From top left to right: IT WAS ALL A DREAM, NICKEL BOYS, FLOW, UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE, BECOMING GUINEA FOWL, BOYS GO TO JUPITER
The 27th Annual Indie Memphis Film Festival Announces Full Slate, ft. Festival Favorites Inc. Opening Night Film: IT WAS ALL A DREAM, Centerpiece Film: NICKEL BOYS, Animated Features, Comedies, and More
The Indie Memphis Film Festival, presented by the Hyde Family Foundation, is excited to unveil its 2024 lineup. This year’s festival showcases a remarkable curated selection of festival circuit favorites, animated gems, nuanced comedies, reflective documentaries, poignant dramas, and much more.
Headlining this year’s roster is It Was All a Dream, a visual memoir by journalist and filmmaker dream hampton that draws from her personal archive of early hip-hop coverage. Featuring footage of icons like The Notorious B.I.G., Wu-Tang’s Method Man, and Snoop Dogg from 1993 to 1995, hampton provides a unique perspective on the golden age of hip-hop, shaped by her provocative work as a music journalist and critic.
Featured as this year's Centerpiece selection is RaMell Ross' deeply moving drama, Nickel Boys, based on Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning 2019 novel. The film tells the compelling story of two young Black teenagers forging a powerful friendship while facing the brutal realities of reform school in Florida. Featuring breakout performances from Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson, alongside the talents of Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Ross' film has emerged as one of the most talked-about entries heading into awards season.
Additional festival highlights showcase the artistry of animation with three captivating films: Boys Go to Jupiter, directed by Julian Glander, is a dreamy coming-of-age story featuring a star-studded voice cast, including Julio Torres, Cole Escola, and Elsie Fisher, with retro video game-inspired animation. In contrast, Flow, directed by Gints Zibalodies, follows a courageous cat, capybara, lemur, bird, and dog on a heartfelt journey after their homes are devastated by a flood, relying on visual storytelling with no dialogue. Also featured is Memoir of a Snail, a bittersweet claymation drama from Academy Award-winning animator Adam Elliot, showcasing 200 handmade characters, including the melancholic misfit Grace Pudel, voiced by Sarah Snook, as she learns to find confidence and silver linings amidst life's clutter.
This year's lineup also features a blend of keen humor with films like Fernando Andrès' buddy comedy Rent-Free, Rungano Nyoni's On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, which won the Un Certain Regard Best Director Award at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, and Matthew Rankin's Universal Language, the official Canadian entry for Best International Feature at the 97th Academy Awards.
For the first time ever, students will join the festival's filmmaker roster as Indie Memphis' 9th annual Youth Film Fest merges into the main festival, featuring its own dedicated screening. This exciting integration will showcase short films from Mid-South students, along with mentees from Indie Memphis' CrewUp Youth Filmmaking Mentorship program, highlighting the talents of the next generation of filmmakers to a broader audience than ever before.
The Indie Memphis Film Festival continues to celebrate film for all, showcasing a diverse array of additional selections, including thought-provoking documentaries, captivating dramas, classic revivals, and locally made films from Memphis and beyond. We invite audiences to experience the rich tapestry of stories that film has to offer and look forward to welcoming everyone to this year’s festival.
The slate was unveiled on the evening of October 15th at 7PM CST, live at Crosstown Arts.
The festival will span from November 14 - 17 at Crosstown Theater, Malco Studio on the Square, and online – followed by encore screenings at Malco Paradiso on November 18th & 19th.More info is available at https://www.indiememphis.org/imff24.
2024 Indie Memphis Film Festival Slate
Note: The recommended ages for films are suggestions and do not reflect official MPA ratings unless otherwise stated.
OPENING NIGHT
It Was All a Dream (Dir. dream hampton)
A visual memoir from director dream hampton’s personal archives about the dawn of the golden era of hip hop.
2024, 83 min, Documentary, Sounds, Ages 18+
CENTERPIECE
Nickel Boys (Dir. RaMell Ross)
Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Colson Whitehead, NICKEL BOYS chronicles the powerful friendship between two young Black teenagers navigating the harrowing trials of reform school together in Florida.
2024, 140 min, Narrative, Drama, *Ages 13+
*Rated PG-13 for thematic material involving racism, some strong language including racial slurs, violent content and smoking.
NARRATIVE FEATURES
All We Imagine as Light (Dir. Payal Kapadia)
In her Grand Prize-winning film at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, writer/director Payal Kapadia celebrates contemporary, working-class Mumbai through the lives of two roommates, head nurse Prabha and recent hire Anu, exploring the complexities of friendship and sisterhood.
2024, 118 min, Drama, International, Ages 13+
Boys Go to Jupiter (Dir. Julian Glander)
A teenager in suburban Florida desperately hustles to make $5,000 in this dreamy and surreal animated coming-of-age story.
2024, 90 min, Animation, Comedy, Ages 13+
Christmas Eve in Miller's Point (Dir. Tyler Taormina)
Four generations of the Balsano family gather for what may be the last Christmas in their family home on Long Island. Amidst the rowdy celebration, two cousins sneak away to claim the suburban winter wonderland for teenage rebellion.
