The 13th annual Indie Memphis Film Festival kicks off tonight and will run for four packed days at a handful of Midtown venues. We survey the festival in this week’s cover story, but will also be offering up our own interactive daily guide each morning of the festival. So check back here throughout the next four days for tons of fest coverage. For a full schedule and ticketing info, see IndieMemphis.com.
Pick of the Day: Night Catches Us (9:30 p.m., Studio on the Square)
Of few dozen films I was able to pre-screen for this year’s festival, this period drama from filmmaker Tanya Hamilton, which drew strong notices when it debuted at Sundance early this year, may have been the best. It’s an intimate, prickly depiction of an African-American community in Philadelphia dealing with the dissolution of the black power movement, particularly the decimation of the city’s Black Panther Party. Set in 1976, the film stars Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker) as a former Panther returning home to a cold welcome, with Kerry Washington as a woman with whom he has a complicated past. (Fans of The Wire note: Wendell “Bunk” Pierce and Jamie “Marlo” Hector show up in supporting roles.)
Hamilton delivers an honest reckoning with the contradictions and complications of the Black Power movement in a portrait that is sad but not romanticized. The film also boasts a score from hip-hop stalwarts the Roots that rivals The Social Network as the year’s most effective movie music. Night Catches Us was acquired by Magnolia Pictures, which will release it via movies-on-demand later this month and give it a theatrical run starting in December. One of the year’s best indie features, and here’s an early chance to see it. — Chris Herrington
Trailer:
