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Indie Memphis Film Festival Announces 2024 Award Winners

The 2024 edition of the Indie Memphis Film Festival, which began Thursday, November 14th, and concluded with encore screenings on Tuesday, November 26th, announced its award winners for its 27th session. This year, the audience served as the jury, filling out online ballots to grade the more than 100 films on offer from A to F.

Boys Go To Jupiter by Pittsburgh-based animator Julian Glander won Best Narrative Feature. It is the first animated film to win the honor in the 27-year history of Indie Memphis.

Best Hometowner Feature went to Jasmine Blue for Big Time, the portrait of her grandfather Sylvester Ford Jr., a Memphis educator, coach, and Civil Rights activist.

Union, co-directed by Brett Story and Stephen Maing, won Best Documentary Feature. The film follows the successful efforts to unionize the 8,000 workers at the Amazon Fulfillment Center at JFK Airport in New York City.

In the Sounds category, which includes music-based films, Dory Previn: On My Way to Where, directed by Julia Greenberg and Dianna Dilworth, took home the top honor.

The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire, directed by Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich, won Best Departures Feature. The category is dedicated to experimental, horror, and sci-fi films.

The Hometowner Narrative Short Film award went to “Freedom’s Village” directed by Kristen Hill. The short film is based on the story of a tent city that sprang up in Fayette County, Tennessee, when Black farmers were pushed off their land in the wake of a voter registration drive during the 1960s.

The Hometowner Documentary Short winner is John Beder’s “How to Sue the Klan,” which details a long-running legal effort to cripple the white supremacist militia.

Best Hometowner Music Video went to “A Spike Lee Joint” by Blvck Hippie, directed by Lawrence Shaw. This is Shaw and Blvck Hippie’s second consecutive music video win.

The National Narrative Short award went to Marissa Losoya’s “Beyond Failure.” The National Documentary Short award went to Hao Zhou’s “Wouldn’t Make It Any Other Way.”

The annual IndieGrant program, which awards $15,000 in cash and in-kind donations to two Memphis-area filmmakers, announced the winners, which were determined by a jury of filmmakers and producers and based on proposals submitted by Memphis filmmakers: Jacob Simmons’ “The End of the Song” and Ashley Ave’s “Voices of Faith: The Salem Harmonizer’s Story.” Both films are expected to to premiere at the Indie Memphis Film Festival in 2025.

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Advising Initiative Helps Post-Secondary Enrollment Growth in Tennessee Schools

An initiative targeted toward helping high school students and their families explore options for post-secondary education has helped increase the college-going rate in the state of Tennessee.

This news comes as researchers found that post-secondary enrollment rates have lowered nationwide. As of May 2023, the National Center for Education Statistics showed that participation in higher education decreased by 15 percent from Fall 2010 to Fall 2021. However, they also note that enrollment is expected to climb 9 percent from Fall 2021 to Fall 2031.

Advise TN is a statewide program implemented by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) that has placed college advisors in up to 30 high schools in the state. The schools that participate in the partnership have contributed to a 6 percent increase in the state’s college-going rate.

In August, the commission announced that Tennessee high school graduates were headed to college at an increasingly high rate, with the largest “year-over-year” increase since 2015. 

THEC’s college-going rate shows the percentage of public school students who enroll in post-secondary education after high school, officials said. 56.7 percent of the class of 2023 would attend college in this fall, a 2.4 percent increase from 2022. 

THEC said the advisors meet one-on-one with students and their families and help with the college application process, financial aid navigation, and exploration of apprenticeships and work-based training.

“By providing stable, professional advisors and focusing on a range of college-preparation activities, Advise TN is helping to ensure that more Tennessee students have the opportunity to pursue higher education and achieve their goals,” Steven Gentile, executive director of THEC said in a statement.

Through the initiative, THEC partnered with researchers from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, which found Advise TN to have had immediate effects on those enrolling in postsecondary education after graduation. Researchers compared high schools who used their services to those who did not and focused on “students’ immediate college enrollment outcomes, including whether they enrolled after graduation. … While enrollment rates have fallen across the nation and in Tennessee, Advise TN services kept students’ college-going behaviors at higher rates than they would have been without the program,” THEC said in a statement.

