Bukka White and Jimmy Crosthwait onstage at the the Overton Park Shell in The Blues Society. (Photo: Randall Lyon | courtesy of The Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane)
Four years ago, the Oxford Film Festival was the canary in the coal mine. It was the first film festival to cancel because of the rapidly-spreading Covid-19 outbreak that would, before the month was out, become a full fledged pandemic.
The festival survived the uncertain plague years and is now back for 2024 with a huge lineup, beginning on Thursday, March 21st, with Adam the First at the University of Mississippi’s Gertrude Castellow Ford Center. Director Irving Franco filmed Adam the First in Mississippi, and he will be in attendance at the Oxford opening night festivities, which will also be the movie’s regional premiere. Oakes Fegley stars as Adam, a 14-year-old living deep in the country with his parents, James (David Duchovny) and Mary (Kim Jackson Davis). But one fateful day he finds out that James and Mary aren’t his real parents, but fugitives hiding in the woods from some mysterious bad guys who just found them. Adam flees, but not before his foster father tells him the name of his real father is Jacob Waterson. The boy looks up all the people he can find by that name and visits each of them, trying to discover who his real father is.
The screening at Oxford’s Ford Theater will be proceeded by a recording of Thacker Mountain Radio Hour, the syndicated radio show that has longtime ties with the festival. Thacker Mountain is broadcast in Memphis by WYXR on Fridays at 6 a.m. Original Brat Pack member Andrew McCarthy, star of Pretty in Pink and Less Than Zero, who went on to direct 15 episodes of Orange Is the New Black, will be the guest of honor.
On Friday, the festivities move to the Malco Oxford Commons Studio Grille. Three Memphis-made feature films will be screening during the festival. The first is Juvenile: Five Stories(Friday, March 22nd, 4:45 p.m.), the documentary directed by Joann Self Selvidge and Sarah Fleming. The film traces the stories of Ariel, Michael, Romeo, Shimaine, and Ja’Vaune, who were all thrown into the juvenile justice system as children for a variety of reasons and are now helping others who are in the same place. The film is an examination of a deeply broken system by its own victims.
The Blues Society (Friday, March 22nd, 7:30 p.m.) by Augusta Palmer is a self-described “moving image mixtape” about the Country Blues Festival held at the Overton Park Shell in the mid-1960s. The director’s father Robert Palmer, music writer and author of the landmark cultural history Deep Blues, was one of the organizers of the festival, which proved to be crucial in reintroducing the blues artists of the Depression era to rock-and-roll obsessed hippies, and securing recognition of the music’s cultural value. But selling the blues to affluent white audiences entailed compromise and distortion which have shaped music ever since.
The third Memphis movie at the Oxford Film Festival is the most unlikely. Scent of Linden (Saturday, noon) is the only movie in the program with dialogue in Bulgarian. Producer/Director Sissy Denkova and writer Jordan Trippeer created story about the Bulgarian immigrant community in Memphis. Stefan (Ivan Barnev) comes to the States in search of a good paying job to support his ailing mother back home, and instantly falls in with a small but tight-knit group of eccentrics who are also chasing the elusive American dream. Scent of Linden recently completed successful theatrical runs in Bulgaria and Europe, and is now expanding to select screenings in the United States.
After the awards ceremony on Saturday night, March 23rd, the winners will have encore screenings on Sunday. For a full lineup, tickets, and more information on the weekend’s events, visit ox-film.com.
Photo: Courtesy True Story Pictures
Shimaine Holley in
Juvenile: 5 Stories
Even before its premiere at Indie Memphis 2023, directors Joann Self Selvidge and Sarah Fleming’s film Juvenile: 5 Stories received Evident Change’s 2023 Distinguished Achievement Award. This is given to pieces of media that offer “profound insight into the realities of our nation’s social system and the way they impact people and communities.”
The award almost seems like it was made for the film, given the journey it takes audiences on through the true stories of five individuals whom the filmmakers describe as “justice involved” as teens.
