The Oxford Film Festival has announced a lineup of 158 films for its 2021 edition. This year’s festival will be an online/in-person hybrid running March 24-28 and April 1-30. Last year, OFF, led by Melanie Addington, was forced to pioneer the pandemic film festival format while the rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic made gathering in person too dangerous. This year, screenings will happen in person for one weekend, March 24-28, at a special outdoor theater created by Malco at the Oxford Commons and a drive-in at Oxford High School. Then, the films will be available virtually on the Eventive platform, which was created by a Memphis-based company.
“As we continue to prepare for next month’s film festival, we want to be very clear about the aggressive steps we are taking in order to make our film festival safe so our patrons can begin to get back to enjoying the movie going experience in the company of other people again,” says executive director Melanie Addington. “Therefore, we are being very careful with a measured approach utilizing the open-air theater we have designed specifically for this purpose—with safety always first, so we all can enjoy one of the best group of films we have ever had this year. We have spent the past year safely providing films via drive-in and will include that experience in this year’s festival. We will monitor COVID and weather concerns and will make changes as needed closer to the event.”
Among the festival’s spotlight screenings is the documentary Horton Foote: The Road To Home. The filmmakers filmed the award-winning screenwriter and playwright at age 90 to piece together the highlights of his seven decade career, which included creating the screenplays for To Kill A Mockingbird, Tender Mercies, and The Trip to Bountiful.
Oxford Film Festival Announces 2021 Lineup
On the narrative side, artist-turned-director Olivia Peace’s debut comedy Tahara deals with the confusion and exhilaration of two best friends who can’t quite decide if they’re in love or not.
Oxford Film Festival Announces 2021 Lineup (2)
OFF’s headlining throwback screening is from one of Mississippi’s greatest artists. In 1986, Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets, teamed up with Lucasfilm for a mind-bender. Labyrinth stars David Bowie as the Goblin King Jareth, who kidnaps the baby bother of ordinary girl Jennifer Connelly. The revered fantasy classic is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year.
Oxford Film Festival Announces 2021 Lineup (3)
The competition films include Jake Mahaffy’s arthouse horror Reunion, produced by Memphian Adam Hohenberg.
Oxford Film Festival Announces 2021 Lineup (4)
You can find out more about the lineup and information on passes, both in-person and virtual, at the Oxford Film Festival website.
The Indie Memphis Film Festival returns tonight to the Levitt Shell and the Malco Summer Drive-In. At the Shell is the world premiere of What Do You Have To Lose?, directed by Dr. Trimiko Melancon, Associate Professor of English and Africana Studies at Rhodes College. The feature documentary combines a history of race relations in America with a look at the contemporary politics of race, beginning with the backlash against the election of Barack Obama. The title is taken from a question Donald Trump asked of black voters during the 2016 presidential campaign. In light of the rise of the alt-right and increasingly brazen racism in the way Trump governs and in the actions of his supporters, the answer turned out to be, quite a lot.
What Do You Have To Lose? is competing in the documentary category. It begins at 6:30 PM at the Levitt Shell, and premieres online at the same time.
Jake Mahaffy filmed his feature Free In Deed in Memphis in 2014, and premiered it at the Venice Film Festival, one of the most prestigious stages in the film world, the next year. His new film Reunion was filmed in New Zealand, where he teaches film at the University of Auckland, but Reunion it still has a Memphis connection in the person of producer Adam Hohenberg.
Reunion is larger in scale and more ambitious than Free In Deed. Set in a dark, vaguely gothic house it stars Emma Draper as Ellie, a woman who returns to her grandparent’s home to complete a difficult pregnancy. Unexpectedly, her mother, played by Julia Ormond, is waiting for her. What follows is a tense spiral into anxiety and family secrets with a side order of body horror.
Mahaffy says he started writing Reunion while he was editing Free In Deed, and evolved considerably over the course of five major rewrites and a short version he shot in Colorado in 2016. “The characters and story considerably changed. It was originally written for a New England-type setting … It’s definitely got unsettling and sort of dreadful elements, and there’s horror elements to it, for sure. But it’s something that’s a bit hard for me to describe in general terms. It’s definitely a film with horror elements in it and psychological thriller momentum. But it’s got comedy, dark humor, too. Originally it started off with stories from people talking about their parents, mainly their mothers and sort of the crazy things they do — passive aggressive, manipulative type behaviors. Most of them are pretty bizarre and not kind, but also kind of funny, in a dark way.”
