Tag: Meanwhile in Memphis

Meanwhile in Memphis Documentary Celebrates 10 Years

Post author By Abigail Morici
Post date April 26, 2023

Interviewee Al Kapone (Photo: Alex Warble)

First and foremost, Robert Allen Parker wants you to know he is a musician, not a director. Even so, for the better part of a decade, Parker found himself consumed in making a documentary on music in Memphis. That film — Meanwhile in Memphis: The Sound of a Revolution — premiered at the Indie Memphis Film Festival in 2013, and now it’s returning to the big screen for a special 10th anniversary screening at Malco Studio on the Square.

Meanwhile in Memphis, Parker explains, is an “overview of the modern Memphis music community from the late ’70s to roughly 2008. There’s all the old history — with Elvis, the blues, and B.B. King — that’s well-documented, but there’s not much on what’s happened since then. It was a big undertaking, but I had the drive and the ambition. That was kind of a risk and a gamble because I had never done anything film-related before.”

After a meeting by happenstance, Parker enlisted videographer Nan Hackman as co-director. “We were both wanting to promote the music scene and try to get out and do something,” he says. “She had the technical perspective to make it happen. She really made this happen.”

Together, Hackman, who has since passed, and Parker interviewed over a dozen artists and bands, including, among others, Jim Dickinson, Al Kapone, Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, Alicja-pop, and Mud Boy and the Neutrons. “We just wanted to tell the story of a couple of musicians, but of course then it grew bigger and bigger as we interviewed more people,” Parker says. “It basically expanded to a point to where it was really overwhelming. … And it became more of a historical document.”

With so much to work with, the direction of the film could have gone in a number of ways, Parker says, but ultimately, the through line that the filmmakers landed on was the “DIY mind” of Memphis musicians. “It doesn’t matter what genre of music they’re doing, just the fact of them being in Memphis and creating something here has an extra magical force to it. Whether it’s rap, garage, rock, blues, alternative, whatever, it’s a certain amount of DIY, like a raw passion. It’s not so much commercially driven. It’s just from the heart and soul. It’s something that you know it when you hear it and see it. … I got a new perspective on everything. It inspired me as musician.”

Because Hackman and Parker had so much footage, they ended up making a series of short films on a few of the artists interviewed, including one on Jim Dickinson which will accompany the Meanwhile in Memphis screening on Thursday. In between the short film and feature, Jimmy Crosthwait, the last living member of Mud Boy and the Neutrons, will perform with Parker and others backing him.

“When we made the documentary,” Parker reflects, “I wanted it to be made in a way where someone could watch it 10 or 20 years from then and for it to still be relevant.” So far, at the 10-year mark, the musician has found this to hold true.

“Jim Dickinson: The Man Behind the Console” and Meanwhile in Memphis: The Sound of a Revolution Screenings, Malco Studio on the Square, Thursday, April 27, 7 p.m., free.

Tags film, Jim Dickinson, Jimmy Crosthwait, Malco Studio On The Square, Meanwhile in Memphis, Memphis, Nan Hackman, Robert Allen Parker

Music Music Blog

Remembering Nan Hackman, Champion of Indie Music and Film

Post author By Alex Greene
Post date November 29, 2021

Just before Thanksgiving, the local arts scene was dealt a blow when Nan Nunes Hackman –– who documented Memphis music and contributed much to local film making –– passed away from Covid-19 on Sunday, November 21, after her immune system was compromised by lymphoma cancer and its treatments. She was 67.

Earlier this year, Memphis magazine’s profile of her life and work was a welcome corrective to her largely unsung efforts in the Memphis arts scene. Now, many are reflecting on just how much she brought to the city and its artists.

“It sucks to lose somebody so suddenly, without being able to say goodbye,” says guitarist and songwriter Robert Allen Parker, who collaborated with Hackman on the 2013 documentary Meanwhile in Memphis: The Sound of a Revolution. “I always talked to Nan weekly. All through the pandemic we’d do a video call, up until last week, even when she went in the ICU hospital bed. And she was still very much in high spirits. This whole time, the fact that she was at Vanderbilt getting the treatment was looking positive.”

Staying positive was a particular strength of Hackman’s. As a teacher in Shelby County Schools’ Creative Learning in a Unique Environment [CLUE] program for 20 years, Hackman developed an interest in video and film, and touched many lives as she did. “There’s one young man who I taught around the year 1980, and he was making an animated Super 8 movie with cardboard cutouts and stop motion animation,” she recalled when we spoke earlier this year. “And he was really into it. You would run into these kids who got excited about it and they wanted to go ahead and do additional projects. So this kid was motivated. He took the preliminary instruction and ran with it. And that’s what you want. Also, these movies were all silent, back then. So we would put appropriate music on a cassette and play it with the film, and hope that they were sort of in sync. And that’s what he did. His movie was The Attack of the Killer Ants. He’s well into his 50s now. He went to L.A. and decided to hang around the TV world there. The last I heard, he was working on How I Met Your Mother. So he parlayed this interest that started when he was a 7th grader into a career. That’s very rewarding!”

