Above: Midnight in Paris
There’s a certain warmth to Indie Memphis. Perhaps it’s odd to ascribe that to a film festival, but it’s the first word that comes to mind when I think of the four days I spent in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, surrounded by audiences, filmmakers, programmers, and writers like myself who have an enduring love for independent cinema. As soon as I arrived the temperature dropped to the low 40s and eventually the 30s, but I hardly noticed. I’d been wanting to go to Indie Memphis since critic and programmer Miriam Bale took was named Artistic Director of the event last year. The centerpiece of her first year was a celebration of Hong Sang-soo, bringing his films (The Day After, Grass) to Memphis for the first time.
This year, the centerpiece of the festival was the Sara Driver retrospective, which included both her films and personal selections. Driver, a New York City director, writer, producer, and actor, was in attendance along with her frequent collaborator Jim Jarmusch For many of us, this was our introduction to Driver, who began working in film in 1980, releasing her first short film (You Are Not I) in 1981 and her first feature, Sleepwalk, in 1986. Her most recent film, Boom For Real:The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat, was released in 2018.
Indie Memphis had an eclectic selection of films in 2019, including the Departures Jury Award-winner Empty Metal, a political thriller unlike anything else in theaters right now. Shot in a handheld guerilla-style, Empty Metal chronicles the journey of a radical queer punk band into extreme activism. In another festival favorite, two young filmmakers, James Blagden and Roni Moore, go to a highly politicized city and showcase the lighter side of life. Best Documentary Feature-winner Midnight in Paris tells the story of a group of teens in Flint, Michigan preparing for the prom. Best Narrative Feature-winner De Lo Mio told an intimate story about siblings reuniting in their family’s homeland of the Dominican Republic. Films were often introduced by local music groups, varying in genre depending on the film. For example, You Are Not I was screened with an opening performance from Memphis experimental band Optic Sink.
The festival also showcased a number of female-directed features that had already made their rounds at other festivals, including Clemency, Selah and the Spades, Jezebel, Little Joe, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, I Was At Home, But..., and Atlantics.
The mission of Indie Memphis is to “create community through independent film and support the development of filmmakers,” which is exemplified by their commitment to showcasing and rewarding early career filmmakers within the Memphis area. In the short time that Bale has been at the reins, she made a point to invite writers and filmmakers of color. She bolstered this initiative with the introduction of the Black Creators Forum, a two-day seminar that allows black artists to have panels and discussions about cinema in a safe space removed from the white gaze. This year’s Black Creators Forum included panels like “What is a Black Film?: Black Films By White Filmmakers,” “Post-Moonlight Masculinity,” and “Tyler Perry: Independent Filmmaker?”
I had the privilege of sitting down with Ms. Bale to discuss how she goes about programming, the Black Creator’s Forum, and the director Sara Driver.
NOTEBOOK: I really enjoyed the Black Creators Forum.
MIRIAM BALE: Yeah! I felt like there were a lot of great discussion and nuanced attitudes. Especially regarding Tyler Perry, which was very fascinating.
NOTEBOOK: There are pros and cons to Tyler Perry regarding his work and cultural impact, and I appreciated that we discussed both with an understanding that his work has value. His messages are often troubling, especially regarding gender norms, but he’s also somewhat responsible for revitalizing the careers of black women who have been left out by mainstream Hollywood.
BALE: It was really nice to see the festival start with the Black Creators Forum and have that be a space for a lot of the black filmmakers and critics to meet before the fest. And as it turns out, some of the discussions we had during the forum seem to have informed the jury when they were making their decisions.
NOTEBOOK: How was the “Post-Moonlight Masculinity” panel?
BALE: It was truly amazing. We sat in a circle and there were two main speakers who were both black queer men and it was really like a dialogue. Everyone got a chance to comment. It was also really nice to hear the black women in the room get a chance to speak. Because you know, we’re always the minority no matter what the context. And these black queer men were like, “oh, we’re going to listen.” We all listened and learned so much.
NOTEBOOK: How did you go about picking some of the smaller films for this year’s festival?
BALE: When we first started programming last year, our big manifesto was: No boring festival films. None of like the “indie guy going through his life” type of thing. Those films are so boring and you see them everywhere. Our main thing is to not be boring, and we have our own criteria for that. We program really challenging slow films and very weird things. We look for films that are challenging in some way, and that could be emotionally, politically, intellectually… there are many ways for a film to be challenging.
Above: De Lo Mio
NOTEBOOK: You mentioned during the awards ceremony that you’ve always wanted to do a Sara Driver retrospective, could you talk a little about that?
BALE: Well, when I first saw Sara’s films I was at Anthology Film Archives in New York in 2011. I was just blown away by the work and surprised I hadn’t known about it or seen it before. She’s a very New York artist. Sleepwalk is such a great New York film. When I first visited the festival they were doing a retrospective on Abel Ferrera and then when I came on I immediately wanted to do one for Sara. In my eyes, she was like an equivalent to Abel, because her work is also so New York. She wasn’t available last year, but we got her this year. I just love Sara’s work and I’m sad that more people haven’t seen it. And it was so great to talk to her. Did you get a chance to meet her?
NOTEBOOK: I really liked You Are Not I. Sara Driver made something so unique her first time out. It’s the kind of thing where if I had seen it in film school it would have changed everything for me.
BALE: This is exactly why I wanted to do it! I felt the same way when I saw You Are Not I. I really hope that she makes more films. I would love for there to be a resurgence and more people get to experience her amazing work.
NOTEBOOK: How do you and your team figure out the scheduling for Indie Memphis?
BALE: That’s a dark art [laughter]. We tried to do more encores this year so that films can play more than once. I mean, you can’t see everything. So everyone tends to end up having a different festival experience.
NOTEBOOK: The smaller films at this fest are really something special.
BALE: Yes! I’m so happy with the response to Midnight in Paris. Everyone who saw it loved it and it was so great to see. Empty Metal is another one that is weird and interesting and wonderful. We definitely had more white male filmmakers at the fest this year, but it was interesting to observe their experience. I wondered about how they were observing and what they were learning from the work by women and people of color that we’re advocating for. It’s interesting because we’re not a black film festival but we’re also trying not to be a white film festival.
NOTEBOOK: Without being a black film festival, there’s still so much blackness here anyway.
BALE: And that’s Memphis! There’s no need for us to ignore that. So many regional festivals are just leftovers of the major festivals, playing films that could play anywhere. This festival could only exist in Memphis. We’re so inspired by the people and the culture here. This is a black city, a crazy city, a magical city.
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