Month: October 2016

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News News Blog

Application Shows New Images of Old Dominick

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Some new images of the Old Dominick Distillery have emerged in an application asking the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) to approve the design of its signage.

D. Canale & Company, a Memphis name brand associated with alcohol for nearly 150 years, announced in 2014 its intention to build a distillery in Downtown Memphis.

The 50,000-square-foot facility sits across the street from Gus’s Fried Chicken, close to the corner of Front and Vance. The company’s application to the DMC’s Design Review Board (DRB) says the building will house a spirits production distillery (30,000 square feet), an office, a tasting room (5,000 square feet), a retail store (1,500 square feet), event spaces (10,000 square feet), and a restaurant (5,000 square feet).

The company will make whiskeys and vodkas and is named for Domenico Canale, who originated Old Dominick Whiskey in Memphis in 1866. The company mascot — a Dominicker rooster — plays on the founder’s name.

“Old Dominick Distillery revives and creates a home for a 150-year-old original Memphis spirits brand,” the application says.

The DRB application only covers three signs, two permanent and one temporary. One permanent sign will be mounted to the top of the building and say “Old Dominick Distillery” in bright neon and feature the large rooster. The second, a much smaller sign above the door, will carry the company initials in a monogram style.

The temporary sign will be a banner to hang on the building until the permanent signs can be installed.

Owners originally planned to open Old Dominick to the public in 2015. The DRB application says the company now plans to begin production and open to guests next year.

The DRB will vote on the company’s signs next week.

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Game Notebook: Grizzlies 102, Timberwolves 98

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Larry Kuzniewski

For only the second time since moving to Memphis, the Grizzlies won their home opener against the Minnesota Timberwolves last night, 102-98. For the shorthanded Grizzlies, it was a good test against what looks to be a quality—if not quite together yet—opponent, as they took their new philosophies on offense and defense into the regular season, tested them in a tight game, and came away victorious. First up, something I have to follow through and actually do now because I told the internet I would: a haiku.

Game Haiku #1

ZBo off the bench:
Sixth Man of the Year in reach;
ZBo wants First Man

In which The Fizdale Plan is in full effect

Last night was the first regular season game of coach David Fizdale’s career, but it was already apparent that he’s put his stamp on this team, and on the way they play. It starts with who scored the most: among starters, Mike Conley had 24, Marc Gasol had 18, and James Ennis (presumably starting in place of the injured Chandler Parsons) had 15. Off the bench, Zach Randolph had 19 points and 11 rebounds in 25 minutes. When things were working—which is to say, not in the first part of the first quarter, when the Grizzlies were running around like idiots on their way to a 20-3 deficit that took them most of the game to fully erase—you could see the offensive and defensive principles Fizdale has been preaching from day 1 in effect.

The most obvious signpost was the 3-point shooting. The Grizzlies were 6 of 9 from beyond the arc in the first quarter, and last year I’m guessing there were whole games where they neither shot nor made that many. Gasol got one. Z-Bo got one. By the end of the night they were 11/24 from long range, good for 45%. That’s exactly the kind of thing so many of us who watch this team night in and night out have wanted them to do—just take and make a league average number of threes. That average is increasing, and it’s refreshing to see the Grizzlies running offensive sets that acknowledge the evolution of the game.

Crunch time was also revelatory. On the floor: JaMychal Green and Andrew Harrison. Not on the floor: the aforementioned Zach Randolph. Randolph clearly wanted to be on the floor—he said as much after the game, and who could blame a professional basketball player for wanting to be, y’know, playing basketball—but Green was at the 4 instead, and made some effort plays that sealed the game, including a tip-in of a missed free throw and a vicious stuff of a Karl-Anthony Towns shot attempt. Randolph was in rare form Wednesday night, but it seems his second-unit role is not a joke, and that’s probably something to which Grizzlies fans are going to take a while to adjust.

All in all it wasn’t a perfect start to The Fizdale Era, but the bones of the thing, the structure around the rest of the season will be hung, are already starting to solidify.

Larry Kuzniewski

In which Andrew Harrison gets the start but Wade Baldwin makes the impression

More than likely, if Tony Allen starts last night, Andrew Harrison doesn’t play 38 minutes. The rookie is clearly not comfortable playing off the ball, and still struggles to make the right decision when it matters, and was in over his head last night trying to guard Andrew Wiggins.

But.

As usual, Grizzlies Twitter decided about ten minutes into the game that Harrison doesn’t have what it takes to be an NBA player. Was he great? No. Does he need to get better to stay in the rotation? Yes. Am I ready to write a guy off based on one game, after years of killing Grizzlies coaches for having too short of a leash with rookies who just need time to play? Nope. Check back after a few games and I will have started to form a Harrison opinion.