Her positive outlook led her to push herself to do more and more video and film work on her own, though she remained steadfastly homespun about it. “I’m not a professional. I don’t want to be. I want to do the projects that I want to do,” she told me. And yet she had a knack for creating quality work, as the response to Meanwhile in Memphis attested to. Grammy-winning writer Bob Mehr called it “a sprawling, important document of the city’s modern musical underground,” and it won the Audience Award at the 2013 Indie Memphis Film Festival.

If that film revealed her skills as a producer and an editor, her years of documenting Rhodes College theater productions and performances by the New Ballet Ensemble had honed her instincts for capturing magic in the moment. And, well before camera phones were ubiquitous, she paid her dues to be able to do so. “I filmed the very first footage of Charles ‘Lil Buck’ Riley, the jooking dancer, in 2007, doing ‘The Dying Swan,’” she explained. “It was an improvisation, and the reason it exists is because I lugged a heavy camera to a school show in West Memphis in October of 2007 and filmed him, and then put it up on YouTube. Eventually it went viral, but it literally happened because I lugged a camera. That experience showed me the importance of capturing one incredible performance. It was the first time he had performed it. And it was an improvisation. As he was doing it, I was aware of the importance of capturing it. I will say, it was very satisfying to see that it yielded such great fruit.”

She continued to take on independent projects, including producing and shooting a series of music videos for Parker’s album, The River’s Invitation.

Through it all, Hackman always pointed out how important her husband, Dr. Béla Hackman, was to her work in the arts. “I couldn’t do any of this without Béla,” she explained. “He supports me financially, gives me moral support, and he keeps my computer running. And Béla is also the graphic designer for Rob’s albums. He’s self-taught and very good at it. He has some wicked Photoshop skills and has studied design principles. And he’s meticulous. So all the graphics are extremely clean and professional looking. Whereas, I have some rudimentary skills, and I am quick and dirty. You do not want me doing the final version of your graphics. I will slap something together quickly. But that makes for a good partnership, because I can get stuff done on a deadline, and he can do it correctly. We work well together.”

An obituary in The Commercial Appeal quotes Dr. Hackman as saying that a memorial service for Nan Hackman will likely be held next spring. It also quotes his summation of what motivated her to do the work she excelled at: “All this stuff was going on that was not being documented and preserved. The idea is, she’s trying to perpetuate this stuff for future generations, for posterity. That’s really what drove her.”

Tags In Memoriam, Indie Memphis, Meanwhile in Memphis, Memphis independent filmmakers, Memphis Music, Nan Nunes Hackman

Music Music Features

Five Upcoming Concerts Worth Your Attention

Post author By Chris Shaw
Post date October 8, 2015

Father John Misty plays Minglewood Hall this Friday night.

October is usually when things start slowing down for the Memphis music scene. The late-summer festivals have come and gone, the free concert series at the Levitt Shell is coming to an end, and the hectic music schedule of September is finally over with. Well guess what? Times they are a changin’ around here, thanks to a reinvigorated New Daisy Theater, Minglewood Hall ramping up their action, and other local venues and promoters doing their part to supply me with ample events to cover. Now that it’s not one million degrees outside, you’re running out of excuses not to check out local and national acts rolling through town. Here are some events that should be on your radar over the next few days.

Meanwhile in Memphis: The Sound of A Revolution DVD Release at the 1884 Lounge, Friday, October 9th.

Meanwhile in Memphis is the music documentary by Robert Parker and Nan Hackman that first premiered at the Indie Memphis Film Fest in 2013. It’s now available for purchase, and to celebrate, the Grifters, Paul Taylor, and Hope Clayburn will perform at 1884 Lounge. Meanwhile in Memphis covers the D.I.Y. music scene from the late ’70s to the present day, and this is the first time the DVD will be available. The film will also include a second disc with 16 additional short films edited from leftover material, and if you can’t wait for the release show, all 16 short films will be shown Thursday night at Studio on the Square. Friday’s event is at 10 p.m. and admission is $5.

Father John Misty at Minglewood Hall, Friday, October 9th.

Dubbed a sex symbol by the music press titan known as Pitchfork, Father John Misty was most recently in the news for poking fun at Ryan Adams’ Taylor Swift cover album (hey, somebody had to do it). Misty, (whose real name is Joshua Tillman) isn’t just an internet troll, as he consistently releases new music in between touring and whatever else sex symbols do with their time. Misty has to be doing something right, as his latest song, “The Memo” has over 100,000 plays on SoundCloud, despite having only been available on the internet for about two weeks. “The Memo” is a glimpse into the mind of Misty, who isn’t afraid to call it like it is with lyrics openly criticizing the status quo of popular music and highbrow art. He will be joined by indie rockers Tess & Dave. Doors are at 6 p.m., and admission is $20-$23.

