Nashville scores Sundance premiere of producer Peter Jackson's West Memphis Three doc
West of Memphis Heads East
by Jim Ridley @countrylifeblog
Earlier this year, the Sundance Film Festival selected Nashville's Belcourt as one of nine theaters across the country to host a premiere screening concurrent with January's fest. The films were just announced this week, and Nashville got one of the festival's most anticipated items: West of Memphis, the new documentary by acclaimed filmmaker Amy Berg (Deliver Us from Evil, Bhutto) about the infamous West Memphis Three case.
The case of Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr. — the West Memphis teenagers who were railroaded in 1994 for allegedly killing three 8-year-old boys, then taken up as a cause celebre until their release from prison just months ago — has already been covered at length in the Paradise Lost documentaries by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky. But Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson and his collaborator/wife Fran Walsh have given financial support to the West Memphis Three's legal defense, and they're among the producers of Berg's documentary.
The New York Times recently reported on a controversy brewing between Berg's doc and the closing chapter in the Berlinger-Sinofsky series, which premiered in Toronto two months ago while headlines about the West Memphis Three's release were still dripping ink. (It airs Jan. 12 on HBO.) As reported, with many of the participants angling for movie deals and competing projects, it's an ugly but fascinating story. And the notoriety will only raise interest in Berg's project — as will curiosity over how it will handle a lurid saga the previous docs have owned until now.
West of Memphis will show one night only at The Belcourt Jan. 26, and in keeping with previous Sundance Film Festival USA events, at least one of the primary filmmakers will attend. (Plus there's always the possibility of special guests.) The $15 tickets are available at belcourt.org — but likely not for long.
Email arts@nashvillescene.com.
