Films

Another day of Indie Memphis! This one was pretty jam-packed (though today's going to be even more jam-packed). Mary Beth spent the first half at separate movies and then rejoined for the last half of the day. The first thing I saw was Slackjaw. It was about some hipsters in a "small town" in the pacific northwest (not mentioned in the movie, but at the end of the credits was "proudly filmed in Olympia motherfucking Washington." It was pretty good, about a mysterious corporation that moves in and the people against and for it ("are you against employment, tax revenue?"). Also the main character runs into an old high school friend (their reminded me a lot of my dynamic with Hanover so that was kinda endearing). It mostly had a quirky but underplayed tone. There was some ominous synth music that almost fit but was a little over-exaggerated for what was happening (but all this in a good way). Anyway, it wasn't amazing or anything but it was pretty good. There was a q&a with the main actor in it, who I think also co-wrote it. The next movie opened with a related short called Good White People, about gentrification in Cincinnati, following around one family (mostly the father who runs a small "mom and pop" variety store and they live there in the building and he has karate classes in the store) and what he's doing leading up to having to move out of the building (because of gentrification) and also some of the goings-on by white people in the redeveloped parts of the neighborhood. It was really good. Then was the feature Goodbye Brooklyn, about the Death by Audio diy venue being kicked out of their building by Vice moving in (painting Vice in a pretty bad light, especially considering the irony of how they had championed the venue in the past, but hey corporations and capitalism don't give a fuck, right?). It was pretty good. A lot of the music isn't quite my thing, but there were some good bands featured (mainly Lightning Bolt, and though I haven't really gotten into them the stuff by Les Savy Fav I've heard is pretty good, and yeah none of it really horrible music, just like one step removed from something I'd be into). Anyway, more about how it was started (didn't know the relationship with Death by Audio effects pedals) and then the goings-on the last two months and the series of shows they put on to send it off with a blast. It was pretty good. There was a q&a with both directors (of the short and the feature) afterwards. The director of the Death by Audio documentary ended up being one the of main guys who lived there and put on shows and made pedals and all that. After that I met back up with Mary Beth and we finished the day off together. The next movie was also preceded by a short. This one was called Count about this guy in Atlantic City who's trying to be a vampire lounge act or something. It was pretty abstract and really good. The soundtrack was incredible atonal synth music (I checked out the composer Syrinx afterwards to find it's some Canadian group from the early 70s). The feature we watched was called LoveTrue and it was also really good. It's a documentary, kind of. It's about three groups of people in different corners of the country (Alaska, Hawaii, New York) and the way love works and there's interview stuff and a lot of it is acted out (especially the past or emotional kinda stuff). It's so stylized I was thinking it was all fiction, but fiction kinda acting like a documentary kinda. But it ends up being more of a documentary that acts like fiction. There was a q&a with someone involved afterwards, but unfortunately we didn't have enough time to stay before our next movie started. And this is one I most would have wanted to listen to the q&a to find out more about the film. But didn't work out. We rushed over to Hattiloo to see Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise. It was pretty good. The name speaks pretty well as to what it was: a documentary about Maya Angelou. I didn't know a whole lot about her so it was pretty informative for me. Okay, there we go!