The film dives into the lives of Shimaine Holley from Georgia; Ja’Vaune Jackson from Illinois; Romeo Gonzalez from Brooklyn, New York; Ariel Cortez from California; and Michael Dammerich from rural Missouri, as they share their stories and reflect on the many factors that contributed to becoming enmeshed in the juvenile justice and foster care system. Each of the subjects comes from different backgrounds, both geographically and demographically. However, as the filmmakers note, “as their individual narratives unfold in the film, a cohesive narrative emerges of the broken promises of our juvenile system across all American communities.”
The project began in 2017 as part of the National Juvenile Defender Center’s Gault at 50 campaign, which celebrated the landmark 1967 Supreme Court decision In re Gault that gave people under the age of 18 the right to due process in the legal system. This was years after it was announced that the Shelby County Public Defender’s office would be required to offer juvenile defender services. Selvidge was inspired to create a series of short films through her production group True Stories Pictures, which shines a spotlight on the experience of juvenile defendants in Shelby County. One of those films, “Viola,” won awards at both the Indie Memphis and Oxford Film Festival.
After completing these shorts, Selvidge and Fleming knew they wanted to expand their project to feature young people from across the country to show where “transformational change was happening.” The initial goal was to expose people in Memphis and elsewhere to new ideas that were being developed in the juvenile justice system.
Selvidge explains that they began developing networks through people on X (formerly Twitter) who were doing work within youth justice. They connected with people across the country including New York, Chicago, and St. Louis through advocacy organizations, youth defender organizations, and more.
One of the most profound components of the film is hearing the stories told by the people who experienced the inequities of the system first-hand. According to Selvidge, this was intentional. During production, the filmmakers conducted on-camera interviews with academics who study the subject and other experts in juvenile justice. But those interviews, while informative, were eventually relegated to appear on the project’s website. The film is filled with stats and facts, but the bulk of the information is imparted by the real experts — those who experienced incarceration and emerged to tell their stories. “We wanted to focus on the young people who’ve had these experiences as the experts on the system, and learn from them the different ways their experiences can teach us how to not make mistakes with current and future generations of young people who are being harmfully treated by the system,” Selvidge says.
Shimaine Holley says sharing her story was not easy, but it’s what she does. And she wanted to tell it as bluntly as possible. “Because this was a film documentary, I did want to be very cutthroat, so they’ll know what actually went on. I feel like it was needed for this specific space because of the audiences we knew that we were probably going to attract.”
When thinking about the intended audience for the film, Selvidge says they wanted it to be seen by people who are ready to take action, to partner with young people to change the system. Even those who feel they are not directly impacted by the juvenile justice system need to take note, Selvidge says, because their tax payments “enable these systems to thrive. … I think about the ways in which people, who aren’t thinking of themselves as being directly impacted, are indirectly impacting the lives of these children by the choices that they make with the ballot box, and the ways that their elected leaders are using their funds to sustain these types of systems that are doing real harm to our young people and their families.”
Juvenile: 5 Stories premieres Friday, October 27th, at Playhouse on the Square as part of the Indie Memphis Film Festival and streams on Eventive, October 24th-29th, as part of the virtual festival.
The Ford BlueOval City manufacturing complex in Haywood County is the storied car company’s biggest capital investment in recent memory. Its first mission is to turn out the F-150 Lightning as quickly as corporately possible. The electric vehilcle is the hottest ticket on the American road right now, and songwriter JD Graffam is experiencing acute truck envy. “I’m asked quite often if ‘Electric Truck’ is supposed to be fun or serious, so I want to answer that question directly,” he says. “It’s very serious — I’ve always been a pickup man, and as much as I love fast cars, I can’t wait to buy me an electric truck.”
In the tradition of automotive odes like “My Little GTO,” “Electric Truck” is about hitting the road in a hopped-up ride. “One of the most rewarding aspects of songwriting is collaboration,” says Graffam. “Bringing this song to life collaboratively has given me the chance not just to share in the end result, but to learn and grow as an artist. Working with Josh Threlkeld was inspiring. He’s not just a talented musician but a good friend I’ve made through music. And he helped make this song better. When it came time to create a music video for “Electric Truck,” I again leaned on this community and ultimately reconnected with my old friends, Sarah Fleming and Christopher Reyes. They are talented; their vision for the arts in Memphis is what’s inspiring about them. It is always wonderful to work with smart people to bring a vision to life.”
This video has everything from backyard barbecues to a street gang of cute kids in their own electric vehicles. Let’s go!