Bristerfest at Overton Square, Saturday, October 10th.

Bristerfest is a one-day music festival put on by Jack Simon to benefit the local non-profit group GrowMemphis. The festival has had a few different locations since its inception, and has raised over $4,000 for GrowMemphis. This year, Chinese Connection Dub Embassy and Zigadoo Moneyclips are the main attractions, along with Suavo J. and 88 Bones, and a new-ish group called Memfizz. Bristerfest starts at 11 a.m. at the Tower Courtyard in Overton Square. Admission is free.

Chickasaw Mound at Bar DKDC, Saturday, October 10th.

I’ve been preaching the Chickasaw Mound gospel for a while now, and hopefully at some point during my high praise you’ve paid attention. The band plays late at DKDC on Saturday night, and as they proclaim to be “Flower Children of the Revelation,” you should probably check out what Jesse Davis and company have in store. The show starts at 11 p.m., and the Mound are the only band on the bill, although there is a DJ. Admission is $5.

Cheater Slicks at Murphy’s, Wednesday, October 14th.

Columbus, Ohio’s Cheater Slicks return to Memphis this Wednesday, making for one of the biggest garage rock shows of the month. Formed in 1987, the band has been cranking out nasty garage punk for over 20 years and has heavily influenced noisemakers in Memphis. Wednesday’s show should bring some older Memphis rockers out of the woodwork. Joining Cheater Slicks is Boston’s Mr. Airplane Man, a female two-piece who are flying in specifically for the show. Mr. Airplane Man recorded a session with Bruce Watson (Fat Possum Records) in 1999, and the recording is currently online as the band waits for a physical copy to finally be released. Toy Trucks open the show at 9 p.m., and admission is $8.

Tags Brister Fest, Cheater Slicks, Chickasaw Mound, Father John Misty, Meanwhile in Memphis, Memphis Shows

Music Music Features

Big Ass Conflict!

Post author By Joe Boone
Post date February 13, 2014

My band is playing. You should go.

When I met my bosses at the Flyer, I mentioned that I play music and that eventually there might be a conflict of interest. Well, the mother of all conflicts of interest is here. I play bass in three groups right now. Two of them, Big Ass Truck and Alicja Trout, are playing with Sons of Mudboy on Thursday night at Minglewood Hall to commemorate the local run of Meanwhile in Memphis, a documentary film about the local music scene. You should go.

Big Ass Truck began in the winter of 1992. I left in 1995. But most of the others didn’t. They soldiered on through the rest of the decade. In doing so, Big Ass Truck released five records and developed a fan base that spanned the country. The quality of the recordings and the high level of musicianship spoke to a lot of people over the years. Younger people revere the band in ways that still amaze me. Andrew VanWyngarden of MGMT has cited Big Ass Truck and Steve Selvidge as influences. Half of the members of my other extremely cool band, the Knights Arnold, were fans of Big Ass Truck and would probably not play with me if I had not been a member.

Steve started it. Selvidge had a gig at the Antenna and no band to back him. He was a kid. And, as guitar shaman Rod Norwood will tell you, exactly the type of punk to hoodwink Antenna boss Mark McGehee into giving him a spot even though he was a bandless child.

Steve had the good sense to call Alex Greene, who had played keyboards with smart, important people like Tav Falco and Alex Chilton. Robert Barnett had played drums with eventual Grammy nominee Stephan Crump and founding member of Galactic Rob Gowen. Steve also demonstrated the family brains in getting his friend and creative supervolcano Robby Grant to come on board.

I met Steve a year earlier in a since-destroyed building across from Midtown Huey’s. Winston Eggleston invited me to jam with Steve and Senegal-based math whiz/synthesizer maniac Shelby Bryant. Was it instant magic? I can’t remember. But I’m glad Steve called me a few months later.

Steve’s next move was his Black Swan. Colin Butler is a DJ. But he’s a special sort of DJ: He has a sense of Memphis and a sense of humor that set us apart. He and Greene added dimension that defined our sound and was essential to our success. Any critical references to soul or hip-hop stem from the turntables and the keyboards. They gave us the bigger sound and wider palette we heard from Al Green at Royal Studios and the Beastie Boys’ Grand Royal records.

That first night at the Antenna was terrifying. We played some covers and jammed. I can’t recall any reaction from the audience. But we were fun people with lots of friends, so we were a draw. That got us more gigs and kept us practicing.

