifters

Fascinating interviews capture the essence of contemporary artists like Harlan T. Bobo and the North Mississippi Allstars, with supporting commentary from Boo Mitchell of Royal Studios, Shangri-La founder Sherman Willmott, and music writer Robert Gordon.

Oblivians/Reigning Sound frontman Greg Cartwright defines both the film and its cast when he attempts to describe the feeling you get when you realize you’re part of a legacy and connected to something much bigger than you could have ever imagined. Meanwhile in Memphis isn’t about famous people. It ignores revolutionary figures like Elvis Presley and Otis Redding and, in doing so, makes a strong case that the revolution continues. — Chris Davis

Orange Mound, Tennessee director Emmanuel Amido

Orange Mound, Tennessee: America’s Community

Saturday, 10:45 a.m., Playhouse on the Square, with a filmmaker Q&A after the screening

Fans of local history will appreciate the documentary about a Memphis neighborhood, Orange Mound, Tennessee: America’s Community. Filmmaker Emmanuel Amido captures the testimonies of past and present residents of Orange Mound regarding the struggles it’s endured, its many successes, and the unprecedented events that took place there.

Orange Mound, Tennessee: America’s Community begins with an a cappella performance of “My Soul’s Been Anchored” by the Melrose High School choir. This is followed by a visual history lesson on the neighborhood.

The area was once a plantation owned by John Deaderick in the 1820s. In the mid-1890s, real estate developer Elzey Eugene Meacham purchased the land and divided it into small, narrow lots and marketed them exclusively to African Americans.

The area became the first African-American neighborhood in the United States to also be built by African Americans; residents constructed shotgun-style houses on the lots that were sold to them by Meacham. These homes would go on to house generations of families. And many of these families built and owned their own properties, churches, and schools in Orange Mound.

Other facts, such as how the neighborhood earned the moniker Orange Mound, are highlighted in the documentary. (The area boasted countless Osage orange trees during its early days.)

Grammy Award-winning jazz saxophonist Kirk Whalum, National Civil Rights Museum president Beverly Robertson, and University of Memphis professor Charles Williams are among those who make appearances in Orange Mound, Tennessee: America’s Community.

Amido makes sure to not only focus on the positive attributes of Orange Mound but also the less fortunate characteristics as well. The documentary explores how the neighborhood went from being one of Memphis’ most thriving areas economically to one of its most impoverished and crime-ridden. This is largely attributed to many of its residents migrating to other areas of the city during the civil rights era, which left a void in the sense of community that Orange Mound once enjoyed.

A solid effort to say the least, Amido does an excellent job of capturing the meat and potatoes of what the documentary form can entail and the message that’s most significant: Orange Mound is an area with a rich history, unique culture, and strong sense of community. — Louis Goggans

Being Awesome

Being Awesome

Sunday, 12:30 p.m., The Circuit Playhouse, with a filmmaker Q&A after the screening

This feature from Memphis director Allen C. Gardner stars Drew Smith as Lloyd, a divorced art teacher who’s lost his passion for life, and Gardner as Teddy, the lovable basketball jock who still thinks of high school as the glory days. At their high school reunion, the pair connect over their unhappiness with the way life turned out. Idealist Teddy suggests the two stop being depressed and just be awesome.

For a while, Lloyd has a bit of a harder time finding his artistic muse than Teddy, who seems to jump headfirst into something meaningful. Being Awesome‘s emotional dialogue, the real meat of the film, sometimes is all too real — awkwardness and all. It’s a charm that leaves you to cheer on Teddy and Lloyd during this coming-of-middle-age story. — Alexandra Pusateri

What I Love About Concrete

What I Love About Concrete

Saturday, 1:30 p.m., The Circuit Playhouse, with filmmaker Q&A after the screening

A young girl gets out of a stranger’s bed in a house where she’s never been before. She’s covered in downy white feathers. She pulls back the covers and finds a dead bird.

Ah, the perils of being a teenager! Which is exactly the premise of What I Love About Concrete, the debut feature from local filmmakers Katherine Dohan and Alanna Stewart. The lovingly made, sweet bildungsroman finds Molly (Morgan Rose Stewart), a junior at Black Swanson High School (fictional, alas), who is struggling to make sense of her body’s changes and her burgeoning sexuality. The film swaps the horror-repulsion of adolescence in Carrie for the magical unrealism of seeing but not understanding what it means to transform into an adult.