If you’d like to see your music video on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Crosstown Theater has rebranded their weekly film presentations as the Crosstown Arthouse Film Series. This better reflects the series’ content and mission of bringing classic, rarely seen, or overlooked films to Memphis audiences.
Case in point is tonight’s film, Juvenile Court. Director Fredrick Wiseman was one of the early practitioners of what was called “Direct Cinema”, a kind of American answer to cinéma vérité. Enabled by the development of the kind of handheld camera and audio equipment we in the digital age take for granted, filmmakers of the 1960s were able to capture reality in a way that their predecessors simply could not. Wiseman’s films like High School, Basic Training, and Missile were all about capturing everyday life in various contexts. In the early 1970s, he turned his camera on the Memphis justice system for what would become Juvenile Court. Wiseman doesn’t editorialize — although he was a pioneer of using editorial techniques to construct a narrative out of seemingly disconnected images and events, which producers of today’s reality shows have weaponized. Instead, he simply captures the faces and interactions of normal people in the abnormal circumstances that they are placed in.
Tonight’s screening will be introduced by filmmakers Joann Self-Selvidge and Sarah Fleming, who are currently engrossed in creating Juvenile, which traces the experiences of five people from all over the country who have been caught up in the tangle of the American juvenile justice system, and what lessons we can learn from their experience.
Tickets to the show are $5, and can be bought at the door only. Showtime is 7:30 PM at Crosstown Theater.
Memphis documentarians Joann Self-Selvidge and Sarah Fleming are teaming up to produce a documentary examining America’s flawed juvenile justice system from the point of view of the people who are affected by it firsthand.
“This is not the first time I’ve addressed the justice system in my documentary work, but it is the first time I’ve taken this deep of a dive,” says Self-Selvidge, whose last film See The Keepers, which she created with Sara Kaye Larson, won the Hometowner award at the Indie Memphis Film Festival in 2015.
Self-Selvidge has been working on Juvenile for three years, after a conversation with public defender Stephen Bush alerted her to a trend of innovative reforms that were being tried all over the country. Fleming and Self-Selvidge’s short film “Viola: A Mother’s Story” served as a jumping-off point for the feature project, which the filmmakers say will explore “how brain science, constitutional rights, and smart on crime economics are being used in efforts to disrupt the cradle-to-prison pipeline.”
Memphis Filmmakers Take on School-to-Prison Pipeline with Juvenile Documentary (2)
“For the people who get caught up in the system, the narratives that are out there about the “bad kids”…are narratives that have not been constructed by the people who are directly impacted,” says Self-Selvidge. “When we have so many narratives that are out there about the mothering of children who are living right down the street from us, we forget. It becomes so easy to vilify the people we aren’t brave enough to listen to.”
Self-Selvidge says the film will feature stories of five kids who have been through the juvenile justice system in various parts of the country. “They’re all trying to make sense of what happened to them.”
After more than 30 interviews, three of the five subjects have been chosen in rural Missouri, Atlanta, and Brooklyn. Self-Selvidge and Fleming plan to find additional subjects in the Chicago area and the West Coast. The directors are currently engaged in a crowdfunding campaign on Seed and Spark to complete the three-year preproduction process.
“This is hard stuff to fix,” says Self-Selvidge. “The people who have the solutions that are going to work are the people who are closest to the problem…The different points of view in our movie are not politicized. It’s not liberal vs conservative. We have people speaking from the point of view of the victims and survivors of crime, and people speaking from the point of view of the justice-involved. Many times, they’re in the same family, or they’re the same people. People are victimized before they become offenders. Hurt people hurt people. Healed people heal people.”
Memphis Filmmakers Take on School-to-Prison Pipeline with Juvenile Documentary
The polls are closed, and our list of Indie Memphis classics is coming at you. Here’s part 1 and part 2 if you need to catch up.
Bunnyland (2008)
Bret Hannover was doing investigative documentary thrillers long before Gone Girl and the “Serial” podcast made them fashionable. Bunnyland foreshadowed many of the now-familiar tricks of the genre with a slightly less serious subject: An East Tennessee man with a pocket full of grudges and a loose relationship with the truth.
