Reel Nashville 2018: Best of the Fest

Narrative Competition

1985

In 1985, Cory Michael Smith turns in a deeply felt performance as Adrian, a closeted gay man who returns home to visit his conservative Christian parents — and his awkward tween brother — in Texas at the peak of the AIDS epidemic. In addition to his true identity, he’s also carrying a terrible secret, which he finally confides in an old friend (Jamie Chung). The film is all the more moving because it doesn’t try to score any easy points off the parents’ religious convictions, and director Yen Tan gets nuanced performances from Michael Chiklis as Adrian’s dad, a hardened veteran still steeped in old notions of masculinity, and Virginia Madsen as his mother, a woman finally coming to her own and trying to connect with her long-absent son. Shot by HutcH on Super 16 mm in a dense black-and-white that gives an almost sculptural heft to shadow, 1985 is a time and place worth visiting. 9:15 p.m. Thursday, May 17; 3 p.m. Friday, May 18 STEVE HARUCH

Documentary Competition

Circles 

Cassidy Friedman’s Circles takes a tough look at the dilemma of wrongful imprisonment and the concept of restorative justice. The issue hits home in painful fashion when Hurricane Katrina survivor Eric Butler — who has relocated to Oakland and dedicated himself to helping keep black teens in school and out of the poverty-to-prison pipeline — finds his own family involved, his 15-year-old son jailed despite his protestations of innocence. Circles was shot over a two-year period and is much more than simply an object lesson in social inequality. It’s a powerful and provocative examination of how problematic things have become in America’s criminal justice system. 5 p.m. Saturday, May 12; 4:28 p.m. Thursday, May 17 RON WYNN

Crime + Punishment

Stephen Maing’s Crime + Punishment follows the NYPD 12, a group of black and Latino active-duty cops who brought an explosive suit against the New York Police Department. The officers alleged that the department set illegal quotas and punished those who refused to arrest people without cause. By focusing on the whistleblowers, victims and one unforgettable private investigator out to defend them all, Maing invites a firsthand account that is wrenching and tense. The film sets hidden camera footage and clandestine recordings side by side with artful cinematic shots, making Crime + Punishment not only a film with social relevance, but one of aesthetic complexity that is, in a word, beautiful. 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 15; 4 p.m. Wednesday, May 16 ERICA CICCARONE

Crossroads 

College basketball is the first sport most people associate with North Carolina — few would cite lacrosse. But Ron Yassen’s highly watchable and gripping Crossroads details a most unlikely story involving the sport. Charlotte Secondary is a small charter school that can’t afford a gym or regulation athletic field. Coach Bobby Selkin applies for a grant to provide lacrosse equipment, then begins teaching the sport to young men who have no idea about its rules or tactics. Yassen’s film shows how Selkin, while amazingly turning his hastily thrown-together squad into contenders for a state crown, also gives his players advice and instruction on numerous other matters outside the game. Those who sneer at the notion that sports can offer something valuable beyond the field should check out Crossroads as an antidote to the toxicity that often infests big-time college and professional athletics. 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 16; 5:30 p.m. Friday, May 18 RON WYNN

Dark Money

If Deep Throat’s advice to the Watergate reporters in All the President’s Men was to “follow the money,” then the way to investigate just how screwed-up our politics have become might be to follow the dark money. That is, the nearly impossible-to-trace funds that have flowed into our elections since the Citizens United ruling in 2010. With Dark Money, Kimberly Reed dives into the issue of corporate personhood and campaign finance by focusing on her home state of Montana and how the Supreme Court’s ruling undid decades of the state’s efforts to limit political corruption. Given that a Nashville 501(c)(4) nonprofit just poured $750,000 of anonymous money into an effort to torpedo the city’s transit plan, the topic couldn’t be more timely. 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 13; 3:30 p.m. Monday, May 14 STEVE CAVENDISH

