Memphis filmmakers Joann Self Selvidge and Sara Kaye Larson’s documentary The Keepers will be the opening night film for this year’s Indie Memphis Film Festival. The film focuses on the people who keep the nationally acclaimed Memphis Zoo running, and their complex and sometimes heartbreaking relationships with the animals in their care.
Carolyn Horton in The Keepers
The closing night feature will also be a documentary. Orion: The Man Who Would Be King, directed by British filmmaker Jeanne Finley, cuts to the origin of the “Elvis Is Still Alive” myth. In the late 1970s, a man named Jimmie Ellis who had a voice that was uncannily like The King’s made a name for himself as a masked singer named Orion, who, rumor had it, was actually Elvis.
Orion
Among the other movies announced for the festival today are Todd Haynes’ Carol, starring Cate Blanchett, and a 25th anniversary screening of Metropolitan, a pioneering indie production that created a blueprint for countless low-budget ensemble pieces, with director Whit Stillman. The second opening night feature, Tangerine, is a surreal crime drama shot entirely on iPhones by director Sean Baker. You can see clips from all of the announced films in this short video. For more information, go to the Indie Memphis website.
The Keepers to Open Indie Memphis 2015