What I Love About Concrete does a lot with a little budget, including some inspired human-sized bird costumes. The film also features hilarious supporting turns from local talent including Markus Seaberry, Bill Baker, Kimberly Baker, Sara Chiego, and The Commercial Appeal‘s John Beifuss (swoon!).

— Greg Akers

I Am Soul, Tonya Dyson

I Am Soul

Saturday, 3:30 p.m., Playhouse on the Square, with live music by Tonya Dyson before the screening and a filmmaker Q&A after the screening

I Am Soul poses the question “What is soul music?” then attempts to answer that question by spotlighting one Memphis soul artist — Tonya Dyson, a singer/songwriter from Covington — introducing us to her family, church, and other aspects of her life that have influenced her music, and culminating with Dyson’s first Beale Street gig at B.B. King’s Blues Club. I Am Soul is a touching story of a talented, homegrown artist navigating her way through a city with a renowned musical legacy.

Alternating between Dyson’s story and the story of Memphis’ rich music history, I Am Soul shows that it takes more than just talent to make it in Memphis. In the film, Dyson calls Memphis a “music mecca” and says, “If you’re dedicated, and you’re focused, and you’re smart about how you do things, you can get a lot done in Memphis.” Her perseverance through life’s difficulties supports that assertion and shows that the artist is really what makes the music when it comes to soul.

— Hannah Anderson

“Secret Screening”

Saturday, 1:45 p.m., Studio on the Square, with audience and filmmaker discussion after the screening

I can’t say what the subject of the secret screening on Saturday will be. But, based on what I know, I will be there sight unseen, and if you are in any way interested in history related to Memphis, civil rights, and/or black power, consider taking the plunge with me. The audience will be the first to see a cut of a new documentary, produced by Craig Brewer, and to participate in a discussion about what you have seen. — Greg Akers

Escape from Tomorrow

Thursday, 7 p.m., Playhouse on the Square, with live music by John Lowe before and an actor Q&A after the screening

Few sights evoke more middle-class existential dread than that of a family trying to enjoy itself at a theme park. But that image is the linchpin of writer-director Randy Moore’s Escape From Tomorrow, which was secretly shot without permits at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

Moore’s film begins inauspiciously: Family man Jim (Roy Abramsohn) is fired via telephone while on vacation with his wife and two kids. Suddenly, the tram Jim and his family must ride to reach the Magic Kingdom feels like a train headed somewhere far more sinister — a corporate-sponsored, all-ages concentration camp where bands of bored, diseased humanity trudge around mindlessly trying to survive in Mouseschwitz, frittering away the hours by waiting in line for rides and attractions that can turn threatening at any moment.

As Jim and his family try desperately to enjoy their time together, Escape From Tomorrow starts to look and feel like a lost or missing episode of Louie. Jim’s deep ambivalence about marriage, fatherhood, and basic human interaction (and his frequent, mournful sex daydreams about a pair of underage French girls he keeps seeing at the park) further underscore the film’s debt to the rhythms and ideas of Louis C.K.’s innovative, unpredictable TV series.

The opening 50 minutes of Escape From Tomorrow effectively and repeatedly prove that the Most Magical Place on Earth is as awful and alienating as Anytown, USA. But Moore loses steam after an eerie nighttime sequence set near Epcot. Yet the film’s uneven, increasingly paranoid and nonsensical final third includes a grim fairy tale about a former Disney worker driven mad from faking happiness all day long. When Mickey, Donald, and Pluto finally appear, they look as creepy as something conjured up on Bald Mountain. And after the film’s final image, you’ll never look at Tinker Bell in the same way again. — Addison Engelking

August: Osage County

August: Osage County

Friday, 6:15 p.m., Playhouse on the Square

I’ll risk the hyperbole. In its original dramatic form, Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County stands up alongside the works of playwrights like Tennessee Williams, Sam Shepard, and Arthur Miller. It is one of the greatest American family tragedies ever written, with a little something guaranteed to offend everybody: marital infidelity, incest, child molestation, Eric Clapton records, fibs, lies, falsehoods, etc. In spite of the unsavory ingredients, this dish comes together like apple pie — crusty, sweet at the center, and full of spice.

