Tag: Donald Myers

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Indie Memphis Day 3: Legends, Queens, and Sorcerer

Varda by Agnes

Indie Memphis 2019 kicks into high gear on Friday with its first full day of films and events. The first screening of the day comes at 10:40 AM with the music documentary The Unicorn, director Tim Geraghty’s portrait of gay psychedelic country musician Peter Grudzien.

Indie Memphis Day 3: Legends, Queens, and Sorcerer

3:30 at Playhouse on the Square is the second annual Black Creators Forum Pitch Rally. Eight filmmakers will present their projects they want to film in Memphis on stage, and a jury will decide which one will receive the $10,000 prize, presented by Epicenter Memphis. The inaugural event was very exciting last year, and with this year’s line up of talent (which you can see over on the Indie Memphis website), it promises to be another great event.

Over at Studio on the Square at 3:40 p.m. is the final work by a giant of filmmaking. Varda by Agnes is a kind of cinematic memoir by the mother of French New Wave, Agnes Varda. It’s a look back at the director’s hugely influential career, made when she was 90 and completed shortly before her death last March. Here’s a clip:

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Part 2 of the unprecedentedly strong Hometowner Narrative Shorts competition field screens at Ballet Memphis at 6:15 p.m. “Shadow in the Room” is an impressionistic short by director Christian Walker. Based on a Memphis Dawls song, and featuring exquisite cinematography by Jared B. Callen, it stars Liz Brasher, Cody Landers, and the increasingly ubiquitous Syderek Watson, who had a standout role on this week’s Bluff City Law.

Waheed AlQawasmi produced “Shadow In The Room” and directed the next short in the bloc, “Swings.” Based on the memoir by ballerina Camilia Del, who also stars in the film, it deftly combines music from Max Richter with Del’s words and movement.

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“A Night Out” is Kevin Brooks and Abby Myers’ short film which took this year’s Memphis Film Prize. It’s a technical tour de force—done entirely in a single, 13-minute tracking shot through Molly Fontaine’s by cinematographer Andrew Trent Fleming. But it also carries an emotional punch, thanks to a bravado performance by Rosalyn R. Ross.

In “Greed” by writer/director A.D. Smith, a severely autistic man, played by G. Reed, works as a human calculator for a drug lord. But while he is dismissed by the gun-toting gangsters around him, he might not be as harmless as he seems.

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Andre Jackson’s tense and chilling “Stop” finds two men, one a cop and the other a mysterious stranger from his past, reunited by a chance encounter on the road.

STOP Teaser Trailer from Andre Jackson on Vimeo.

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Kyle Taubkin’s “Soul Man” earned big applause at the Memphis Film Prize, thanks to a heartfelt performance by Curtis C. Jackson as a washed-up Stax performer trying to come to grips with his past.

Soul Man – Teaser #1 (2019) from Kyle Taubken on Vimeo.

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Director Morgan Jon Fox, whose documentary This Is What Love In Action Looks Like is one of the best-loved films ever to screen at Indie Memphis, returns to the festival with his latest short “The One You Never Forget.” A touching story with incredible performances by two teenage actors, this film has had a killer run on the festival circuit that climaxes with this screening.

At Ballet Memphis at 9:00 p.m. is the Hometowner Documentary Short Competition bloc, featuring new work by a number of Memphis documentarians. Matthew Lee’s “9.28.18” is a wonderfully shot, verité portrait of a very eventful day in the Bluff City. Indie Memphis veteran Donald Myers returns with heartfelt memories of his grandfather, Daniel Sokolowski, and his deep connection with his hometown of Chicago in “Sundays With Gramps.” Shot in the burned-out ruins of Elvis Presley’s first house, “Return to Audubon” by director Emily Burkhead and students at the Curb Institute at Rhodes College presents an incredible performance by Susan Marshall of Elvis’ “Heartbreak Hotel. Shot in the churches of Memphis and rural Mississippi, “Soulfed” by Zaire Love will tempt your appetite with an examination of the intimate connection between religion and cuisine. “That First Breath,” a collaboration between Danielle Hurst, Madeline Quasebarth, and Kamaria Thomas, interviews Mid-South doulas and advocates for a more humane and natural childbirth experience. “How We Fall Short” by Brody Kuhar and Julie White is a six-minute dive into the Tennessee criminal justice system. “Floating Pilgrims” by David Goodman is a portrait of the vanishing culture of people who live on boats in the Wolf River Harbor. “St. Nick” is Lauren Ready’s story of a high school athlete fighting debilitating disease. “Fund Our Transit” by Synthia Hogan turns its focus on activist Justin Davis’ fight for better transportation options in Memphis. And finally, Zaire Love’s second entry, “Ponzel,” is one black woman’s search for meaning in an uncertain world.

