Indie Memphis 2009

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Featured Films
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Competition Documentary/Documentary Feature
Through the works of five visionary individuals, filmmaker Zachary Godshall tells the story of people's inspirations. There is Leonard Knight, building the "God is Love Mountain," a Seussian landscape in the California desert; Shelby Ravellette, a self-professed master mason and Knight Templar; Mississippi preacher H.D. Dennis and his wife, Margaret; Floyd Banks Jr., who builds with bricks, rocks and his own tooth; and the works of sculptor Kenny Hill as presented by Julius Neil. The subjects may come across as unstable, but their motivations are as honorable as why you and I get up every day to sit in a cubicle, prepare lunch for a restaurant full of people or sell a gallon of milk. Their reasons run the gamut from honoring a promise to a dead daughter to trying to impress a woman -- all amid the overriding theme of fulfilling God’s will. The images Godshall gives us reinforce the imperfect, man-made nature of the structures and sculpture garden, while the original music of Shane Monds puts us squarely in church. ~Richard J. Alley Filmmaker Zach Godshall is scheduled to attend. ** Tickets are $8 each / $6 for Indie Memphis members. Members and Silver & Gold passholders should log in to the member/passholder box office redeem benefits, pull tickets or purchase at the member discount. Not already an Indie Memphis member? Join today!
Animation/Narrative Feature/Showcase Screening
Legendary American animator Bill Plympton's work is instantly recognizable. The simple beauty of the pastel sketches set in motion is often in stark contrast with the filmmaker's fevered surreality and sharp humor. Plympton began his career as an illustrator and syndicated cartoonist in the 1970s before realizing his dream to become an animator with 1983's Boomtown . In 1988, he received his first Ocsar nomination for the now-classic animated short Your Face . Throughout the 90s, Plympton was increasingly in demand as a commercial animator, a regular on MTV, and the star attraction of touring animation festivals. His short Push Comes to Shove won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1991, and was later incorporated into The Tune , which became the first animated feature entirely hand-drawn by its creator. In collaboration with Memphis College of Art, Indie Memphis is proud to honor Bill Plympton and his incredible body of work. Hair High , his 2004 feature screening during the festival, is an outrageous gothic comedy set in the 1950s about the legend of Cherri and Spud, a teenage couple who were murdered on prom night and left for dead at the bottom of Echo Lake. In November, Plympton himself will visit Memphis to speak as part of the Memphis College of Art's Visiting Artists Lecture Series and to screen his latest feature, Idiots & Angels , a dark comedy about a man's battle for his soul. ** Tickets are $8 each / $6 for Indie Memphis members. Members and Silver & Gold passholders should log in to the member/passholder box office redeem benefits, pull tickets or purchase at the member discount. Not already an Indie Memphis member? Join today!
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Call-For-Entres for Li’l Film Fest 12: Free Footage

Live From Memphis has announced the details for the next Li’l Film Fest — and it’s gonna be another fun one! This time, participants are being provided with 3 video clips and are required to use a minimum of 10 seconds of each clip in their submitted film.

Click here for details, to download SD versions of the clips, and to find out how to get your hands on the fancy HD clips you crave.

Theme: Free Footage
Duration: 5 minutes or less
Entry Deadline: Postmarked Friday Dec. 4th
(in hand by Monday, Dec 7th)

The Li’l Film Fest screening will take at 2 pm on Saturday Dec. 19 at the Brooks Museum of Art. Once again, the ”Grand Jury Award” will be accompanied by a customized, thematic trophy and $500 in cash prizes presented by Indie Memphis and the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission. The ”Audience Choice Award” will come with a trophy and the prize money is the cash from the door — so the more people that come to the festival the bigger the pot!

Congrats once again to H.G. Ray for taking home the Grand Jury award with “Spacecrane 2010″ and to Adam Remsen for winning the Audience Choice award with “Frankenstein vs. Dracula: The Opera!” at Li’l Film Fest 11 at the 12th annual Indie Memphis Film Festival last month. Hooray!

Click here for complete Li’l Film Fest details.

Legendary animator Bill Plympton coming to Memphis to screen ‘Idiots & Angels’ on Monday, Nov. 2nd and speak at the Memphis College of Art on Tuesday, Nov. 3rd

Indie Memphis and the Memphis College of Art are honored to welcome Bill Plympton to Memphis and present his latest feature…

Idiots & Angels
Monday, Nov. 2 @ 7:30 pm at the Studio on the Square *Presented on 35mm film.

$5 for the General Public
/ Free for Indie Memphis members and Memphis College of Art students with valid ID

Bill Plympton is scheduled to attend and participate in a Q&A after the screening.

Idiots & Angels

Idiots & Angels

In Bill Plympton’s latest feature, Idiots & Angels, a selfish and morally bankrupt man, wakes up one morning with wings on his back. Even more troublesome than their embarrassing appearance is the wings’ tendency to want to do good deeds.

