2nd annual Clarksdale Film Festival brings Hollywood excitement to the Mississippi crossroads — January 26-29, 2012
Movies range from Delta blues to Memphis wrestling, from a Hollywood award-winner to a stolen Picayune pickle!
(CLARKSDALE, MISSISSIPPI) For the second year in a row, the Clarksdale Film Festival promises to make you laugh and cry as you feast on a celebration of Mississippi and Southern filmmaking – and maybe even a little fresh popcorn.
"The Clarksdale Film Festival is a wonderful excuse to experience the entertainment and restaurant mini-mecca that our revitalized downtown has become," said Nan Hughes, president of the non-profit Clarksdale Downtown Development Association (CDDA). "What other small Delta town offers such great movies, food, history tours, museums, shopping and live music in the middle of winter?"
The Clarksdale Film Festival runs Thursday-Sunday, January 26-29. The main screening venue is historic Delta Cinemas at 11 Third Street, downtown. More information is available at www.jukejointfestival.com or 662-624-5992. Tickets are $5 per day or $10 for a weekend pass; available at the Delta Cinemas box office during festival hours. Official festival hats and shirts are also available.
"We're showcasing over two dozen Mississippi, Southern or blues music films in two theaters," explained Roger Stolle, co-organizer of the event and owner of Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art in Clarksdale. "On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, we'll feature live blues in the theater lobby by Sean "Bad" Apple along with complimentary hors d'oeuvres by Oxbow Restaurant at 6pm. Then, at 7pm, we'll showcase films like Memphis Heat: The True Story of Memphis Wrasslin', Blues: Pain Created to Heal Pain and The Help – all featuring special movie guests and followed by Q&As or meet-and-greets."
Co-organizer Goldie Hirsberg adds that the festival wishes to thank its generous sponsors – especially Clarksdale/Coahoma County Tourism, Clarksdale Revitalization Inc. and the City of Clarksdale. For a complete list of sponsors, please visit www.jukejointfestival.com. The official Clarksdale Film Festival schedule is below.
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CLARKSDALE FILM FESTIVAL2012 SCHEDULE:
CLARKSDALE FILM FESTIVAL
Delta Cinemas (both theaters)
Thurs.-Sun., January 26-29, 2012
11 Third St., Clarksdale, Mississippi
Info: www.jukejointfestival.com - 662-624-5992
"Mississippi gets its close-up... to celebrate the Magnolia State's films & filmmakers." – Garden & Gun magazine.
Brought to you by the non-profit Clarksdale Downtown Development Association (CDDA) – the same friendly folks who bring y'all Clarksdale's annual Juke Joint Festival – and our generous sponsors, especially Clarksdale/Coahoma County Tourism, Clarksdale Revitalization Inc. and the City of Clarksdale.
TICKETS:
$5 per day or $10 weekend pass. Available at Delta Cinemas box office during film festival days/hours. (Limited "media passes" available; email roger@cathead.biz
with request/credentials.)
THURS JAN 26
DELTA CINEMAS LOBBY:5:30pm - doors open; ticket/merchandise sales
6pm - Sean "Bad" Apple performs live blues
6pm - complimentary hors d'oeuvres courtesy of OXBOW restaurant (while quantities last)
MAIN THEATER:
7pm – “Festival Welcome” from Clarksdale Downtown Development Association (CDDA)
7:10pm - Memphis Heat: The True Story of Memphis Wrasslin' (91 min., adult language/sports violence) – Clarksdale premiere with Q&A / Meet-and-greet featuring wrestlers "Superstar" Bill Dundee & Buddy Wayne plus director Chad Schaffler & executive producer Ron Hall. Documents the wild and wooly history of Memphis and Mid-South professional wrestling -- once seen on local TV and a few times a year at the Clarksdale Civic Auditorium. From the carnival days of cult hero Sputnik Monroe (who integrated the Memphis wrestling audience before the Civil Rights movement) to masked men, midgets, tag teams, female wrestlers, and the rise of bad-guy heel Jerry "the King" Lawler and Jimmy “Mouth of the South” Hart in the 1970s, Memphis Heat
delves into a time-forgotten, pre-cable TV world where almost anything happened inside and outside of the wrestling ring and no holds were barred!***
***Filmmakers, actors or representatives planning to attend.
FRI JAN 27
DELTA CINEMAS LOBBY:All day - ticket/merchandise sales
6pm - Sean "Bad" Apple performs live blues with special guest "Mr. Johnnie" Billington (also one of the stars of the evening's feature film)
6pm - complimentary hors d'oeuvres courtesy of OXBOW restaurant (while quantities last)
UPSTAIRS THEATER:
11am-1:15pm – Barefoot Workshops: Clarksdale Retrospective, Part I
– "Best of" selection of award-winning film shorts shot over the past half decade in Clarksdale and vicinity highlighting notable residents, businesses, blues music and history.
