Indie Grits 2019 Film Submissions
A Look at André Leon Talley's Legacy
Jul 11 • Programming
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What Was Technicolor?
Jun 19 • Programming
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Her Name Was Grace
May 31 • Programming
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Now Playing • Aug 10–Sep 20
BlacKkKlansman
At the beginning of the 1970s, Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) becomes the first African-American detective at the Colorado Springs police department. Soon after, with the help of fellow detective Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), he infiltrates the Ku Klux Klan, eventually becoming the head of the local KKK chapter.
Directed by Spike Lee.
Now Playing • Sep 7–Sep 20
Juliet, Naked
Annie (Rose Byrne) is stuck in a long-term relationship with Duncan (Chris O’Dowd) – an obsessive fan of obscure rocker Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke). When the acoustic demo of Tucker’s hit record from 25 years ago surfaces, its release leads to a life-changing encounter with the elusive rocker himself. Based on the novel by Nick Hornby, Juliet, Naked is a comic account of life’s second chances.
Directed by Jesse Peretz.
Now Playing • Sep 14–Sep 27
The Wife
Joan (Glenn Close) and Joe (Jonathan Pryce) remain complements after nearly 40 years of marriage. Where Joe is casual, Joan is elegant. Where Joe is vain, Joan is self-effacing. And where Joe enjoys his very public role as the great American novelist, Joan pours her considerable intellect, grace, charm, and diplomacy into the private role of a great man's wife. As Joe is about to be awarded the Nobel Prize for his acclaimed and prolific body of work, Joan starts to think about the shared compromises, secrets and betrayals.
Now Playing • Sep 20–Sep 27
Fahrenheit 11/9
Filmmaker Michael Moore predicted that Donald Trump would become the 45th president of the United States. In his new documentary, he travels across the country, interviewing American citizens to get a sense of the social, economic and political impact of Trump’s victory. Moore takes an in-depth look at the media, Electoral College, government agenda and his hometown of Flint, Michigan.
Coming Soon • Sep 23
Thunder Road
This screening will be followed by a Skype Q&A with Jim Cummings, director, writer, and star of the film.
Thunder Road is a tragicomic portrait of Jim Arnaud (Jim Cummings), a Texan police officer struggling to raise his young daughter after the death of his mother.
Originally a short film, Thunder Road won the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2016 and screened at Indie Grits the same year. The feature-length film won the Grand Jury Prize at SXSW 2018.
Coming Soon • Sep 26
The Rape of Recy Taylor
Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old black mother and sharecropper, was gang raped by six white boys in 1944 Alabama. Common in Jim Crow South, few women spoke up in fear for their lives. Not Recy Taylor, who bravely identified her rapists. The NAACP sent its chief rape investigator, Rosa Parks, who rallied support and triggered an unprecedented outcry for justice.
This screening is presented in partnership with The Hive.
Coming Soon • Sep 29
Muscle Shoals
Located on the banks of the Tennessee River, Muscle Shoals, Alabama is the unlikely breeding ground for some of the most creative and defiant music in American history.
The film brings in legendary artists including Aretha Franklin, Gregg Allman, Bono, Clarence Carter, Jimmy Cliff, Mick Jagger, Alicia Keys, Keith Richards, Percy Sledge, Steve Winwood, and others, as well as archival interviews with the late Wilson Pickett and Etta James, all who bear witness to the magnetism and mystery of Muscle Shoals and why it remains a global influence today.
Coming Soon • Sep 30
Manhattan Short Film Festival
Manhattan Short has announced the final selections for its 21st annual short film festival, taking place in over 350 venues across six continents. Manhattan Short is the only event of its kind—the final nine films are screened simultaneously across the world, with the Best Film and Best Actor awards determined by ballots cast by the audiences in each participating venue.
These short films represent the best among 1,565 submissions from 73 countries, a testimony to the enduring vibrancy and creativity of short films.
Coming Soon • Oct 2
Bisbee '17
Bisbee, Arizona, 1917. Almost 1,200 miners are removed from their homes, shipped away in train cars, and left to die in the middle of the desert.
One hundred years later, citizens of the former mining town gather together to reflect upon and recreate this dark event from their town's past. Tensions both new and old bubble to the surface, between the hippies and artists who moved into the town, and the old mining families who have lived there for decades.
This film is part of our For the Record series.
Coming Soon • Oct 3
Blade Runner: The Final Cut
In a future of high-tech possibility soured by urban and social decay, 21st-century detective Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) hunts for fugitive, murderous replicants—and is drawn to a mystery woman whose secrets may undermine his soul. This incredible version features the definitive Final Cut of Ridley Scott's legendary sci-fi classic.
Coming Soon • Oct 4
Jennifer's Body
JENNIFER'S BODY tells the story of Jennifer Check (Megan Fox), a normal high school girl who faces a grueling fate after mysterious occult events surrounding a concert in her small town of Devil’s Kettle. Her best friend Needy Lesnicki (Amanda Seyfried) discovers that Jennifer has developed a taste for human flesh and makes it her personal responsibility to put a stop to Jennifer’s murderous actions. Director Karyn Kusama (THE INVITATION) and writer Diablo Cody (JUNO) combine the high school “coming-of-age” narrative with grotesque horror to create a supernatural dark comedy in the vein of CARRIE and GINGER SNAPS.
This film is part of the "Medusa's Gaze" series.
Coming Soon • Oct 9
Bye Bye Germany
Frankfurt, 1946. David Bermann (Moritz Bleibtreu) and his Jewish friends have escaped the Nazi regime and are now dreaming of leaving for America. But how will they get the money in these tough post-war times? The smooth-talking businessman focuses on what the Germans now need most: fine bed linens nicely wrapped in amusing stories! The six talented entertainers go from home to home, praising housewives with ashy chutzpah until the flattered ladies have no choice but to buy their irresistible items. Business flourishes and a bright new future can be seen on the horizon, but questions about Bermann's past catch up with him.