Those Antenna shows and the early days in our second home at Proud Larry’s in Oxford are fond memories of really fun times. While bands like the Grifters were being aesthetically brilliant, we were having unmitigated, shirtless (sometimes pantless) fun on stage and around the country. That bothered some serious-minded people. But plenty of people were into the party. Big Ass Truck was a hardworking good-times A-team.

Andria Lisle and Gina Barker (now married to Bryant) ran a record label called Sugar Ditch out of Shangri-La Records. They agreed to put out an EP. Steve led us over to Sam Phillips Recording, where we had the privilege of working with Roland Janes. I’m still proud of those recordings. We liked recording and started experimenting in production with help from Paul Ringger, Posey Hedges, and Ross Rice.

Greene introduced us to the writer Robert Gordon, who had the sense, initiative, and connections to get us a record deal. I remember sitting on the porch of Harry’s across from Ardent with Jake Guralnick saying we could make a real album. That was a special night.

In 1994, I was working at Ardent Studios as a cat dung removal specialist. The studio gave us a deal, and we settled in for a week with Rice, Erik Flettrich, and Pete Matthews. The result was Kent, our first full-length album. We named it Kent after a friend. His name is Kent.

That album represents something of a lost art. We didn’t use computers. Tape is a taskmaster. I remember one grueling dawn when Ross was cajoling me to stay awake during the overdubs of Chris Parker’s “Thermopolis.” We put everything we had into that record.

When Kent came out, we went on the road. I hated touring; so I quit. Within a month, I got fired from Ardent and went back to school. For the next few years it was hard to watch as the band started touring in glamorous places: They played Red Rocks in Colorado and appeared on MTV, which is a thing that used to put music programs on the television set.

The Big Ass Truck bassist job became the Spinal Tap-drummer thing: Subsequent bassists included Lucero’s John Stubblefield, Paul Taylor, Jon Griffin, Dros Liposcak, and Robby’s brother, Grayson Grant.

Big Ass Truck made three more records and amassed a network of fans and friends from coast to coast. Our bandmate and road manager Mike Smith got so good at touring that he went on to manage tour logistics for Widespread Panic. We never would have made it out of the Antenna with out Mike.

But, really, we’re all old and gross now. So we’re grateful that Meanwhile directors Robert Allen Parker and Nan Hackman asked us to play. I’m appreciative of the work the others did and thankful the band called me. It’s not as easy as it was 20 years ago: I can’t remember the songs, my hands are numb, and I can’t wear cool shoes for any extended period.

It’s been fun connecting with old friends and hearing from people who shared our good times. I’m sure the other members have things to say, but they are not the music editor of this paper. Plus, I need to use the remaining space to brag about the Knights Arnold. We are the next big deal. Trust me.

Tags Alicja Trout, Big Ass Truck, Meanwhile in Memphis, Minglewood Hall, Sons of Mudboy

Cover Feature News

Meanwhile At Indie Memphis

Post author By Greg Akers
Post date October 31, 2013

What: A four-day multimedia event with dozens of film screenings, entertainment and technology panels and discussions, parties, live music shows, and food programs.

When: Thursday, October 31st, through Sunday, November 3rd

Where: Numerous Overton Square venues, including Playhouse on the Square, Malco’s Studio on the Square, The Circuit Playhouse, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, and Local Gastropub; and downtown sites, including Earnestine & Hazel’s and The Warehouse

Full schedule: IndieMemphis.com

The 2013 Indie Memphis film festival kicks off not with a movie but with food. At 5 p.m. on Thursday, October 31st, the “Best Bites” reception at Playhouse on the Square features selections from winners of this year’s Memphis Flyer “Best of Memphis” poll (shameless plug). For the rest of the evening, you have your pick of the horror films (this being Halloween night) Escape from Tomorrow, James Whale’s classic Frankenstein, and Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, the TV pilot to Fox’s J.J. Abrams-produced Almost Human (which won’t air for a few more weeks), Touchy Feely, a buzzy ensemble drama starring Rosemarie DeWitt and Ellen Page, and local indie-pop group Star & Micey, who are starring (and Micey-ing) at an after-party concert at Earnestine & Hazel’s.

Thus, Indie Memphis in a nutshell: killer movies that haven’t opened here, classic films you can’t usually see on the big screen, the best of local music and food, and scores of filmmakers (note: Polanski will not be in attendance), performers, patrons, and scenesters all ambling between a diverse set of venues magnetized to Overton Square.

When Indie Memphis wraps up Sunday evening with an awards show and encore screenings of the fest’s best, it will have presented 50 feature films, 82 shorts, 13 panels, conversations, and seminars, and 11 parties and social events. It’s fiercely local — see our significant artistic talent on display in short films such as I Wanted To Make a Movie About a Beautiful and Tragic Memphis — but notably national, with Memphis premieres of major, Oscar-contending films (August: Osage County, Nebraska, and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom), indie behemoths (Drinking Buddies, As I Lay Dying, Zero Charisma, The Sacrament), critical darlings (Short Term 12, Touchy Feely, Computer Chess), and diverse documentaries (Hit & Stay and The Great Chicken Wing Hunt).