1:45pm – It's Not About Film (15 min.) – Barefoot Workshops’ documentary program teaches filmmakers with no-to-some experience professional filmmaking techniques in just two weeks—by telling the stories of people in the Clarksdale area. This film, directed by Barefoot alum Karen Kohlhaas, follows a Barefoot group from first class to final screening – with a few mishaps along the way!
2:30pm – Hard Times: The Blues Story of Big George Brock (69 min.) – The archetypal "Delta gone North" story of the Mississippi bluesman is told through eyes and music of then-74-year-old Big George Brock. Damien Blaylock directs; Roger Stolle produces. Filmed half in St. Louis and half in Clarksdale.
4pm – We Juke Up In Here: Mississippi's Juke Joint Culture at the Crossroads trailer (3 min.) – Preview trailer for upcoming film exploring the past, present and future of the Magnolia State's juke joint culture and music.
4:05pm – M For Mississippi: A Road Trip through the Birthplace of the Blues (94 min.) – Filmed partly in Clarksdale, the award-winning M for Mississippi follows two blues fans -- Jeff Konkel and Roger Stolle -- on a week-long road trip to visit some of the region’s last surviving delta blues characters and juke joints -- including James "T-Model" Ford and Red's Lounge.
6pm – The Delta Dies Last (55 min.) – Channel Ziltch owner Conor Coughlin documents his own relocation from big city Chicago to small-town Clarksdale just as the Delta town's annual Juke Joint Festival roars to life.***
7:30pm – Land (53 min.) – Clarksdale-born director/actor Will Goss puts a contemporary spin on the age-old tale of the "deal at the Crossroads" -- substituting a greedy Delta farmer for the usual shortsighted Delta bluesman. Filmed around Coahoma County using a local cast.***
MAIN THEATER:
Noon – The Story of Cotton (60 min.) – Historian Willy Bearden and Deep Delta Films presents The Story of Cotton – a complicated history forever tied the Delta and Deep South; documentary features amazing archival photos, contemporary interviews and more to tell the story.
1:30pm – The Blues (90 min.) – Award-winning, archival The Blues film comes to us via Robert Gibbons and Canadian television circa 1966. It features rare interviews and beautiful performances by Mississippi natives Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Otis Spann, Sunnyland Slim, Bukka White and more -- all caught in their prime, in a comfortable setting.
3pm – Bite Size trailer (3 min.) – 4 kids, 3 cities, 1 future. Bite Size
(coming soon) will tell a story and seek a pledge to "create a healthier system and reverse childhood obesity." Filmed partly in Clarksdale.
3:05pm – Southern Foodways Alliance (55 min.) – Four fabulous Southern foodie film shorts: Ride That Pig (12 mins), Phat Thai (17 mins), Eat or We Both Starve (13 min), and To Live and Die (13 mins)... from director Joe York and the Southern Foodways Alliance in cooperation with the Center for the Study of Southern Culture's Media and Documentary Projects Center at the University of Mississippi.
4:30pm – Mississippi Innocence (60 min.) – A film by Joe York and Media & Documentary Projects at the University of Mississippi. "Every story of a wrongful conviction and exoneration is incredible, but the one in Noxubee County, Mississippi, has got to be one of the best" – John Grisham (author of The Innocent Man).
6pm – Watermelon Slim (18 min.) – Director Karen Kohlhaas and Barefoot Workshops present the fun and fascinating story of entertainer, philosopher, gardener, ex-trucker, activist and blues musician Watermelon Slim a.k.a. Bill Homans – a Clarksdale immigrant and enthusiast.***
***Filmmakers, actors or representatives planning to attend.
SAT JAN 29
DELTA CINEMAS LOBBY:All day - ticket/merchandise sales
6pm – Sean "Bad" Apple performs live blues
6pm - complimentary hors d'oeuvres courtesy of OXBOW restaurant (while quantities last)
HISTORY BUS TOURS (Sat only):Historian Robert Birdsong takes you on a fascinating film, music, literary & theater bus tour of Clarksdale. (First come, first serve.)
