When the Nashville Independent Film Festival kicks off next Wednesday, it will offer an unprecedented 175 films on three screens over five days’ time. Daunting? Not for Scene writers Donna Bowman, Noel Murray, Jim Ridley, and Angela Wibking, who offer some picks for the festival below. Writers’ names are initialed beside each pick; works by local filmmakers are indicated with a ♦.
Wednesday, June 9
In My Corner (11 a.m., Documentary, Screen 3) Sports is one of the natural subjects for documentary film, with its stories of personal success and failure, and its natural arc of the contest. Anne Sundberg taps that power with In My Corner, which follows the young boxers who train in a South Bronx community gym. This documentary deals with the rarely seen world of amateur boxing and the daily struggles of those trying to make it big. (DB)
”Mulligans“ (4:15 p.m., Shorts, Screen 16) In golf a mulligan is an extra shot, not counted against one’s score, that’s allowed in unofficial play to make up for a lousy previous shot. In Miles Swarthout’s short film Mulligans, Tippi Hedren (yes, she of The Birds fame) and Marcia Rodd (from Jonathan Demme’s 1977 Citizen Band) tee off together as golf widows. This could be a comedy hole-in-one—especially if a flock of crows materializes on the fairway. (AW)
Desert Blue (7 p.m., Feature, Screen 16) Scheduled for release this month by Samuel Goldwyn, this deadpan ensemble comedy by hot indie director Morgan J. Freeman (Hurricane Streets) plays like Repo Man Lite, but it has a low-key charm. It concerns a sleepy desert town disrupted by—we kid you not—a potentially deadly soft-drink spill. John Heard and Kate Hudson are the city folks caught in the quarantine; Christina Ricci, Brendan Sexton III, Sara Gilbert, and Casey Affleck are among the quirky locals. The soundtrack, which features Cat Power, Ben Lee, Lisa Germano, and others, is tops. Director Freeman will attend the screening. (JR)
The Rest of the Oyster (9:30 p.m., Feature, Screen 16) No region of the country grows eccentrics quite like the South, and no state loves (and elects) its oddballs more than Louisiana. Now filmmaker Jim Rumsfield gives us a comic take on Louisiana politics in his new film. Its irresistible premise: The son of a loan shark/politician tries to escape his destiny by going to work for a prestigious advertising firm, only to have his good ol’ boy dad hire the agency to run his campaign. It sounds like All the King’s Men meets A Confederacy of Dunces—and we mean that as a compliment. (AW)
Thursday, June 10
30, Still Single...Contemplating Suicide (4 p.m., Feature, Screen 3) The exploration of single life—make that L.A. single life; no, make that L.A. single life as seen by a Midwesterner—is nothing new in late 20th-century film. However, Gregory Lanesey’s take on West Coast mating rituals offers a fresh comedic perspective through the eyes of a 30-year-old Michigan native. (DB)
Hitman Hart, Wrestling With Shadows (1:45 p.m., Documentary, Screen 16) Almost completely under mass media’s radar, pro wrestling has evolved from UHF weekend time filler to big business, complete with disturbing questions about what’s really being sold to the customers. This documentary, which follows WWF ”champion“ Bret Hart for a year, promises to get into the human drama and sometimes sleazy business behind the steroid-enhanced muscles and the constant posturing. Paul Jay directs. (NM)
”One Self: Fish/Girl“ (6:30 p.m., Animation, Screen 3) From acclaimed animation guru Emily Hubley comes this cartoon adaptation of a girl’s diary. Accomplished in her own right, Hubley is also known for being the daughter of legendary UPA animators John and Faith Hubley, and the sister of drummer Georgia Hubley, whose band Yo La Tengo provides the music for this short. It appears on a program with several other noteworthy animated films, including the Academy Award-nominated More. Warning: Very few of these pieces are appropriate for youngsters, so please leave the preteens at home. (NM)
In Bad Taste (7 p.m., Documentary, Screen 16) The Independent Film Channel produced Steve Yeager’s documentary on the career of John Waters, a filmmaker whose cockeyed worldview and willingness to slaughter sacred cows has made him an inspiration to the young independents of today (although few are willing to go as far as he). This film is not to be confused with Divine Trash, Yeager’s documentary about the making of Waters’ Pink Flamingos, which had its release delayed by legal hang-ups somewhat related to In Bad Taste. Director Yeager will appear at the screening. (NM)
Free Enterprise (9:30 p.m., Feature, Screen 16) This sci-fi fan-friendly comedy has garnered some buzz on the Internet, mainly because it features William Shatner as ”himself“—the aging star of a cult TV series. Rafer Weigel and Eric McCormack (of TV’s Will and Grace) costar as 30-ish hardcore Trekkers who meet their idol and are so disillusioned by his fatuousness that they start to consider (to paraphrase Shatner himself) ”getting a life.“ Free Enterprise has been compared to Swingers and Clerks due to its profane, pop culture-laden dialogue. (NM)
Friday, June 11
Young Filmmakers Program (11 a.m., Shorts, Screen 3) Last year’s program for filmmakers of high-school age or younger offered some remarkable glimpses of talent and ambition. This year’s selections include documentaries on an AIDS scare, African missionaries, and a teen blacksmith; some startling public-service announcements; and even a sci-fi flick about alien zookeepers. (JR)
”Every Night and Twice on Sundays“ (1:30 p.m., Documentary, Screen 3) Ever wonder what happened to that woman who fell and couldn’t get up in the TV commercial? Thank goodness someone made a short film about her. In ”Every Night,“ Glen Kiser tracks down actress Dorothy McHugh and tells us where she came from and where she went after being rescued from her tragic fall. It’s showing before Ruth Leitman’s Alma, an acclaimed, disturbing documentary about a woman and her eccentric mother. (DB)
”Peep Show“ (4 p.m., Shorts, Screen 16) Everyone knows what men want to see when they pump quarters into a peep-show booth. What do women want for their coins? Director Charlie Call tells guys more than they might want to know. On a bill with several promising shorts, including Jared Seide’s ”Creampuff“ and Andy Lee Johnson’s ”Opie Gone Mad.“ (JR)
♦ Tennessee Film Night (6:30 p.m., Shorts, Screen 3) A night devoted to local films and filmmakers: John K. Dutton’s ”Dearest Heart,“ about the grief-stricken Andrew Jackson; T.K. Kimbrell’s ”The Hangman: It Could Happen to You,“ one man’s real-life journey through a gallery of oddballs; Dee Nichols’ caper flick ”X Marks the Spot“; and Scott Simmons’ ”Goldfish,“ an adaptation of Raymond Carver’s story ”Neighbors.“ And more. (JR)
♦ Films That Suck (9 p.m., Feature, Screen 16) With the line between talent and hype getting blurrier by the minute, Nashville filmmakers Marvin Baker and Ann Gillis could be right on time with their cinematic send-up of the whole indie-film craze. The satire unfolds through the eyes of a reporter (Andy Morris) trying to get an interview with the hottest new indie filmmaker (Read Ridley)—an individual, he discovers to his dismay, who is astonishingly untalented. If you’ve ever sat through an overhyped indie film and wondered what the heck they were thinking about at Sundance, this is the film for you. (AW)
Scene film writer Jim Ridley appears briefly in Films That Suck.