Set in Oklahoma during a blazing hot summer just before and after the drowning suicide of the Weston family patriarch, Letts’ drama plays out like a middle-class King Lear but with a stronger focus on the female characters and the legacies of dysfunctional relationships. The story gets darker and darker at every turn, but Letts’ breezy dialogue and his ability to find screwball humor and unforced slapstick in crisis and ensuing chaos is what makes him such an exciting voice for the theater and film.

The much-buzzed film adaptation was helmed by producer/director John Wells, with Letts adapting his own script. It features an all-star cast that includes Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Dermot Mulroney, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, and the aforementioned Shepard. — Chris Davis

Short Term 12

Short Term 12

Saturday, 6:15 p.m., Playhouse on the Square, with live music by Mark Allen before and a filmmaker and actor Q&A along with reps from Youth Villages after the screening

No matter how many self-deprecating anecdotes they share — or how many self-inflicted physical scars they show — the youthful but wary optimists of Destin Daniel Cretton’s Short Term 12 are never sure how much they’ve actually helped the deeply damaged teens and tweens in their care. That’s because the kids they work with have been hurt so deeply and so often that they automatically distrust anyone who peddles any form of “I’m your buddy” BS.

But Grace (Brie Larson) and her colleagues at the titular foster-care facility keep trying anyway. Cretton follows Grace as she tries to separate the chaos of her work life from some unexpected developments involving her co-worker and live-in boyfriend Mason (John Gallagher Jr. in a sweetly lower-case performance).

Mason, who tells two stories that serve to open and close the film, is not as passionate and reckless as Grace. But he’s still very good at his job. The long scene where he provides the beat while a young man (Keith Stanfield) shares his anxiety about leaving through some brutally personal hip-hop lyrics is one of the film’s many emotionally complex high points.

Grace remains the focus of Short Term 12, though. Larson’s layered, unpredictable acting here should garner plenty of accolades. However, Kaitlyn Dever, who plays Jayden, a cagey, raccoon-eyed girl determined not to play nice, is also superb. The relationship that develops between the two women further articulates Cretton’s belief in the power and necessity of unconditional love. Which is not to say that there’s no darkness before the light: The long scene that unfolds on Jayden’s birthday, for example, was one of several that brought me to tears.

Tender, tragic, and ultimately overflowing with compassion, Short Term 12 is more than a highlight of Indie Memphis. It’s one of the year’s best films.

— Addison Engelking

For full coverage of Indie Memphis, including reviews of dozens of narrative, documentary, and short films updated daily through Sunday, go to the Flyer’s entertainment blog, Sing All Kinds.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

12 Years a Slave

Steve McQueen’s film 12 Years a Slave is inescapable — you are impelled to witness every horror it depicts — and epochal — its existence is in a way an indictment of a century-plus of cinema that didn’t have the temerity to make something like it.

12 Years a Slave is an adaptation of Solomon Northup’s autobiographical work from the mid-19th century. Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor in the film) is a free black man in Saratoga, New York, in 1841, when he is conned and kidnapped by two white men and sold into slavery in Washington, D.C. From there, Northup is spirited away to New Orleans, where he is purchased and sold again by a series of slaveholders over the next dozen years.

The film is a slave procedural. Through Solomon’s experience, we encounter the American institution of slavery in all its deliberate, dehumanizing trappings. Solomon is tricked and passes out a free man and awakens in shackles. He contends his free status and is beaten for it. “You’re a slave!” his captor exclaims, insisting he’s an escaped Georgia runaway. He’s put on a South-bound paddle boat. He commiserates with other slaves on the ship. “Tell no one you can read or write unless you want to be a dead nigger,” he’s advised.

A slaver named Freeman (Paul Giamatti) puts Solomon — renamed Platt — with other slaves on display for purchase. A mother and her children are separated in the process; violinists play louder to cover the cries of despair. “Your children will soon be forgotten,” she is told.

Solomon is bought by Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch) and ruled by the overseer Tibeats (Paul Dano). Then his debt is transferred to the noted slave breaker Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender) and the perverse Mistress Epps (Sarah Paulson), and then, for a time he’s rented out to Judge Turner (Bryan Batt).

Through this succession we see a diverse set of wealthy slave owners conducting a variety of agricultural practices. The Southern aristocracy runs from the benign, “good” master Ford to the sadistic Epps to the … oh, wait, they’re not diverse at all. They were all slave owners who perpetuated the inhumane system and became wealthy because of it.