2024, 106 min, Comedy, Drama, Ages 13+
Familiar Touch (Dir. Sarah Friedland)
FAMILIAR TOUCH is a coming-of-old-age film following an older woman's transition into assisted living as she contends with her conflicting relationship with herself and her caregivers amidst her shifting memory, age identity, and desires.
2024, 90 min, Drama, Comedy, Ages 13+
Flow (Dir. Gints Zibalodies)
A wondrous journey, through realms natural and mystical, Flow follows a courageous cat, capybara, lemur, bird, and dog after their homes are devastated by a great flood.
2024, 85 min, Animation, Environmental, International, All Ages
Memoir of a Snail (Dir. Adam Elliot)
From Academy Award-winning animator Adam Elliot comes a bittersweet claymation adult drama chronicling the life of a melancholic misfit (voiced by Sarah Snook) as she learns to find her confidence and silver linings amid the clutter of everyday life.
2024, 94 min, Animation, Drama, International, Ages 18+
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (Dir. Rungano Nyoni)
On an empty road in the middle of the night, Shula stumbles across the body of her uncle. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family, in filmmaker Rungano Nyoni’s surreal and vibrant reckoning with the lies we tell ourselves.
2024, 99 min, Comedy, Drama, International, Surreal, Ages 13+
Rent Free (Dir. Fernando Andrès)
After hitting emotional and financial rock bottom, best friends Ben and Jordan come up with a scheme to spend an entire year living “rent free” with the help of friends, family and strangers alike in a rapidly changing Austin.
2024, 93 min, Comedy, LGBTQIA+, Drama, Ages 18+
Universal Language (Dir. Matthew Rankin)
Official Canadian entry for Best International Feature at the 97th Academy Awards, UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE intertwines the lives of grade schoolers Negin and Nazgol, befuddled tourists led by Massoud, and Matthew’s journey to reconnect with his mother in a surreal comedy of misdirection.
2024, 89 min, Comedy, Drama, International, Surreal, Ages 13+
DOCUMENTARY
Black Box Diaries (Dir. Shiori Ito)
Journalist Shiori Ito embarks on a courageous investigation of her own sexual assault in an improbable attempt to prosecute her high-profile offender. Her quest becomes a landmark case in Japan, exposing the country’s outdated judicial and societal systems.
2024, 103 min, International, Ages 18+
Coconut Head Generation (Dir. Alain Kassanda)
Every Thursday in southwestern Nigeria, students at the University of Ibadan transform a small amphitheater into a political agora, reclaiming the stigma of the 'Coconut Head Generation' as they develop their critical voices and explore youth empowerment through film.
2024, 90 min, International, Ages 13+
Dahomey (Dir. Mati Diop)
DAHOMEY is a poetic documentary that explores the return of 26 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey to present-day Benin, questioning issues of appropriation, self-determination, and restitution while examining how a nation reinvents itself in the absence of its cultural heritage. Winner of the Golden Bear at the 2024 Berlinale, this immersive work sparks essential conversations about identity and belonging.
2024, 68 min, International, Ages 13+
The Debutantes (Dir. Contessa Gayles)
Focusing on the first group of Black debutantes in Canton, Ohio in a decade, this documentary follows the young women as they unpack the ball’s legacy and chart their path forward, both for tradition and themselves.
2024, 88 min, Ages 13+
Our Movement Starts Here (Dirs. John Rash, Melanie Ho)
The story of a rural community in the American South that inspired an international awareness of environmentally racist practices and sparked the international environmental justice movement by fighting the state of North Carolina's toxic landfill in 1982.
2024, 82 min, Environmental, All Ages
Rising Up at Night (Tongo Saa)
Kinshasa and its inhabitants are in darkness. They wait and struggle to get access to light. Between hope, disappointment and religious faith, Tongo Saa is a subtle and fragmented portrait of a population that, despite the challenges, is sublimated by the beauty of Kinshasa's nights.
2024, 95 min, Environmental, International, Ages 13+
Union (Dirs. Brett Story, Stephen Maing)
The Amazon Labor Union (ALU)—a group of current and former Amazon workers in New York City’s Staten Island—takes on one of the world’s largest and most powerful companies in the fight to unionize.
2024, 104 min, Ages 13+
REVIVALS & RESTORATIONS
Bona (Dir. Lino Brocka)
Recently restored in 4K and showcased in this year's Cannes Classics, Bona is a landmark film of Philippine cinema that follows a high school dropout who moves in with minor actor Gardo, only to find herself becoming his maid instead of his partner.
1980, 87 min, Narrative, International, Drama, Ages 18+
Moving (Dir. Shinji Somai)
When her parents divorce, sixth grader Renko takes charge of her family's new reality, determined to navigate change on her own terms. This poignant coming-of-age tale was an official selection at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival and recently won the Best Restored Film prize at last year's Venice Film Festival, solidifying its place as a classic Japanese film.
