Boots Riley coming to Indie Memphis
A new $10,000 prize for a made-inMemphis film and an appearance by filmmaker Boots Riley will be among the highlights of the Indie Memphis Film Festival, set for Nov. 1-5 at venues in Downtown, Midtown and East Memphis, festival officials said Sept. 5.
Born Raymond Lawrence Riley in Chicago and raised in Oakland, Riley, 47, will be the keynote speaker at the “Black Creators Forum,” a new festival symposium set for Nov. 1-2. Riley will discuss how filmmakers can “make films in radical new ways.”
Riley made his feature debut as a writer-director with one of this year’s most acclaimed films, “Sorry to Bother You,” starring Lakeith Stanfield and Tessa Thompson. The movie used surreal humor and a science-fiction subplot to examine the power dynamics of race, sex, class and capital in America.
Riley also is co-founder of The Coup, a political hip-hop ensemble that attracted mainstream media attention in 2001 when the original cover art for the album “Party Music” was replaced in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attack, which occurred three months after the album’s design. The original art had depicted Riley and a partner blowing up the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
Riley also has been in the news recently due to his public criticism, via Twitter, of Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman,” which Riley accused of misrepresenting the facts of its so-called basedon-a-true-story inspiration. Wrote Riley: “After 40 years of cop shows and cop movies, did we really need one more movie where it’s supposed to be about racism but the cops are the actual heroes of the film and the most effective force against racism?”
The Black Creators Forum will conclude with a “Black Filmmakers Pitch Rally” at Playhouse on the Square. The winning filmmaker or filmmaking team will receive a jury-selected $10,000 “bounty prize” to create a film in Memphis, meaning the filmmakers must start production on their project by Aug. 1, 2019, to receive the money. Six slots remain open for “pitching filmmakers,” with applications due Sept. 16. (Visit indiememphis.com for details.)
Also, New York’s Zia Anger, a maker of short films and music videos, will deliver a performance/presentation titled “My First Film,” which will use film footage, text, a split screen and more to look at “an industry that’s often hostile to women filmmakers beyond the short film stage of their careers,” according to an Indie Memphis press release. Said Indie Memphis senior programmer Miriam Bale, in a statement: “I have attended dozens or maybe hundreds of talks about the lack of women feature film directors, an issue I care deeply about. But after awhile, they all sound the same. Zia Anger has figured out a new way to discuss these issues, in an incredibly moving, personal, and creative way.”
Sept. 5’s announcement was something of a teaser for the Indie Memphis festival. A full lineup of films and events will be unveiled later this month.