You couldn’t call any of this an underbelly, because it was the legitimate law of the land. It’s horrible in part because it’s not criminal in a strictly legal sense: Every brutality is conceived and executed in the sun, under the eyes of God.

McQueen’s handling of it all is subtle but brilliantly conceived: 12 Years a Slave gazes right at that open wound, flesh whipped from the back, without overmuch artistic showiness. Thus, we’re apt to think of it as a slave narrative, because it’s more concerned with the order-of-operations framework of slavery than even the emotional toll (it leaves that up to the viewer and sees something of a release in the end of the film, following a Brad Pitt ex machina). Contrast 12 Years a Slave to Toni Morrison’s Beloved, one of the best novels of the last century, which finds unending emotional terror in the same subject matter but was, it must be said, a very fictionalized account of a true story, rather than a true story that has been adapted. Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong’o as the slave Patsey are astonishing.

Slavery bent human beings into grotesque shapes, on both sides of the whip. But 12 Years a Slave is more concerned with the end of it. McQueen and screenwriter John Ridley are black. It’s one of those things that shouldn’t be notable but is. If you consider 12 Years a Slave with The Butler and Fruitvale Station, you can see a by-God trend of black filmmakers making mainstream movies about the black experience, something else that shouldn’t be worth mentioning but is. Centuries of racial oppression and inequity, and the results continue to manifest themselves today. And people think ours is a post-racial society? McQueen doesn’t want you to be comfortable with the thought.

12 Years a Slave

Opens Friday, November 1st

Paradiso

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What They Said

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

MemphisFlyer.com

Greg Cravens

From “Leave a Penny: Shortchanged man jailed after calling 9-1-1” and a man who called 911 when a gas station clerk short-changed him by a penny on his purchase of a Heineken.

“He would have had a better buzz at 201 if he’d bought 2 PBRs instead.”

— Scott Banbury

From “Legally Married Same-Sex Couples File Lawsuit in Tennessee” and four couples seeking recognition of their marriages by the state:

“I wish this couple the best. I’m pro-gay marriage. They should have the ability to marry and get the same benefits the rest of us do. We also shouldn’t prohibit them from the pain of divorce.” — GroveReb84

From “Suspect Charged in Millington Shooting” and charges filed against Amos Patton after he shot two fellow Guardsmen near the Millington naval base:

“Actions have consequences. He apparently was a good father and husband at one time. His willingness to serve our country also speaks of this being a ‘change’ in his character. I hope he gets the help he obviously needs after he has paid his debt. I am thankful his victims’ wounds were not life-threatening and pray their recovery is swift and complete.” — thecatsmeow

From “Delta Airlines to Cut More Flights” and the airline’s plans to trim jobs and departure flights down to 40:

“Time to update the Facebook page, Delta Does Memphis to — oh, I dunno — ‘Delta DOESN’T Memphis’ or perhaps ‘Delta Has Left the Building (in Memphis)’…?”

— RemotePatroller

Tweets

Response to a tweet about a Hungry Memphis post on Whole Foods’ Germantown plans:

“Don’t worry, there will be another Whole Foods in Midtown. They spread like an organic disease.”

— Scott Mickelson @FATOPIE

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Taste of India

India may be the seventh-largest country in the world with the second-highest population, but Memphians can get a small glimpse into the large republic this Saturday, November 2nd, at the 11th annual India Fest at Agricenter International.

The food of India varies greatly by state and region, but cuisines from all over the country will be represented as 40 vendors, a mix of local Indian restaurants and home cooks, dish out traditional fare — dosa, samosa, dahl, naan, mango lassi, and all sorts of chaat (Indian street food) — from numerous states.

Performances will showcase the different styles of dance popular by region. Vendors will market saris, bindhi stickers, jewelry, and other clothing, and henna artists will create elaborate, temporary artwork on the hands of willing participants. A kids’ corner will offer games, Indian stories, and crafts.

This year’s theme — “Relive the Royals of India” — pays tribute to the kingdoms of India in the 18th and 19th centuries with artwork throughout the festival.

Deepak Rawat, one of the festival’s organizers, says he hopes the fest not only serves to instill pride for the native homeland of Memphis’ large Indian population but also to introduce their culture to the broader Memphis community.