Noon - Wait for bus at Delta Cinemas, 11:45am.
1:30pm - Wait for bus at Delta Cinemas, 1:15pm.
UPSTAIRS THEATER:
11am-12:30pm (approx.) – Barefoot Workshops: Clarksdale Retrospective, Part II
– "Best of" selection of award-winning film shorts shot over the past half decade in Clarksdale and vicinity highlighting notable residents, businesses, blues music and history.
1pm – Barefoot Workshops: Mississippi Delta, Sept. 2011 docs (54 min.) – Drawing on a Dream (on musician/painter Duff Dorrough), Music is Life (on music teacher Alberta Jones), Just Monkey
(on Po Monkey's Lounge & folk artist Larry Grimes).
1pm – Mississippi film shorts
– Talented up-and-coming filmmakers share a variety Mississippi-connected short films.
- The New Roxy (6 min.) - Mini doc on the New Roxy Theater by Clarksdale's Leonette Henderson.***
- The Best Day (17 min.) - Sci-fi/horror short by Coop Cooper; 1st narrative short filmed in Clarksdale, MS by locals.***
- Illumination (22 min.) - Sci-fi, drama about a man on a journey towards redemption by Michael Williams.***- The Fall of Henry (22 min.) - Exploration of one bad night from two perspectives by Mississippi's Glenn Payne.***
2:30pm - MORE Mississippi film shorts
– Talented up-and-coming filmmakers share a variety Mississippi-connected short films.
- Gypsy Heart (22 min.) - Tale of a traveler and his troubled hitchhiker by Mississippi's Daniel Lee Perea.***
- Wolf Call (16 min.) - The Emmit Till Mississippi story told from the public record by Rob Underhill.***
- Tupelove (16 min.) - Elvis-inflected film by Mississippi-born Mike McCarthy, created for Tupelo Convention & Visitors Bureau.***
- Mickle's Pickle (9 min.) - A tale of love, theft and a pickle in Picayune, Mississippi, by Nathan Willis & William Aughtry.
4pm – Where I Begin (78 min., adult language/theme) – Filmed in Oxford, Mississippi area,
Where I Begin is the third feature film from award-winning director Thomas L. Phillips. A decade after a tragic event, a man decides to return home to his small southern roots, only to find that the past is not really the past and that people may change but they never forget. His unexpected homecoming once again intertwines him with the family, friends and the town he left in his wake.***
5:45pm – 25K (80 min., adult language/theme) – Money. Guns. Bad decisions. "The best independent action comedy film about incompetent Mississippi Bail Enforcement Agents you're likely to see this year." Two incompetent bail enforcement agents make consistently awful choices that lead to violent consequences. 1970s, "hicksploitation" style film directed by Billy Chase Goforth; produced by Houston Nutt III, Billy Chase Goforth.***
8pm – Honeyboy (60 min.) – Film festival debut of this newly re-cut music documentary by Scott Taradash (Free Range Pictures). Honeyboy tells the unforgettable story of the last living Delta bluesman of his generation – the now, late-great David "Honeyboy" Edwards – who passed away last summer at age 96. Told through music and interviews, Honeyboy captures more than just an amazing man; it also captures a time and place; it captures a music that will never go away.***
MAIN THEATER:
Noon – Dedan le Sud de la Louisiane a.k.a. In the South of Louisiana (45 min.) – A Southern music movie classic by French filmmaker de Jean-Pierre Bruneau featuring a beautifully shot, travelogue study of Cajun music and culture, circa 1974.