Students who attended schools in rural areas saw more pronounced growth, with their college-going rates increasing by 8 percent. Female enrollment was up by 7 percent and Hispanic student enrollment rose 16 percent. The students enrolled in a variety of post-secondary programs, including community colleges, universities, and career and technical schools.

Officials said the program’s purpose is to help a variety of student populations, specifically targeting schools that have a college-going rate below state average. This program serves first-generation students, those from low-income households, and those eligible for pell grants.

Researchers also found that students that worked “frequently” with advisors from Advise TN were more likely to enroll in college or technical training.

 “Students who met with an advisor four or more times, or just once per semester during 11th and 12th grade, were 31 percent more likely to pursue postsecondary education than students who met with an advisor only once,” officials said. “These findings underscore the importance of sustained and personalized advising in promoting college enrollment.”

THEC it hopes to explore long-term outcomes such as college retention and completion in the future.

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Hemp Flower Set to Disappear from Stores Next Month

Hemp flower is still set to disappear from store shelves on December 26th after state lawmakers left a new rule in place this week, one that cannabis industry leaders say could decimate their businesses.

Cannabis farmers and retailers already adhere to a state law that limits products to a maximum of .3 percent THC. The new rule, set not by lawmakers but the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDOA), includes new testing for THCA levels, which can rise in products on store shelves or after purchase by being heated. 

The new rule would stop the sale of smokeable hemp flower, those recognizable green nuggets that can be crushed, rolled in a joint, or lit in the bowl of a bong. Pushback on the sale of hemp flowers comes largely from GOP members of the Tennessee General Assembly. Their objection being, basically, that smoking dry flower can get users high from legal products.

 On his way to Wednesday’s joint House and Senate hearing on the TDOA’s new cannabis rules, Soddy Daisy cannabis farmer and Farm to Med retail owner Chris Sumrell, said he passed two groups of people smoking cannabis. Public consumption is a problem, he said, even noting that if “someone that looked like me [with long hair and a beard]” was smoking cannabis next to his family in a park, he’d move away from them. But lawmakers should not take the product away form retailers.

“What do people do with the flower? They smoke it,” Sumrell testified. “We can’t stop them from doing that. If we take this off the counter, and don’t regulate it, and tax it, they’re gonna go to the black market or take their business across state lines.” 

Sumrell’s testimony on his cannabis use was one of the clearest public delineations between smokeable products and edibles given to state lawmakers in years of debate. The new rules would test products at or after the moment of decarboxylation. This process, usually done with heat, converts THCA into THC, releases psychoactive compounds, and gets users high. 

Here’s how Sumrell described the nitty-gritty: 

”Anybody that uses cannabis will tell you that eating cannabis and smoking cannabis are two completely different things. I don’t eat it at all. I don’t like it because that’s the Delta 9. That’s the psychoactive narcotic. The walls can melt if you take on too much of that stuff, okay? 

“But smoking it, it’s a different property altogether. That’s combustion, not decarboxylation. 

“So, that’s where the wall is very confusing because say we’re talking about decarboxylation to somebody that’s a scientist. They’re gonna say, ‘well, they’re talking about cooking with it.’ No, they’re talking about using this to take the [hemp flower] off of the table. Well, that’s combusting it. That’s a different chemical process. This is science. 

“THCA flower does not turn into a psychoactive narcotic until you cook with it through decarboxylation. Decarboxylation’s prime temperature is 200 to 250 degrees, but starts at 98 degrees. So, just leaving that flower in the window can turn it to Delta 9. But if I’m striking a lighter to it, that’s combusting it into a [non-psychoactive] CBN and not a Delta 9.”

House Speaker Rep. William Lamberth (R-Portland) sponsored the overarching cannabis regulation bill two years ago. He worked closely with farmers, retailers, and government officials in drafting the bill. The bill put cannabis products behind many store shelves, and issued labeling requirements and THC limits. It also gave control of the state’s cannabis program to the TDOA, which added the rule that would ban THCA flower. 

