Morreco Coleman – Memphis Flyer

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.

For the 16th year since beginning life as the Memphis International Film Festival, On Location: Memphis will be bringing films to the Mid-South. “We’re all volunteers, from the president on down,” says Public Relations Director Dan Hodgdon, who has been working with the festival for three years. “I’ve met a lot of cool filmmakers and musicians and seen all kinds of projects that you might not ever know about otherwise, from short films to documentaries to feature films. It’s been really interesting to meet such a broad cross section of really talented and creative people.”

Introducing the filmmakers to their audiences, and vice versa, is a big part of the On Location experience. “We aren’t officially having an opening night movie this year. Instead, we’re having a mix-and-mingle preview party at the Hard Rock Cafe. There will be a lot of trailers and filmmakers there, and an opportunity for people to get to know each other,” Hodgdon says.

Music from all over the world plays a big part in this year’s festival. “Over the years, we’ve received a lot of entries for music-related films, whether features or documentaries or shorts,” Hodgdon says. “A lot of it comes from Memphis having the history and reputation as a music city. It’s across the board, from hip-hop to country, blues … a little bit of everything. We decided to embrace the music component.”

Most of the music-related films will be screening at Cooper Walker Place, the community center located at 1015 S. Cooper in the former Galloway United Methodist Church. In 1954, the church was the location of Johnny Cash’s first live performance with the Tennessee Two. On Saturday, Joanne Cash, Johnny’s youngest sister, will be on hand for the screening of her documentary I Do Believe. “It’s a narrative of her life, from growing up in Arkansas to living here in Memphis and then being involved in the Cowboy Church in Nashville,” Hodgdon says.

Next on Sunday, a different kind of music documentary will screen at Cooper Walker Place. The Record Man tells the story of independent music mogul, Henry Stone, whose TK Records was the home of some of the best disco hitmakers of the 1970s, including KC and the Sunshine Band and Memphian Anita Ward, who had a No. 1 hit on the label in 1979 with “Ring My Bell.” Ward will be on hand for the screening.

The weekend of music-related films at will kick off with the Blues Reel Review concert on Friday, which will feature Memphis artists such as Redd Velvet, Garry Burnside, and Beverly Davis, Butch Mudbone, Joyce Henderson, and Cash McCall paying tribute to a pair of legends we lost this year, Teenie Hodges and B.B. King.

Over at Studio on the Square, first-time director Morreco Coleman will spotlight a uniquely Memphis musical phenomenon with Gangsta Walking the Movie. “He’s a former firefighter,” Hodgdon says. “It’s about Memphis hip-hop and dance culture. It’s been very influential, but it doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves, compared to the Bronx or the West Coast scene.”

The film features appearances by more than 30 Memphis hip-hop artists and dancers, including Juicy J, Gangsta Boo, 8Ball, and MJG. “I have been working for years on this documentary,” Coleman says. “It’s a collaborative project about the hip-hop, rap, and dance culture in Memphis, which has been underground for over 20 years. Now you get to witness our secrets.”

Another Memphis production will screen on Sunday.Waffle Street is directors Ian and Eshom Nelms’ adaptation of a 2010 memoir by financier James Adams, who took a job at a popular 24-hour breakfast restaurant after being laid off from his Wall Street job. James Lafferty stars as Adams alongside Danny Glover as “the best short-order cook in town.”

Actor-turned-director Tommy Ford will bring his drama Switching Lanes to Studio on the Square. Ford’s film follows Kaneesha and Sarah, who reach across racial barriers in their small Southern town to forge an unlikely friendship.

You can find a full schedule of the weekend’s films and buy weekend passes or tickets to individual movies at the On Location: Memphis website, onlocationmemphis.org.