In the meantime, Wade Baldwin left no doubt that he’s an NBA-level talent. Baldwin’s stat line in his first-ever NBA game was something special: in 25 minutes, he had 7 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, 3 blocks, and only one turnover. He didn’t shoot well (3 of 8) and probably had a few “turnovers” that weren’t counted as such (an airball on a fast break jumps out at me as an example) but for the most part, Baldwin’s first real game was like his first preseason game: he was poised, confident, made plays that rookies don’t normally have the presence of mind to make, and overall looked really good playing in two-PG lineups. I expect to see Baldwin and Conley on the floor together a lot as the season progresses, taking turns playing off the ball. That seems like the most natural spot for Baldwin (assuming Harrison or someone else can hold down the backup PG minutes and give Conley some rest, which might be a stretch at this point).

Fizdale has a lot of faith in these young guys. Whether it’s because he’s been with them the longest—he coached the Grizzlies’ Summer League team this summer, something head coaches don’t always do—or because he really sees potential in them that the rest of us aren’t yet hip to, it’s hard to say. But the way he talked after the game last night, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the starting lineup from last night (Conley, Harrison, Ennis, Green, and Gasol) hold for the next few games while Tony Allen is getting his knee right. Fizdale is convinced these guys can carry the load.

In which we start to see who’s in the rotation and who’s not

Larry Kuzniewski

Z-Bo telling Deyonta Davis which guy he’s about to pummel

Quick thoughts on who was missing in action last night:

  • Deyonta Davis played 6 or 7 minutes and didn’t look like he was ready to go yet. He made some good plays, but just doesn’t seem physically ready yet. I don’t doubt that his plantar fasciitis issues have hampered his conditioning.
  • Troy Daniels didn’t play. He didn’t play much in the preseason, either. I’ve yet to see any evidence that Fizdale plans to play Troy Daniels at any point, or that he needs to. Having a hard time believing the Troy Daniels experiment is going to work out, at this point.
  • Troy Williams didn’t play, either. As an end-of-the-bench guy, I didn’t really have any expectations as to whether he would play or not, so I’m not surprised by this, but I do think he might have been able to make some positive contributions in some spots last night.

Up next

The Grizzlies now start the season with that most dreaded of beasts, the FOGAFINI: Four games in five nights. Saturday and Sunday they’re at the Knicks and home against Washington, and then Tuesday and Wednesday they’re at Minnesota and home against the New Orleans Pelicans. It’s a true test of the injury-riddled Grizzlies’ depth, and will also show us whether Fizdale feels like he can afford to stick to the minutes limits and rest ideas he has when he feels like he’s shorthanded. All of these games are against decent teams, and could go either way—none of them are a “gimme,” especially not since Anthony Davis, who has always caused problems for the Grizzlies in the past, dropped 50 on opening night.

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Reince and Repeat.

In August, Donald Trump was touting all the major polls, many of which at that time had him closing the gap on Hillary Clinton and even leading her in some instances. In September, as his numbers began to spiral downward, Trump changed his tune and began claiming the polls were tilted in favor of his opponent. Now, in late October, he has gone full-conspiracy-theorist, claiming that not only are the polls merely liberal propaganda, the very election itself is rigged against him. 

In fact, almost all credible national polls — FiveThirtyEight, New York Times, ABC, Real Clear Politics, even Fox News — are indicating, with two weeks to go, that this election will be an electoral blowout. Several states that haven’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in decades are now either leaning blue or rated as toss-ups, including Georgia, Arizona, and even Texas.

The early voting results are just as daunting for Trump, with the Democrats crushing the GOP early turnout in North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania, and other traditional “tossup” states. In addition, GOP early voting numbers are running far behind those of Mitt Romney in 2012.

The venerable Cook Report said this week that even if Trump wins all remaining toss-up states, including Ohio and Florida, he’ll still fall 10 votes short in the Electoral College.

As Trump’s path to 270 electoral votes narrows to near impossibility, the campaign is beginning to look like an episode of The Walking Dead. Campaign surrogates go on television and say one thing, and before you can change the channel, their candidate has stepped on that message or, more likely, said just the opposite.

The saddest of these Trumpettes is GOP National Committee Chairman Reince (“i before e, except after capital R”) Priebus, who is caught between outraged GOP donors who’ve abandoned the party’s presidential candidate and the candidate himself, who’s disparaging party leaders and seemingly doing all he can to discourage votes for down-ballot Republican candidates.

When challenged on a Sunday morning talk show to defend Trump’s stated unwillingness to accept the results of the election, Priebus sputtered a magnificent piece of pretzel prose: Trump, he said, is “not willing to not concede if he loses and there’s no fraud.” What?

Meanwhile, Trump’s Washington, D.C., “policy office” shut down, as staffers resigned because they hadn’t been paid in months. And new allegations, this time, about cocaine and models parties in the 1980s, popped up. On the campaign trail, Trump continued to throw out one reason after another the system was conspiring to deprive him of his rightful place in the White House.