On Wednesday, Lamberth pushed to keep the department’s rule in place for now so businesses could still operate. But he said he anticipated legislation on the matter in next year’s legislative session, which, perhaps, left the door open to smokeable products in the future. 

Jeff Sullivan, a former Memphian, and now vice president of sales with Chattanooga-based Snapdragon Hemp, pushed the debate from science, intoxication, and governance to straight economics. 

“Chris [Sumrell] will lose his farm,” Sullivan said. “Chris will lose his retail industry along with many, many other companies in Tennessee if their particular rules stay in place. It eliminates that much of their total business, their bottom line.”

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Leaders Push “Kids Online Safety Act”; Critics Fear Censorship

Tennessee leaders continue to push legislation they say would protect kids online, but civil rights groups say promotes censorship. 

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti led a group of 31 attorneys general from red and blue states earlier this week urging Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). The bill is sponsored by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee). 

The law would require some mandatory safety protections for minors on social media sites such as TikTok and Facebook. These would be the  strongest settings available up front, said Skrmetti, “rather than burying these features behind opt-in screens.”

The KOSA would also take away what Blackburn called “manipulative design features and algorithmic recommendations that keep children endlessly scrolling.” It would also give parents new tools “to identify harmful behaviors and improved capabilities to report dangerous content,” Blackburn said in a statement. 

In the letter to Congress this week, Skrmetti was joined by AGs from conservative states such as Alabama and Mississippi but also such progressive states as New Hampshire and Massachusetts. 

“As the chief legal officers of our states, we’ve seen firsthand how social media companies prioritize profits over our kids’ safety,” Skrmetti said in a statement. “KOSA provides additional tools to protect children’s mental health from the harmful effects of social media.”

Despite bipartisan support, KOSA has drawn criticism from civil rights groups such as the ACLU, which argues the bill could infringe on First Amendment rights. Critics contend that provisions requiring platforms to prevent harm could lead to censorship of legitimate and educational content, particularly around sensitive topics such as sexual health and mental wellness. The group heavily criticized the bill when the Senate passed it in July. 

“KOSA compounds nationwide attacks on young peoples’ right to learn and access information,” said Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel at the ACLU. “As state legislatures and school boards across the country impose book bans and classroom censorship laws, the last thing students and parents need is another act of government censorship deciding which educational resources are appropriate for their families.”

The ACLU said that the list of design features outlined in the bill are defined so broadly that platforms would likely have to censor any content that was found objectionable by the government. That content could include anything from sexual health resources to information about gender identity, or how to get help for an eating disorder. 

Anjali Verma, a 17-year-old student, also voiced concerns about the legislation’s potential to harm rather than protect youth. “It’s called the Kids Online Safety Act, but they have to consider kids’ voices, and some of us don’t think it will make us safer,” Verma said in a statement. “We live on the internet, and we are afraid that important information we’ve accessed all our lives will no longer be available. We need lawmakers to listen to young people when making decisions that affect us.”

The AGs’ letter says social media platforms target minors, know their products are addictive, but only care about the bottom line. “Many social media platforms target minors, resulting in a national youth mental health catastrophe,” reads the letter. “These platforms make their products addictive to minor users, and then profit from selling minor user data to advertisers. 

“These platforms fail to disclose the addicting nature of their products, nor the harms associated with increased social media use. Instead, minor users receive endless tailored and toxic content. Further, increasing evidence suggests these platforms are aware of the negative mental health effects social media burdens its underage users with, but choose to continue these practices.”

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Grizz Beat 76ers; Jenkins Surpasses Hollins as Winningest Coach

Wednesday’s 117-111 win over the Philadelphia 76ers was a historic moment for Memphis Grizzlies Head Coach Taylor Jenkins, as he notched his 215th career win and became the franchise’s all-time winningest coach, surpassing the legendary Lionel Hollins.