This film is part of the Columbia Jewish Film Festival.
Coming Soon • Oct 9–Oct 28
Columbia Jewish Film Festival
The mission of the Columbia Jewish Film Festival is to offer outstanding world cinema that promotes awareness, appreciation, and pride in the diversity of the Jewish experience. Reaching out to the greater Columbia area, the Festival’s aim is to educate, illuminate, and entertain through film—including history, language, people, the State of Israel, and the history of the Jewish people from pre-biblical to modern times.
Coming Soon • Oct 11
Lyle
Lyle follows Leah (Gabby Hoffman), a wife and mother pushed to the mental brink after the mysterious death of her daughter. Seven months after the tragedy, Leah begins to notice a myriad of disturbing signs, including a mysterious pregnancy-obsessed landlady and gruesome bits of history at the apartment complex. This contemporary reworking of the motifs of Rosemary’s Baby features captivatingly realistic and subdued performances that make the film's descent into madness all the more unnerving.
This film is part of the "Medusa's Gaze" series.
Coming Soon • Oct 14
Above the Drowning Sea
As Hitler’s forces sought to expel the Jews from Europe, no other country would open its doors to the refugees. With their lives at stake, the refugees desperately looked for an escape from the coming Holocaust. Then, a door opened on the east coast of far-away China—Shanghai, an “open city” itself in chaos from foreign invasion and civil war. But getting there required a golden document to get out of Nazi Europe—a visa from China.
Above the Drowning Sea recounts the courageous intervention of Ho Feng Shan, the Chinese Consul in Vienna, who defied his own government and braved the Gestapo to issue visas to the refugees.
This film is part of the Columbia Jewish Film Festival.
Coming Soon • Oct 14
Shelter
Mossad agent Naomi (Neta Riskin) is called back from sick leave and assigned to a "babysitting" job. Under a new identity, she heads to Germany to protect Mona (Golshifteh Farahani), a Lebanese informant, who is hidden in a Hamburg safe house while recovering from plastic surgery. Naomi learns that Mona is close to a top Hezbollah leader, a man dead-set on exacting revenge. In this game of deception, beliefs are questioned and choices are made that are not their own. During the two weeks they spend together, an unexpected bond forms between the two women and their fate takes a surprising turn in this suspenseful, elegant neo-noir.
This film is part of the Columbia Jewish Film Festival.
Coming Soon • Oct 16
An Act of Defiance
Ten political activists (Nelson Mandela and his inner circle of Black and Jewish supporters) face a death sentence for conspiracy to commit sabotage after they are arrested by the apartheid South African government. Bram Fischer (Peter Paul Muller), a sympathetic lawyer, risks his career and freedom to defend the men, attempting to hide the fact that he, too, frequently convened on the farm where they were arrested.
This film is part of the Columbia Jewish Film Festival.
Coming Soon • Oct 21
The Last Suit
A heartfelt and charming journey begins when Abraham (Miguel Ángel Solá), a spry octogenarian tailor and Holocaust survivor, leaves his Buenos Aires home on a one-way trip across Europe in search of the man who once saved his life.
This film is part of the Columbia Jewish Film Festival.
Coming Soon • Oct 21
Student Short Film Competition Showcase
Join us to celebrate the work of student filmmakers from across South Carolina. This year, students were asked to create three to six-minute film using the theme Lo Ta’amod, a concept defined as not standing by while others are threatened or mistreated with rudeness, bullying, violence, racism, or intolerance.
Registration for entries will remain open through September 28, 2018.
This event is free and open to the public.
Coming Soon • Oct 23
Scandal in Ivansk
In the small Polish town of Ivansk, one word ignites a nationwide controversy. Most of Ivansk’s Jews were killed by the Nazis, and the headstones in the Jewish cemetery were plundered for construction purposes. A group of descendants of Ivansk Jews restores the town’s cemetery, retrieving what headstones they can. When they commission a plaque that includes the word “collaborator,” a national scandal is unleashed. This eye-opening documentary strives to understand why much of the nation won’t accept “collaborator” to describe Polish people who aided the Nazis and benefitted from the genocide of Jews.
This film is part of the Columbia Jewish Film Festival.
Coming Soon • Oct 25
The Hunger
In THE HUNGER, danger and passion lurk in the gothic shadows of the 1980s New York City club scene. The cult classic stars Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, and Susan Sarandon as a love triangle laced with loss and blood. Miriam Blaylock (Catherine Deneuve) is a centuries-old vampire whose current lover John (David Bowie) is showing signs of rapid aging. Out of desperation, they seek out Dr. Sarah Roberts (Susan Sarandon) in order to find a cure. THE HUNGER combines the archaic with the modern, putting a new spin on the vampire genre and creating a timeless goth classic.
This film is part of the "Medusa's Gaze" series.
Coming Soon • Oct 28
Shalom Bollywood: The Untold Story of Indian Cinema
Full of unexpected delights, SHALOM BOLLYWOOD tells of the Jewish stars that dominated early Indian cinema. When the world’s largest film industry began, it was frowned upon for Hindu and Muslim women to appear on screen. So their roles were played by India’s Jewish community, Baghdadi and Bene Israel descendants that faced no taboos about performing in public. From the silent era through Bollywood’s golden age, Indian cinema icons share how their careers pushed the boundaries of Indian-Jewish culture.
This film is part of the Columbia Jewish Film Festival.
