Tag: Matteo Servante

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Indie Memphis 2020: You Need To Relax

Yogi Chris Makoto, creator of ‘A Still Place’

Indie Memphis’ move online has been a necessity during the COVID pandemic. But it has also turned into an opportunity to expand the geographic reach of the festival, and introduce innovative programming.

“We wanted to offer something midway through the festival, after hopefully so much binging of films, for viewers to have a different relationship with their screen,” says Indie Memphis Artistic Director Miriam Bale.

The Goundings screenings are here to help people unwind a little bit from the cares of the outside world, to “counter screen fatigue with meditative installations, music, pets and other tools to remember to feel connected to your body and surroundings.”

The centerpiece of Groundings is “A Still Place”. “It’s an hour-long meditation in Akiko’s zazen studio on the big island of hawaii, watching the sun rise, listening to the world awaken,” says Bale.

Chris Makoto Yogi is the writer and director of August at Akkiko‘s, which appeared at Indie Memphis 2018, about a young man seeking his roots in Hawai’i who befriends a yogi deep in the forest. He filmed “A Still Place” in the same meditation studio. The hour long video of Akiko Masuda’s dawn meditation is meant to immerse the viewer, similar to the Norwegian “Slow TV” concept. “This is something that would normally be a video installation,” says Bale. “But we want people to experience it together online.”

“I see the piece as an offering, turning any space into a still place in Hawai‘i so that we can all pause and reflect on sound, light, our selves,” says Chris Makoto Yogi.

“A Still Place” live watch party is at 2 PM on Saturday, with viewers incouraged to use the slowly changing light and natural sounds to enter a meditative state. It will be followed by an interactive talk on Embodiment in Digital Spaces at 4 PM.

As the sun goes down, the outdoor screenings get started at the Levitt Shell with the Hometowner Narrative Shorts competition, including Michael Butler’s pandemic panic story “Empty”; Matteo Servante’s “La Sirena”, written by Melissa Anderson Sweazy; Jon Crawford’s “Taffy”, starring Curtis C. Jackson; “Barley” by Daniel R. Farrell; “Rebirth: A Film by Chenay Barnes”; Abbey Myer’s sexual assault drama “Orifice”; recipient of a 2019 Indie Grant; Martin Matthew’s period piece of Black love in the 1950s “A Beautiful Tragedy”; R. Jason Rawlings’ story of Hurricane Katrina survivors coming home in “Natives”; and Justin and Ariel Harrison’s “The Little Death”, a heartfelt story of miscarriage.

Hawai’i returns to the spotlight with the first ever Indie Memphis screening at the Grove at the Germantown Performing Arts Center. Cane Fire is a documentary about the troubled history of one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Kauaʻi, known as Hawai’i’s “Garden Isle”, was the center of Hawai’ian agriculture. As the center of power of the planter class, it became a crucial player in the coup that toppled the native monarchy and the eventual pushed for statehood. Not coincidentally, it also became the center of the Hawai’ian labor movement, and the site of a number of bloody battles between pineapple company security and strikers. Director Anthony Banua-Simon mixes the personal, historical, and political in this insightful film. 

CANE FIRE – Trailer from Anthony Banua-Simon on Vimeo.

Indie Memphis 2020: You Need To Relax

The early show at the Malco Summer Drive-In is Gillian Hovart’s delicious black comedy mockumentary thriller I Blame Society, which you can read about in my Indie Memphis cover story.

The late show couldn’t be more appropriate drive-in fare. Crash is David Cronenberg’s 1996 adaptation of the J.G. Ballard novel about a group of people with a particularly dangerous technofetish—they get off on automobile accidents. Holly Hunter stars in this relentlessly transgressive psychological thriller that has taken on new meaning in the age of the online death cult.

Indie Memphis 2020: You Need To Relax (2)

By the way, Ballard’s most controversial novel, which he called “a psychopathic hymn”, was also the inspiration for a technopop song that is often cited as the progenitor of Industrial music: The Normal’s “Warm Leatherette”. Join the car crash set.

Indie Memphis 2020: You Need To Relax (3)

Tickets and more details can be had at the Indie Memphis website. 

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Indie Memphis 2020: Bluff City Filmmakers Document Their Hometown

CREDIT: Courtesy of Last Bite Films.

Courtesy of Last Bite Films.

Suhair Lauck at her post behind the cash register in the documentary The Little Tea Shop.

