Black Barbie
Since its inception back in 1969, what is now known as the Nashville Film Festival has seen name changes and venue shifts. This year — for the festival’s 54th installment — NaFF will feature more than 140 short films, features and documentaries, which will screen at the Belcourt Theater, Regal Green Hills, the Franklin Theatre, Vanderbilt’s Rothschild Black Box Theater and Sarratt Cinema from Sept. 28 to Oct. 4.
Among the flicks showing at NaFF is opening-night presentation Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive, a documentary about the disco icon’s long path to earning her second Grammy. Other intriguing titles include documentaries Time Bomb Y2K and Black Barbie, Anne Hathaway-starring psychological thriller Eileen, boarding-school horror film Sacrifice Game, demonic romp The Puppetman, star-studded sci-fi drama Fingernails, French period piece A Taste of Things and many, many more. As ever, also on the slate for this year’s fest is the Creators Conference — a broad array of panels and networking events. Intriguing topics there include “AI Illuminated: The Future of Film,” “Catalyst Presents: How TV Really Works,” the annual Filmmaker and Screenwriter Mixer and much more. You can find details about this year’s Nashville Film Festival, or purchase tickets and passes, at nashvillefilmfestival.org.
Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive
Of course, NaFF isn’t the only long-running film festival that will kick off later this month. This year’s International Black Film Festival will take place from Sept. 27 through Oct. 1 at Belmont University’s R. Milton and Denice Johnson Center as well as at The Loading Dock and the Looby Community Center. Celebrating 18 years and featuring the theme “Curated by the Culture,” the IBFF will feature a focused lineup of screenings including documentaries Lead Belly: The Man Who Invented Rock & Roll, Two Classes of 1968 and Black Barbers Doc, narrative feature Four Walls and more. Also on the docket will be a number of industry panels including “Get Greenlit: Live Pitch Session,” “Salute to 50 Years of Hip Hop” and more.
Outside of film-fest world, Nashville cinema center the Belcourt is hosting a number of promising films this fall. Upcoming new releases include psychological erotic thriller Fair Play (opening Sept. 29) as well as — prepare yourselves, Swifties — concert doc Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Oct. 13). The Hillsboro Village arthouse also has a handful of extremely enticing series planned, including the already-underway Doc Spotlight (landing a month too early to be called “Doctober,” sadly). Among the 14 documentaries showing in that series are Knoxville filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon’s King Coal (Sept. 15-19), which “meditates on the complex history and future of the coal industry, the communities it has shaped, and the myths it has created,” as well as rock docs The Elephant 6 Recording Co. (Sept. 11) and Mutiny in Heaven: Nick Cave’s Birthday Party (Oct. 4-8) and triple-program concert doc The Cramps & The Mutants: The Napa State Tapes (Oct. 2). With nearly a dozen other titles, the series is a veritable feast for doc-heads, with other selections including Our Body (Sept. 17-20), Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes (Sept. 25) and Invisible Beauty (Sept. 30-Oct. 3), among others.
What’s more, the Belcourt has also programmed a pair of tribute series for two recently departed creative giants. A Tribute to Paul Reubens is set for Sept. 8 through 24, with titles including Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Big Top Pee-wee, Cheech and Chong’s Nice Dreams, Life During Wartime and Mystery Men. Stretching out just a bit longer will be the theater’s A Tribute to William Friedkin (Sept. 9-Oct. 22), a truncated tour through the masterful cinema icon’s catalog featuring Sorcerer, The French Connection, To Live and Die in L.A., Cruising and Bug — plus, just in time for Halloween, arguably the greatest horror film of all time, The Exorcist.
Killers of the Flower Moon
With the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes ongoing for who knows how much longer, it remains to be seen if and which big fall releases will be delayed. Sci-fi dorks such as myself were distraught to learn that Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two was pushed from an October release back to March 15 — after all, Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet can’t use their star power to promote the film until the actors’ strike is resolved. The most important thing? That writers and performers are able to negotiate a fair deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, of course. For now, Martin Scorsese’s highly anticipated epic Killers of the Flower Moon is still set for a wide release next month (Oct. 20). Other titles that, as of press time, remain on the autumn release calendar include: Kenneth Branagh’s third turn as Hercule Poirot, A Haunting in Venice (Sept. 15); Gareth Edwards’ sci-fi epic The Creator (Sept. 29); Saw X (Sept. 29); David Gordon Green’s The Exorcist: Believer (Oct. 6); crime drama Pain Hustlers (Oct. 20); David Fincher’s The Killer (Oct. 27); Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla Presley biopic Priscilla (Oct. 27); MCU installment The Marvels (Nov. 10); and Ridley Scott's Napoleon (Nov. 22), starring Joaquin Phoenix.
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