“The film is such an interesting portrait of a complex man who MAY HAVE murdered hundreds of bunny rabbits at the golf course he was fired from days earlier. A man who MAY HAVE caused a fire that left a tenant dead on his teepee-graced land. A man who claimed to hold the largest pre-historic rock collection in the world. A man who claimed to be “the last Indian on the trail of tears.” In classic Brett Hanover fashion, the film is composed of strange angles and is filled with pragmatic figures who readily spout elusive prevarications that Brett just allows to talk, and talk.” -Morgan Jon Fox
“And He Just Comes Around And Dances With You?” (2008)
Towards the end of the 00s, a new subgenre of indie film emerged when a group of Chicago filmmakers made a big splash at South by Southwest. It was (unfortunately) called “mumblecore”, for the quiet, thoughtful, sometimes improvised dialog in the films. But Memphis filmmakers had been doing the same thing since the turn of the century. Kentucker Audley emerged from the Memphis scene in 2008 with a pair of short films: “Bright Sunny South” and “And He Just Comes Around and Dances With You?” The latter is a slow burn story of fiercely controlled emotion. The audience gets half of a phone conversation between a rootless young man and his girlfriend, who has met a new guy while on vacation. It’s a front row seat to the dissolution of a relationship, and you can see it at this link.
“This was an Andrew Nenninger film, before he became Kentucker Audley. Going thru the years of programs I realized how many of his early films have been big influences on me. I think about this one a lot.” -Laura Jean Hocking
“Bohater Pies” (2009)
Corduroy Wednesday, a film collective consisting of Edward Valibus, Ben Rednour, and Erik Morrison, made their Indie Memphis debut in 2006 with Grim Sweeper, a comedy about guys who clean up murder scenes for a living. “Bohater Pies” is a fan favorite of the raft of comedy shorts they produced in the 00s on the buildup to their magnum opus The Conversion. This five minutes of cinematic chaos takes no prisoners as it takes you back to an inscrutable Cold War Eastern European setting. Look for not only the usual Wednesdays, but also cameos by experimental auteur Ben Siler and comedian Jessica “Juice” Morgan. YOU MUST OBEY.
“I’m thinking there are a lot of people who saw this and thought, “WTF are these guys (Corduroy Wednesday) smoking?”; I saw it and thought, “Oh cool! WTF are these guys smoking?” -Laura Jean Hocking
Indie Memphis’ Greatest Hits 3: Cannibals, Pies, and Love In Action (2)
Open Five (2010) and Open Five Two (2012)
Kentucker Audley’s second and third features took the mumblecore genre on an extended road trip to and from Memphis. It’s an unfailingly intimate peek into the desperate but free the lives of young millennials trying to make sense out of the world. Both films won Best Hometowner Feature at Indie Memphis and kickstarted Audley’s career as an actor and director.
“Even though we often butted heads back in the day, Kentucker Audley and I also always bonded over one thing…many people (ok, maybe only about 5?) loved to accuse us both of somehow rigging Indie Memphis. Our films both sucked, we both didn’t deserve awards, and jurors gave us accolades because it would benefit them! Ok. I’ll never forget the first time I saw Team Picture. I was both in awe, and sorta jealous, and I sorta hated it. I was in awe because I knew I was witnessing something cool, I was jealous because I knew now I would have someone else who would also be able to rig the juries!!!! But mostly, I just liked knowing another prolific filmmaker who I knew was about to take off and connect with a world outside of Memphis, as he is currently doing. Love that guy.” -Morgan Jon Fox
It was just nice to see Memphis in a mumblecore film. -Anonymous
“There was a moment when I was watching [Open Five Two], the scene in the van at night, that I thought, ‘Damn, he looks like a movie star.'” -Laura Jean Hocking
Indie Memphis’ Greatest Hits 3: Cannibals, Pies, and Love In Action (3)
“Cannibal Records” (2010)
John Pickle started making short comedy films in the 1990s, when he became a legend for his out of control cable access show Pickle TV. Former Indie Memphis executive director Les Edwards once described Indie Memphis’s 1999 lineup as “mostly John Pickle movies.” He starred in the 2006 feature The Importance of Being Russell as the titular redneck character he created for his cable access show who travels back in time. “Cannibal Records” was the short film he created for Indie Memphis 2010, which he not only wrote and directed, but also wrote and performed all of the music. Think Little Shop Of Horrors meets Reanimator, and you get a sense of where this genius comedy short is coming from. Pickle is still active as a musician, animator, and music video director. This year, he breaks a long Indie Memphis hiatus with “Return of the Flesh Eating Film Reels”.