It is a multimedia, multisensory extravaganza, arguably (or maybe definitively) the Mid-South’s annual cultural high-water mark.

What follows is a list, admittedly subjective, of some of the highlights. You can sleep on Monday.

— Greg Akers

Meanwhile in Memphis directors Nan Hackman and Robert Allen Parker

Meanwhile in Memphis: The Sound of a Revolution

Saturday, 6 p.m., The Circuit Playhouse, with a filmmaker Q&A after the screening

Would you like to see Tav Falco take a circular saw to his guitar while onstage with Mudboy & the Neutrons? Or tug on the narrative thread connecting Furry Lewis to contemporary Memphis rap and indie rock? Or would you just like to hear an amazingly powerful, sometimes terrifyingly aggressive collage of sounds that prove without question that the music didn’t leave Memphis when the music industry did?

Fans of modern Memphis music, especially those who were drawn to Chris McCoy’s Antenna documentary, a hit at the 2012 Indie Memphis film festival, will want to check out Meanwhile in Memphis: The Sound of a Revolution, an exhaustive look at the Bluff City’s underground music scene in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, directed by Mid-South musician Robert Allen Parker and videographer Nan Hackman. The film features engaging and insightful interviews with Falco, Jim Dickinson, Sid Selvidge, DJ Spanish Fly, Monsieur Jeffrey Evans, DJ Squeeky, members of the Oblivians, the Grifters, and the Klitz, and numerous other scene-shaping performers. While Antenna captured the essence of Memphis’ punk and DIY culture as it coalesced in the ’80s and ’90s, Meanwhile in Memphis looks far beyond the iconic Midtown venue to consider the music itself, the musicians, and the not always evident connectedness between generations and genres, which makes the scene seem like a sprawling, occasionally dysfunctional family.

Meanwhile in Memphis introduces viewers to a city in decay: Stax is closed and American Recording is boarded up. But there’s life in the ruins. Weeds spring up in abandoned lots, and the musicians who came of age in Memphis in the ensuing decades were every bit as hearty as wild grass.

Meanwhile in Memphis, Jim Dickinson

It’s the first feature film for both Parker and Hackman and was shot over a period of seven years. Like the subject at hand, what’s missing in terms of polish is more than made up for in smarts and substance.

“I really wanted these musicians to tell their story,” says Parker who, when not working his day job selling records at the Memphis Music store on Beale, plays guitar in three area bands.

The film tells the story of two distinct scenes with common roots, evolving alongside one another and sometimes converging in surprising ways: the predominantly white Midtown/downtown rock scene as defined by artists ranging from Alex Chilton to Alicja Trout and the buck-and-crunk scene that blew up in North Memphis and Orange Mound.

Meanwhile in Memphis, The Grifters

Fascinating interviews capture the essence of contemporary artists like Harlan T. Bobo and the North Mississippi Allstars, with supporting commentary from Boo Mitchell of Royal Studios, Shangri-La founder Sherman Willmott, and music writer Robert Gordon.

Oblivians/Reigning Sound frontman Greg Cartwright defines both the film and its cast when he attempts to describe the feeling you get when you realize you’re part of a legacy and connected to something much bigger than you could have ever imagined. Meanwhile in Memphis isn’t about famous people. It ignores revolutionary figures like Elvis Presley and Otis Redding and, in doing so, makes a strong case that the revolution continues. — Chris Davis

Orange Mound, Tennessee director Emmanuel Amido

Orange Mound, Tennessee: America’s Community

Saturday, 10:45 a.m., Playhouse on the Square, with a filmmaker Q&A after the screening

Fans of local history will appreciate the documentary about a Memphis neighborhood, Orange Mound, Tennessee: America’s Community. Filmmaker Emmanuel Amido captures the testimonies of past and present residents of Orange Mound regarding the struggles it’s endured, its many successes, and the unprecedented events that took place there.

Orange Mound, Tennessee: America’s Community begins with an a cappella performance of “My Soul’s Been Anchored” by the Melrose High School choir. This is followed by a visual history lesson on the neighborhood.

The area was once a plantation owned by John Deaderick in the 1820s. In the mid-1890s, real estate developer Elzey Eugene Meacham purchased the land and divided it into small, narrow lots and marketed them exclusively to African Americans.

The area became the first African-American neighborhood in the United States to also be built by African Americans; residents constructed shotgun-style houses on the lots that were sold to them by Meacham. These homes would go on to house generations of families. And many of these families built and owned their own properties, churches, and schools in Orange Mound.

Other facts, such as how the neighborhood earned the moniker Orange Mound, are highlighted in the documentary. (The area boasted countless Osage orange trees during its early days.)