Filled with affecting performances, Reunion is all about the psychological made visceral. “There’s some people that have the benefits of some really great, well-adjusted, parents. Everyone makes mistakes, but not everyone has the same start. I think that that dynamic, the difficulty of individuating, growing up, and becoming your own person, and then trying to return back to a relationship that doesn’t acknowledge that, which can’t encompass that personhood that you’ve developed as an individual. People end up falling back into those childish or childlike relational dynamics, and it is a problem. So people find different ways of dealing with it. I think it’s pretty common for a lot of people that recognize what it is, but some people don’t even recognize it. They just go along and are unaware. But I think even people who are aware, they find themselves falling into those sort of behaviors and modes of being that aren’t based on any sort of conscious awareness. They just ended up playing that role of the parent’s child, and it’s not necessarily healthy.”
Indie Memphis 2020: What Do You Have To Lose? and Reunion
In August, 2003, an 8-year-old boy named Terrance Cottrell Jr. died in a tiny Minneapolis church. A faith healer at the church, Ray Hemphill, was charged with homicide in the boy’s death, which was attributed to suffocation. Hemphill told police he was trying to drive out the demons that had been possessing the boy, causing him to scream and lash out violently. But the boy wasn’t possessed — he was autistic. Hemphill’s attempts to save the child from torment instead brought about his death.
The dark irony of the story inspired director Jake Mahaffy to create Free in Deed. The movie, filmed in Memphis in 2015, premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it received the Orizzonti award for “films that represent the latest aesthetic and expressive trends in international cinema.” The film’s successful festival run capped off with a sold-out screening at this year’s Indie Memphis, and it was nominated for four Independent Spirit Awards, including the John Cassavetes Award — kind of like the Best Picture Oscar for films that cost less than $500,000. Friday, December 9th, it will make its world theatrical premiere at Studio on the Square.
One of those Independent Spirit nominations is for cinematographer Ava Berkofsky. Her work in capturing the ragged beauty of Memphis’ crumbling cityscapes is crucial in setting the film’s meditative mood. She uses the harsh fluorescent lighting of the low-rent storefront where the church is located like cinematographers of earlier generations used rain-streaked street lamps, creating a mood of oppression and impending doom. The compositions she and director Mahaffy create are often spare to the point of being spartan, representing the limited choices the characters face.
Actress Edwina Findley is another of the film’s Independent Spirit nominees for her role as Melva, a young single mother of two. Findley draws an empathetic portrait of a woman at the end of her rope, both materially and emotionally. Her son, Benny (RaJay Chandler, in one of the greatest child performances you’ll ever see), vacillates from merely difficult and withdrawn to full, uncontrollable violence. It’s all Melva can do to keep food on the table and Benny from harming himself, or worse, his little sister. The doctor (Memphis actor and writer Jon W. Sparks) indifferently prescribes ineffective drugs, so it’s no surprise that the formerly unobservant Melva would turn to religion. After all, they may be selling snake oil, but the Bishop (Preston Shannon) and his congregation are the only people who have offered her any empathy.
The fourth Independent Spirit Award nominee is David Harewood for his portrayal of Abe, the high school janitor who moonlights as a faith healer and dreams of leading a congregation of his own. Harewood’s performance is deep and unflinching. Abe is clearly disturbed and in pain. He is obsessed with his own perceived shortcomings and transgressions. Even his own preacher tells him he repents too much. But the charismatic church ceremonies bring out something primal in Abe, and his spiritual power translates into increased attendance for the preachers.
The parishioners believe Abe can heal their aches and pains with a touch, and he believes his own hype until he comes face to face with Benny. Like with Melva, it’s perfectly understandable that Abe looks at Benny and sees not a kid with a severely maladapted nervous system but a child possessed by demons. The power of God is the only power that could toss out the demons. If the power of God seems to be failing, then it’s the fault of the impure exorcist, who must try harder to summon the spiritual energy to save the boy. So he prays harder, and hugs tighter, until …
The remarkable thing about Free in Deed is that it’s not preachy. Like the hero of a Greek tragedy, Abe’s fatal failure is built into his character. It is at once his source of strength and his downfall. In Berkofsky’s gut-wrenching final shot, Abe’s uncomprehending anguish inhabits every inch of Harewood’s body as he crawls down the aisle, asking yet again for forgiveness that will never come.
Then, at 8:30 PM, the Memphis premiere of Free In Deed by Jake Mahaffy. The director, a native of Ohio who is currently an Associate Professor of Film, TV, and Media at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, chose to shoot his film in Memphis in 2014 at the urging of producer Mike Ryan, who has been involved in several film projects in the Bluff City. The beautifully shot, subtly intense film follows the fateful meeting of Melva (Edwina Findley), the single mother of an autistic child, and Abe (David Harewood), a school janitor turned faith healer in a tiny, storefront church. Melva is losing control of her son’s increasingly violent outbursts, and the medical community (represented by Memphis actor Jon Sparks) is only interested in throwing sedatives at the problem. So she turns to the church, where Abe and the ministers try to drive the evil spirits out of the boy with prayer and exorcism.
