Film
If you haven’t made it out yet to the 2008 Nashville Film Festival, here’s what you’ve missed so far: surprise no-fuss appearances by Nicole Kidman at screenings of The Black List and American Teen; a furious confrontation between the family of the late Nashville fighter Irish Billy Collins and a maker of the documentary Cornered at the post-film Q&A; banjo master Bela Fleck turning his after-film discussion into a hoedown with an impromptu “Ballad of Jed Clampett”: and a virtual group hug for ’70s hitmaker Dennis Lambert, subject of his son Jody’s lovable doc Of All the Things.
It’s hardly a surprise, then, that as of Monday night festival officials said they’d already topped last year’s 20,000 attendance record. It was a good sign when a near-wordless art film, Jose Luis Guerin’s gorgeous Spanish-language reverie In the City of Sylvia, sold out its one screening so fast it had to be moved to a larger auditorium. But when a Saturday-afternoon exhibition of classics from legendary experimental-film distributor Canyon Cinema filled the joint—man, was somebody handing out nickel beer somewhere?
The NaFF has hastily added closing-night screenings to accommodate crowds wanting a second crack at awards contenders such as Loree Gold and Jane Pittman’s evangelical doc Prophets Rising (9:15 p.m. April 24), Michael O’Connell’s Al Gore-honored Mountain Top Removal (4:30 p.m. April 24), and Fleck’s sonic safari Throw Down Your Heart (9:45 p.m. April 24). It all wraps Thursday night with the sold-out screening of Denny Tedesco’s The Wrecking Crew, with members of the famed Los Angeles session players’ summit group performing afterward at the closing-night party.
That leaves two days to catch some remaining highlights. As of press time, tickets were still available for several features, including:
• Join Us, DiG! director Ondi Timoner’s portrait of a South Carolina religious cult and the hard road awaiting those members who escape. (2:15 p.m. April 23)
• Diggin’ Your Roots, a program of three short music docs featuring The Jayhawks’ Mark Olson (Ray Foley’s “The Salvation Blues”), bluegrass ramblers The Infamous Stringdusters (Craig Havighurst’s “Four Days of Infamy”) and the self-professed “world’s oldest living country-music DJ,” WRVU co-founder Ken Berryhill (Jim Reed’s “Turn Your Radio On: A Tribute to Ken Berryhill”). The filmmakers and the Infamous Stringdusters will attend. (4 p.m. April 23)
• Dear Mr. Waldman, in which the child of Holocaust survivors attempts to reconcile a family crisis in 1960s Tel Aviv. In Hebrew with English subtitles; presented by the Nashville Jewish Film Festival. (6:30 p.m. April 23; also 2:15 p.m. April 24)
• Bearing Light: A Journey to Sudan, Big Kenny and Christiev Alphin’s world-premiere documentary account of their efforts to aid a small village in the war-stricken Southern Sudan. The filmmakers will attend, with a live performance by Damien Horne. (7 p.m. April 23)
Cult-movie fanatics shouldn’t miss either of the two programs featuring indescribable sci-fi/found footage/splatter-comedy filmmaker Damon Packard: the feature Reflections of Evil (9:15 p.m. April 23) and the shorts package Return of the Re-Worked (7:15 p.m. April 24). Other must-sees include the stunning Three Gorges Dam documentary Up the Yangtze (9:30 p.m. April 24). Tickets are available at the downstairs Green Hills box office; see nashvillefilmfestival.org or last week’s Scene coverage of the NaFF at nashvillescene.com for more information.
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