User:Memphibian/Indie Memphis

Indie Memphis Indie Memphis is a year-round 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, best known for the annual Indie Memphis Film Festival. The organization provides independent film programming year-round at multiple venues including community arts partners Brooks Museum of Art, Playhouse on the Square, and Overton Park Levitt Shell. Based in Midtown Memphis, the 14 year old professionally-run organization shares the local flavor of BBQ, Blues, and Bluff City grassroots. Indie Memphis is volunteered-supported and currently employs one full time staff, Executive Director Erik Jambor, co-founder of Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival and former ED at BendFilm. Emphasizing reqional cinema, Indie Memphis has premiered the works of many local filmmakers, such as DeAara Lewis, Craig Brewer, Ira Sachs, Morgan Jon Fox, and Kentucker Audley.

The Annual Indie Memphis Film Festival takes place in the Fall (November 3-6, 2011) and brings industry professionals from around around the nation as jurors for the film competition and to provide educational panels and talks throughout the festival. Notable regular participants include documentary producer Peter Gilbert (Hoop Dreams, Stevie) and Elvis Mitchell (host of KCRW’s The Treatment and Turner Classic Movie’s Under the Influence). The festival has received national recognition in MovieMaker Magazine, named one of the “25 Best Film Festival Investments” in their Spring 2011 issue, and one of the “25 Coolest Film Festivals” in their Summer 2009 issue.

Indie Memphis is considered one of the city’s core arts institutions, the only film organization to receive annual funding from ArtsMemphis as a Mosaic Grant recipient. Indie Memphis was recognized in 2009 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (which produces the annual Academy Awards) with one of their highly competitive Film Festival grants, the first awarded to a Memphis-area organization.

Advisory Board members include: Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow, Black Snake Moan, Footloose), Amy Dotson (Deputy Director, Independent Filmmaker Project), Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad, Do the Right Thing), Peter Gilbert (Hoop Dreams, Stevie), Courtney Hunt (Frozen River), Elvis Mitchell and Ira Sachs (Forty Shades of Blue). ...