Darel Snodgrass talks with Erik Jambor, Executive Director of Indie Memphis, and Morgan Jon Fox, director of the film This is What Love in Action Looks Like. Next, Kacky Walton had the opportunity to talk with Andrew Pope and Winn Coslick, writer/producers of Losers Take All, as well as the director, Alex Steyermark. Finally, Kacky Walton interviews Jonathan Silberberg, producer of Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, the follow-up to the Peabody and Emmy award-winning documentary Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. This documentary will make its television debut on HBOin January of 2012.
Undefeated and Losers Take All will headline this weekend’s 14th annual Indie Memphis Film Festival presented by Duncan-Williams, Inc. The two Showcase Screenings, co-presented by the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission, will be shown at Playhouse on the Square — Undefeated, and Losers Take All.
“With a lineup that features made-in-Memphis movies alongside classic cinema from Martin Scorsese and new work from Lars von Trier, this year’s program is truly our strongest yet and furthers our reputation as a world class festival” said Erik Jambor, executive director of Indie Memphis. “This year’s festival is a true celebration of independent film in all its forms, and we look forward to sharing the program with all of Memphis.”
Set against the backdrop of a high school football season, Undefeated is a coming-of-age documentary centering on three underprivileged student-athletes from inner-city Memphis and an unexpected volunteer coach who struggles to provide them with the discipline, resources and inspiration they’ll need to not only overcome their bleak surroundings, but also to win the first playoff game in the high school’s 110-year history.
Losers Take All is an indie rock comedy set in Memphis, circa 1986. The film follows The Fingers, who are formed when two average punks recruit two reluctant metal heads into their band. After a discouraging start, they attract the services of an oily and inept but well-meaning band manager/furniture salesman who sees The Fingers as his ticket out of his own humdrum existence. Losers Take All is a comedy about friends making music, as well as an unprecedented love letter to a seminal period of American indie rock.
New for the 2011 festival is a new Screenwriting Award presented by Duncan-Williams, Inc. Memphis Writer / Director Craig Brewer (Footloose, Hustle & Flow) and Screenwriter Daniel Waters (Heathers, Hudson Hawk) will determine the winner of the award and its $1,000 cash prize.
Oxford American magazine will present a $1,000 cash prize to the winner of the Soul of Southern Film Award, determined by the editors of their publication. Continuing their on-going sponsorship of the Hometowner category, the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission will increase the cash prizes awarded to the winners of both the Best Hometowner Feature and Best Hometowner Short award to $1,000 each. Back again for 2011, the Nice Shoes Award will be presented to the director of one of the competition’s feature films. The award, a $25,000 value, will help the winner take his or her next production to the new level.
It includes eight hours of color grading and eight hours of finishing services at Nice Shoes, an artist-driven design, animation, VFX and color grading studio in New York City. As in past years, the festival audience will cast its votes to determine the Audience Award winners in the four main categories. The twelve films that will be included in the Narrative Features competition are: Bad Fever (77 minutes), directed by Dustin Guy Defa; Butterfly Rising (92 minutes), directed by Tanya Wright; David (80 minutes), directed by Joel Fendelman; The Dish and the Spoon (92 min) directed by Alison Bagnall; Five Time Champion (90 minutes), directed by Berndt Mader; How To Cheat (97 minutes), directed by Amber Sealey; A Little Closer (72 minutes), directed by Matthew Petock; Lord Byron (91 minutes) directed by Zack Godshall; Prairie Love (85 minutes), directed by Dusty Bias; Snow on tha Bluff (79 minutes) directed by Damon Russell; Without (89 minutes), directed by Mark Jackson; and Woman’s Picture (105 minutes), directed by Brian Pera. The twelve documentary features in the juried competition are: Beatboxing: The Fifth Element of Hip Hop (55 min), directed by Klaus Schneyder; Better Than Something: Jay Reatard (89 minutes), directed by Alex Hammond and Ian Markiewicz; Black Rock Revival: Mission Control (80 minute), directed by Antoine Beane & Larry McKinney; Fake It So Real (97 minutes), directed by Robert Greene; Give Up Tomorrow (95 minutes), directed by Michael Collins; Heaven + Earth + Joe Davis (92 minutes), directed by Peter Sasowsky; Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card Counting Christians (92 minutes), directed by Bryan Storkel; Stepping: Beyond the Line (47 minutes), directed by Dee Garceau-Hagen; The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: An Urban History (79 minutes), directed by Chad Freidrichs; This is What Love In Action Looks Like directed by Morgan Jon Fox; To Be Heard (87 minutes), directed by Amy Sultan, Deborah Shaffer, Roland Legiardi-Laura and Edwin Martinez; and The Wonder Year (79 minutes), directed by Kenneth Price.
For the festival lineup and schedule, visit http://indiememphis.festivalgenius.com/2011/films.