1993, 124 min, Narrative, International, Drama, Ages 13+
Naked Acts (Dir. Bridgett M. Davis)
Celebrated in 1990s African-American independent cinema, Bridgett M. Davis’s NAKED ACTS follows beautiful aspiring actor Cicely (Jake-ann Jones) as she reluctantly confronts her aversion to nudity, embarking on a journey that unveils emotional truths just as revealing as disrobing.
1996, 88 min, Narrative, Comedy, Drama, Ages 18+
The Birthday (Dir. Eugenio Mira)
A birthday party is not as it seems as Norman, played by Corey Feldman in an awe-inspiring performance, finds himself at a gathering of a doomsday cult preparing for the birth of their god.
2004, 117 min, Narrative, After Dark, Comedy, Surreal, Ages 18+
The Blues Under the Skin (Dir. Roviros Mathoulis)
THE BLUES UNDER THE SKIN is a thrilling rediscovery, an untapped treasury of musical performances that not only captures a vanishing musical form but also offers a priceless glimpse of Black life in the rural South in the 1970s.
1973, 88 min, Documentary, Sounds, Ages 13+
DEPARTURES
A Fidai Film (Dir. Kamal Aljafari)
Investigating the looting of Palestinian films in Beirut in 1982, this film channels the event to uncover materials hidden in Israeli archives and proposes a counter-narrative of an ongoing history of appropriation. 2024, 78 min, International, Ages 18+
The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire (Dir. Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich)
Inspired by the life of the eponymous Martinican writer and activist, Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich’s feature debut, The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire, is a sumptuous, critical reflection on art, love, and politics — employing the spells of cinema to contend with an elusive legacy.
2024, 75 min, Ages 18+
Jimmy (Dir. Yashaddai Owens)
JIMMY is a narrative feature film that imagines the life of a young James Baldwin in Paris, offering a poignant portrait of the artist as he reconnects with the world around him.
2024, 67 min, Narrative, Ages 18+
You Burn Me (Tú me abrasas) (Dir. Matías Piñeiro)
YOU BURN ME adapts Cesare Pavese’s “Sea Foam,” portraying the poet Sappho as she encounters the nymph Britomartis by the sea. Together, they reflect on the bittersweet pangs of desire, exploring themes of life, death and the bittersweet nature of desire.
2024, 64 min, International, Ages 18+
SOUNDS
Dory Previn: On My Way to Where (Dir. Dirs. Julia Greenberg, Dianna Dilworth)
A documentary about Dory Previn, an influential 1970s cult singer-songwriter who famously goes public about her schizophrenic diagnosis, ultimately accepting her voices and anticipating a modern-day neurodiversity movement.
2024, 79 min, Documentary, Ages 13+
New Wave (Dir. Elizabeth Ai)
Mile-high hair. Synthesized sounds. Teenage rebellion. Elizabeth Ai was on a mission to excavate an untold story of rebellious punks in the chaotic world of 80s Vietnamese new wave until she uncovered a hidden past.
2024, 88 min, Documentary, Ages 13+
HOMETOWNER FEATURES
Adopting Greyhounds (Dir. David Goodman)
A portrait of the Greyhound Adoption organization located in West Memphis, Arkansas during the final year of Greyhound racing in the Mid-South.
2024, 54 min, Documentary, Ages 13+
Big Time (Dir. Jasmine Blue)
BIG TIME chronicles the life of legendary Memphis basketball coach, educator, and activist, Sylvester Ford Sr., while inspiring us all to live "big time" along the way.
2024, 102 min, World Premiere, Documentary, All Ages
Bluff City Chinese (Dir. Thandi Cai)
Two storytellers of different generations embark on a mission to share the untold history of Chinese American immigrants in Memphis, Tennessee.
2024, 45 min, World Premiere, Documentary, All Ages
Cubic Zirconia (Dir. Jaron S. Lockridge)
After a missing woman is found deceased, detectives race to locate her missing children and the motive behind it all.
2024, 96 min, World Premiere, Narrative, Ages 13+
Funeral Arrangements (Dir. Anwar Jamison)
An aspiring producer, mistaken for a thug at a funeral, needs the deceased man's beautiful niece to help him out of his predicament.
2008, 90 min, Revival, Comedy, Ages 13+
The Magic of LOC: LeMoyne-Owen College at 160 (Dir. Caleb Suggs)
In this documentary commemorating LeMoyne-Owen College's 160-year anniversary, explore the rich history, culture, and impact of Memphis's only HBCU through the voices of students, alumni, faculty, staff, and more.
2024, 58 min, Documentary, All Ages
Marc Gasol: Memphis Made (Dir. Michael Blevins)
This documentary chronicles Grizzlies’ legend Marc Gasol's journey in Memphis as a teenager, his return from Spain and career. Watch every game-winning strut, block and moment that defined Grit & Grind, his connection with the City of Memphis and his heart.
2024, 102 min, Documentary, Ages 13+