The Indie Film Festival “Soul of Southern Film,” to be held at the Peabody Muvico downtown Oct 3-6, will feature several independent films, including some directed and produced by University of Memphis students.
U of M film senior Brad Ellis and U of M graduate student Joey Watson co-directed a 79-minute digital film, The Pass of Fear, starring U of M students Marie-Claire Hardy, Natalie Jones, and Julianne Dowler, will show Oct. 3 at 9:30 p.m. at the Peabody Muvico.
The film follows a group of high school friends that meet in an abandoned theater and awaken a ghost. The friends are brought back together a year later, because of a series of strange events. Despite the ghost, Ellis said that the film is “not a typical teen slasher movie.”
“The plot is very character driven,” Ellis said.
In their 5th year of filmmaking, the film is Ellis and Watson’s 7th, but their first to be part of a festival.
The film was shot from January to May, on a budget of $1,000, all funded by Belz Enterprises.
According to Ellis, Belz had seen some of their previous work and decided to fund the project.
“It was really great, that nothing came out of our own pocket. We were really fortunate,” Ellis said.
Ellis said that he was glad to see the film festival gaining popularity in Memphis, because it shows an overall growth of film opportunities in the area.
“It’s very important for Memphis to come out and support independent theater,” Ellis said.
“People are starting to scout the city for future film opportunities, and that means a lot to both the film makers and the city.”
More information about their films can be found at www.oldschoolpictures.net.
U of M communication alumna Shannon Gregory directed a 9-minute documentary short entitled Blended Lives, as a senior thesis project about the effects their parents divorcing had on five twenty-somethings.
“The film looks at what life was like before divorce, during divorce, and after divorce, specifically how their parents’ divorce has affected their relationships,” Gregory said.
The five subjects were three women and two men; of the five, two of them have parents who divorced when they were 5 or 6, and the other three have parents who were divorced in their teens and 20s.
“I wanted to see if it changed your life based on how old you were when your parents divorced,” Gregory said.
According to Gregory, the film utilizes fast cuts so that the interviewees finish each other’s sentences.
“They all seem to have the same fears,” Gregory said. “They were very positive, though, that they did not want to end up in the same place. One woman during the filming was married and talked of the struggle to make it work and is now actually going through a divorce.”
However, Gregory added, another was engaged during the filming and is now married.
The film was shot and edited in March and April, according to Gregory, who said that after coming up with the idea, she sought approval and instruction of U of M film professors Roxie Gee, Steven Ross, and David Appleby.
Aubrey Mobley was director of photography.
The short is up for the festival’s “hometowner’s award,” and shows on Oct. 4 at 9 p.m.
“It’s great that there is a venue for independent film in Memphis, and I encourage everyone to participate,” Gregory said.