As director of operations for Indie Memphis, Brighid Wheeler has had a crazy year. She and her organization have been charged with trying to figure out how to throw a film festival amid a worldwide pandemic. “I think the biggest challenge — I don’t necessarily want to speak for the whole team, but I think it would resonate with each team member — has been reminding yourself that every situation needs to be rethought. The moment you find yourself approaching something in the same way you would have pre-pandemic, you need to start over.”

The 2020 festival, which began on Wednesday night, is taking place online and outdoors. Indie Memphis has already moved their weekly programming online with the help of Memphis-based cinema services company Eventive. The staff, who specialize in in-person events, have had to learn to become broadcasters on the fly. There’s been a lot of time spent teleconferencing, says Wheeler. “Suddenly, you become an expert in a very specific sense on Zoom, like for our Tuesday nights, when we’re doing our weekly screenings and, [artistic director] Miriam [Bale] was hosting various industry people and having conversations about films with a filmmaker or a critic.”

But the new challenges have brought new opportunities. Wheeler says this has been driven home for her as the team records filmmaker interviews for the festival. “I’m reminded sitting through these Q&As that this is such a unique opportunity. Of course, I would prefer to have these filmmakers physically in Memphis. We are Indie Memphis. That’s our brand. But I’m able to have the majority of the filmmakers for each short film block in attendance for the Q&As. That is just something that is not always afforded to us at the in-person festival.”

Wheeler is in charge of programming the short films for the festival. This year, there are almost 200 of them, organized in themed blocks, all of which are available online. “In my time programming Indie Memphis, I’ve never been as proud of a shorts program as I am about this one,” she says. “I think that speaks to a number of different things, but I want to highlight first and foremost Kayla Myers, who has been a great addition to our programming team.”

On Thursday night, Indie Memphis takes over all four screens at the Malco Summer Drive-In. The Hometowner Documentary Shorts program, which begins at 6:30 PM, features both Memphis filmmakers and newcomers. It begins with “American Dream Safari,” G.B. Shrewsbury’s portrait of Tad Pierson, the Bluff City tour guide operator whose expertise in local music sites is unrivaled. Zaire Love, a graduate of the Crosstown Arts residency program, takes audiences on the “Road to Step,” which examines Black fraternity culture’s step show competition at Ole Miss. Artistic polymath Donald Meyers’ “The Lonely” is an intimate portrait of elderly isolation, and a plea for compassion. Bailey Smith’s “Holding On” is a chronicle of Memphis musician Don Lifted’s first U.S. tour. Matthew Lee urges the audience with “Remembering Veteran’s Day.” Emily Burkhead gets experimental with the hybrid doc “She Is More,” featuring musician Jordan Occasionally. Tyler Pilkington’s “Teched Out” explores the frontier of transhumanism, where the line between human and machine is blurred. Kierra Turner chronicles NBA player Jonathan Stark’s recovery from a potentially career-ending injury in “Wake ‘Em Up.” Josh Cooper’s “Loose Leaves” brings the story of a group of Black women entrepreneurs in Orange Mound. And finally, Matteo Servante and Molly Wexler’s “Little Tea Shop” gives you the background on the famous Downtown restaurant where you can find power players seated next to a person experiencing homelessness, and the immigrant restauranteur Suhair Lauck who brings them together.

“It’s an introduction to Memphis,—a taste of different areas and people within our city,” says Wheeler. “We know how hardworking our filmmakers are, but to see, even through the pandemic, the resilience they continue to display as they make their work is nothing short of amazing.”

Indie Memphis 2020 continues through Thursday, October 29. You can buy online and in-person passes at indiememphis,org.

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From Lynne Sachs to The Wiz: Indie Memphis Announces 2020 Line Up

Ira Sachs, Sr. in Lynne Sachs’ documentary Film About A Father Who

In a virtual version of its traditional preview party, Indie Memphis announced the lineup for its 23rd annual film festival. The opening night film is Memphis-born director Lynne Sachs’ documentary A Film About A Father Who. Sachs draws on 35 years of footage she shot of her father, Ira Sachs, Sr., to draw a portrait of a family struggling with generational secrets. Michael Gallagher, programmer for the Slamdance Film Festival, where the film had its world premiere in January, said “This divine masterwork of vulnerability weaves past and present together with ease, daring the audience to choose love over hate, forgiveness over resentment.”