The more I read about these huge early voting totals, these state polls moving relentlessly blue, the more I’m convinced that there are a whole lot of people who want to see Trump go down like the Hindenberg. They’re voting so they can watch the spectacular humiliation of the man whose narcissistic charade of a campaign destroyed an election cycle — and maybe a major American political party — and lured America’s ugly racist underbelly out of the shadows. Schadenfreude is probably an underreported poll motivation.

It’s a fitting end, though, to the 15-month reality show that Trump created and the GOP failed to stop. If you enumerated all the outrageous things that have happened and have been said in this campaign and tried to pass it as fiction, no one would believe it. Trump’s probable dysfunctional meltdown after getting his ass kicked on November 8th is really just the ultimate season finale. Must-see TV.

Of course, it’s still theoretically possible that all this blue polling and all these early voting stats are wrong. If so, they would be masking what would be the greatest turnaround in the history of American politics: a Donald Trump victory.

But I’m not not willing to not believe that.

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We Recommend We Recommend

Masonic Temple Tour by Historical Haunts Memphis

Spook season is upon us, and from haunted forests and corn mazes to a concert production of Sweeney Todd, there are so many Halloween-themed events to choose from. But when it comes to creepy good fun, nothing in this world — or even perhaps the next — beats a ghost tour. Especially if that tour happens to be of a century-old Masonic temple riddled with secret passageways and decorated top to bottom with the secret signs and symbols of an ancient fraternity.

Tanya Vandesteeg of Historical Haunts Memphis doesn’t like to call it a secret society, though. “We like to call it a society that has secrets,” she says.

The Masonic Temple at the corner of Court and Fourth was built in 1914, and, like most grand old lodges, it’s a time capsule, filled with art and architectural detail. Masonic degrees are often theatrical, meaning entire floors were built to house spectacles, and ballrooms are a common feature.

“Back in 1914, it was the place to be,” Vandesteeg says.

Today it’s haunted by the spirits of past lodge officers. Full-body apparitions have been seen, voices and footsteps have been heard.

“Our favorite ghost story is about Uncle Billy, a custodian who lived on the property,” Vandesteeg says. “Before he died, he whispered into his best friend’s ear about a hidden treasure buried under one of the tiles in the foyer.

“You get to see the secret passages and chambers,” Vandesteeg says. “There are a lot of mysteries we’re unveiling.”

How much will visitors learn about Freemasonry? “When you enter the top floor, you’ll get the chance to reflect on what it would be like to be a brother going into the initiation process,” Vandesteeg says. “On the fifth floor, the York Rite had built a mountain with a waterfall and an underground passageway.”

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News The Fly-By

Stepping Forward

Memphis ranked third of Tennessee’s eight largest cities on the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) fifth-annual Municipal Equality Index, an evaluation of how inclusive laws, policies, and services are for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people across the United States.

Scoring slightly lower than its neighbors to the east, Memphis received a 53 out of 100 rating. Knoxville received a score of 55, while Nashville, at number one, scored at 60. The average score for cities in Tennessee was 33 out of 100 points, below the nationwide mean of 55.

Though the state has a way to go in making substantial changes for the LGBT community, Chris Sanders, executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project, said the state is making progress.

“Cities in Tennessee present real opportunities to advance equality in meaningful ways,” Sanders said. “The challenges remain considerable, but a growing number of Tennesseans are tired of discrimination.”

HRC, in partnership with Equality Federation Institute (EFI), assessed 506 U.S. cities and scored them on a scale of 0-100 based on 44 criteria that fall across five categories. Those include non-discrimination laws, municipal employment policies including transgender-inclusive insurance coverage, and non-discrimination requirements for contractors, inclusiveness of city services, law enforcement including hate crimes reporting, and municipal leadership on matters of equality.

“Despite another year of legislative attacks on LGBTQ equality, we are not merely holding our ground — we also continue to make significant gains across the country,” said Rebecca Isaacs, executive director of EFI.

On non-discrimination laws, a category evaluating whether discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is prohibited by the city, county, or state in areas of employment, housing, and public accommodations, Memphis received a score of 0 out of 30. The Memphis City Council, however, approved an ordinance in 2012 that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Still, Tennessee doesn’t allow individual municipalities to pass more inclusive laws than the state, which can be a hurdle for cities, said Will Batts, executive director of OUTMemphis.

“Getting laws passed takes a long time,” Batts said. “But expressing that desire as a city for us to be more welcoming and more safe for people is a huge first step.”

Inclusive housing for members of the LGBT community, specifically transgender men and women, has been a point of contention in the city. Last month, homeless advocates marched to the steps of the Memphis Housing Authority to protest and demand an LGBT shelter. OUTMemphis is working with Community Alliance for the Homeless to help area shelters be more accommodating and follow policies set by federal funding.

“If you’re a transgender woman, it’s not safe for you to go to a men’s shelter, and they don’t want to let you into the women’s shelter, so that means there’s no place for you to go,” Batts said.