After the game, Jenkins reflected on becoming the team’s winningest coach, expressing gratitude for the opportunity and acknowledging the coaches who paved the way before him. He emphasized the importance of building strong relationships with players and the community, and said he feels blessed to be part of the Grizzlies’ legacy:

“It’s an unbelievable honor to be among the company of so many great coaches that have come before me. I always talk about the unbelievable responsibility I have: to be the head coach of this franchise. The faith that Robert [Pera]’s had in me, [Zach Kleiman]’s had in me, our players, the staff I get to work with every single day.” 

Jenkins recalled what former Grizzlies coaches had told him: “They said Memphis is going to give you everything they’ve got if you give them everything you’ve got, but they’re going to give it to you ten-fold. So, I hope I can give it to them ten-fold, they can give it to me a hundredfold and more. It’s an honor.”

Against Philadelphia, Memphis showcased a well-rounded offense, with Jaren Jackson Jr. leading the charge with 25 points. Through 14 games, Jackson Jr. is averaging 23 points per game to lead the Grizzlies to 9-7 on the season. 

Desmond Bane was also impressive, narrowly missing a triple-double with 21 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists. 

Bane had been struggling offensively after returning from injury. On Tuesday night in the 122-110 loss to the Denver Nuggets, he went 1-of-10 from the field. He knew he had to be better. 

“I didn’t like the way I played last night (against Denver),” said Bane. “I slept on it, thought about it, and wanted to come back and make sure that I led with the right foot forward, so I knew that I was gonna lead. I didn’t know how, but I knew I was going to lead.”

Other key contributors included Santi Aldama with 12 points and six assists, rookie Jaylen Wells with 14 points and standout defensive play, Luke Kennard with 12 points, including three three-pointers, and Jake LaRavia, who added 11 points, 5 rebounds, four assists while shooting 4-of-4 from the field. 

Despite being short-handed, the Grizzlies have shown resilience. Notably absent from the lineup are several key players, including Ja Morant, Marcus Smart, Zach Edey, GG Jackson II, Vince Williams Jr., and John Konchar.

On the Horizon

The Grizzlies are set to face the Chicago Bulls on the road this Saturday, November 23rd. Following that, they’ll head back to Memphis for a four-game homestand, which tips off on Monday, November 26, against the Portland Trail Blazers, and continues with matchups against the Detroit Pistons, New Orleans Pelicans and Indiana Pacers.

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Memphis Flyer Podcast November 21, 2025: The Mess at MATA

This week on the Memphis Flyer Podcast, Kailynn Johnson talks about her cover story “Business Unusual”. MATA is in crisis, and we’ve got all the details. Plus, an Anora review, Marcella Simien’s new album, and more.

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Analysts: Trump Cuts to EV Tax Credits Could Roil BlueOval City

Uncertainty over President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for federal tax credits and loan programs supporting American electric vehicle manufacturing could stall Tennessee’s fast-growing electric vehicle and clean energy industries, analysts say.

Tennessee has seen an estimated $12.6 billion in investments in new clean energy projects since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act under President Joe Biden in 2022, according to an October Washington Post analysis of data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and energy think tank Rhodium Group.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) created more than 20 tax incentives for clean energy and manufacturing, marking one of the largest climate investments in American history. No Republican lawmakers voted for the act, but the Post’s analysis found “red” states – including Tennessee – have so far received the lion’s share of investment dollars following its passage.

Low-cost federal loans and tax credits for U.S.-produced batteries and battery components have helped companies stand up more cost-competitive electric vehicle plants in the United States, said Harrison Godfrey, managing director of clean energy industry association Advanced Energy United. The IRA also changed consumer electric vehicle tax credits to incentivize the industry to anchor in the United States; For the credit to apply, vehicles must have batteries made in the U.S. using materials sourced from the U.S. or some allied nations, Godfrey said.

But Trump’s transition team is reportedly planning to scrap the $7,500 tax credit for buyers who purchase new electric vehicles, Reuters reported Friday. And the fate of Biden-era clean energy programs remains unclear.

This is not a red state, blue state economic development story. This is an all of America economic development and manufacturing resurgence story, and Tennessee is a great example of how this resurgence, this growth, is serving ‘red’ America.