Hillbilly

There’s no shortage of think pieces detailing how “coastal elites” failed to understand coal country during the 2016 election. With the documentary hillbilly, directors Ashley York and Sally Rubin show the evolution of the uneducated, promiscuous hillbilly stereotype in movies and television, linking it with corporate exploitation of Appalachia’s natural resources. The narrative anchor is York, a liberal feminist living in L.A. who returns to her hometown in Eastern Kentucky in the weeks leading up to the election. The film is surprising and refreshing, treating white rural voters generously and expanding cultural understanding of the region. The directors visit the African-American Affrilachian Poets workshop and a clubhouse where queer young adults find community and refuge. For outsiders, the film could potentially challenge viewers’ perceptions; for Appalachians, it’s a cinematic portrayal of which they can be proud. 7 p.m. Saturday, May 19 ERICA CICCARONE

Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland 

Though it’s been nearly three years, the ugly sequence of events that led to the death of Sandra Bland remains a rallying point for many concerned not only about social justice, but police misconduct and brutality. As the crisply shot, incisive documentary Say Her Name reveals, Bland was stopped for a traffic violation, and three days later was found hanged in a Texas jail cell. Prison authorities were quick to label it a suicide, but family members never accepted that notion. Co-directors Kate Davis and David Heilbroner spent more than two years alongside the Bland family in their quest to not only prove that this was far more than a suicide, but also to put the spotlight on systemic oppression and injustice within the Texas prison system. The film is made even stronger through the use of Bland’s own voice, which is taken from her online video series “Sandy Speaks.” It’s hard to make a better case that this incident was horribly handled, and not fairly or accurately adjudicated, than this film. 6:45 p.m. Sunday, May 13; 1 p.m. Monday, May 14 RON WYNN

Special Presentations

Hal

Fans of ’70s auteurist cinema will definitely get a kick out of Amy Scott’s documentary on the life and times of underappreciated filmmaker Hal Ashby. Once Norman Jewison’s right-hand man in the editing booth, the long-haired, weed-loving Ashby had an award-winning streak during the Me Decade, churning out such classics as Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo, Coming Home and Being There. Along with interviews with his stars (Jon Voight, Jane Fonda, Beau and Jeff Bridges), friends, family and contemporary filmmakers who were influenced by him (including Judd Apatow and David O. Russell), the film also dives into how he was constantly at odds with studio execs, which ultimately led to his professional downfall in the ’80s, before he died of pancreatic cancer in 1988. Hal is certainly a loving salute to a filmmaker who should be right up there on the 1970s New Hollywood Mount Rushmore, along with Coppola, Scorsese and Spielberg. 8 p.m. Monday, May 14; 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 15 CRAIG D. LINDSEY

Fail State

Fail State takes a stab at revealing corrupt practices in the for-profit higher-education model — an important subject, for sure. The film makes a clear case against the corporations that prey on vulnerable students by making big promises and charging exorbitant rates. Thanks to a powerful higher-education lobby, Congress has gutted restrictions, and unaccredited for-profits churn out students who are deep in debt with useless degrees. But director Alexander Shebanow fills his dry first 30 minutes with policy information culled from news clips and talking heads. The pace picks up somewhat once he introduces victims of the for-profit model, often poor people, veterans and those with disabilities. Unfortunately, even this is unimaginative, relying on cheesy re-enactments and monotone voice-over. Those who already feel passionate about the issue might be able to withstand these artistic challenges, but Fail State is unlikely to cultivate new interest. 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 17 ERICA CICCARONE

It All Begins with a Song: The Story of the Nashville Songwriter

According to promotional materials (the picture was still in production at press time), some 49 songwriters, singers and music-business folk with Nashville connections appear in this doc, produced by the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau. The trailer showcases some breathlessly bullish appraisals of what the city can offer the aspiring songsmith, but if you can sit through that, you’ll get to hear stories from rising champs like Kacey Musgraves and Jessi Alexander plus legends like Mac Davis and John Hiatt, as well as the late Lari White. 6 p.m. Sunday, May 13; 6 p.m. Thursday, May 17 STEPHEN TRAGESER