The organization is also in the early stages of opening the Metamorphosis Project, Batts said, an emergency shelter for LGBT youth.

“Statistics show that even though we only make up eight percent or 10 percent of the overall population, our kids make up between 40 to 50 percent of young people on the street,” Batts said.

While city employment scored a six out of six for non-discrimination, and while the city received a five-out-of-five score for having an LGBT liaison in Mayor Jim Strickland’s office, Memphis offers no health-care benefits for transgender people. However, employees from 86 municipalities have access to transgender-inclusive healthcare benefits this year — up from 66 in 2015 and just five in 2012.

“We’re trying to build the case that there needs to be a change in practice,” Batts said.

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News The Fly-By

Weed, Forrest, and Panhandling

Council Moves

The city’s new, softer rules on marijuana possession were sealed last week in a vote by the Memphis City Council, while city officials are still working out the details to implement the new law.

Memphis Police Department (MPD) officers now have the discretion to issue a $50 fine for possessing less than a half ounce of marijuana, or uphold the state law which can carry up to $2,500 in fines and one year in jail. City courts will have the ability to assign community service in lieu of a fine, but those details are still being tweaked by city and court officials.

The council beefed up its ordinance that prohibits panhandling at busy intersections, though panhandlers already faced time and place restrictions that outlined when and where they couldn’t beg. The hours were extended to cover both rush hours, from 5 p.m. to 10 a.m.

Council member Philip Spinosa Jr. has repeated that his sponsored ordinance is solely about the safety of panhandlers and motorists alike, but critics of the ordinance have said it accomplishes nothing but to further criminalize poverty.

Finally, the city council made initial moves to start collecting taxes from short-term rental owners, like those on Airbnb and others. But the details of the new rule will continue to evolve in committee before the minutes from the October 18th meeting are approved and thereby cementing the ordinance on the November 1st meeting.

Forrest Rides On

Last Friday, the Tennessee Historical Commission denied Memphis City Council’s application to relocate the statue and remains of Nathan Bedford Forrest, the slave-trade profiteer and first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, from a taxpayer-funded public park in the middle of a majority black city.

The city council voted in 2015 to move the statue and remains of both Forrest and his wife from what is now called Health Sciences Park in the aftermath of the Charleston, South Carolina, shooting that left nine parishioners dead.

However, the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act of 2013 prevents cities or counties from relocating, removing, renaming, or otherwise disturbing war memorials on public properties. So, the council filed an application for a waiver that would allow the monument to be relocated to one of two suggested spaces.

The rejection was based on criteria adopted by the commission in 2015; the commission could have voted to change that criteria at Friday’s meeting, but opted not to.

According to city council’s attorney, Allan Wade, the waiver filed met the commission’s criteria. Much of the criticism and what Wade deems “erroneous” claims regarding the requested waiver came from members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

“I think the larger question is, what is the reason for the statue to be located here?” said Wade. “The only connection [Forrest] has to the city of Memphis is that he made millions and millions as a slave trader.”

That day, Memphis mayor Jim Strickland said in a statement, “I’m disappointed with the Tennessee Historical Commission’s vote today. We’ll continue to explore options to carry out the statue’s removal, which I voted for as a member of the City Council.”

Presently, it is unclear what options exist for the continued pursuit of the statue’s removal. The city council has the option to file for another waiver, but it is likely to be rejected again if no criteria changes are made.

The Tennessee Historical Commission did not return the Flyer‘s request for comment.

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We Recommend We Recommend

Sheila E and Morris Day & the Time at the Cannon Center

There were so many tributes to Prince following the artist’s untimely death. Some were beautiful, others awkward and self-serving. But no tribute came as close to capturing the spirit of the artist or the meaning and magnitude of his legacy like Sheila E’s seven-minute tour de force at the BET awards. Leaving everything she had on stage, she performed fan favorites ranging from “Erotic City” to “America,” with a quick run through of her own hit “The Glamorous Life.” She belted out lyrics, took her turn on the drum kit, wailed on guitar, and just when you thought she had to be worn out, she turned to Morris Day’s long-time hype man Jerome Benton and announced, “Hey, Jerome — we ain’t done.” It was time for the synchronized dance break.

Sheila Escovedo wasn’t just another one of Prince’s many gifted girlfriend/proteges. She put in time as his main percussionist and was his bandleader for the New Power Generation. She may not have charted any solo hits since the ’80s, but when she lofted a purple guitar over her head and sang “Baby, I’m a Star,” it was hard to believe she was singing somebody else’s song.

Morris Day

Sheila E is still helping fans say goodbye to Prince. She’s coming to the Cannon Center this week with Day’s group, The Time — one of the hardest working party bands in world. Day’s probably best known as Prince’s faintly ridiculous rival in the movie Purple Rain, but from “Oak Tree” to “Jungle Love,” he’s given us so much to dance about over the course of a long, hard-touring career.