Grammy Award-winning jazz saxophonist Kirk Whalum, National Civil Rights Museum president Beverly Robertson, and University of Memphis professor Charles Williams are among those who make appearances in Orange Mound, Tennessee: America’s Community.

Amido makes sure to not only focus on the positive attributes of Orange Mound but also the less fortunate characteristics as well. The documentary explores how the neighborhood went from being one of Memphis’ most thriving areas economically to one of its most impoverished and crime-ridden. This is largely attributed to many of its residents migrating to other areas of the city during the civil rights era, which left a void in the sense of community that Orange Mound once enjoyed.

A solid effort to say the least, Amido does an excellent job of capturing the meat and potatoes of what the documentary form can entail and the message that’s most significant: Orange Mound is an area with a rich history, unique culture, and strong sense of community. — Louis Goggans

Being Awesome

Being Awesome

Sunday, 12:30 p.m., The Circuit Playhouse, with a filmmaker Q&A after the screening

This feature from Memphis director Allen C. Gardner stars Drew Smith as Lloyd, a divorced art teacher who’s lost his passion for life, and Gardner as Teddy, the lovable basketball jock who still thinks of high school as the glory days. At their high school reunion, the pair connect over their unhappiness with the way life turned out. Idealist Teddy suggests the two stop being depressed and just be awesome.

For a while, Lloyd has a bit of a harder time finding his artistic muse than Teddy, who seems to jump headfirst into something meaningful. Being Awesome‘s emotional dialogue, the real meat of the film, sometimes is all too real — awkwardness and all. It’s a charm that leaves you to cheer on Teddy and Lloyd during this coming-of-middle-age story. — Alexandra Pusateri

What I Love About Concrete

What I Love About Concrete

Saturday, 1:30 p.m., The Circuit Playhouse, with filmmaker Q&A after the screening

A young girl gets out of a stranger’s bed in a house where she’s never been before. She’s covered in downy white feathers. She pulls back the covers and finds a dead bird.

Ah, the perils of being a teenager! Which is exactly the premise of What I Love About Concrete, the debut feature from local filmmakers Katherine Dohan and Alanna Stewart. The lovingly made, sweet bildungsroman finds Molly (Morgan Rose Stewart), a junior at Black Swanson High School (fictional, alas), who is struggling to make sense of her body’s changes and her burgeoning sexuality. The film swaps the horror-repulsion of adolescence in Carrie for the magical unrealism of seeing but not understanding what it means to transform into an adult.

What I Love About Concrete does a lot with a little budget, including some inspired human-sized bird costumes. The film also features hilarious supporting turns from local talent including Markus Seaberry, Bill Baker, Kimberly Baker, Sara Chiego, and The Commercial Appeal‘s John Beifuss (swoon!).

— Greg Akers

I Am Soul, Tonya Dyson

I Am Soul

Saturday, 3:30 p.m., Playhouse on the Square, with live music by Tonya Dyson before the screening and a filmmaker Q&A after the screening

I Am Soul poses the question “What is soul music?” then attempts to answer that question by spotlighting one Memphis soul artist — Tonya Dyson, a singer/songwriter from Covington — introducing us to her family, church, and other aspects of her life that have influenced her music, and culminating with Dyson’s first Beale Street gig at B.B. King’s Blues Club. I Am Soul is a touching story of a talented, homegrown artist navigating her way through a city with a renowned musical legacy.

Alternating between Dyson’s story and the story of Memphis’ rich music history, I Am Soul shows that it takes more than just talent to make it in Memphis. In the film, Dyson calls Memphis a “music mecca” and says, “If you’re dedicated, and you’re focused, and you’re smart about how you do things, you can get a lot done in Memphis.” Her perseverance through life’s difficulties supports that assertion and shows that the artist is really what makes the music when it comes to soul.

— Hannah Anderson

“Secret Screening”

Saturday, 1:45 p.m., Studio on the Square, with audience and filmmaker discussion after the screening

I can’t say what the subject of the secret screening on Saturday will be. But, based on what I know, I will be there sight unseen, and if you are in any way interested in history related to Memphis, civil rights, and/or black power, consider taking the plunge with me. The audience will be the first to see a cut of a new documentary, produced by Craig Brewer, and to participate in a discussion about what you have seen. — Greg Akers

Escape from Tomorrow

Thursday, 7 p.m., Playhouse on the Square, with live music by John Lowe before and an actor Q&A after the screening

Few sights evoke more middle-class existential dread than that of a family trying to enjoy itself at a theme park. But that image is the linchpin of writer-director Randy Moore’s Escape From Tomorrow, which was secretly shot without permits at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

Moore’s film begins inauspiciously: Family man Jim (Roy Abramsohn) is fired via telephone while on vacation with his wife and two kids. Suddenly, the tram Jim and his family must ride to reach the Magic Kingdom feels like a train headed somewhere far more sinister — a corporate-sponsored, all-ages concentration camp where bands of bored, diseased humanity trudge around mindlessly trying to survive in Mouseschwitz, frittering away the hours by waiting in line for rides and attractions that can turn threatening at any moment.

