LITTLE ROCK — The 14th annual Indie Memphis Film Festival kicks off today and runs through Sunday with a variety of events and screenings held at the Playhouse on the Square, Malco Theatres’ Studio on the Square, and the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.
And while the festival is being held in Tennessee, several young Arkansas filmmakers’ works will be there representing the Natural State.
“A lot of us Arkansans are going to be there,” says filmmaker Miles Miller. “It’s going to be a crazy time.”
Miller and his brother Joshua will be there for the screening of their film, Pillow.
The 19-minute film will be included among screenings beginning at 9:30 p.m. Saturday as part of the “Short Films #4: Dark & Stormy” block at the Studio on the Square.
“It’s a Southern gothic tale of two brothers who’d do anything to please their overbearing mother,” Miller says, adding, “There’s also an element of fantasy to it.”
Miller, 34, and 33-year-old Joshua hail from Little Rock and went to school in Bryant, graduating from Bryant High School.
The pair previously worked separately producing other films, but Pillow marks their first foray into writing, directing, and working together.
“And I think this is the way we’ll be working from now on,” Miles Miller says.
After all, it’s hard to argue with success. The pair have seen Pillow screened at 17 festivals across the nation this year and it has won numerous awards in categories ranging from best cinematography and best actor to best short and best director in the “Made in Arkansas” category of the Little Rock Film Festival in June.
The Memphis film festival is a growing one, more than doubling attendance since 2007, with some 7,800 attending last year.
Much of that can be attributed to the fact that in 2008, the all-volunteer organization received a large private donation from an individual in the community that allowed, for the first time, a full-time executive director to be hired.
Other Arkansans’ films being screened during the 9:30 p.m. Saturday presentation include Little Rock resident Gerry Bruno’s Seven Souls and fellow Little Rock resident Bryan Stafford’s Ballerina.
More local filmmakers’ work will be shown beginning at 5:15 p.m. Sunday as part of the “Short Films #7: Funny Ha Ha” block. During that presentation, screenings will include Conway resident Kim Risi’s Disillusioned and Little Rock resident Daniel Campbell’s The Orderly (which earlier this year won the Charles B. Pierce Award for best film in the Little Rock Film Festival’s “Made in Arkansas” category).
On Sunday a 5 p.m. screening will be held of Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, revolving around the conviction and eventual release of Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, convicted as teens of the May 1993 murders of three 8-year-olds, Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers and James Michael Moore of West Memphis. The film documents the three men’s attempt at getting a new trial and their subsequent release in August after 18 years of incarceration.
For more information or to buy tickets, which range from $15 for the Paradise Lost screening and $18 for a day pass ($36 for a weekend pass) to $250, visit www.indiememphis.com. or call (901) 214-5171.
Weekend, Pages 35 on 11/03/2011