It’s easy to think of a package like this as pure nostalgia. But with artists like Sheila E and Morris Day, you know it’s also going to be plenty of raw energy and pure purple fun.

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Cover Feature News

Breakout Moment

Indie Memphis 2016 offers a kaleidoscope of stories — 185 films chosen from more than 1,000 entries, curated over the first seven days of November for audiences in downtown, Midtown, East Memphis, and Collierville. You can see the latest in cutting-edge cinema, from Anna Biller’s gothic feminist fantasy The Love Witch to Keith Maitland’s animated documentary Tower. You can get an early peek at mainstream studio films that will be contending this Oscar season with Casey Affleck in the haunting Manchester by the Sea, and Star Wars star Adam Driver working with arthouse legend Jim Jarmusch in Paterson. Or you can discover up-and-coming talent, such as writer/actor/director Ryon Baxter’s debut tale of coming of age in Northern California’s Emerald Triangle, Green/Is/Gold; Tim Sutton’s meditation on the Aurora massacre, Dark Night; and Matt Conboy’s chronicle of the last days of New York City’s coolest music venue, Goodnight Brooklyn.

Indie Memphis has always been exceptional among film festivals in its local focus, and this year’s lineup is the most vibrant in recent memory. There will be a celebration of one of Memphis’ greatest talents, Ira Sachs, with the Memphis premiere of his new film Little Men and a revisit of his rarely seen debut The Delta. (See this month’s Memphis magazine for an in-depth interview with Sachs.) The festival will look back at a seminal moment in Memphis filmmaking with The People vs. Larry Flynt, which was filmed here 20 years ago. Writer Larry Karaszewski, who co-created this year’s breakout TV hit The People vs. O.J. Simpson, will be on hand for the 20th anniversary screening. The Hometowner category sees six local features competing, the most entries in a decade, and where there have usually been only enough locally produced shorts to fill one bloc, this year there are enough to fill four.

Here is a look at just a few of the creators who will be bringing their films to audiences at Indie Memphis 2016.

The Invaders

Nov. 1., 6 p.m., the Orpheum Theatre’s Halloran Centre

The festival opens with a powerful, timely documentary about a lost moment in Memphis history. The Invaders were the city’s homegrown Black Power group, formed in 1966 in the midst of the civil rights struggle. Director Prichard Smith says the path to the film started in 2013. “I was having a conversation with my mom, who in 1968 worked in an all-black school in Memphis. She mentioned the Invaders to me, and in particular, she mentioned Sweet Willie Wine. I was like, how had I not heard of this dude, or this group?”

Later, at a New Year’s Eve party, he mentioned the Invaders to his longtime friend, musician J.B. Horrell, who was studying history at LeMoyne-Owen and had coincidentally attended a lecture by activist Minister Yahweh, aka Sweet Willie Wine. “His birth name is Lance Watson,” says Horrell. “When Prichard brought this guy up, I said, that’s crazy, because I have his number in my cell phone right now. We can call him up and talk to him and trace this thing out …We wanted to know, do we have a feature-length story here, or is this a short film? How deep does it get? Well, one guy would give us another guy’s phone number, or we would Google people and get in touch with them. Then we started talking to the women involved, and we saw so many angles that we realized it was a full-length movie.”

The Invaders sheds new light on the events of the 1968 Sanitation Workers Strike and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Using the Freedom of Information Act, the filmmakers uncovered evidence of extensive surveillance of the group by the FBI’s secret COINTELPRO division. When the Invaders were mentioned at all in history, it was to note that they had been responsible for starting a riot during King’s visit to the city on March 28, 1968. “The FBI wrote the establishment history, through all of the journalistic connections they had all over the country,” Smith says. “The more we dug into it, the more we found what was false in that account. The Invaders started the riot? No, it was a police riot.”

Smith says the film took three years to complete, with the help of executive producer Craig Brewer. “J.B. and I started it because we thought it was a fascinating story. We’ve always been interested in subcultures and liberation movements. It became apparent that, although it is a historical film that took place in 1968, it’s super relevant. I was working on it during the Edward Snowden thing as I was covering the COINTELPRO situation the Invaders were dealing with, and then, of course, Ferguson was next. There are all these things that haven’t changed.”

Always Shine

Always Shine

Saturday, Nov. 5, 3:40 p.m.,
Studio on the Square

Sophia Takal first came to Indie Memphis playing a free-spirited Brooklynite in the 2011 film Gabi on the Roof in July. The film, perhaps the best thing to come out of the improvisational mumblecore movement, was directed by her husband Lawrence Michael Lavine. Takal tried her hand as director that same year with Green, but her turn as Gabi launched a 30-film career as an indie it girl. Her return to the big chair, Always Shine, reveals a stunning depth of talent and vision that combines the casual naturalism of mumblecore acting with a sharp, stylish visual sense reminiscent of the work of Brian de Palma.