As Jim and his family try desperately to enjoy their time together, Escape From Tomorrow starts to look and feel like a lost or missing episode of Louie. Jim’s deep ambivalence about marriage, fatherhood, and basic human interaction (and his frequent, mournful sex daydreams about a pair of underage French girls he keeps seeing at the park) further underscore the film’s debt to the rhythms and ideas of Louis C.K.’s innovative, unpredictable TV series.

The opening 50 minutes of Escape From Tomorrow effectively and repeatedly prove that the Most Magical Place on Earth is as awful and alienating as Anytown, USA. But Moore loses steam after an eerie nighttime sequence set near Epcot. Yet the film’s uneven, increasingly paranoid and nonsensical final third includes a grim fairy tale about a former Disney worker driven mad from faking happiness all day long. When Mickey, Donald, and Pluto finally appear, they look as creepy as something conjured up on Bald Mountain. And after the film’s final image, you’ll never look at Tinker Bell in the same way again. — Addison Engelking

August: Osage County

August: Osage County

Friday, 6:15 p.m., Playhouse on the Square

I’ll risk the hyperbole. In its original dramatic form, Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County stands up alongside the works of playwrights like Tennessee Williams, Sam Shepard, and Arthur Miller. It is one of the greatest American family tragedies ever written, with a little something guaranteed to offend everybody: marital infidelity, incest, child molestation, Eric Clapton records, fibs, lies, falsehoods, etc. In spite of the unsavory ingredients, this dish comes together like apple pie — crusty, sweet at the center, and full of spice.

Set in Oklahoma during a blazing hot summer just before and after the drowning suicide of the Weston family patriarch, Letts’ drama plays out like a middle-class King Lear but with a stronger focus on the female characters and the legacies of dysfunctional relationships. The story gets darker and darker at every turn, but Letts’ breezy dialogue and his ability to find screwball humor and unforced slapstick in crisis and ensuing chaos is what makes him such an exciting voice for the theater and film.

The much-buzzed film adaptation was helmed by producer/director John Wells, with Letts adapting his own script. It features an all-star cast that includes Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Dermot Mulroney, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, and the aforementioned Shepard. — Chris Davis

Short Term 12

Short Term 12

Saturday, 6:15 p.m., Playhouse on the Square, with live music by Mark Allen before and a filmmaker and actor Q&A along with reps from Youth Villages after the screening

No matter how many self-deprecating anecdotes they share — or how many self-inflicted physical scars they show — the youthful but wary optimists of Destin Daniel Cretton’s Short Term 12 are never sure how much they’ve actually helped the deeply damaged teens and tweens in their care. That’s because the kids they work with have been hurt so deeply and so often that they automatically distrust anyone who peddles any form of “I’m your buddy” BS.

But Grace (Brie Larson) and her colleagues at the titular foster-care facility keep trying anyway. Cretton follows Grace as she tries to separate the chaos of her work life from some unexpected developments involving her co-worker and live-in boyfriend Mason (John Gallagher Jr. in a sweetly lower-case performance).

Mason, who tells two stories that serve to open and close the film, is not as passionate and reckless as Grace. But he’s still very good at his job. The long scene where he provides the beat while a young man (Keith Stanfield) shares his anxiety about leaving through some brutally personal hip-hop lyrics is one of the film’s many emotionally complex high points.

Grace remains the focus of Short Term 12, though. Larson’s layered, unpredictable acting here should garner plenty of accolades. However, Kaitlyn Dever, who plays Jayden, a cagey, raccoon-eyed girl determined not to play nice, is also superb. The relationship that develops between the two women further articulates Cretton’s belief in the power and necessity of unconditional love. Which is not to say that there’s no darkness before the light: The long scene that unfolds on Jayden’s birthday, for example, was one of several that brought me to tears.

Tender, tragic, and ultimately overflowing with compassion, Short Term 12 is more than a highlight of Indie Memphis. It’s one of the year’s best films.

— Addison Engelking

For full coverage of Indie Memphis, including reviews of dozens of narrative, documentary, and short films updated daily through Sunday, go to the Flyer’s entertainment blog, Sing All Kinds.

Tags August: Osage County, Drinking Buddies, Indie Memphis Film Fest 2013, Jim Dickinson, Meanwhile in Memphis, Tav Falco, Touchy Feely

Categories
Music Music Features

Grifters Reunion

Post author By J.D. Reager

Post date October 31, 2013

As Meanwhile in Memphis: The Sound of a Revolution premieres November 2nd at the Circuit Playhouse as a part of the Indie Memphis Film Festival, fans of recent Memphis music history will have a triumph of their own.

