SHOUT Opening Night is sponsored by Saturn.
Sara Jordenö’s striking documentary follows several members of the Kiki scene, New York's gay ballroom movement, one that is composed of a complicated system of teams or "houses" that compete in voguing competitions for cash and bragging rights. However, as the documentary explores, the Kiki scene isn’t just about dance competitions (though with such talent and enthusiasm that might be enough), but, at its heart, is about companionship, protection, activism and chosen family. Touring through New York gymnasiums, rec centers, bodegas and piers, Kiki is visually stunning and truly represents the landscape that is the birthplace of the scene. The documentary offers the enjoyment of ballroom alter egos, extravagant costumes, and moments of hilarious snark, but also reminds us that HIV/AIDS is not a thing of the past and the concerns facing transgender teens, especially those who are non-white, remain mostly unheard. Acknowledging the importance and power of unity and combing celebration and advocacy in an era when both are so very important, we are proud to present Kiki as the 2016 Shout opening night film. Kiki premiered this past January at the Sundance Film Festival and recently won the Inspiration Award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, the Teddy award at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Special Programming Award at Outfest.
-Rachel Morgan
For 33 years Ina Pinkney has been known as the “Breakfast Queen”, running the popular Chicago restaurant that bore her name. After a childhood stricken with polio and breaking barriers with an interracial marriage, Ina opened her first bakery in Chicago. She soon became the matriarch to her customers and community. Breakfast at Ina's profiles the amazing chef, businesswoman, television personality, and community activist. Join Ina in the final days of her cafe and follow her story of determination, humor and bravery.
-Lisa Cordes & Jennifer Freehling
The only proven path to independence as an artist is a direct connection to your audience. Crowdfunding is becoming a fundamental piece of most financing plans for independent film. However, many filmmakers miss the opportunity to turn their film funding campaigns into audience-building opportunities that can last an entire career — and provide the groundwork for theatrical distribution that you control. Seed&Spark and Tugg are combining forces to invest in the future of independent film by offering a comprehensive Crowdfunding to Build Independence seminar. This workshop for film-related projects will provide the crowdfunding action plan most likely to create a lasting, flourishing, direct relationship with your audience.
Seed&Spark is a truly independent film community where filmmakers and audiences join forces to fund, promote and watch the best new independent films. Seed&Spark's film-specific crowdfunding tool — the “WishList” — allows supporters to buy or loan specific items to a production. Tugg is a web platform that enables you to bring your film to your fans' local theaters or community venues. Through Tugg, individuals are empowered to select a film, time, and nearby theater, and then spread the word to their immediate and online community.
Fraud broke onto the 2016 festival scene with instant notoriety after its controversial premiere at the Hot Docs Film Festival this past April. Though labeled a documentary at the notable premier, much of the audience found the suggestion enraging. Here we label it as a hybrid work of fiction... Labels aside, the filmmakers constructed the story after discovering countless hours of family footage on YouTube and mined them to create a piece that is simultaneously extremely original, enjoyably controversial and intensely uncomfortable. We anticipate that the Sidewalk audience will have a lot to think and say about Fraud.
- Anonymous
- Rachel Morgan
Sidewrite Alabama Short Screenplay Table Read
The Acting Studios actors reading the three finalists from our Alabama Sidewrite finalists
A discussion of diversity and representation in filmmaking
Why do video stores, theatrical screenings and retrospective programming matter in a world of streaming content?
Morris From America is an exploration of puppy love, single parenthood, and the kind of acute "otherness" that can only be experienced by a black American boy transplanted in an all white German town. 13-year-old Morris’ life revolves around his loving and playful father (Superstar Craig Robinson) and his hip-hop aspirations... that is until a beautiful girl takes him on a dizzying ride, landing him somewhere between lost and found. With breathtaking cinematography and characters that are complicated and flawed while remaining infectiously likeable, Morris From America is one of the true feel-good films of 2016.
- Melodie Sisk
- Rachel Morgan
Even weathered Birmingham residents are unlikely to know the story of activist Nina Miglionico, the longest-practicing female attorney in Alabama. Despite intimidating threats and even attempts on her life, Miglionico advocated strongly for racial equality and women’s rights throughout her career. Elected to the Birmingham city council in 1963, among numerous causes, she fought for women to serve on juries (a right not granted until 1966). Despite her drive and forcefulness, accounts of Ms. Miglionico reflect how she nurtured those around her and inspired the next generation of Alabama’s activists, politicians, and attorneys.