Beth (Caitlin FitzGerald, Masters of Sex) is a successful actress who embarks on a weekend getaway to Big Sur with her old friend Anna (Mackenzie Davis, The Martian), whose struggles in Hollywood have not paid off as handsomely, despite her superior acting talents. Anna is assertive where Beth is passive, and as the trip progresses, their friendship is rended by rivalry and jealousy, leading to a startling climax and a haunting, extended denouement. FitzGerald and Davis are nothing short of brilliant in extremely challenging roles that required subtle shadings of mood and precise physicality. Takal takes the theme of female identity distorted by male expectations from Ingrid Bergman’s classic Persona into the context of a Hitchcock-esque thriller, and the result is a genuine masterpiece that proves cinematic greatness doesn’t have to cost $100 million. This one is not to be missed.

Destroy Memphis

Destroy Memphis

Friday, Nov. 4, 8:50 p.m. & Sunday, Nov. 6, 9 p.m., Circuit Playhouse

Destroy Memphis brings together two of Mike McCarthy’s obsessions: filmmaking and historical preservation. But when he started filming in 2005, he had no idea where it would lead. “All my films up to that point had been me taking an unpaid crew through an apocalyptic Memphis landscape. It was easy to get that feel. Memphis blight is historic. We went downtown and got shots of girls crawling around in the rubble with machine guns, because it looked like a million-dollar set. It slowly began to dawn on me that we were tearing down my back lot, and my back lot was Memphis history and culture. Then when it came to giving my kids a treat, the Herenton administration was intent on tearing down 150 years of history and tradition at the fairground, and not only that, stuff that my kids were finally tall enough to ride.”

McCarthy had set out to do a history of Memphis girl bands, beginning with the Zippin Pippins, a band formed by sisters Misty and Kristi White (“The White sisters were sort of a Midtown dynamo.”) and Amy LaVere. Instead he found himself in the middle of the fight to save Libertyland, the Midtown amusement park that was home to Elvis’ favorite wooden roller coaster, the Zippin Pippin. As the fight played out over the course of years, led by attorney Steve Mulroy and activist Denise Parkinson, McCarthy was joined by producer Iddo Patt, who helped with the shooting.

When Libertyland closed and the Pippin was relocated to Green Bay, Wisconsin, McCarthy knew he had the ending to his story, but it still took several years to wrestle the more than 60 hours of footage into the shape of an 84-minute documentary, first with the assistance of editor Stephen “Wheat” Buckley, and then with Kim Lloyd. “Kim and I totally took it in another direction. I didn’t know it could be this good, honestly. I thought it would be an oddity, or a Monty Python-esque look at the absurdity of dealing with Memphis politics … I think every filmmaker here in town should be challenged to make a film about something they feel has gone wrong with the city or the cultural identity of Memphis. That’s enough for its own film festival.”

Bad, Bad Men

Bad, Bad Men

Sunday, Nov. 6, 6:30 p.m.,
Circuit Playhouse

Brad Ellis and Allen Gardner first formed Old School Pictures in their high school film class. They spent years throwing successful underground screenings of their films at Malco Trinity Commons, such as their bootleg remake of John Carpenter’s Halloween, until in 2002, they entered their ghost story Path of Fear in Indie Memphis. “That was our first festival ever, and we took home the Hometowner Award. We were like, Oh wow! There is a future for this! Indie Memphis was our breakout moment.”

The partners would go on to tackle many genres, such as the Southern Gothic vampire tale Daylight Fades and the metafictional relationship dramedy Act One. “We have so much in common, but we come at things from such differing viewpoints,” says Gardner. “Something about that tension, that friction got us to refine each other’s skills and influence each other, and we kept growing together … We’ve always said it was like being part of a band, we just make movies instead.”

Gardner says Bad, Bad Men has been percolating for a long time. “I’ve always wanted to do a comedy based on machismo and the fragility of the male ego and what can happen when it gets bruised and runs rampant. I’ve always thought it fascinating when guys feel a need to act tough and assert themselves in an aggressive way when it’s totally not necessary at all. What’s really going on is that, on the inside, they’re crying like little children who want to prove to everybody they’re big, tough guys … It was always really important that it be a really sweet, positive movie about friendship and about not judging yourself and about being proud of who you are and stepping forward.”

The film stars Gardner, Memphis actor Drew Smith, and Matt Mercer as real estate agents whose petty feud with a financial analyst (Adam Burns) and his pair of beer salesmen sidekicks, (Nathan Ross Murphy and Matthew Gilliam), escalates to comic proportions. “I think Alan’s strength as a writer is that he does characters very well, because he understands people very well,” says Ellis. “He is one of the strongest communicators I’ve ever met. He puts that into his characters, even in a silly comedy like Bad, Bad Men.”

