Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

This Week At The Cinema: Little Girls and The Big Lebowski

Laia Artigas as Frida in Summer 1993

Tuesday night at Studio on the Square, an acclaimed film from Spanish director Carla Simón, Summer 1993 tells the story of six-yea-old Frida (Laia Artigas), a young girl from Barcelona whose parents die unexpectedly. The little city girl must move to live with her aunt and uncle, and her first summer in the country makes for a memorable movie experience. Showtime is 7:00 PM, and tickets are on sale at the Indie Memphis website.

This Week At The Cinema: Little Girls and The Big Lebowski

Across town, the Paradiso will screen Julie Traymor’s cult musical Across The Universe. The 2007 film is essentially an experimental film set to the music of The Beatles starring Evan Rachel Woods as Lucy, title character from John Lennon’s immortal Sgt. Pepper’s song.

This Week At The Cinema: Little Girls and The Big Lebowski (2)

Wednesday night at Crosstown Arts, Indie Memphis Microcinema teams up with Film Fatales to bring a program of shorts made by women. One of the nine films screening at 7:30 is Camilla Hall’s An Everyday Problem, a documentary/narrative hybrid tackling the issue of gun violence by focusing on the experience of students in one Los Angeles high school.

Still from ‘An Everyday Problem’

Thursday night at the Memphis Jewish Community Center, the film that swept last year’s Indie Memphis Hometowner awards, Good Grief, will screen in an encore presentation. The film by directors Melissa Anderson Sweazy and Laura Jean Hocking delves into the lives of kids who are being treated by the Kemmons Wilson Center for Good Grief in Collierville. You can get tickets to the 7 PM screening on the MJCC website.

This Week At The Cinema: Little Girls and The Big Lebowski (4)

And, finally, on Sunday, The Big Lebowski. The Cohen Brothers comedy classic contains career-high performances from legends Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, and Steve Buschemi. The goofy film noir parody that became a lifestyle is being feted on its 20th anniversary by Tuner Classic Movies with a 2 p.m. screening at the Paradiso. Expect a full house of Achievers. Here’s the original 1998 trailer, which only hints at the greatness within.

This Week At The Cinema: Little Girls and The Big Lebowski (3)

See you at the movies! 

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Filmmaker Augusta Palmer Talks The Blues Society at Crosstown Arts

Augusta Palmer

Filmmaker Augusta Palmer will discuss her new documentary The Blues Society at Crosstown Arts on Wednesday, September 7. 

The Rhodes College graduate and current Assistant Professor of Communication Arts at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York will screen her 2015 short film “A is for Aye Aye: An Abcderiean Adventure”, and talk about her varied career, which has included both narrative fiction and documentary films, as well as works for children. The Blues Society is a documentary chronicling the history and impact of the Memphis Country Blues Festival, which ran from 1966 to 1969 and was responsible for bringing blues music to a wider audience.  

Palmer’s appearance is the second event in a new speaker series presented by the group formerly known as Film Fatales Memphis. The organization is severing ties with the New York-based Film Fatales, changing their name to Memphis Women in Film, and widening their mission to promote a greater role for women in all aspects of the filmmaking art and business  The series is co-sponsored by Indie Memphis and Crosstown Arts. The evening will begin with a meet and greet at 6:30, followed by the presentation at 7 PM. 

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Film Fatales Speaker Series Begins Monday

The Memphis chapter of Film Fatales, a national professional organization for women filmmakers, is hosting the first installment of its new quarterly speaker series at Crosstown Arts on Monday, Febuary 1. The inaugural speaker will be Deputy Film Commissioner Sharon Fox O’Guin of the Memphis and Shelby County Film and Television Commission.  

Sharon Fox O’Guin, Deputy Film Commissioner for Memphis and Shelby County

The Film Fatales describe themselves as “a global network of women filmmakers who meet regularly to mentor each other, share resources, collaborate on projects and build a supportive community in which to make their films.” The organization was started in 2013 by New York filmmaker Leah Meyheroff. The Memphis chapter started meeting last year, and currently boasts 10 members. The new speaker series is being developed in association with Indie Memphis and Crosstown Arts. 

O’Guin will address the resources available to independent filmmakers in Memphis, and will include the latest on the Tennessee tax incentives for film. The program, which is free and open to the public, begins at 6:30 with a meet and greet, with the workshop to begin at 7:00.