Indie Memphis’ Greatest Hits 3: Cannibals, Pies, and Love In Action
This Is What Love In Action Looks Like (2011)
In June, 2005, Collierville teenager Zach Stark came out to his parents as gay. They forced him to enroll in a gay reparative therapy facility called Love In Action. The night before he left home, he posted a long, tearful message about his plight on the early social media network MySpace. A grassroots protest movement sprang up in response to the injustice, and director Morgan Jon Fox was there with his camera. At Indie Memphis 2005, he screened a rough cut of the documentary that was as moving as it was raw and angry. “The movie evolved over time. I’m not used to spending so much time on a film, so I put out a prelim cut of it that was a whole ‘nother feature film on its own that doesn’t even exist any more. I literally do not have a cut of it. it’s gone. It’s just an entry in a program now,” says Fox.
That could have been the end of it, but Fox continued to work on the project on and off for the next five years. By the time the final documentary was ready for Indie Memphis 2011, Love In Action had closed and its director John Smid had come out as gay and reputed his former actions. The film transformed from a vitriolic tirade into a testament to the power of compassion and acceptance. “That protest embodied that. I felt like the process of making a film for six years, it’s easy to get lost and angry and upset. But once I finally got to edit it, with the help of Live From Memphis—Sarah Fleming and Christopher Reyes were such huge elements in bringing that film over the finish line. I just wanted to embody what made the protests so successful: We love you for who you are. To quote Natural Born Killers, only love kills the demon.”
This Is What Love In Action Looks Likes is a landmark in LBGT cinema and helped kick off a national movement against so-called “ex-gay” treatments. In a world where political protests are regularly organized via social media, it’s more prophetic and relevant than ever. “I think documentary get people involved. It’s an uplifting story that touches on something that is still very current. It was my favorite Indie Memphis premiere of one of my films, because I got engaged. I was nervous as hell, because I had a secret. I was going to propose to my now-husband, Declan Michael Dealy Fox. Looking up at the totally sold out audience at Playhouse On The Square was an incredible way to premiere a film that was six years in the making.”
Indie Memphis’ Greatest Hits 3: Cannibals, Pies, and Love In Action (4)
Dr. James Gholson leads Craig Brewer’s ‘Our Conductor – Artists Only Remix’
Let’s do this.
10. Kphonix “When It’s Tasty”
Director: Mitch Martin
What goes with disco better than lasers? Nothing.
Music Video Monday: Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 2)
9. Hormonal Imbalance “That Chick’s Boyfriend”
Director: Jamie Hall Rising Fyre Productions gives Susan Mayfield and Ivy Miller’s gross-out punk the no-holds-barred video they deserve. Not safe for work. Or life.
Music Video Monday: Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 2) (2)
8. “Our Conductor – Artists’ Only Remix” Director: Craig Brewer
When the Memphis Grizzlies hired Craig Brewer to make a promotional video to help persuade Mike Connelly to stay, he gathered an A team of Memphis talent, including producers Morgan Jon Fox and Erin Freeman, cinematographer Ryan Earl Parker, assistant director Sarah Fleming, Brandon Bell, and Firefly Grip and Electric. Prolific composer Jonathan Kirkscey was tapped to write an inspiring score, which would be performed by musicians from the Stax Music Academy and members of local orchestras, and the Grizzline drummers. Dancers from Collage Dance Collective, joined jookers from the Grit N’ Grind Squad.
After a shoot at the FedEx Forum, Editor Edward Valibus cut together a b-roll bed to lay the interviews on. His rough cut turned out to be one of the best music videos of the year.
Music Video Monday: Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 2) (3)
7. Brennan Villines “Crazy Train”
Director: Andrew Trent Fleming This unexpectedly poignant Ozzy cover was the second music video Villines and Fleming collaborated on this year, after the stark “Free”. Where that one was simple, this one goes big.