“India Fest is an opportunity to showcase our cultural diversity and ethnicity and to mingle with other cultures in Memphis,” Rawat said. “We encourage Memphians to indulge their curiosity about Indian culture while leaving behind the ever-present issues of politics and religion.”

India Fest 2013 at Agricenter International, Saturday, November 2nd, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tickets are $3 for adults, $1 kids. Admission is free to kids who bring two cans of food to donate to the Mid-South Food Bank. indiafestmemphis.org

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Soar High

CREDIT: Mangroove | Dreamstime.com

Teenagers are usually gearing up to drive cars to demonstrate their independence, but for students at Manassas High School, they might be flying planes, too.

Twenty students involved in the Memphis Students Obtaining Aviation Resources program, or MEMsoar, are learning about different career paths within the aviation industry. Two students were selected by the high school to participate in pilot training, intending to have their private pilot license by mid-2014.

Glen Thomas, public information officer for the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority, said this program is among the first of its kind for Memphis. At Manassas High, the adopted school of the organization, this is the first run until May, but the airport authority hopes to turn MEMsoar into a regular program during the school year.

“We see this as a natural way to get kids interested in aviation careers,” Thomas said. “Not just instill interest, but put them on a path to a career.”

In early October, the first session gave an overview of general operations at the smaller General Dewitt Spain Airport downtown. During the second session on October 22nd, the students were taken to the underbelly of the airport, learning about airport building maintenance. The next session on November 12th will focus on the responsibilities of the airport police.

“The kids seemed to be engaged,” Thomas said. “They asked a lot of questions.”

Julius R. Jackson Sr. — or “Coach Jackson” to the students and faculty at Manassas — said he hopes the two teens chosen for the pilot program will complete their 70 hours of training needed by the time they graduate.

For the 20 teens in MEMsoar, the airport authority is “enlightening the students about careers they were not aware of,” he said. The students talk to professionals within the individual departments that compose the functions of the airport.

According to Jackson, when one student found out that MEMsoar would lead to an opportunity to attend college, he decided aviation was the industry he wanted to pursue. Another student, initially chosen for the two coveted openings for pilot training, didn’t show up, so someone else took his place.

Jackson said some students seem to be waiting for others to drop out of the program so they may get a chance.

“You have to constantly remind them of the opportunity they’ve been given,” he said.

Airport authority board member Jim Keras is covering the cost of the pilot training program — all $80,000 of it — for the two students.

While Manassas High tries to set the educational framework, the students are tasked with meeting them halfway by fulfilling obligations and responsibilities of the MEMsoar program.

“The rest is desire to have careers,” Jackson said. “Parents love the program. They’re glad [students] are getting involved.”

Wooddale High School also has an aviation and aerospace program. There, students partner with local businesses, such as FedEx, to learn more about careers in aviation and accumulate the necessary hours to receive their pilot license.

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Fly on the Wall

Captain Chaos

Memphis-born actor, director, and stuntman Hal Needham knew what the American people wanted to see blown up bigger than life on the big screen. They wanted to see car chases. And car wrecks. And they wanted to see cars explode and humans falling from incredible heights. Needham, who died last week at 82, broke his back and 55 additional bones to give movie and TV audiences a thrill. The go-to stunt double for Burt Reynolds also punctured a lung and lost a few teeth and some of his hearing. As a director, Needham is probably best represented by his big screen debut in Smokey and the Bandit, a film capitalizing on the CB radio craze of the 1970s. The film starred Reynolds, Jerry Reed, and Sally Field as a trio of misfits and outlaws illegally transporting Coors beer from Texarkana to Alabama with Jackie Gleason as Sheriff Buford T. Justice in hot pursuit. It was the second highest-grossing film of 1977 after Star Wars. Needham directed a string of kitsch classics including Cannonball Run and Megaforce. Respect.

Neverending Elvis

Elvis reasserts his claim as the King of Rock-and-Roll, by proving that death is no excuse for not cutting a duet with British singer and reality show phenom Susan Boyle. Boyle is sampling Elvis’ “O Come All Ye Faithful,” singing along and releasing the single to raise money for her favorite charity, Save the Children. “Dueting with Elvis was beyond my wildest dream,” Boyle was actually quoted as saying.