– Harrison Godfrey, Advanced Energy United

Energy industry analysts worry such a rollback would stymie the balance of producer and consumer-facing incentives.

“The fundamental thing to understand about that is that the two work in conjunction,” Godfrey said. “It’s not enough just to have one side of that policy … it’s great if we’re standing up factories, but if there’s nobody buying at the end of the assembly line for those components, for that finished vehicle, because we haven’t also helped support that consumption side of the equation … we see great investments that do not actually bear fruit.”

Dozens of bills seeking to rescind parts of the IRA have been considered in the House of Representatives in the last two years, but 18 members of the House Republican Conference wrote in favor of maintaining the IRA’s energy tax credits in an August letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson.

“Prematurely repealing energy tax credits, particularly those which were used to justify investments that already broke ground, would undermine private investments and stop development that is already ongoing,” the letter states. “A full repeal would create a worst-case scenario where we would have spent billions of taxpayer dollars and received next to nothing in return.”

Jack Conness, a policy analyst at energy and climate think tank Energy Innovation, points to the letter as an example of the difference between rhetoric and reality in discussions about repealing parts of the IRA. The reality, he said, is that post-IRA investments have had “significant impact on economic growth and jobs” in red Congressional districts.

“Businesses have been operating under the assumption and making large investments in places like Western Tennessee on the assumption that this policy survives,” Conness said. “So when you want to potentially shake this up, it causes total chaos and havoc on the private business side.”

Electric vehicle and battery industries flock to Tennessee

These policies helped boost projects like Ford’s BlueOval City and the BlueOval SK battery plant in West Tennessee. The companies announced the plant’s development in Haywood County 2021. The U.S. Department of Energy approved a conditional loan of up to $9.2 billion to BlueOval SK under the IRA to build three battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky last summer.

Godfrey said the future of the Loan Programs Office and its low-cost loan programs for EV and EV component manufacturers is a “big outstanding question.”

What to know: The new Ford BlueOval City plant poised to reshape West Tennessee

“If you deconstruct that, if you shutter the office or if you greatly reduce the size, shift that mission, I think there’s risk there that we don’t see additional projects like this funded in the future,” he said. 

But while some factories have secured their IRA loans, the ink isn’t yet dry on loans like BlueOval SK’s, which is still in the conditional phase.

U.S. Rep. David Kustoff’s West Tennessee district has seen $7.9 billion in investment since the IRA’s passage, according to the Post analysis, followed by U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles’ Middle Tennessee with $2.9 billion.

Both voted against the IRA. Neither could be immediately reached for comment.

Kustoff said in 2022 that the “radical spending bill” would “hurt energy producers” and “certainly worsen inflation,” among other things. Ogles called it a “gross waste of taxpayer dollars.”

Both have said BlueOval City and BlueOval SK will be transformational for the region.

Since 2022, EV component supplier Magna announced it would build the first two supplier facilities in BlueOval City’s Stanton supplier park, and a stamping and assembly facility in Lawrenceburg. NOVONIX Anode Materials announced a new $1 billion battery plant in Chattanooga. Ultium Cells announced a $275 million expansion of its plant in Spring Hill.

According to the Post’s analysis, post-IRA investments have spanned multiple Congressional districts in Tennessee:

Diana Harshbarger (R), District 1: $17 million
Charles Fleischmann (R), District 3: $746 million
Scott DesJarlais (R), District 4: $146 million
Mark Green (R), District 7: $672 million
Steve Cohen (D), District 9: $189 million

“This is not a red state, blue state economic development story,” Godfrey said. “This is an all of America economic development and manufacturing resurgence story, and Tennessee is a great example of how this resurgence, this growth, is serving ‘red’ America.”

Industry Turbulence

The EV industry’s expansion in Tennessee — and the United States — has not been without setbacks.

Ford announced it would push back production of its new, all-electric pickup truck from 2025 to 2027 as part of its response to heightened competition in the EV market and slowing demand. But BlueOval SK is expected to begin producing battery cells in late 2025.