Music Video Monday: Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 2) (4)
6. Lisa Mac “Mr. Mystery” Director: Melissa Anderson Sweazy
There’s no secret to making a great music video. Just take a great song, a great dancer, a great location, and some crackerjack editing. All the elements came together brilliantly for Sweazy’s second entry in the countdown.
Music Video Monday: Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 2) (5)
5. Marco Pavé “Cake”
Director GB Shannon
Shannon used the WREC building as the main setting in his short film “Broke Dick Dog”, and he returns with a cadre of dancers and a stone cold banger from Pavé. Go get that cake.
Music Video Monday: Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 2) (6)
4. Chackerine “Memphis Beach”
Director: Ben Siler
This three minute epic keeps switching gears as it accelerates to a Jurassic punchline. Its sense of chaotic fun took the prize at the revived Indie Memphis music video category.
Music Video Monday: Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 2) (7)
3. Yo Gotti “Down In The DM”
Director: Yo Gotti
It was Yo Gotti’s year. The Memphis MC racked up a staggering 101 million views with this video, which features cameos from Cee-Lo Green, Machine Gun Kelley, YG, and DJ Khalid. The video must have worked, because the song peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Music Video Monday: Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 2) (8)
2. John Kilzer & Kirk Whalum “Until We’re All Free”
Dir: Laura Jean Hocking
Two things brought “Until We’re All Free” to the list’s penultimate slot. First, it’s a perfect example of synergy between music and image, where both elements elevate each other. Second is the subtle narrative arc; Amurica photobooth owner Jamie Harmon selling false freedom seems suddenly prophetic. The social justice anthem struck a chord with viewers when it ran with the trailers at some Malco theaters this spring. The parade of cute kids helped, too.
Music Video Monday: Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 2) (9)
1. Don Lifted “Harbor Hall”
Director Lawrence Matthews
Matthews is a multi-tasker, combining visual art with hip hop in his live performances and controlling his videos. His two videos from his album Alero feature his beaten up domestic sedan as a character. Its the total artistic unity that puts “Harbor Hall” at the pinnacle of 2016 videos. Because my rules limited each musical artist to one video, Matthews’ 11-minute collaboration with filmmaker Kevin Brooks “It’s Your World” doesn’t appear on the list. I chose “Harbor Hall” because of its concision, but “It’s Your World” would have probably topped the list, too.
Here it is, Memphis, your Best Music Video of 2016:
Music Video Monday: Top 20 Memphis Music Videos of 2016 (Part 2) (10)
Keep those videos coming, artists and filmmakers! Tip me off about your upcoming music video with an email to cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Film critic John Beifuss was honored with the Indie Memphis Vision Award at the awards ceremony last Saturday night at Circuit Playhouse. The Vision Award is given to “someone who has made a lasting impact” on the Indie Memphis Film Festival and the Mid South cinema community as a whole. Presenter Ryan Watt, the festival’s executive director, presented the award, called Beifuss “Memphis’ pre-eminent film journalist and critic” and praising his “dedicated coverage of the film festival as well as independent film in general, giving the art of filmmaking and unwavering presence in the press due to his efforts.” The normally unflappable Beifuss’ voice cracked with emotion as he accepted the award. After the takeover of the Commercial Appeal by Gannett earlier this year, Beifuss was taken off the film criticism beat and reassigned as an entertainment reporter, leading to a letter writing campaign and social media protests from his readers.
Breezy Lucia
Film critic John Beifuss accepts his Vision Award at the Indie Memphis Film Festival’s awards ceremony on Saturday, November 5 2016 at the Circuit Playhouse.
Other awards at the 19th annual festival includes Deb Shoval’s AWOL receiving both the Best Narrative Feature and the Audience Award, Maise Crow’s Jackson receiving both the Best Documentary Feature and the Audience Award, and Ala Har’el’s LoveTrue receiving both the Best Departures and Audience Awards for experimental features. This is the first time in the history of the festival that three films have won both audience and jury awards.