Sachs is the most prominent of the Memphians among the dozens of filmmakers who have works in the 2020 festival. The Hometowner Features competition includes Anwar Jamison’s feature Coming to Africa, a bi-contentental production which was shot both here in the Bluff City and in Ghana. We Can’t Wait is director Lauren Ready’s documentary about Tami Sawyer’s 2019 campaign to become Memphis’ first Black woman mayor. The Hub is Lawrence Matthews portrait of Memphians trying to overcome discrimination, underemployment, and financial hardship in an unforgiving America. Morreco Coleman tells the story of Jerry C. Johnson, the first Black coach to win an NCAA Basketball title, with 1st Forgotten Champions. The detective thriller Smith is a neo-noir from director Jason Lockridge. Among the dozens of Memphis-made short films on offer will be “The Little Tea Shop,” Molly Wexler and Matteo Servante’s moving portrait of beloved Memphis restauranteur Suhair Lauck.

Director Anwar Jamison (far left) filming Coming To Africa in Ghana.

World premieres at Indie Memphis include Trimiko Melancon’s race relations documentary What Do You Have To Lose? and Cane Fire, director Anthony Banua-Simon’s incisive history of the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i.

Indie Memphis remains devoted to the latest in film innovation, but the festival’s Retrospective series alway offers interesting and fun films from years past. In 2020, that includes The Wiz, Sidney Lumet’s 1978 cult classic remake of The Wizard of Oz with an incredible all-Black cast, including Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow and Diana Ross as Dorothy. Joel Schumacher, the legendary writer/director who passed away this year, wrote the screenplay, which was adapted from a 1974 Broadway show. He will be honored with a screening of Car Wash, the 1976 comedy which is the definition of classic drive-in fare.

Ted Ross, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, and Nipsey Russell in The Wiz

With film festivals all over the United States facing cancellation because of the coronavirus pandemic, the theme of this year’s Indie Memphis is “Online and Outdoors.” Screenings will take place at the Malco Summer Drive-In and at various socially distanced outside venues across the city. All films will also be offered online through the festival’s partnership with Eventive, the Memphis-based cinematic services company that has been pioneering online screening during the pandemic. “We hope to bring people together, in person and online, and provide inspiration and an outlet,” says artistic director Miriam Bale. “In order to counter Screen Burnout, we’ll be offering a series of what we call ‘Groundings’ throughout the digital festival, including a meditative film called ‘A Still Place’ by festival alumnus Christopher Yogi.”

You can buy passes for the 2020 festival at the Indie Memphis website. The Memphis Flyer will have continuing coverage of the fest throughout the month of October. 

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Indie Memphis Youth Fest Showcases the Future of Film in the Bluff City

CREDIT: Courtesy Indie Memphis

Courtesy Indie Memphis

A filmmaking workshop at Indie Memphis Youth Film Fest 2018

Indie Memphis’ Youth Film Fest has been the film organization’s most successful new recent addition. It has taken the festival’s mission of developing Memphis talent to its logical conclusion: Start early, and give the kids tools to succeed.

This year’s festival takes place this Saturday, September 7th, at the Orpheum Theater’s Halloran Center. Youth festers will be greeted by keynote speaker Caitlin McGee. The actress, who has appeared in Halt and Catch Fire and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, is the star of the NBC series Bluff City Law, currently filming in Memphis, which will premiere September 23rd.
Courtesy NBCUniversal

Caitlin McGee, star of Bluff City Law

The day of workshops will include a seminar on music videos by Unapologetic Records’ IMAKEMADBEATS, a screen-acting workshop by Rosalyn R. Ross (who recently landed her own role in Bluff City Law), Matteo Servante and Ryan Earl Parker speaking on the synergy between director and cinematographer, and Mica Jordan on production design. Jamey Hatley, Indie Memphis’ first Black Filmmaker Screenwriting Fellow, will teach writing for the screen.

Screenings begin in the afternoon with a program from the CrewUp Mentorship program. Teams of three students from grades 7-12, paired with an adult filmmaker-mentor, created these nine films on offer. A lineup of short films from students outside the Memphis area bows at 2:30 p.m. Eleven films from Memphis filmmakers screening out of juried competition roll at 3:45 p.m., with admission on a pay-what-you-can basis. Finally, at 6:15 p.m., the competition screening will pit 19 young filmmakers from Germantown, Whitehaven, Hutchison, Arlington, Millington, White Station, St. Benedict, Ridgeway, and the homeschooled. The winner will receive $500 cash and a $5,000 production package from Via Productions.
Justin Fox Burks

IMAKEMADBEATS will head a workshop on music videos at the 2019 Indie Memphis Youth Film Fest

The festival is free for kids, but the competition screening is $10 for the general audience. You can find more information and purchase your tickets at the Indie Memphis website.

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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.”