Nissan announced it will cut 9,000 jobs and 20% of its global manufacturing capacity in November after a drop in profit. It’s not clear if the Nissan Smyrna Vehicle Assembly Plant will be impacted.

Production at Ford’s West Tenn. plant delayed to 2027 in attempt to improve profitability

General Motors announced it will lay off 1,000 employees — mostly from its global technical center in Warren, Michigan — on Nov. 15. The company’s largest facility in North America is in Spring Hill. 

Godfrey said all industries see “waxes and wanes” during growth, and the EV industry has been under a microscope in recent years. Progress doesn’t tend to be illustrated quarterly, but over years or decades, he said.

Conness said flirting with the idea of a repeal of IRA programs causes uncertainty to flare.

“The private market wants to know what’s happening on the policy side, and the private market has been pretty outspoken about keeping IRA,” he said.

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, who has become a close associate of Trump, has spoken in favor of stripping the tax credit.

Musk wrote, “Take away the subsidies. It will only help Tesla. Also, remove subsidies from all industries!” on his social media site X in July. In a Tesla earnings call that month, he mused that ending the tax credits would be “devastating” for Tesla competitors but “long-term probably actually helps Tesla.” (Tesla has reaped some benefits from federal loan programs, tax credits and carbon credits).

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation —  which represents 42 U.S. automotive companies including GM, Ford, Nissan and Volkswagen — penned a letter to Republican lawmakers in October asserting that the IRA’s EV tax credits are “critical to cementing the U.S. as a global leader in the future of automotive technology and manufacturing.”

“We think about the recent decades where we’ve seen much of the heartland of America, and particularly some of the industrial cities that were really prosperous and vital in the 20th Century collapse on themselves. It’s about the shrinking and departure of these anchor tenants … the major manufacturers there,” Godfrey said. “So the real risk is … if we see a pullback on the industrial policy that is helping support that resurgence, I think we could see a replay of what we’ve seen in a lot of these towns over the past 40-plus years, admittedly for slightly different reasons.”

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and X.

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List of Nearly 400 Purged Books Circulating Among TN School Districts

One Tennessee school district’s list of nearly 400 books removed from library shelves, including titles by authors ranging from Dr. Seuss to Toni Morrison, is being used by other school systems as a possible template to follow.

Administrators for Wilson County Schools directed the district’s librarians to pull the books a month ago. This week, leaders with Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools sent its librarians the same list to consider when reviewing their collections.

A third large suburban district, Rutherford County Schools, instructed its librarians this week to remove around 150 titles — 51 of which overlap with the list in neighboring Wilson County.

The removal there came at the request of school board member Frances Rosales, who told Chalkbeat that she used the Wilson County list and reviews on the website Book Looks as the basis for her request.

The purges come under Gov. Bill Lee’s 2022 “age-appropriate” school library law, which lawmakers expanded this year to prohibit public school libraries from having books with “nudity, or descriptions or depictions of sexual excitement, sexual content, excess violence, or sadomasochistic abuse.”

Sponsors of the changes, enacted amid national “culture wars” fueled in part by pro-censorship websites, say their goal is to protect students from obscene content and give families more control over their children’s education.

But the changes have also created a climate of fear, confusion, and self-censorship for school leaders and librarians, prompting some to revise or ignore their own review processes and preemptively pull titles from their shelves.

Graphic novels and books containing LGBTQ+ topics for high schoolers are among the casualties, as are classics like Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, about a young African-American girl who longs for blue eyes, and popular children’s picture books like David Shannon’s No, David! and Seuss’ Wacky Wednesday.

“This law was designed to catalyze book banning,” said Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read program. “We should not be surprised now that we are seeing the mass removal of books in response to this censorial legislation.”

Tennessee law likely faces a constitutional challenge

Tennessee’s original 2022 law, championed by the governor, required districts to publish the list of materials in their library collections and periodically review them to make sure they are “appropriate for the age and maturity levels of the students who may access the materials.” Each community was to define what is considered age-appropriate based on local standards.