One Vote 

Many Americans would never choose to relive Nov. 8, 2016 — Election Day. But with One Vote, first-time director Christine Woodhouse dives back in. As an attorney, she volunteered for several years at polling places as an informal observer and resource for voters, and in doing so she noticed something. While Election Day narratives usually focus on voter demographics, votes are cast on an individual basis, and some voters have deeply personal relationships with the process that is independent of their politics. Woodhouse and her team spread out across the country on Nov. 8 to follow the stories of six people, among them a former felon in Kentucky voting for the first time since his right was restored and an Alaskan family making an eight-hour journey to the polls on foot. There are virtually no references to the candidates in the explosive 2016 presidential election. One Vote is a celebration of the process. 4 p.m. Saturday, May 12; 3:15 p.m. Sunday, May 13. ERICA CICCARONE

Eighth Grade

Elsie Fisher stars in Eighth Grade as Kayla, a wannabe YouTube-personality-slash-anxious-teen who is trudging her way through the final stretch of middle school with shoulders hunched. “Being yourself is, like, not changing yourself to impress someone else,” she tells her meager YouTube audience. If only she could follow her own advice. Fisher brings vulnerability and originality to the role that’s written and directed by comedian Bo Burnham. Eighth Grade not only speaks to the awkward terror of adolescence, but also to this truism noted in Kate Erbland’s review for IndieWire: “Teens are impulsive and dumb and self-sabotaging and strangely free.” A favorite at Sundance, Eighth Grade is the kind of quiet, funny and sometimes dark film that could easily be lost in the crowd, but its rewards are many. 6:15 p.m. Monday, May 14 ERICA CICCARONE

Leave No Trace

The latest from uniquely talented Winter’s Bone writer-director Debra Granik, Leave No Trace features undersung longtime character actor Ben Foster and Kiwi newcomer Thomasin McKenzie as a father and daughter living in a large public park in Oregon. Father Will is a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, and a drifter’s existence likely won’t provide the kind of structure teenage daughter Tom needs. Granik is known for her powerful subtlety as a director — expect this one to be tense and strikingly composed. 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 16 D. PATRICK RODGERS

On Chesil Beach

Based on British author Ian McEwan’s 2007 novella of the same name, On Chesil Beach is a period drama that Variety’s Owen Gleiberman calls “a lyrical and rapturous film” and “a repressed passion play.” The film most notably features recent Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan — fellow two-time Best Actress nominee Emily Watson plays her mother — as a young violinist and Billy Howle as her new husband, a history student from a significantly less-well-off family. But there’s more to the couple’s honeymoon than standard marriage-consummation jitters, and On Chesil Beach is a by-most-accounts tense, heartrending and well-acted effort. 7:15 p.m. Saturday, May 12 D. PATRICK RODGERS

Graveyard Shift Competition

The Laplace’s Demon

The Laplace’s Demon is some brain-wrinkling stuff. An intensely calculated spin on the murder-mystery chamber piece, this black-and-white flick features a crew of Italian researchers who head to a secluded island, where a professor lives in a big spooky mansion. Once they’re there, the researchers are subjected to a meticulous cat-and-mouse game, wherein they learn that every move they make has already been predicted by the mysterious host — the professor has even built a mechanical model version of his home, in which the researchers are represented as pawns and the device mirrors their every move. With an all-Italian cast and crew who mostly worked with computer-generated imagery and green-screen images, Demon feels like a stylized illusion. And while the execution is more engrossing and fascinating than the eventual payoff, it’s still the sort of baffling, visually inventive project that would make both Christopher Nolan and Robert Rodriguez swell with pride. 9:30 p.m. Saturday, May 12; 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 16 CRAIG D. LINDSEY