David Harewood casting out evil spirits in Free In Deed
The film won the Orrizonti Award for Best Film when it premiered at the prestigious 2015 Venice Film Festival, and it’s easy to see why. I interviewed Mahaffy via email from his home in New Zealand about the making of Free In Deed in Memphis.
FLYER: Your story is “based on true events.” What was it that attracted you to this story? How did you balance the adaptation of the real life story with the needs of telling a film story?
MAHAFFY: A man was accused of crushing a child to death while trying to heal him during a religious prayer service in a small storefront church. The man had the best intentions but the dramatic irony of someone who set out to help and ends up accused of causing harm was something that interested me. I had been raised religious and then deconverted, so I felt I have both the familiarity and objectivity to represent this situation. The point is not to make a reenactment or docudrama but to take the emotional truth of the circumstance and recreate that for audiences. People who have never been to church or never been poor or never been to America should feel what it would be like rather than only know the facts and details of the news story.
FLYER: Did making this film change the way you view religion?
MAHAFFY: As a child, I was raised in a similar way with similar beliefs but my personal experiences have changed me significantly since then. Making this film didn’t affect my own understanding of religio,n but like any difficult experience, it did deepen my empathy and appreciation of other people.
FLYER: How did filming in Memphis come about? How was the experience of making a movie here? You had some of the best crew and actors in the city on this shoot. How did they compare with other crews you’ve worked with?
MAHAFFY: Producer Mike Ryan brought the film to Memphis. Early on, we were discussing possible locations for the project depending on weather and community connections. Once I understood more of the history and culture of Memphis. I agreed it should be the location for production. Mike and the Memphis Film Commission took it from there. Memphis is a unique city in the world—a source of profound soul and talent—and this film could not have been made anywhere else. I am so grateful to the people that agreed to participate. Because of them we were able to capture some of the spirit and intensity of the churches and characters. It is like a documentary in some cases; an archival recording of that unique world. There aren’t any other films like it.
Free In Deed is set in the world of tiny, storefront churches. It was shot in Memphis in 2014.
FLYER: You had some excellent actors, both from Memphis and elsewhere. David Harewood was amazing in what must have been a very difficult part. Where did you find him?
MAHAFFY: Mike first introduced David to me. We talked over Skype and hit it off. He was both daring and naïve enough to take on the project. This film was full of career-destroying risks, not least of which was a white guy trying to make a complex and authentic film about a real-life tragedy in a religious African-American community. I think being a Brit and never have been to a church before allowed David to remain oblivious to just how risky the film would be. David was totally committed and most importantly, he is humble in his work. After three days of shooting we had to recreate his character and change his backstory, mannerisms, accent, hairstyle, etc. But he did it with trust and a good nature. Edwina Findley also did truly great work in her role. I have the highest respect for people who take creative and professional risk on material like this.
FLYER: RayJay Chandler, who plays the young autistic boy, was also very impressive. How did you work with him to get the details of autistic behavior right?
MAHAFFY: RaJay is brilliant. What a talent. I gave a set of principles for RaJay to follow regarding certain stimuli that would affect him. Wherever the scene went, if someone slammed a door accidentally or tried to touch him, he would know the proper reaction so he wouldn’t be an automaton or a prop but a real person with authentic reactions. This was critical. And I would demonstrate certain behaviours and ask RaJay to mimic them. He was observant and technically perfect and completely committed. It was always a concern that this character be believable and the child actor be fully immersed in the part, not embarrassed or holding back. You would see the fakery in the child’s eyes if it wasn’t real. RaJay would switch on and off for the filmed takes. Scream and fight and then start laughing after ‘cut!’.
Edwina Findley as Melva in Free In Deed
FLYER: I’m so glad you gave Helen Bowman such a great part. She’s an absolute gem, beloved by the Memphis film community. How was working with her?
MAHAFFY: She is a sweetheart and the material we were able to use in the edit is priceless. She gave everything she could for the film.
FLYER: Are there any other Memphis actors you would like to single out for praise?