This spring’s revisions by the legislature added a definition of what’s “suitable” — including verbiage about sexual content, nudity, and violence that could be interpreted to prohibit literary classics like Romeo and Juliet, historical novels such as All Quiet on the Western Front, and encyclopedias containing photographs of nude statues.

The law is expected to be challenged in court over its vague wording, a lack of compliance guidance from the state, and the uneven way the law is being applied across Tennessee.

Among groups tracking its implementation are the ACLU of Tennessee and some publishing companies.

In Florida, several large publishers sued education officials there in August over a 2023 state law prohibiting sexual content in school libraries. They argued that the law had ignited a wave of book removals in violation of the First Amendment.

‘Creating an unofficial statewide book ban list’

A survey conducted this fall of members of the Tennessee Association of School Librarians found that more than 1,100 titles had been pulled statewide under the revised law during the first few months of the academic year.

“I’ve removed 300 books in the first month of school,” one librarian anonymously told the organization.

Since the survey, the number of titles pulled across Tennessee has ballooned “from a trickle to a tidal wave,” said Lindsey Kimery, a Nashville school library supervisor who is one of the group’s leaders.

“If Wilson County’s list is being shared around, and district leaders see it as a cheat sheet so that they don’t have to conduct their own reviews, it’s creating an unofficial statewide book ban list,” Kimery said.

A spokesman for the Clarksville-Montgomery district, which serves about 38,000 students near the Kentucky border, emphasized that Wilson County’s roster was being used “as a resource, not a mandate” for its own librarians.

“We are not directing you to immediately remove all of these titles from your library collection,” curriculum leaders told principals last week, according to talking points from the meetings that the district shared with Chalkbeat.

“However, we are providing this list as an example of books already vetted by Tennessee educators and strongly encouraging you and your library-media specialists to review the list and consider, if you have these titles in your collections, whether these materials violate state law.”

Books in violation must be removed, the principals were told.

In Rutherford County, where 150 books were removed this week, the school board voted Thursday night to give librarians time to review the titles and come back with a formal recommendation on whether they should be permanently removed or returned to the shelves.

“I don’t believe we intentionally have pornography in our schools, but I do believe that some books with questionable content have trickled in,” said Rosales, who told Chalkbeat that she “put a lot of thought and research” into her request to remove 150 titles.

She added, however, that “our librarians are experts, and we need to give them time to review these books and give us a report.”

Other school systems conducting library reviews reported that Wilson County’s list isn’t factoring into their work.

A spokesperson for Knox County Schools said the East Tennessee district is collaborating with its librarians and legal team to identify books for possible removal and will provide its schools with a list in the weeks ahead.


Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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Grizzlies Overpowered by Jokic-less Nuggets

With a final score of 122-110, the Denver Nuggets defeated the Memphis Grizzlies Tuesday night in an NBA Cup game.

Poor three-point shooting, turnovers, and missed free throws culminated in the Grizzlies’ first wire-to-wire loss of the season. Memphis is now 0-2 in NBA Cup games this season.

This loss comes after the Grizzlies beat the Nuggets 105-90 on Sunday. In both meetings, Denver was without former MVP Nikola Jokic. The two teams will meet again for a third and final time in Denver on April 11.

The Grizzlies struggled out of the gate, making eight turnovers in the first quarter. The Nuggets did a good job throughout the game, capitalizing on Memphis’ sloppy ball handling and converting 22 turnovers into 26 points.

In addition to Ja Morant’s ongoing injury absence, the Grizzlies were without Marcus Smart and rookie center Zach Edey. Smart was out due to an undisclosed illness, and Edey was sidelined by a left ankle sprain he suffered in Sunday’s game.

Santi Aldama led all scorers with 28 points and 11 rebounds on 12 of 19 overall shooting and 4 of 7 from beyond the arc. Aldama’s 28 points are the most by any Grizzlies’ bench player this season.

Jaren Jackson Jr. led the starting unit with 19 points, eight rebounds, and five blocks.

Scotty Pippen Jr. finished the night with 16 points, six rebounds, and six assists.

Brandon Clarke added 10 points, four rebounds, and two assists.