- Kate Michel
You must have good actors but is it necessary to have a star? Learn about the role casting plays in financing your film, how to cast a star and what to do when a star drops out of your project.
Speed Sisters follows the lives of the five members of the Middle East's first all-female racing team. Attempting to practice and compete in any sport in occupied Palestine presents unique challenges, doing so as a woman, especially in a traditionally male dominated sport, is nearly impossible. Without access to practice tracks or the means to acquire actual racecars, the racers scrap together street vehicles and practice on dusty roadways in the shadow of Israeli military compounds all while dodging bullets, literally.
- Rachel Morgan
A discussion of the portrayal of LGBTQ persons in queer film and television and how their representation affects young people who identify on the spectrum.
This screening is sponsored by Brandino Brass.
Henry “Gip” Gipson has lived a long life as a rail yard worker, cemetery owner, and gravedigger, but nothing sums him up like his passion: the blues. Gip has operated a true delta blues juke joint in his backyard in Bessemer for over 60 years. Gip tells the story of the man and the club. When city officials shut down the party, the filmmakers were luckily there to capture the struggle to bring back one of the last remaining juke joints in the country.
- Tom Richardson
Set in the 1980’s, Cheerleader is a brilliantly insane style piece, but with a surprising amount of heart. It feels like a collision of The Virgin Suicide and Election, but, at the same time, is wholly its own film. You won’t find anything else like it in the line-up. It's a stylish fever dream surrounded by a thoughtful narrative... one or the other would have made the film lovable enough to program, but, considering it has both, it's pretty close to perfect. I have a major crush on this film. Major.
This screening is sponsored by Alabama Vaccine Research Clinic at UAB.
In the wryly-hilarious thriller-comedy-satire Women Who Kill, exes Morgan and Jean host a popular true crime podcast in Park Slope, Brooklyn. All is well until Morgan begins dating the mysterious Simone and, as Jean notes, something seems off. When a colleague dies unexpectedly more questions arise, but is Simone really a suspicious character or does Morgan just have trust and commitment issues? According to IndieWire critic Eric Kohn, Women Who Kill “is the Best Lesbian Horror-Comedy Ever”. Smart, funny and suspenseful, the film premiered this past spring at the Tribeca Film Festival.
-Rachel Morgan
New at school, Annie finds herself falling for the seemingly more experienced Jules. Enticed by the lure of easy money and intrigued by the captivating Jules, Annie joins her new girlfriend in the trade of webcam modeling for easy cash. The obsessive quality of high school love leads to jealousy from friends and sparks parental concerns, such trouble snowballs leading Jules and Annie to make hotheaded, desperate and dangerous decisions. Starring indie favorites Pat Healy and Joshua Leonard and impressive newcomers Nichole Bloom and Fabianne Therese, Teenage Cocktail is energetic, genre bending and engrossingly watchable.
- Rachel Morgan
First Girl I Loved is reminiscent of a reoccurring high school dream that wakes you in a cold sweat. High school is a time of dizzying discovery, and looming disaster. First Girl I Loved captures the pains of being young, falling in love, navigating complex social dynamics and, of course, the breaking of hearts along the way. The film hinges on that moment of realization when you might not want to be the most popular girl in school, but you might rather want to be with the most popular girl in school. With exceptional performances all around, this film is not to be missed!
- Melodie Sisk
One of the most beautiful, entrancing and intensely original films in the line-up, MA is an artful non-verbal work (it features only a few lines of dialogue). Written and directed by the amazing (VMA award-winning and Emmy nominated) choreographer, dancer and filmmaker, Celia Rowlson-Hall, who also stars, the film is truly visionary. It is also, perhaps, the most experimental film in the festival weekend. Part dance musical, part melodrama, part religious allegory... not to be missed. We are incredibly honored to have MA in the 2016 Sidewalk line-up.
- Rachel Morgan
Four students at Everyday High School quickly learn that the small, thoughtless act of one has a devastating ripple effect on the whole school. A cautionary tale to remind students to take “u” out of bullying.
The Acting Studio's actors will read 4 selections from the international submissions to Sidewrite.
- J Matthew Cobb
What we can do as storytellers to change how women are written, which will change the way we see women reflected on screen and how we see them in life.
This screening is sponsored by Electricity and Lighting, Inc.