Preston Shannon and Prophetess Libra brought so much energy and power to the film. It would not exist without them. Kathy Smith was praying for real throughout the movie. Willie Tate is an amazing preacher. I feel like shooting his sermon was a document for the historical record. Nikki Newburger and Adam Hohenberg were the local fixers and doers. Look, there are so many people who worked on and appeared in the film, some of them absolutely invaluable to the project individually. I think it would be really great if you published the film credits in your paper as a ‘thank you’ and also because it demonstrates the community involvement in this film. That is the only way for films like this to get made. You never know if it’s going to work out but everybody took a risk.
FLYER: How has the movie been received since winning big at Venice? Does it play outside the United States differently than it plays here?
MAHAFFY: Wherever it plays, audiences are immersed in the story. People laugh and cry and are stunned and anxious or ecstatic or upset. People from all over the world, from different cultures and histories can still relate emotionally to the experiences depicted in the film. They experience genuine empathy for characters very much unlike themselves. It makes them curious and expands their understanding of a part of America they have never seen or even heard of.
A documentary about a controversial chapter of Memphis history, a coming-of-age drama by one of Memphis’ favorite sons and a look back at a seminal Bluff City work by Hollywood’s hottest writer will be the centerpieces of the 2016 Indie Memphis Film Festival.
Indie Memphis released this video today to reveal the first crop of the160 films that will screen at the weeklong festival in November.
Indie Memphis Announces First Crop of Movies for 2016 Festival
The Invaders
The opening night film will be The Invaders, a documentary by director Prichard Smith, writer J. B. Horrell (who is better known as the Memphis musician behind Ex-Cult and Aquarian Blood), and executive producer Craig Brewer. The film traces the history of Memphis’ indigenous black power group of the 1960s, The Invaders. Contemporaries of the Black Panthers, The Invaders became infamous during the aftermath of the 1968 Sanitation Workers Strike. The film tells the story from their perspective, shedding new light on the events leading up to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Full disclosure: This columnist consulted on the film)
Little Men
Director Ira Sachs, a Memphis native who lives in New York City, has been garnering acclaim for his new film Little Men, which will premiere at Indie Memphis before beginning its run at the Malco Ridgeway. Sachs, who recently had a retrospective of his work at the Museum of Modern Art, will be on hand to introduce the film and answer questions from the audience.
Free In Deed
Director Jake Mahaffy’s Free In Deed, shot in Memphis in 2014, is based on a true life story of faith healing gone wrong. It premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival and has garnered international acclaim from Europe to Australia.
The People vs. Larry Flynt
20 years ago this summer, The People vs. Larry Flynt shot here in Memphis. Directed by Milos Foreman, the film was the brainchild of screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who scored this year’s biggest television hit with The People vs. OJ Simpson. Karaszewski will return to Memphis for the twentieth anniversary screening of his epic tale of the Hustler publisher’s visit to the Supreme Court.
Kallen Esperian: Vissi d’arté
The closing night of the festival will be director Steve Ross’ locally produced documentary profile of the Memphis opera singer Kallen Esperian: Vissi d’arte’. The film premiered with a pair of sold-out shows earlier this year, and the closing night gala will give more Memphians an opportunity to see this remarkable work.
This year’s festival, sponsored by Duncan Williams runs from November 1-7. Tickets are now on sale at the Indie Memphis web site.
A film with deep Memphis connections has won a major prize at the 72nd Venice Film Festival in Italy, which concluded last weekend.
Free in Deed
Free In Deed, a joint US/New Zealand production helmed by Jake Mahaffy, won the prize for Best Film in the festival’s Orizzonti category, beating out 34 other films from all over the globe.
The Orizzonti category is for “films that represent the latest aesthetic and expressive trends in international cinema.” The lead judge for the category was legendary filmmaker Jonathan Demme.
Director Mahaffy opened his acceptance speech by thanking his Memphis crew: “This is a very collaborative kind of filmmaking. I can’t mention everything but I want to mention a couple of things – first of all the City of Memphis that had a profound soul and we did our best to capture some of that. I am grateful to the people who participated.”
Director Jake Mahaffy accepts the Orizzonti prize for Best Film at the 72nd Venice Film Festival in Italy.
Included in the large crew that shot the film here last year were Memphians Ryan Watt, Nicki Newberger and Adam Hohenberg, who served as associate producers. Acclaimed Memphis filmmakers Sarah Fleming and Morgan Jon Fox served as first assistant director and unit production manager, respectively, with Gloria Belz providing hair and makeup. Among the 51 Memphians with speaking parts in the film are RaJay Chandler, Prophetess Libra, and musician Preston Shannon. New York producer Mike Ryan, who has brought numerous films to the Bluff City over the past few years, served as one of three lead producers.
The film tells the story of a Pentecostal minister trying to save an ailing young boy through faith healing.