The competition feature Jezebel (9:30 p.m., Hattiloo Theatre) by director Numa Perrier focuses on the story of a young black woman in Las Vegas who is forced to take a job as a cam girl when the death of her mother threatens to leave her homeless. The emotional heart of the film is the conflict that arises when the protagonist discovers that she kind of likes being naughty with strangers on the internet, and the dangers that arise when one of her clients gets too close.

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Outdoors in the big tent block party, the premiere musical event of the festival happens at 8:30 p.m. Unapologetic Records will celebrate the release of its new compilation album Stuntarious IV with a show featuring performances by A Weirdo From Memphis, IMAKEMADBEATS, C Major, Kid Maestro, She’Chinah, Aaron James, and Cameron Bethany. Expect surprises and, well, lots of mad beats!

Finally, at midnight, a pair of screenings of classic films—for various definitions of the word “classic”— at Studio on the Square. Queen of the Damned is Michael Rymer’s adaptation of the third novel in Anne Rice’s vampire trilogy. Pop star Aaliyah starred as vampire queen Akasha, and had just finished the film when she died in a plane crash in the Bahamas. The film has become something of a camp classic, and is probably most notable today for inspiring a ton of great Halloween costumes.

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The other screening is Exorcist director William Friedkin’s masterpiece Sorcerer. Starring Roy Scheider as an anti-hero in charge of a ragtag group of desperados trying to move a truckload of nitroglycerin through the Amazon jungle, it’s a gripping ride through human greed.

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Come back tomorrow for another daily update on Indie Memphis 2019.

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Film Features Film/TV

Memphis Film Prize 2018

Memphis Film Prize Filmmaker’s Liaison David Merrill says he’s proud of what the young film festival has accomplished since it spun off the Louisiana Film Prize in 2016. “Our $10,000 annual prize has spurred the creation of more than 120 films in Shelby County,” he says. “Some of them might have happened anyway, but the Film Prize got a lot of people off the couch … We’ve given away $20,000 to Memphis filmmakers. The first year’s winner was McGhee Monteith with ‘He Could’ve Gone Pro’. Last year, it was Matteo Servante’s ‘We Go On’ with a screenplay by Corey Mesler.”

Compared to other festivals, creating a short film for the Memphis Film Prize is a more intensive process. Prospective filmmakers must register their projects with the organization, and then check in periodically during production. The films that make it to completion are then put before a panel of judges, who pick 10 films to screen at the two-day festival. The winner is determined by audience ballot, but there’s a catch: In order to vote, audience members must watch all 10 films at the festival. This prevents ballot stuffing by people who would watch their friends films, then leave. “With this rule, we’re trying to build in a certain sense of fairness,” says Merrill.

The program’s success can be judged by the number of returning filmmakers. “Going into the third year, we’ve got ‘Opening Night’ by Kevin Brooks. I believe this is his third year to be in the top 10. Marcus Santi is also back in the top 10 for the third time with his film ‘Jack Squat: The Trial’. Rob Rokk has a film called ‘Outside Arcadia.’ All of these filmmakers have returned every year and gotten in the top 10 every year. We’ve got fresh blood — people who weren’t in the top 10 before — and we’ve got returning champions back to duke it out.”

