Founder awarded at longtime event

Ceremony receives imaginative twist

Reimagined as an “online and outdoors” event, the socially distanced 2020 Indie Memphis Film Festival paradoxically proved to be ideally configured for reuniting the organization’s farflung founder, Kelly Chandler, with the local film community.

Now an English teacher in South Korea, Chandler — who launched what would evolve into “Indie Memphis” when she organized a screening of mostly student films at a Cooper-young warehouse in 1998 — was the winner Wednesday of the sixth annual Indie Memphis Vision Award, “established to honor those who have made a permanent impact” on the organization and the Memphis independent film scene, according to the festival program.

Filmed in Korea, Chandler’s prerecorded video acceptance speech — which began as a reminiscence and ended with a testimonial to the “transcendent” power of cinematic storytelling — was streamed during Wednesday night’s Indie Memphis awards ceremony, an eloquent reminder of the humble origins and foundational can-do spirit of a now significant arts organization facing new challenges in the COVID era.

Like many of the 230 films in this year’s pandemic-adjusted 23rd festival, the awards were presented online: livestreamed from the stage of the essentially empty Playhouse on the Square, with masked hosts introducing winners (and sometimes their cats, as in the case of filmmaker Gillian Horvat), who joined via Zoom.

Chandler said she was a 19-year-old film student at the University of Memphis when she decided to organize a “film showcase.”

With a $500 budget, she rented a warehouse space (now replaced by Pie Factory Condominiums) and — with “a borrowed VHS projector” — screened

“every single submission that we received that year,” which “didn’t even reach three hours. But we had Jell-o shots, and we had fun.”

Running Oct. 21-29, the 2020 festival required similar innovation, as executive director Ryan Watt, artistic director Miriam Bale and other programmers, staffers and volunteers scrambled to reimagine the festival as an “online and outdoors” event, in recognition of the dangers of the coronavirus. Screenings took place nightly at the Malco Summer Quartet Drive-in and other outdoor venues, but most features and short films also could be viewed online.

Appropriately, Watt’s end-of-an-era farewell-and-thank-you speech followed Chandler’s talk about Indie Memphis origins. In August, Watt, 40, announced that he is leaving Indie Memphis’ top post after five years as executive director, to return to the private sector. The Indie Memphis board is currently searching for his replacement. “I urge you, keep the ‘indie’ in Indie Memphis,” Watt said. “Keep seeking out adventurous filmmaking, support diverse voices in the most marginalized communities and artists. Honor D.I.Y. film

making and hustling — that’s the Memphis way.”

Chandler said being a filmmaker had taught her to appreciate “the power of storytelling.”

“Stories are at the heart of the human experience,” she said. “They have the power to transcend barriers of age, culture and even language. As filmmakers, we see the world in a unique way, and we have the power to find and tell stories that can breach that barrier and bring people together from all over the world.”

Indeed, films screened at Indie Memphis this year told stories about a Korean family trying to reinvent itself as Arkansas farmers (”Minari”); the workers inside a high-end supermercado in Brazil (”My Darling Supermarket”); and a young Chinese woman lured into the easy-money culture of the Los Angeles drug underworld (”Take Out Girl”), among other diverse topics.

Here are this year’s Indie Memphis award winners. Film competition awards were chosen by juries consisting of critics, filmmakers, festival programmers and other film professionals from across the country, while “festival awards” were chosen by Indie Memphis staff. The festival was sponsored by Duncan-williams Inc.

Film competition awards: h Best Narrative Feature: “Shiva Baby,” by Emily Seligman.

h Best Documentary Feature: “Cane Fire,” by Anthony Banua-simon.

h Best Departures (experimental) Feature: “My Darling Supermarket,” by Tali Yankelevich.

h Best Sounds (music movie) Feature : “Born Balearic: Jon Sa Trinxa and the Spirit by Ibiza,” by Lily Rinae.

h Best Narrative Short: “Paradise,” by Deni Cheng.

h Best Documentary Short: “Jesa,” by Kyungwon Song.

h Best Departures Short: “The Return of Osiris,” by Essa Grayeb.

h Best Animated Short: “Grab My Hand: A Letter to My Dad,” by Camrus Johnson and Pedro Piccinini.

h Best Music Video: The Black Pumas’ “Colors,” directed by Kristian Mercado. h Best Poster Design: “Pier Kids.” h Duncan-williams Scriptwriting Award: “Executive Order,” by Lázaro Ramos and Lusa Silvestre.

h Best Hometowner (films produced in Memphis and Shelby County) Feature: “We Can’t Wait,” by Lauren Ready.

h Best Hometowner Narrative Short: “Empty,” by Michael Butler Jr.

h Best Hometowner Documentary Short: “Road to Step,” by Zaire Love.

h Best Hometowner Music Video: The Poet, Havl’s “You’re My Jesus,” directed by Nate Packard.

Festival awards: h Ron Tibbett Excellence in Filmmaking Award: Ephraim Asili, “The Inheritance.”

h Craig Brewer Emerging Filmmaker Award: Gillian Horvat, “I Blame Society.”

h Soul of Southern Film Award: Lawrence Matthews, “The Hub.”

h Indie Award (awarded to a significant local film crew member): sound engineer Daniel Lynn.

h Vision Award: Indie Memphis founder Kelly Chandler.

h Best After Dark Short (for eerie, dark, uncanny films): “The Three Men You Meet at Night,” by Beck Kitsis.

CASA REDONDA An in-depth documentary look at a Brazilian super-store, “My Darling Supermarket,” was named best feature in the Indie Memphis Film Festival’s “Departures” category, which recognizes bold, experimental films.