Who Got Next?

The Grizzlies are back at it tonight at FedEx Forum, facing off against the Philadelphia 76ers. Tip-off is at 7 PM CST.

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Anora

Sean Baker has a thing for sex workers. The fiercely independent director’s 2015 breakthrough work Tangerine followed Sin-Dee Rella (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez), a transgender sex worker, who just got out of prison and is ready to take revenge on her cheating boyfriend. In his next film, The Florida Project, a stripper named Halley (Bria Vinaite) loses her job for refusing to have sex with clients, and is thrown into extreme poverty with her six-year-old daughter.   Baker’s 2021 film Red Rocket starred Simon Rex as Mikey “Saber” Davies, a down-on-his luck porn star who returns to his Texas hometown, looking for a way to get back on top. 

Now, in his latest venture, Baker has created his latest, and greatest sex worker character yet, Anora “Ani” Mikheeva. Played by Mikey Madison, whose breakthrough role was as Manson Family murderer Susan Atkins in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Ani is a stripper in a high-end Manhattan gentleman’s club called HQ.  She lives with her sister in Brighton Beach, where her Russian immigrant grandmother taught her the language of the home country. Those Russian language skills come in handy when her boss tells her to look after a high roller named Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn).

I love films about work, particularly ones about the differences between the masks we wear in the public personae we bring to the workplace, and who we think we really are. That dichotomy is never greater than for a sex worker. From the moment Ani meets Vanya, her carefully constructed stripper facade starts to crumble. Vanya is too good to be true. He’s a 21-year-old college student who never goes to class with a seemingly unlimited supply of money. When she realizes he really digs her, she naturally decides to get busy exploiting him for all he’s worth, performing “forbidden” acts in the private room as the money rains down. When he asks her for a private session, she says yes. When she arrives at his home, she’s taken aback. This skinny kid lives in a waterfront mansion with gorgeous views of the city. The private sessions go so well, he invites her to his New Year’s Eve party. The mansion is lit up and filled to brim with well-heeled young revelers and disco lights. As the party is still raging, they retire to his bedroom, where he asks for a week of her time, in exchange for $10,000 cash. What’s a girl to do but say yes? 

Ani is dazzled by the money, the drugs, and Vanya’s disarming, boyish look. For her $10K week, they could just lounge around the house and get freaky, but instead, Vanya loads up his friends into a private jet and they head to Las Vegas, where they can get “the good ketamine.” It is there that Ani, and the audience, get their first taste of who Vanya really is. They are greeted at the door of the luxury hotel and casino by the manager, who assures Vanya that he can have his usual suite as soon as they’re finished kicking out the guests who are staying there now. Vanya, it turns out, is Ivan Zakharov, the son of a ruthless Russian oligarch (Aleksei Serebryakov) with ties to Russian organized crime in America.  

The trip plays out like a fever dream of wealth, as the boisterous friends float from pool to party to IV hangover bar and back again. Ani never wants the party to end, and when one morning, Vanya professes his love for her and asks her to marry him so he can become a citizen and escape from the clutches of his dysfunctional wealthy family, she says yes. Since they’re already conveniently in Vegas, the happy couple ties the knot in a wedding chapel on the Strip. The bride wore blue jeans and a bustier. 

Just as Ani’s mask totally slips away, heir honeymoon is interrupted when Vanya’s parents get wind of the nuptials. They task Toros (frequent Baker collaborator Karren Karagulian), a Russian Orthodox priest/gangland fixer, with arranging an annulment. He sends two goons, Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov) to get to the bottom of the situation. Their arrival at the mansion is a 20-minute tour de force of queasy slapstick which veers from the hilarious to the horrifying. 

The world Baker builds is at once exotic and all too real. Madison is absolutely perfect as a Cinderella who gets a glimpse of ultimate upward mobility, only to have it all crash down around her in a flurry of broken glass, baseball bats, and trashed SUVs. Anora is a gorgeous film that walks the line between screwball comedy and tragedy. Only someone with mad skills like Sean Baker can choose to do both.