Saturday, June 12
Girls’ Hoops (1:45 p.m., Appalshop Retrospective, Screen 16) While the boxers of In My Corner try to fight their way out of obscurity, the girls who play school basketball in Kentucky find themselves under the spotlight. Justine Richardson’s documentary examines the popular sport from a historical perspective: The state imposed a ban on girls’ basketball for 40 years, but since the ban was lifted in the ’70s, the competition has regained both its fierceness and its mass appeal. (DB)
♦ I Still Miss Someone (7 p.m., Feature, Screen 16) Advance word is excellent on this stark piece of country noir, in which honky-tonk singer Mark Collie puts in a startling turn as the great Johnny Cash at his most haunted. (JR)
Titanic Town (7:30 p.m., Feature, Screen 3) Roger Michell directed this British drama about a Belfast woman (Educating Rita’s Julie Walters) who takes a stand against partisan violence and draws the ire of the IRA. Given the presence of Walters and director Michell—whose credits include the Julia Roberts-Hugh Grant vehicle Notting Hill and the fine Jane Austen adaptation Persuasion—we say check it out. (JR)
The Decline of Western Civilization, Part 3 (10 p.m., Documentary, Screen 3) Talk about self-awareness: When Penelope Spheeris follows the homeless punks of L.A. in her new Decline of Western Civilization documentary, her subjects have all seen her previous two Decline films. They feel a special kinship with her because of Decline Part 1, a seminal document in the punk canon. After exploring heavy metal in Decline Part 2, Spheeris now returns to the punk-underground milieu of the first film, showing us the communal nature of the gutter-punks’ lives and the way their choice to be homeless turns into no choice at all. It’s a sobering look at a neglected subculture. Director Spheeris will appear at the screening. (DB)
Sunday, June 13
This Is My Father (11:15 a.m., Documentary, Screen 16) His mom may be Jean Stapleton (who played Edith in All in the Family), but John Putch’s dad is an entertainment name too—at least in south central Pennsylvania. Putch’s documentary tells the story of William Putch and his Totem Pole Playhouse, a 30-year-old summer theater that has presented more than 300 productions to a rural community where professional theater was once unknown. It’s at once a tribute to a father and to the enduring power of live theater. (AW)
Foreign Cinema (3:30 p.m., Shorts, Screen 16) Short films from France, Spain, Germany, Italy, and Canada form this program of international cinema, a welcome expansion of the NIFF’s focus. Among the reputed highlights: Uwe Thein’s ”Jesus Can’t Bear It Any Longer,“ in which a German soldier in World War II refuses to carry out his grave-filling duties; and Richard D’Alessio’s ”The Dane,“ in which this guy named Hamlet walks into a bar.... (JR)
Faces in the Forest (4 p.m., Documentary, Screen 3) Paul Polycarpu’s documentary captures an extraordinary subject: the mission of a team of plastic surgeons to a remote Peruvian town, where they hope to repair the deformed faces of impoverished children throughout the jungle. (JR)
Gay/Lesbian Films (6:30 p.m., Shorts, Screen 3) One of the NIFF’s most popular programs—last year’s drew an overflow crowd to the Belcourt—the gay/lesbian minifest this year includes Lucy Winer’s documentary Golden Threads, a profile of 93-year-old lesbian activist Christine Burton, and Eileen Sanabria’s ”Gender Nation X,“ in which student producers tackle the issue of whether sexuality is hereditary or conditioned. (JR)
”The Spitball Story“ (7 p.m., Documentary, Screen 16) One of the most famous anecdotes in jazz history is related in this prize-winning short, which recounts how a simple prank may have inadvertently led to the development of bebop. Director Jean Bach (developing a passage excerpted from her fine featurette A Great Day in Harlem) interviews musicians Jonah Jones, Milt Hinton, and Dizzy Gillespie, all of whom played in Cab Calloway’s band before the incident in question. This film appears on a program with two other short music-themed docs, including The Legend of Bop City, about the noted San Francisco jazz club. (NM).