The Hometowner Feature awards went to Madsen Minax’s Kairos Dirt and the Errant Vacuum and the Audience Award went to Kathy Lofton’s I Am A Caregiver. The jury awarded Best Hometowner Narrative Short award to Graham Uhleski and Daniel Ray Hamby’s “Doppleganger”, while Best Hometowner Documentary Short went to “A.J.” by Melissa Anderson Sweazy and Laura Jean Hocking. Hocking also won the Hometowner Narrative Short Audience Award for “How To Skin A Cat”, which she co-directed with C. Scott McCoy (which, full disclosure, is this columist’s filmmaking nom de guerre). The winner of the Hometowner Narrative Short Audience Award was “The Rugby Boys of Venice” by Jared Biunno. Special Jury Prizes when to Kevin Brooks for his skateboarding short “Keep Pushing” and actress Gabrielle Gobel for her role in “Teeth”.
The Indie Award went to Sarah Fleming for her roles as first assistant director and cinematographer on multiple productions in the festival, although the presenter did single her out for serving on the crew of Free In Deed while both six months pregnant with her first child and sporting a broken foot.
Early estimates suggest a record turnout for Indie Memphis 2016, which spanned seven days and screened films at downtown’s Halloran Centre, Overton Square’s Circuit Playhouse, the Malco Ridgeway Cinema, and Collierville. For more information on Indie Memphis’ year-round programming schedule and a complete list of the winners, visit the Indie Memphis website.
There are several Memphis filmmakers with multiple projects appearing in this year’s Indie Memphis Film Festival. One of the most prolific local filmmakers is Laura Jean Hocking, who boasts involvement in eight different projects screening during the weeklong festival. She co-directed the short narrative film “How To Skin A Cat” and the short documentary film “A.J.”; and created music videos for John Kilzer and Alex Da Ponte. As an editor, she cut the music documentary Verge and the narrative feature Bad, Bad Men. Melissa Anderson Sweazy’s music video “Bluebird”, and did initial assembly on frequent collaborator Sarah Fleming’s “Carbike”. Oddly enough, it all started because of her culinary prowess.
Jamie Harmon
Filmmaker Laura Jean Hocking
It was early 2000s and Laura Jean Hocking was doing craft services and props for her friend’s films. While helping out with her husband C. Scott McCoy’s film Automusik Can Do No Wrong, Hocking wound up peering over the shoulder of The Invaders director Prichard Smith. “I watched Prichard edit, and it just clicked. It was an epiphany,” said Hocking. “And I knew right then and there that I wanted to do this for a living.”
Hocking’s epiphany sparked an insatiable thirst for editing jobs. After she purchased an instruction book for Final Cut Pro, and completed every lesson in it, Hocking set out to edit a feature film she had just finished writing with McCoy. “It was 52 speaking parts, and everyone thought I was out of my mind to tackle that as my first editing project,” recalls Hocking. “After that, I wanted to edit any and every thing.”
Solomon Phillips in Laura Jean Hocking’s video for John Kilzer and Kirk Whalem’s song ‘Until We’re All Free’
More than 15 years later, Hocking pretty much has. She’s also produced, directed, or written countless other films. Two of her Indie Memphis projects in particular showcase Hocking’s ability to tackle subjects that can elicit a wide range of emotional responses.
In “A.J.” a short documentary that introduces audiences to the delicate work of the Kemmons Wilson Center for Good Grief, Hocking, fellow producer/director Melissa Anderson Sweazy, and producer/cinematographer Sarah Fleming decided to focus on an element of grief underexplored in documentaries — recovery. “We see the dark side represented in film plenty,” said Hocking. “We wanted to show how people get out of grief and how they get to the other side of it.”
‘A.J.’
On the flip side, the short film “How to Skin A Cat” demonstrates of Hocking’s ability to transition from the somber to the asinine within a single production year. And if you pressure Hocking enough, she’ll tell you it’s the film that she might love just a tiny bit more than her other film-children this festival, due largely to the ability to pay the actors and crew, thanks to the $7,500 in IndieGrant funds the project received. “Do you know how big that was? To be able to pay our actors?”Hocking asks.
In spite of a rapidly expanding filmography, Hocking has her sights set on the Memphis horizon and the future of Bluff City filmmaking. When people ask if she ever would consider moving to L.A., Hocking’s answer is a flat no.“Why would I want to move to L.A.? Here, I can make a difference,” Hocking notes. “It’s here that I have artistic freedom that isn’t usually given to you by way of a big studio.”