1pm – Surfing a 300-Mile Long Wave (45 min.) – The story of a 300-mile long canoe adventure from Memphis to Vicksburg riding the crest of the Great Flood of 2011 with Clarksdale-based guide John Ruskey, writer W. Hodding Carter and photographer Christopher LaMarca. An unforgettable voyage down the main channel, down the back channels and through the flooded fields and forests of the Lower Mississippi River Floodplain. Written and narrated by Ruskey, and featuring music from his "Riverman" CD.***
2pm – Six Generations of Blues: From Mississippi to Chicago (90 min.) – Michael Frank (Earwig Music) presents interviews and performances by Honeyboy Edwards, John Primer, Aron Burton, Johnny Drummer, Dave Spector, H-Bomb Ferguson, Sunnyland Slim, Bob Corritore and others... plus Clarksdale's own legendary oil man Big Jack Johnson with Terry "Big T" Williams and Lee Williams.***
3:45pm – The Films of the Mississippi Blues Trail (85 min.) – Immaculately-produced film series created for Mississippi's world-famous Blues Trail project. 16 episodes ranging in subject from Muddy Waters to Robert Johnson, from Rabbit Foot Minstrels to Trumpet Records. Directed/produced by Robert Gordon & David Leonard. Cinematography by David Leonard. Edited by Eileen Meyer. Exec. Producers Wanda Clark & Allan Hammons.
5:30pm – Best of the Biscuit: King Biscuit 25 Years (66 min.) – Cinematic tribute to one of the world's great blues festivals – the King Biscuit Blues Festival in nearby Helena, Arkansas. Features all-new, live blues performances by Mississippians like Charlie Musselwhite, Pinetop Perkins, Grady Champion, Paul Thorn and other favorites from region. Produced by Clarksdale, Mississippi's Vincent Productions.***
7pm – The Help (146 min.) – Critically-acclaimed, Golden Globe-winning feature filmed in Clarksdale and Greenwood, Mississippi. Delta filmmaker Coop Coopwood will hold a special Q&A following the film with local extras, location scouts and stand-ins. The Help is the fictionalized account of an aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African-American maid's point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis. Directed by Mississippi homeowner Tate Taylor. Starring Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. (NOTE: Watch for scenes filmed on E. 2nd Street, in the historic Bank Building and at Wong's Foodland in Clarksdale.)***
***Filmmakers, actors or representatives planning to attend.
SUN JAN 30
MAIN THEATER:Noon – Mississippi Innocence (60 min.) – ENCORE – A film by Joe York and Media & Documentary Projects at the University of Mississippi. "Every story of a wrongful conviction and exoneration is incredible, but the one in Noxubee County, Mississippi, has got to be one of the best" – John Grisham (author of The Innocent Man).
1:30pm – Honeyboy (60 min.) – ENCORE – Newly re-cut music documentary by Scott Taradash (Free Range Pictures). Honeyboy tells the unforgettable story of the last living Delta bluesman of his generation – the now, late-great David "Honeyboy" Edwards – who passed away last summer at age 96. Told through music and interviews, Honeyboy captures more than just an amazing man; it also captures a time and place; it captures a music that will never go away.
RELATED EVENTS NEARBY…
SOUNDS AROUND TOWN(in addition to nightly 6pm blues in Delta Cinemas lobby):
THURS, JAN 26 – Madidi (Stan Street, 5:45pm), Rust Restaurant (Jacqueline Nassar, 7pm) and Ground Zero Blues Club (Blues Jam w/Stan Street, 8pm)
FRI, JAN 27 – Hambone Gallery (Slim Fatz, 6pm), Ground Zero Blues Club (Lucious Spiller Blues Band, 9pm) and Red’s Lounge (Slim Fatz, 9pm)
SAT, JAN 28 – Rust Restaurant (Ming Triplett, 7:30pm), Bluesberry Café (Watermelon Slim "live, 8pm, plus 7pm dinner film and 9pm "Watermelon Slim" film), Red’s Lounge (Robert "Bilbo" Walker Revue, 9pm), Ground Zero Blues Club (Terry "Big T" Williams & Family, 9pm) and Hopson Commissary (Rowdy South, 9pm).
SUN, JAN 29 – Channel Ziltch (Superbad Film Fest Jam, 2pm) and Red’s Lounge (Robert "Bilbo" Walker Blues Revue, 7pm)
More live music updates at www.cathead.biz
RESTAURANT FILM SERIES
(casual, TV screenings of popular movies to enjoy while you drink or dine):
Delta Amusement Café – Fri. & Sat., 9amStone Pony – Fri. & Sat., 11:30amMadidi – Fri., 6pm
Lady at the Levee – Fri. & Sat., 4pm
Rust Restaurant – Sat., 5pmBluesberry Cafe – Sat., 9pm
NOTE: Clarksdale Film Festival schedule subject to change. Film festival tickets valid for Delta Cinemas and History Bus Tours only. Nighttime music venues have separate cover charges.
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