Memphis filmmakers take charge this week.
Tommy Foster and friends in his short film ‘This Must Be My Lucky Day’
Tonight, Indie Memphis presents the 15th anniversary screening of Morgan Jon Fox’s debut film, Blue Citrus Hearts. You can read all about the history of one of the most significant indie films ever made in Memphis here, in my film feature for this week’s Flyer.
In a late add to the program, Fox’s film with be proceeded by a rarely seen short masterpiece by Tommy Foster. “This Must Be My Lucky Day” was a rare detour into video art for the beloved Memphis artist, who passed away earlier this year.
Shot by Brandon Hutchinson, who co-founded the Digital Media Co-Op along with Fox, the deceptively simple film is a visually distinct and beautiful example of the experimentalist mindset that dominated the early years of Indie Memphis.
I found it on YouTube in its entirety. You can watch a little bit of it to get the flavor or consume the whole thing. Either way I promise you’ll want to watch it again on the big screen tonight at Studio on the Square, beginning at 7 PM.
This Week At The Cinema: Memphis Masterpieces
On Wednesday, a sneak preview of the directing debut of Lawrence Matthews, aka Don Lifted. The Other Side of Broad is a documentary about the intersection between the charter school movement and racial discrimination and economic gentrification.
Matthews and his team, Nubia Yasin and Justin Thompson, captured the stories of Binghampton families who are being displaced in the aftermath of the 2016 transformation of Lester Middle School and East High School into charter and STEM schools. Matthews says that what was being sold as a way to improve inefficient public schools has instead turned out to be a way for real estate developers to exert pressure on residents of a community who have been deemed undesirable.
The Other Side Of Broad will screen at the newly renovated Caritas Village on Wednesday, August 29th at 7 p.m., proceeded by a photography exhibit and reception beginning at 6 p.m. Tickets are available at the Indie Memphis website.
The Other Side Of Broad