With a location of choice and the support of a close-knit film community, Hocking is poised to continue her constant self-challenge to try all things new in the world of filmmaking. And because her personal belief is to never cease trying new things, we are likely in store for watching a filmmaker whose list of works will continue to push norms. “After all,” Hocking added, “If you’re not learning, you’re dying.”
Look to the credits of each short film represented in the 2016 IndieGrants bloc, and you’ll find recurring names of actors and crew members collaborating on one another’s projects.
That’s the film community here — a tight-knit family willing to lend a hand to artists scraping up funds to bring their vision to the screen. But what could a DIY filmmaker accomplish with a full crew and professional resources for production? Mark Jones, who started the IndieGrant program in 2014, wanted to find out.
“My starting IndieGrant is both from an artistic point of view and an economic point of view,” Jones, whose resume includes the 2012 comedy Tennessee Queer, says. “Film is art. Film is jobs. I thought that if Indie Memphis could help fund short films, then perhaps one of those short films made in Memphis could get some funding, and then it could be made as a feature film here in the city.”
What started as two $4,500 grants and two $500 grants has grown considerably in just two years. Now, two winning film proposals not only receive $5,000 while two others receive $500, but they are also awarded an additional $2,500 from FireFly Grip and Electric for lighting work and equipment, and, beginning this year, $1,500 from LensRentals and $1,000 for sound mixing from Music + Art Studios.
“I think you’d be hard pressed to find another film festival the size of Indie Memphis or perhaps bigger that gives this much out in grants to local filmmakers,” Jones says.
Seven films, financed between the 2014 and 2015 Indie Memphis festivals, will debut at 8:15 p.m. on November 1st at the Halloran Centre. That includes Sarah Fleming’s Carbike, a city-trotting, sightseer told through the perspective of two Japanese visitors; G.B. Shannon’s touching family drama Broke Dick Dog; the Flyer‘s Chris McCoy and Laura Jean Hocking’s road trip comedy How to Skin a Cat, which depicts the Collierville, Midtown, and rural divide; Morgan Jon Fox’s Silver Elves, an almost dialogue-free, true crime reverie; On the Sufferings of the World, an collaboration between experimental auteur Ben Siler, director Edward Valibus, actor Jessica Morgan, and musician Alexis Grace; Dirty Money, by Jonas Schubach, who also served as cinematographer on Indie Memphis’ closing night feature documentary Kallen Esperian: Vissie d’Arti and Jones’ black comedy Death$ in a $mall Town.
How to Skin a Cat
IndieGrant serves as a launch pad — a motivator to stay accountable and follow through with a film, says Joseph Carr. He’ll make his directorial debut at this year’s festival after a $500 IndieGrant and a few thousand dollars in personal fund-raising. Returns is inspired by the years he worked in a bookstore, watching as the digital takeover made in-store interaction almost extinct.
“The film is a profile of people who love their profession and, while struggling with honest bouts of ennui, continue to provide their service in the face of an uncertain future,” Carr says.
A testament to the community’s kinship, Carr committed to filmmaking after working on Sarah Fleming’s crew as a production assistant. Years later, he was cast in Fox’s play Claws and, later, in Feral. Fox produced Carr’s short, along with two others in the block, Fleming’s Carbike and Jones’ Death$ In A $mall Town. Carr, in turn, produced Fox’s Silver Elves.
Death$ in a $mall Town
“The Memphis scene is like a family, and, at some point, we’re all working on each other’s productions one way or another. It’s always an honor,” Fox says.
Since 2002, Fleming has captured multiple perspectives of Memphis. Carbike depicts the city through the eyes of tourists. Aside from Fox playing an amiable Airbnb host, the dialogue between lead actors Kazuha Oda and Hideki Matsushige is in Japanese.
“[Carbike] is part of a larger series focusing on stories of Memphis visitors — all of which are inspired by true stories,” Fleming says. “I’m a huge fan of this city and enjoy exploring our unique landscape.”
At last year’s festival, Jones was asked why there were only two big winners. Rather than hand two people $5,000 each, why not give 10 people $1,000?
“My response was that I want to see the bar raised,” Jones says. “The IndieGrants are important to me because I want to see Memphis grow as a film city. This is one way I can directly help make that happen.”
Breezy Lucia 
Jamie Harmon 
