Created by David Harris, a producer with MTV New Media, the 15-webisode program will employ many of the local crew members who worked on Memphis filmmaker Craig Brewer's similarly Web-based "$5 Cover," which made its debut online and on MTV in April after being shot here last summer.
Cori Dials and the boisterous JMM"Cigarette Girl" tentatively is set to have its Memphis premiere on Sept. 10 at the Malco Paradiso, in what would be the first collaboration between the Indie Memphis Film Festival and the On Location: Memphis International Film Fest.
After Perth, McCarthy said, he will screen "Cigarette Girl" in Sydney, and will show some of his past films, including "Teenage Tupelo" and "Elvis Meets the Beatles," at various cinemas, clubs and taverns in Australia. He said he plans to use his off time in the Antipodes to write a Western.
Read the full story here and check out the info at the Film/TV commission's web site here.A pair of lauded movie makers will be in Memphis this month to host free screenings and workshops for aspiring local screenwriters.
The filmmakers -- producer Mike S. Ryan and writer-director Barry Jenkins -- will review and discuss script "treatments" in afternoon workshops on July 18-19. Attendance will be limited, to keep the groups manageable, and is restricted to residents of Shelby County. Treatments for review must be submitted in advance, and will be selected by the filmmakers.
Organized by the Memphis and Shelby County Film Commission, the effort is an attempt to help the city's many hopeful writers, said film commissioner Linn Sitler, who has labeled the weekend "Indie Heaven."Treatments must be submitted to the film commission at info@memphisfilmcomm.org. Examples of the requested treatment format can be found on the commission's Web site.
In addition to the film commission, sponsors of the "Indie Heaven" weekend include Malco Theatres Inc. and MemphisED, an economic development organization.
The event is a sequel of sorts to last year's film commission more job-oriented workshops, which focused on film crew positions.
The CA's John Beifuss on a film exhibition at the Center for Southern Folklore:
The most significant filmmaker in this city's history might be a man who never worked with movie studios or stars.
He was inspired by the Bible and the black neighborhoods of Memphis, not by fictional screenplays or the glitter of Hollywood.
"He was a one-man CNN of the community," said Dr. Beverly Bond of the University of Memphis, speaking about the subject of "Taylor Made: The Life and Work of the Rev. L.O. Taylor," a new "online exhibit" that can be found on the recently launched Web site of the Center for Southern Folklore at southernfolklore.com.
Donate to Indie Memphis or become a member of the organization by June 30 and your contribution will be matched dollar for dollar, thanks to a challenge grant from ArtsMemphis.
The $20,000 grant, from an anonymous donor, is at the forefront of what Indie Memphis executive director Erik Jambor describes as the organization's most ambitious fundraising campaign ever.
Jambor said Indie Memphis hopes to raise $80,000 by December to ensure the group's "financial stability and long-term sustainability."
Dedicated to the promotion of independent cinema and local moviemaking, Indie Memphis is probably best known for hosting the annual Indie Memphis Film Festival in October and the monthly Micro Cinema Club short-film series at The Power House near South Main. Indie Memphis also hosts various events in support of local filmmakers and is co-sponsoring a series of screenings at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.
This year's Indie Memphis Film Festival is set for Oct. 8-15 at Malco's Studio on the Square.
Susan Schadt, ArtsMemphis president, said the challenge grant offers "an outstanding opportunity for the community to get behind one of the most powerful artistic voices in our city -- the Memphis independent film industry."
She said "the spirt of Indie Memphis" is "young" and "energetic" and "gives our emerging leaders ... a reason to call Memphis home."
The grant follows the most successful single fundraising event in the 12-year history of Indie Memphis: the April 30 premiere of Craig Brewer's "$5 Cover" project at the Malco Paradiso, which raised $12,000.
Starting at $30 a year (for students), Indie Memphis memberships allow free and discounted admission to various screenings, among other benefits. For more information or to become a member, visit indiememphis.com.
After a half-century in movies and television programs, Red West probably is better known as a longtime friend of Elvis and key member of the so-called "Memphis Mafia" than as an actor.For the full story, go here.
That perception is changing, however, thanks to West's new movie, "Goodbye Solo," which opens Friday at Malco's Ridgeway Four.
West will introduce the film before its first evening screening (7:25 p.m.) and will answer questions afterward.
An independent production that has earned rave reviews (The Washington Post this month dubbed it one of the "Top 5 Most Anticipated" movies of the season), "Goodbye Solo" gives the former Memphian top billing and the first lead role of his career, at an age when other actors are considering -- or being forced into -- retirement.
Read the whole story here.Rod Lurie, writer and director of "Nothing But the Truth," rejects the increasingly prevalent notion that watching a movie is an activity that's somehow more enjoyable after one has "turned off" one's brain.
"You definitely have to turn your brain on when you see my film," Lurie said from his Hollywood office. "I don't think that's such a bad thing."
For those who toil within Memphis' economic development sector, the impressive ranking can be summarized in two words: local incentives. For example, Memphis officials offered an incentive package valued at $500,000 (in real estate and storage space), which helped entice the production company involved with the 2004 Walk the Line filming effort to choose the Bluff City over Shreveport.
"Although our incentives on the state level can be competitive, [the state] cannot offer all of the benefits of some of the other states' incentives," says Sharon Fox O'Guin, deputy commissioner of the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission (MSCFTC). O'Guinn and MSCFTC Commissioner Linn Sitler, who oversees Memphis/Shelby County incentives efforts, have a combined 45 years of film industry experience. "That is where our local government has really stepped up and offered the wage refund program that not only allows a monetary incentive to outside productions, but trains the local crew to help them move up the ladder in the production world."
With the wage refund program, filmmakers can receive a state filming incentive consisting of a 32% cash refund of qualified in-state spending, as well as a city/county filming incentive of a 50% cash refund of wages of qualified local crew trainees.
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