When the city’s yearly movie celebration adopted the name Nashville Film Festival (NFF), they must have meant it literally. In addition to offerings from noted international directors, the just-announced lineup for next month’s festival includes two feature films shot in Middle Tennessee and at least two feature-length documentaries with local subjects.
Making their world premieres at the Nashville Film Festival, to be held April 28 through May 4 at Regal’s Green Hills Commons 16, are a pair of Tennessee-lensed dramas. Stuey, written and directed by local filmmaker A.W. Vidmer, stars actor/screenwriter Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos) in a gritty biopic of high-stakes poker champion Stu Unger. The film, shot last fall, used locations in Nashville and Columbia to double for 1960s New York.
Charlie’s War, directed by David Abbott, features Olympia Dukakis, Diane Ladd and Lynn Redgrave in a World War II-era period piece set in the Deep South. Oscar winner Dukakis will be on hand for the screening, and other actors from both Charlie’s War and Stuey may appear at the festival.
On the documentary front, colorful bluegrass legend Jimmy Martin is the subject of King of Bluegrass: The Life and Times of Jimmy Martin, a tribute by George Goehl making its bow at the NFF. Examining the music business from a different angle is Lawrence Robbin’s Music City Long Shot, a portrait of songwriter Joe Robbin’s travails up and down Music Row.
Despite the strong local presence, though, the festival’s big attractions this year are global. The festival has improved markedly every year since its near-death experience in the mid-1990s, and movie buffs will be pleased to see that this year’s NFF has cherry-picked films from the festival circuit in Toronto, New York and Sundance. Among the international talents represented this year are Canadian cult hero Guy Maddin (Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary), rising Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodysson (Lilya 4-Ever) and 79-year-old Japanese action stylist Seijun Suzuki (Pistol Opera).
NFF artistic director Brian Gordon says he’s still negotiating some coveted films for the festival’s 64 program slots. He hopes to have these locked down by week’s end. Even so, the lineup as it stands is impressive. Confirmed selections include:
♦ Spellbound, Jeffrey Blitz’ Oscar-nominated documentary, which follows eight teenagers in competition to win the 1999 National Spelling Bee.
♦ Spun, the saga of a meth-head’s Trainspotting-style journey through the drug underworld, directed by music-video whiz Jonas Akerlund and starring Brittany Murphy, Rushmore’s Jason Schwartzman, John Leguizamo and Mickey Rourke.
♦ Turning Gate, a wistful romantic drama from acclaimed South Korean director Hong Sang-soo that was an audience favorite at New York and Toronto.
♦ The Weather Underground, a documentary about the 1960s radical group who waged a campaign of domestic terrorism against the U.S. government.
♦ 100 Mile Rule, a black comedy with Michael McKean and Maria Bello by first-time director Brent Huff, in which three Detroit salesmen at an L.A. seminar get ensnared in illicit sex and blackmail.
♦ Doing Time, Sai Yoichi’s highly praised film based on manga author Hanawa Kazuichi’s stint in a Japanese prison.
♦ Love and Diane, Jennifer Dworkin’s remarkable documentary portrait of a recovering Brooklyn crack addict’s struggle to keep her family together against overwhelming obstacles.
♦ The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams’ Appalachia, which examines the controversy surrounding photographer Adams’ portraits of impoverished Eastern Kentucky mountain folk.
The festival will also feature a sidebar of topical films from and about the Middle East. In addition, the NFF’s critics retrospective will spotlight American films from the 1970s. These complement the local premiere of A Decade Under the Influence, Ted Demme and Richard LaGravenese’s tribute to 1970s Hollywood and its wave of “movie brat” directors.
This marks the 34th year for the festival, which started in 1969 as the Sinking Creek Film Celebration and changed five years ago to the Nashville Independent Film Festival. Following a nationwide trend, the Nashville Film Festival has dropped the “independent” from its name, a change that Gordon says reflects the festival’s broadened scope. Other changes include moving the NFF’s awards ceremony to Saturday night instead of Sunday and devoting the last day to additional screenings of sold-out films.
Advance tickets go on sale in early April, available online at www.nashvillefilmfestival.org. Last year’s festival, held in early summer 2002, drew more than 10,000 people.
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