Copenhagen based restaurant Noma is considered to be one of the best in the world. In 2015, chef René Redzepi relocated the entire Noma culinary team from Denmark to Japan with the mission of launching a pop-up restaurant, one that offered a new 14-course menu. Ants On A Shrimp follows Chef Redzepi and his crew to Japan as, immersed in a completely foreign culture, they attempt to pull off a seemingly impossible feat. The documentary presents a compelling, rare glimpse inside the world of those considered to be some of the greatest culinary artists of our time.
- Rachel Morgan
Super angry that consumer researchers have overrun their hometown and that their grandparents are confined to the old folks home, the children of Boilersville enlist the help of the adorable Fiddlesticks, their pet coati. The gang work together to wreak havoc, all in determination of turning the town around. Filmmaker Veit Helmer is admittedly heavily influenced by the Little Rascals and Pippi Longstocking. Packed with mischief, the live-action film is part of the 2016 Sidewalk family line-up. The director recommends Fiddlesticks for those ages 4 to 144. While the movie is subtitled it is visually dynamic.
- Rachel Morgan
A conversation with two-time Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner, director, Ondi Timone
The closing words, "you have the right to be handsome", encapsulate the feeling this documentary evokes - that regardless of your gender identity, you have a right to feel comfortable and confident in the clothes you wear. The founders of the Brooklyn-based Bindle & Keep work to help people across the spectrum achieve this feeling, with an in-depth consultation to provide a suit truly tailored to the individual. Produced by Lena Dunham and screened at Sundance 2016, this interesting and surprisingly poignant HBO documentary will not disappoint.
- Kate Michel
Hippopotamus aren’t exactly the most loved animals on the planet. That title is left to be decided on the battlefield where dog and cat lovers fight to a bloody end. Also, lets face it, hippopotamus are kind of jerks; plus, despite having webbed feet, they aren’t good swimmers and can’t even float. That aside, many folks out there love the uncelebrated hippopotamus, so much so that they collect anything in their likeness. The Pursuit of Hippo-ness is a profile of such individuals; the film is an entertaining, fun, sweet and beautifully photographed portrait of collectors of the hippopotamus.
- Rachel Morgan
Providing an overview of the history of the first-of-its-kind basketball team, The Hollywood Shorties, the eponymously titled documentary, combines current interviews with captivating archival footage. Formed in the 1950s and made up of actors who, as little people, experienced Hollywood typecasting, the team reached its zenith in the 1980’s, dissolving not long after the peak. Frequently compared to the Harlem Globetrotters, The Hollywood Shorties put on an amazing show filled with impressive athletic skill and wild antics. Informative, entertaining and celebratory, the documentary profiles the little known team that defied cultural stereotypes and reinvented an American pastime.
-Rachel Morgan
Departing early in the morning for a hiking trip, Claire’s professor husband, Paul, doesn’t return. After several weeks of searching the police call off the missing person investigation, but Claire desperately continues to look for clues. Her efforts eventually lead her to Allison, an annoyingly self-assured graduate art student. Mysterious and eerie, yet, at times, even somehow quietly funny, Claire In Motion features stellar performances from Marie Schrader, best known for Breaking Bad, and Sidewalk alum Anna Margaret Hollyman. Beyond just an indie thriller, Claire In Motion is a thoughtful study of trust, loss and the unknown.
-Rachel Morgan
During a Mojave weekend getaway, Dean, a middle-aged graphic designer gets the opportunity to find closure with a long lost ex. In the hours spent Dean indulges in the rare chance to explore love lost and in so doing weighs the difference between youthful and mature love. Written and directed by Tim Kirkman, Lazy Eye is a gorgeous piece of cinema, one filled with sexy chemistry, stellar acting from the leads (Lucas Near-Verbrugghe, Aaron Costa Ganis), artful visuals and a breathtaking soundtrack. You almost don’t want this film to ever end.
- J Matthew Cobb
Time Out critic Tom Huddleston’s review pull quote reads, “Men! We're awful, aren't we?”, a statement that pretty much sums up Chevalier. Six friends vacation on a yacht in the Aegean Sea, as the trip comes to an end harmless competition quickly accelerates into absolute tomfoolery. The group decides to compete for best all around man. From underwear and belt buckling to whose significant other loves them more - and all those things you’ve already guessed - the troop all try to consistently outdo one another. Darkly comedic, cuttingly cynical and possibly nihilistic, Chevalier won the best film award at last years London Film Festival.
- Rachel Morgan