Kallen Esperian: Vissi D’arté

Kallen Esperian: Vissi D’arté

Monday, Nov. 7, 8 p.m.,
Halloran Centre

As a film professor at the University of Memphis, Steven J. Ross has shaped a generation of Bluff City filmmakers. He has made a career of historical documentaries such as 1993’s At the River I Stand and 2007 Winslow Homer: Society and Solitude. But he has never made a film quite like his new documentary on Memphis opera singer Kallen Esperian, whom he met through their mutual friend, arts entrepreneur Greg Belz.

When Esperian’s career hit a rough patch, Belz suggested Ross make a documentary about her. Ross recalls talking to Esperian about the prospect of filming her life over the course of a year. “It’s a comeback film, but it’s not a comeback film. We don’t know what’s going to happen over the course of the next year. You could have this enormous reality TV triumph, or you could have something horrible happen to you, or you could just make some progress, starting to earn a living again … But what I’m really interested in these people who are totally devoted to you.”

The singer allowed Ross and his crew of graduate students to film intimate details of her struggle. “Kallen was unbelievable about access. You’ll see in the film, a lot of times she’s doing stuff with no makeup. There’s messy situations. She never, ever said ‘You’ve got to turn off the camera.’ Kallen’s attitude was, ‘I admire your work. You’re an artist. I’m one, too. We have to respect each other’s work. I’m trusting you. Don’t screw me.’ When you get that kind of trust, it’s a burden.”

The film premiered at an Indie Memphis event last May. “One of the things I value about Indie Memphis is that it’s a year-round organization, and I think that’s really important. They presented the film at Studio on the Square, and we sold out, so then we added a last-minute second screening, and that sold out, too. Malco offered me a week’s run, but I turned them down because [festival director Ryan Watt] wanted to show it as the festival’s closing-night film.”

Indie Memphis 2016 runs from November 1-7, with screenings at the Orpheum Theatre’s Halloran Centre, Studio on the Square, Circuit Playhouse, the Hattiloo Theatre, Malco’s Ridgeway Cinema Grill, and the Malco Towne Cinema in Collierville. You can see a full schedule and purchase tickets and passes at the festival’s website, indiememphis.com. For much more on the 2016 Indie Memphis Film Festival, including extended interviews with filmmakers and daily recommendations for the weeklong festival, go to MemphisFlyer.com.

Categories
Theater Theater Feature

City of Conversation and Cuddles essay blood and politics.

The City of Conversation — currently running at Theatre Memphis — is a sharply written slice of political drama nested in a family crisis. It’s essentially the story of liberalism at the end of the 20th century as Reaganite barbarians stormed the New Deal’s crumbling gates. The tale — told from the perspective of a politically split Georgetown family — wants to map polarization and the end of civility in American discourse, but it becomes an exercise in scapegoating and misplaced congratulations.

As usual Jack Yates’ sets dazzle. Amie Eoff’s period costumes pop under the lights. There’s one extraordinary performance and a few good ones too. But the cast is unbalanced in ability, and when the play staggers, biases become evident, as does an unmistakable streak of weird woman-blaming.

The unwritten “Georgetown rule” once held that, no matter how bitterly Beltway rivals fought at work, evenings were for collegiality, cigars, and dick jokes told over highballs at soirees like the ones hosted by Hester Ferris — crisply played by Karen Mason Riss. She’s the tireless influencer for Democrats we meet at the top of the play, as she works on Teddy Kennedy’s disastrous primary run against sitting president Jimmy Carter — a bitter affair opening the door for a Reagan presidency. Her plans are upended when her son Colin arrives home a day early from college, with Anna, the ambitious conservative he plans to marry.

Playwright Anthony Giardina romanticizes Georgetown as a kind political Eden, turning Anna — beautifully (and savagely) imagined by Shannon Walton — into an Eve-like temptress offering the apple of Reaganism to any powerful man who’ll sit still long enough. Eventually — and inevitably — she squares off against Hester, tearing the family apart. That’s where The City of Conversation’s metaphors break down, because, whether it’s blown up to mythic scale, or considered as a microcosm, it blames this polarization on two stubborn, differently corrosive women. Now that’s an off-color joke.

At Theatre Memphis through November 6th

I no longer possess a copy of The Amityville Horror, so don’t expect me to quote it directly. But I devoured the paperback when I was 12 and I couldn’t get into an R-rated picture. The line that scared me most explained the mundane triggers for demonic haunting. Supernatural horror, it said, might appear and disappear suddenly. It might be caused by something as simple and ordinary as “rearranging the furniture.” For some reason that line stuck with me, and it pops into my head whenever good plays with strong directors and gifted casts don’t work. I wonder how many haints and horrors might be driven away by better design — or at least by a simple rearranging of the chairs.

