Tag: Ashley Judd

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Trafficked Gets Benefit Premiere In Memphis

Trafficked, a new film about twenty first century slavery starring Ashley Judd, will have a benefit premiere in Memphis on Wednesday, October 11.

Ashley Judd in Trafficked

The film tells the story of three young girls from Nigeria, India, and the United States who meet at a brothel in Texas, where they are basically sex slaves, and try to escape. Directed by Will Wallace from a screenplay by Siddhartha Kara, the film also stars Anne Archer, Elisabeth Röhm, Sean Patrick Flanery, Madison Wolfe, and Patrick Duffy.

The premiere screening will be at the Malco Paradiso at 7 PM on October 11. It will be proceeded by a 6 PM reception with the film’s producers and representatives from Palmer Home, a Memphis children’s charity, which will benefit from the screening.

Trafficked Gets Benefit Premiere In Memphis

Tickets are available on the Malco website.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Ashley Judd for the U.S. Senate?

ashley_judd_casting_tn_vote_three.jpg

In the course of last summer’s Democratic convention in Charlotte, the Tennessee delegation was — as its chairman Chip Forrester and others rightly boasted — the most “diverse” in the state’s history, up to and including a transgendered delegate.

But on account of several consecutive elections that proved disastrous for Democrats — at least statewide — the delegation was somewhat poor in elected officials (although Memphis certainly supplied its share).

As a compensation, the delegation did have actress Ashley Judd on hand — a Kentucky native and sometime Tennessee resident who spent convention week with the contingent from Tennessee, which she proudly referred to as her “co-home state.”

And, in speaking of Tennessee and Tennesseans that week, Judd inevitably used the pronoun “we” — most spectacularly when — as pictured here — she cast the delegation’s votes for Barack Obama on nomination night. (She did so, it will be noticed, in the company of some of the state’s — and Memphis’ — finest; State Representative Larry Miller, 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen, and Mayor A C Wharton.

Needless to say, Judd’s prominence in the delegation encouraged hopes that she might take a personal interest in the state’s politics. It was a subject much touched upon in Charlotte.

But, if Tennessee Democrats want her — say, for a U.S. Senate race in 2014 — they better be quick about making their bid. If an item this week in the online periodical Slate is accurate, Judd is now considering a run that year against U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Again, that’s her other “co-home state.”

Here was Judd as spokesperson for Tennessee last summer in Charlotte:

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Film Features Film/TV

Not Overlooked

Come Early Morning, the directorial debut from Arkansas-native actress Joey Lauren Adams, was screened at Roger Ebert’s 9th annual Overlooked Film Festival last weekend. The Chicago Sun-Times über critic selects films that either haven’t grossed boffo box-office receipts that are worth another look or classic films worthy of a return to the big screen. Come Early Morning appeared at last year’s Indie Memphis Film Festival and was awarded the Best Narrative Feature prize.

The film stars Ashley Judd as a woman trying to find her way in small-town Arkansas.

In addition to Come Early Morning, this year’s Ebertfest included Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, Herzog’s Stroszek, and Ebert’s own Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.

You can read Chris Herrington’s interview with Adams here.

Best of all, Come Early Morning is now available on DVD, so it need not be overlooked any longer.