Directors Robert Allen Parker and Nan Hackman’s biggest coup may have been convincing local indie-rock godfathers the Grifters to reunite after more than a decade of inactivity. The band was both one of Memphis’ biggest local draws and most successful exports of the 1990s, releasing several LPs, EPs, and singles (the 1994 full-length Crappin’ You Negative received rave reviews from publications like Rolling Stone and Spin) and touring extensively until around 2000, when exhaustion and the emergence of new projects and opportunities led the Grifters to slow things down and ultimately disband.

“We toured a lot,” the band’s singer/guitarist Scott Taylor says. “When we first took a break from all the touring, we weren’t in a hurry to get back in the van. The musical atmosphere had changed, and the stuff we were doing people weren’t as interested in — it got harder to get good shows. And we were all excited about our new bands.”

So the members of the Grifters went out on their own — Taylor with the Porch Ghouls (“We toured with Kiss and Aerosmith for almost two years,” he says) and Chopper Girl/Memphis Babylon; singer/guitarist Dave Shouse with Those Bastard Souls, the Bloodthirsty Lovers, and, most recently, >mancontrol<; and the rhythm section of Tripp Lamkins (bass) and Stan Gallimore (drums) with Dragoon.

Earlier this year, however, the group received an intriguing offer from the directors of Meanwhile in Memphis, who were looking to book bands for an after-party for the film’s premiere.

“Nan and I decided to make them an offer, even though we knew that the odds of it happening were slim to none,” Parker says. “There were even some people in the Memphis music community who told us that it could never possibly happen. I sent letters to each of the Grifters proclaiming how important they are to our documentary, to their fans in Memphis, and to the legacy of Memphis music altogether.”

“None of us were particularly interested in reliving the past,” Taylor says. “We were more into moving forward in our own directions. With a few exceptions, I’m not really into the ‘cool ’90s band goes back on the road’ thing. It didn’t seem cool to be like, ‘Hey, look at us. Look at what we did in the ’90s.'”

“Never say never,” Parker says.

“The reason we’re doing a reunion now is the documentary,” Taylor says. “The movie talks about our role in the Memphis scene of the ’90s. We all felt it was appropriate to play the show in conjunction. Over the years, we’d get these phone calls from out in the wilderness,” Taylor says. “Some guy would call and say, ‘You guys were my favorite band. I want you to play my wedding.’ It was never anything serious. Of course, we are hard to get in touch with, so maybe that was it too.”

Whatever reluctance the Grifters may have felt at one time about getting back together, the band is definitely enjoying the experience of reviving the project now — at least for one night.

“Practice has been really great. The songs sound better than ever, I think,” Lamkins says.

“It’s amazing,” Taylor agrees. “It’s been refreshing to come back to some of the songs. We’re all pleased that the material doesn’t sound too dated. We were always a band that tried to write timeless songs, songs that weren’t stuck in a particular genre.”

“I expected, at some point (but not knowing when), the Grifters to play again due to the sheer awesomeness and intensity of the band as a unit,” says Sherman Willmott, founder of Shangri-La Records, which released Grifters records through the ’90s until the band signed with Sub Pop.

The Grifters will perform this Saturday at the Warehouse for the Meanwhile in Memphis premiere after-party, along with local heavy-hitters the Hi Rhythm Section, Al Kapone, and Hope Clayburn. What happens with the group after that, though, is anybody’s guess.

Willmott sees the band getting much-deserved recognition.

“Because the Grifters’ hiatus dovetailed with the explosion of the internet (circa 2000), the post-Napster generation knows nothing about the power of this band,” Willmott says. “Given the intensity of today’s digital word of mouth, if the Grifters Mach II is one-fourth as good as their first go-round, there is no doubt in my mind that they will have thousands of new fans overnight.”

“We’re not ruling out doing more shows,” Taylor says. “Nothing is off the table as long as we’re enjoying ourselves.”

One recent highlight is a series of videos based on recordings from their album One Sock Missing. Each song is directed by a different person. One is directed by bassist Lamkins.

“It’s been fun,” Taylor says. “Sherman came to us and said he was tired of seeing our songs on YouTube without any real videos, just stills or homemade stuff. I’m glad we’re doing it. A lot of local filmmakers have done amazing jobs on the videos so far, and the project is moving along very organically.”

www.shangrilaprojects.com/the-grifters

Meanwhile in Memphis After-Party With The Grifters, The Hi Rhythm Section, Al Kapone, and Hope Clayburn’s Soul Scrimmage The Warehouse, Saturday, November 2nd, 9 p.m.

Tags Grifters, Indie Memphis, Meanwhile in Memphis, Memphis, Music, Shangri-La