Prototype

Blake Williams’ 3D film is an exploration of the aftermath of the hurricane that destroyed much of Galveston, Texas, in 1900 — but Prototype is much more than that. It’s a total deconstruction of cinematic space. From massive ocean waves that crest outward from the screen to early television sets hovering in the ether as if broadcasting from another planet and scenes from a rodeo fragmented into a kind of live-action Cubist painting, Williams provides more ways not to make a conventional movie than you could probably imagine. This is the avant-garde as funhouse attraction. Don’t miss it. 9:30 p.m. Thursday, May 10; 9 p.m. Wednesday, May 16 MICHAEL SICINSKI

Zerzura

According to press materials, Zerzura is the “first-ever ethnographic acid Western.” The film is indeed a surreal, sand-covered journey that’s obviously influenced by David Lynch and Sergio Leone. (There are shots in there that definitely feel like they were lifted from the former’s Lost Highway and the latter’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.) The film tells of Ahmoudou (Ahmoudou Madassane, who also co-wrote the script and composed the score), a young man from the Nigerian countryside who goes on a phantasmagorical mission to find his older brother, who he learns went searching for the titular treasure-filled lost city. Co-written by Madassane, Guichene Mohamed, Rhissa Koutata and experimental anthropologist Christopher Kirkley (who also directed), Zerzura is an intriguing, guerrilla-style mixture of folklore, fantasy and old-school pulpy adventure. 9:30 p.m. Friday, May 11; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 19 CRAIG D. LINDSEY

Tennessee First

Straight Up: Kentucky Bourbon

At the beginning of Straight Up: Kentucky Bourbon, a Scot — full of pride about the history of scotch — asks the quintessential question: Why don’t more Americans feel the same way about bourbon? It’s one of the questions that director Eric Byford grapples with as he takes a survey of the history of our country’s most original spirit. Byford has assembled an impressive collection of distillers who give voice to Kentucky’s greatest export, and even the casual drinker will walk away with a better sense of why bourbon is important to our national identity. 5:44 p.m. Wednesday, May 16; 3 p.m. Thursday, May 17 STEVE CAVENDISH

Triumph: The Untold Story of Perry Wallace

It may be an unthinkable concept to young fans of 21st-century SEC basketball and football, but those who grew up in the Jim Crow South can remember when the SEC, as well as many other conferences throughout the region, had zero black players and minimal (if any) non-white students, period. Perry Wallace was a trailblazer at Vanderbilt as the school’s first — and indeed the entire SEC’s first — black basketball scholarship player. Richard Gentile’s chronicle of his evolution from hesitant pioneer to articulate, vital figure heavily pivots off Andrew Maraniss’ extensive, award-winning 2014 book Strong Inside. The film also offers insights on Wallace’s importance from nonathletic sources, ranging from the Rev. James Lawson to former Attorney General Eric Holder and former Atlanta mayor and UN Ambassador Andrew Young. With appropriately intense narration from Oscar winner Forest Whitaker and crackling insights from Dr. Harry Edwards, Triumph details a victory that was both a personal achievement and a landmark social moment. 7 p.m. Friday, May 11; 3:15 p.m. Saturday, May 12 RON WYNN

Music Films/Music City Competition

Industrial Accident — The Story of Wax Trax! Records

Despite being 100,000 percent prescient about the darkest timeline we’ve come to inhabit, classic industrial dance music still doesn’t get the respect and love it deserves. It’s a genre that fused the anti-authoritarian ethos of punk with the propulsion of disco and the sheer fuck-all-y’all-itude of experimental music to create a lusty, throbbing soundtrack for underground America’s warped, Reagan-damaged psyche. Fucked-up people doing fucked-up things to fucked-up sounds, basically. Despite its rather dystopian fascinations, industrial music is a lot of fun and perfect rock-doc fodder. Chicago’s Wax Trax! Records has always been the standard-bearer for industrial music’s lysergic lunacy — this is the label of Revolting Cocks and My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, after all, not to mention Ministry’s Al Jourgensen and Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor. Julia Nash’s film documents the legendary label’s rise and fall. 8 p.m. Saturday, May 12; 9 p.m. Friday, May 18 SEAN L. MALONEY