Mario Hoyle (Don), Ricky D. Smith (Boss) in ‘Dean’s List’

Daniel Ferrell competed in the Memphis Film Prize last year, but didn’t make the cut. “That experience really inspired me to work hard and hone my craft so I could make it to the top 10 this year,” he says.

Ferrell’s film “Dean’s List” was the first to be called out at the announcement party. “I was jumping for joy. I couldn’t even believe it!”

The director, who started out making backyard movies with his friends, says “Dean’s List” came about almost by accident. “We were trying to make a movie about a female graffiti artist, but we couldn’t get it off the ground,” he recalls. “We had decided to shoot on April 28th, and we wanted to keep that date. So I got together with my friends and we quickly wrote the story about a young college kid who has to deliver a backpack to his boss, and something bad happens. It just kind of came together.”

Actor/director Donald Myers is a familiar sight on the Memphis film scene. He appeared in last year’s winner “We Go On,” written by Burke’s Book Store owner Corey Mesler. Myers says he found himself in the director’s chair when “Corey sent me the [‘Hypnotic Induction’] script and asked if I wanted to take it on.”

Myers and Mesler worked on the script over a couple of weekends to get it into filmable shape. “Corey’s a master of dialogue,” Myers says. “It’s about a bartender who has a smoking and drinking problem, and he doesn’t know how to cure it. He visits a hypnotherapist for treatment for his addictions. The encounter turns into a test of wills.”

Caroline Sposto and John Moore were tapped to play the lead roles. “I liked their chemistry, and when we put them to work at the table read, it all just came alive,” says Myers.

First time writer/director Lauren Cox was inspired to write “Traveling Soldier” by a Dixie Chicks song. “Since I was in middle school, I’ve always thought that would be a good movie,” she says.

After the birth of her first child, Cox, an actor who has appeared on House of Cards, decided to make a movie in Memphis. “My film work was out in California. I had zero Memphis connections,” she says.

2016 Film Prize winner McGhee Monteith recommended Andrew Trent Fleming, who co-directed and shot “Traveling Soldier,” while Cox took the lead role. “I would never have thought I would make an emotionally driven World War II movie, but then I just got really attached it to,” Fleming says. “It’s Lauren’s baby, but it means a lot to me. My grandad and grandma were so similar to these characters. I tried to help her achieve her vision, but I put my own touches in there, too.”

This year’s Memphis Film Prize festival takes place on August 3rd-4th at Studio on the Square. “The real winner is Memphis,” says Merrill. “Certainly someone is going to walk away with $10,000. But we get to see all these great films. Every year, they’re upping the ante.”

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 1)

2016 was a good year for music videos by Memphis artists, musicians and filmmakers alike. I resist making a ranked list of movies in my year-end wrap up, but I know the crowd demands them, so every year I indulge my nerdery by ranking the music videos that have appeared in the Flyer’s Music Video Monday blog series. Since I sometimes go back into the vault for MVM posts, this competition is limited to videos that were uploaded since my Top Ten of 2015 post. (This proved to be a source of disappointment, since Breezy Lucia’s brilliant video for Julien Baker’s “Something” was in the top five until I discovered it had been uploaded in 2014).  Last year, I did a top ten. This year, there were so many good videos, I decided to do a top 20.

Eileen Townsend in Caleb Sweazy’s ‘Bluebird Wings’

A good music video creates a synergy between the music and the action on the screen. It doesn’t have to have a story, but arresting images, fascinating motion through the frame, and meticulous editing are musts.   I watched all of the videos and assigned them scores on both quality of video and quality of song. This was brought the cream to the top, but my scoring system proved to be inadequately granular when I discovered seven videos tied for first place, five tied for second, and three tied for third, forcing me to apply a series of arbitrary and increasingly silly criteria until I had an order I could live with. So if you’re looking for objectivity, you won’t find it here. As they say, it’s an honor to just be on the list.

20. Light Beam Rider – “A Place To Sleep Among The Creeps”
Director: Nathan Ross Murphy

Leah Beth Bolton-Wingfield, Jacob Wingfield have to get past goulish doorman Donald Myers in this Halloween party nightmare. Outstanding production design breaks this video onto the list.

Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 1)

19. Richard James – “Children Of The Dust”
Director: George Hancock

The Special Rider got trippy with this sparkling slap of psilocybin shimmer.

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18. Preauxx “Humble Hustle”
Director: FaceICU

Preauxx is torn between angels and his demons in this banger.

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17. Faux Killas “Give It To Me”
Director: Moe Nunley

Let’s face it. We’re all suckers for stop motion animation featuring foul mouthed toys. But it’s the high energy thrashy workout of a song that elevates this one.

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16. Caleb Sweazy “Bluebird Wings”
Director: Melissa Anderson Sweazy

Actress (and former Flyer writer) Eileen Townsend steals the show as a noir femme fatale beset by second thoughts.

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15. Matt Lucas “East Side Nights/Home”
Director: Rahimhotep Ishakarah

The two halves of this video couldn’t be more different, but somehow it all fits together. I liked this video a lot better when I revisited it than when I first posted a few months ago, so this one’s a grower.

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14. Dead Soldiers ft. Hooten Hollers “16 Tons”
Directors: Michael Jasud & Sam Shansky

There’s nothing fancy in this video, just some stark monochrome of the two combined bands belting out the Tennessee Ernie Ford classic. But it’s just what the song needs. This is the perfect example of how simplicity is often a virtue for music videos.

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13. Angry Angles “Things Are Moving”
Director: 9ris 9ris

New Orleans-based video artist 9ris 9ris created abstract colorscapes with vintage video equipment for this updated Goner re-release of Jay Reatard’s early-century collaboration with rocker/model/DJ Alix Brown and Destruction Unit’s Ryan Rousseau.

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12. Chris Milam “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know”
Director:Chris Milam

Milam and Ben Siler riffed on D.A. Pennebaker and Bob Dylan’s groundbreaking promo clip for “Subterranean Homesick Blues”, and the results are alternately moving and hilarious.

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11. Deering & Down “Spaced Out Like An Astronaut”
Director: Lahna Deering

In a departure for the Memphis by way of Alaska folk rockers, the golden voiced Deering lets guitarist Down take the lead while she put on the Major Tom helmet and created this otherworldly video.

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Tune in on Monday for the Top Ten of 2016!

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: Light Beam Rider

This Music Video Monday invites you to an exclusive party. 

When Oxford/Nashville band Light Beam Rider wanted to film a video for their song “A Place To Sleep Among The Creeps”, they turned to their old friend Nathan Ross Murphy.

“I’ve actually known [singer/guitarist] Thomas [Swift] since we were kids, fresh on the high school scene in Collierville. So I guess you could say this collaboration was just a matter of time.” says Murphy. “When Thomas sent me the song the band wanted to put visuals to, I was ecstatic—not just because it’s a great song but because it took me on a journey. It’s exactly what I love about LBR. Their music is the kind you daydream to.”

Murphy, who can be seen in the upcoming Old School Pictures comedy Bad, Bad Men, says he based the video on a short film concept he had been developing. “I immediately began to see this story unfolding where this haunted, centuries-old party collects victims through temptations of grandeur. I imagined these poor souls whose selfish desires outweigh the thinness of the facade around them. It’s a trap. Inevitably, they become doomed to an eternity of fake smiles—condemned to welcome the next unsuspecting victim with a martini in hand, and all at the doing of one questionably villainous Doorman deity played by my friend and fellow actor Donald Meyers. The visual goal was to create a ghostly, Victorian atmosphere that appears to have swallowed a collection of guests spanning various decades. This was achieved by the superb talents and crew contributions of Ryan Earl Parker, Jordan Danelz, Mona Kaiserseder, Blake Heimbach, Lauren Cavanaugh, Stephanie Marie Green, and Trevor Finney as well as an amazing mixture of friends and strangers-turned-friends who lent their time and cooperation so that we could make some cool art.” Here’s the video, featuring actors Leah Beth Bolton-Wingfield, Jacob Wingfield, and Jesse Davis. 

Music Video Monday: Light Beam Rider

 If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.