Cuddles, running at TheatreWorks, is a different kind of vampire mystery. It unravels slowly, strangely, evoking a grinding sense of dread that grows minute to minute. At its core, it’s a modern fairy tale with gothic elements ripped from 19th-century novels where everybody seems to have a mad or embarrassing relative locked in the attic. It’s the story of Tabby, a well-off, not-very-nice woman, and Eve, the bloodsucking little sister she cares for. There are men in this story too, and although we never see them, they often feel like the play’s realest characters. Their influence erodes a system of rules and rituals the sisters created to protect each other from “the hunger.”

Cuddles is clever, but New Moon’s cast is struggling. Conversations (one-sided, per the script) turn into droning monologues. But when Tracie Hansom and Hayley Hellums connect, it’s horrible, hard to watch, impossible not to, and everything you want from a revisionist nightmare. They’re good together, but deeply disadvantaged.

Most of the action is pushed as far upstage as possible and confined to a micro-stage floating in immense darkness. The effect isn’t one of claustrophobia but distance. The play’s less active moments happen in the big, dark gulf between the audience and a perfectly revolting little attic.

There’s a lot to like about this spook story. But somebody needs to rearrange the furniture.

At TheatreWorks through November 6th

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

IndieGrants

Look to the credits of each short film represented in the 2016 IndieGrants bloc, and you’ll find recurring names of actors and crew members collaborating on one another’s projects.

That’s the film community here — a tight-knit family willing to lend a hand to artists scraping up funds to bring their vision to the screen. But what could a DIY filmmaker accomplish with a full crew and professional resources for production? Mark Jones, who started the IndieGrant program in 2014, wanted to find out.

“My starting IndieGrant is both from an artistic point of view and an economic point of view,” Jones, whose resume includes the 2012 comedy Tennessee Queer, says. “Film is art. Film is jobs. I thought that if Indie Memphis could help fund short films, then perhaps one of those short films made in Memphis could get some funding, and then it could be made as a feature film here in the city.”

What started as two $4,500 grants and two $500 grants has grown considerably in just two years. Now, two winning film proposals not only receive $5,000 while two others receive $500, but they are also awarded an additional $2,500 from FireFly Grip and Electric for lighting work and equipment, and, beginning this year, $1,500 from LensRentals and $1,000 for sound mixing from Music + Art Studios.

“I think you’d be hard pressed to find another film festival the size of Indie Memphis or perhaps bigger that gives this much out in grants to local filmmakers,” Jones says.

Seven films, financed between the 2014 and 2015 Indie Memphis festivals, will debut at 8:15 p.m. on November 1st at the Halloran Centre. That includes Sarah Fleming’s Carbike, a city-trotting, sightseer told through the perspective of two Japanese visitors; G.B. Shannon’s touching family drama Broke Dick Dog; the Flyer‘s Chris McCoy and Laura Jean Hocking’s road trip comedy How to Skin a Cat, which depicts the Collierville, Midtown, and rural divide; Morgan Jon Fox’s Silver Elves, an almost dialogue-free, true crime reverie; On the Sufferings of the World, an collaboration between experimental auteur Ben Siler, director Edward Valibus, actor Jessica Morgan, and musician Alexis Grace; Dirty Money, by Jonas Schubach, who also served as cinematographer on Indie Memphis’ closing night feature documentary Kallen Esperian: Vissie d’Arti and Jones’ black comedy Death$ in a $mall Town.

How to Skin a Cat

IndieGrant serves as a launch pad — a motivator to stay accountable and follow through with a film, says Joseph Carr. He’ll make his directorial debut at this year’s festival after a $500 IndieGrant and a few thousand dollars in personal fund-raising. Returns is inspired by the years he worked in a bookstore, watching as the digital takeover made in-store interaction almost extinct.

“The film is a profile of people who love their profession and, while struggling with honest bouts of ennui, continue to provide their service in the face of an uncertain future,” Carr says.

A testament to the community’s kinship, Carr committed to filmmaking after working on Sarah Fleming’s crew as a production assistant. Years later, he was cast in Fox’s play Claws and, later, in Feral. Fox produced Carr’s short, along with two others in the block, Fleming’s Carbike and Jones’ Death$ In A $mall Town. Carr, in turn, produced Fox’s Silver Elves.

Death$ in a $mall Town

“The Memphis scene is like a family, and, at some point, we’re all working on each other’s productions one way or another. It’s always an honor,” Fox says.

Since 2002, Fleming has captured multiple perspectives of Memphis. Carbike depicts the city through the eyes of tourists. Aside from Fox playing an amiable Airbnb host, the dialogue between lead actors Kazuha Oda and Hideki Matsushige is in Japanese.

“[Carbike] is part of a larger series focusing on stories of Memphis visitors — all of which are inspired by true stories,” Fleming says. “I’m a huge fan of this city and enjoy exploring our unique landscape.”

At last year’s festival, Jones was asked why there were only two big winners. Rather than hand two people $5,000 each, why not give 10 people $1,000?

“My response was that I want to see the bar raised,” Jones says. “The IndieGrants are important to me because I want to see Memphis grow as a film city. This is one way I can directly help make that happen.”