After much ridicule, he desperately tries to rid himself of the good wings, but eventually finds himself fighting those who view the wings as their ticket to fame and fortune. Is Angel’s misguided soul capable of being rescued?

Told through Plympton’s trademark animation style Idiots and Angels is a dark comedy about a man’s battle for his soul.

Bill Plympton Lecture
Tuesday, Nov. 3 @ 7:00 pm at the Memphis College of Art

Free and open to the General Public.

Bill Plympton

Bill Plympton

Legendary animator Bill Plympton’s work is instantly recognizable. The simple beauty of the pastel sketches set in motion is often in stark contrast with the filmmaker’s fevered surreality and sharp humor. Plympton began his career as an illustrator and syndicated cartoonist in the 1970s before realizing his dream to become an animator with 1983’s Boomtown. In 1988, he received his first Oscar nomination for the now-classic animated short Your Face. His short Push Comes to Shove won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1991, and was later incorporated into The Tune, which became the first animated feature entirely hand-drawn by its creator.

On Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 7:00 pm, Bill Plympton will speak at the Memphis College of Art as part of their Visiting Artists Lecture Series. Plympton will show short films from throughout his career, talking about each film and how to enjoy them. Free and open to the public, the one-hour lecture will take place in Callicott Auditorium.

Indie Memphis members and newsletter subscribers are also invited to attend Bill Plympton’s Master Class, which will take place Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 9:00 am, also in Callicott Auditorium. In the three-hour Master Class, Plympton will show his short films, talk about the creative and business aspects of his work, and do live drawings to illustrate the secret of his success. He will also show an exclusive sneak preview of his new work-in-progress feature film Cheatin’. Attendees of the Master Class will get a free Bill Plympton drawing.

After the Fest: Essential Art House Cinema kicks off Thursday at the Brooks with ‘Jules and Jim’

Indie Memphis and the Brooks Museum of Art continue their year-round collaboration with this special program of restored Art House essentials.

Admission is $5 for Indie Memphis members and members of The Brooks, $7 for non-members, and is free with Indie Memphis ‘09 Silver or Gold Pass or Brooks VIP Film Pass.

Jules and Jim

Jules and Jim

Jules and Jim
Thursday, Oct. 22 @ 7:30 pm
at the Brooks Museum of Art

** New, restored high-definition digital transfer.

Hailed as one of the finest films ever made, legendary director Francois Truffaut’s early masterpiece Jules and Jim (Jules et Jim) charts the relationship between two friends and the object of their mutual obsession over the course of twenty-five years. Jeanne Moreau stars as Catherine, the alluring and willful young woman whose enigmatic smile and passionate nature lure Jules (Oskar Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre) into one of cinema’s most captivating romantic triangles.

An exuberant and poignant meditation on freedom, loyalty, and the fortitude of love, Jules and Jim was a worldwide smash upon its release in 1962 and remains as audacious and entrancing today.

The Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal
Thursday, Oct. 29 @ 1 pm & 7:30 pm
at the Brooks Museum of Art

** New, restored high-definition digital transfer.

Disillusioned and exhausted after a decade of battling in the Crusades, a knight (Max von Sydow) encounters Death on a desolate beach and challenges him to a fateful game of chess.

Much studied, imitated, even parodied, but never outdone, Bergman’s stunning allegory of man’s search for meaning, The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde Inseglet), was one of the benchmark foreign imports of America’s 1950s art-house heyday, pushing cinema’s boundaries and ushering in a new era of moviegoing.

Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival.

La Strada

La Strada

La Strada
Thursday, Nov. 5 @ 1 pm & 7:30 pm
at the Brooks Museum of Art

** New, restored high-definition digital transfer.

There has never been a face quite like that of Giulietta Masina. Her husband, the legendary Federico Fellini, directs her as Gelsomina in La Strada, the film that launched them both to international stardom. Gelsomina is sold by her mother into the employ of Zampano (Anthony Quinn), a brutal strongman in a traveling circus. When Zampano encounters an old rival in highwire artist the Fool (Richard Basehart), his fury is provoked to its breaking point.

With La Strada, Fellini left behind the familiar signposts of Italian neorealism for a poetic fable of love and cruelty, evoking brilliant performances and winning the hearts of audiences and critics worldwide.

Winner of the first official Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film, awarded in 1956.

Rashomon

Rashomon

Rashomon
Thursday, Nov. 12 @ 7:30 pm
at the Studio on the Square

** New, restored 35mm film print.

Brimming with action while incisively examining the nature of truth, Rashomon is perhaps the finest film ever to investigate the philosophy of justice. Through an ingenious use of camera and flashbacks, Kurosawa reveals the complexities of human nature as four people recount different versions of the story of a man’s murder and the rape of his wife.

Toshiro Mifune gives another commanding performance in the eloquent masterwork that revolutionized film language and introduced Japanese cinema to the world.

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