The Potential of Noise — Conny Plank

Conny Plank is credited as producer or engineer on albums that have influenced an incredible variety of music over the past four-and-a-half decades, by musicians ranging from Neu!, Kraftwerk and Cluster to Devo, Ultravox and The Eurythmics. But his role was something bigger — more about serving as an intermediary between the artists and the technology they used to bring their ideas to life. Plank died of laryngeal cancer in 1987 when his son Stephan was just 13, and this doc, directed by Stephan Plank, chronicles his quest to learn more about who his father was, via interviews with an array of artists he collaborated with. 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 16; 12:30 p.m. Thursday, May 17 STEPHEN TRAGESER

Animated Feature Competition

Cocolors

Cocolors is a 46-minute film designed to warm the hearts of those weirdos (we say that with love!) who love dystopian fiction, Japanese animation and dark children’s stories. Set deep in the underground, Cocolors features kids who run around wearing protective gear and giant masks so they never get a whiff of the ash that permeates the outside world. Since we couldn’t get a screener for this, we can only assume things get more dangerous and post-apocalyptic-y from there. 8:15 p.m. Saturday, May 12; 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, May 15 CRAIG D. LINDSEY

Spectrum

Nico, 1988

Look, I don’t have enough space to really dissect all of my views about German singer Christa Päffgen (aka Nico) here. My thoughts are super complicated and run counter to canon and involve basically overthrowing generations of sexist rock criticism but with, like, citations and flowcharts and what not. Nico is like the art-rock Linda Ronstadt, a master song stylist and expert collaborator who reshaped pop in her image and doesn’t get the credit she deserves for her profound impact. She released six solo albums in 18 years, each one a cornerstone of underground music, each birthing imitators and admirers amongst music’s vanguard. She was also in a band with some dude for like a year. Director Susanna Nicchiarelli’s dramatization of the rock-doc classic Nico Icon stars Trine Dyrholm as the middle-aged, beyond-tragic artist/addict in her final years. 7 p.m. Sunday, May 13 SEAN L. MALONEY

Spectrum Q

The Gospel of Eureka

The Nashville Film Festival is chock-full of compelling documentaries, and The Gospel of Eureka might cover the most original subject. Directed by Donal Mosher and Michael Palmieri, the film celebrates the complicated cultural landscape of queer small-town life. In Eureka, Ark., the Christian population intersects with the sizable queer community — and often, the two overlap. Gospel pins these worlds on a pair of vivid settings: the Jesus-centric Great Passion Play, and the drag and dance club down the street. Rather than setting them at odds in a culture war, Mosher and Palmieri reveal the contradictions in what Variety’s Amy Nicholson calls “a cure for the angry headline blues.” While the damage inflicted on queer people, physically and legislatively, isn’t ignored, it’s also not the only focus, and the film is a charming, funny portrait of human connection. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 15; 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 16 ERICA CICCARONE

To a More Perfect Union: U.S. v. Windsor

Edith Windsor had just four years to bask in the warmth of the U.S. Supreme Court’s favorable ruling in the case to which she lent her name — but it was the victory of a lifetime. Known as Edie to those familiar with her — including a sizable portion of the country by the time she passed away in 2017 — Windsor was the lead plaintiff in the landmark legal case that effectively legalized same-sex marriage across the United States. To a More Perfect Union tells the story of that fight, one that Windsor undertook on behalf of LGBT Americans everywhere, but also to defend the dignity of her relationship with her late longtime partner Thea Spyer. Because the federal government denied the benefits of marriage to same-sex couples at the time, Windsor had been forced to pay a large estate tax bill upon Spyer’s death. But when Windsor died in 2017, her new wife Judith Kasen did not face the same insult. The world had changed. 7 p.m. Monday, May 14; noon Wednesday, May 16 STEVEN HALE