The biggest day of the Indie Memphis Film Festival is so packed that we’re doubling up our picks in each category. As always, for a full schedule and ticketing info, see IndieMemphis.com.
Picks of the Day:
The Poor and Hungry (7 p.m., Playhouse on the Square)
We’re expecting this to sell out, so hopefully you have your tickets already. Suffice it to say, Craig Brewer’s first completed film not only launched the most meaningful career in Memphis film history, it also spurred the growth over the past decade of both the homegrown filmmaking scene and the very festival that is hosting this screening. The film is required viewing for anyone who wants to be culturally literate on modern Memphis, but hasn’t been screened publicly in several years. Brewer will be departing his Atlanta-based Footloose production for one night to attend this screening and conduct a post-screening chat session, with most of the film’s original cast and crew in attendance. I wrote more about the new Poor & Hungry here. You can read Chris Davis’ original cover story about Brewer’s trip to the Hollywood Film Festival here. — Chris Herrington
Ed Wood (10:30 p.m., Studio on the Square)
Tim Burton’s 1994 black-and-white fantasy biopic of spectacularly failed filmmaker Ed Wood (creator of grade-Z ’50s “classics” Bride of the Monster and Plan 9 From Outer Space), with Johnny Depp in the lead role and a tour de force turn from Martin Landau as big-screen Dracula Bela Lugosi, will screen on a 35-millimeter print Saturday at 10:30 p.m. at Studio on the Square. The screening is being hosted by one of the film’s screenwriters, Larry Karaszewski, in town for a couple of festival panels. Karaszewski has a history with the city, having co-written the Memphis-shot The People vs. Larry Flynt. — Herrington
Trailer:
