Even more intriguing films are lined up for the upcoming Chattanooga Film Festival
The second wave of the upcoming Chattanooga Film Festival has been announced and it’s a cavalcade of interesting films accompanied by specials guests of all sorts.
As always, there will be a variety of talented filmmakers and industry professionals on hand to answer questions and introduce their films, giving audience unique insight into their processes and creative inspiration.
This year includes several local experts, especially underscoring the “Chattanooga” of the Chattanooga Film Festival. Highlights of the announcement can be found below, but as always, the full list, as well as tickets and VIP badges, can be found at chattfilmfest.org.
Our Heavenly Bodies
Director Hanns Walter Kornblum
With Live Score by Coupler
In 1925, German director Hanns Walter Kornblum wanted to create a film unlike any before it, a summation of all the astronomical knowledge available at the time and a dreamy investigation of what wonders might await humanity at the advent of space travel. One of the silent era’s most gorgeous visionary films together with an electrifying live score provided by Coupler, a Nashville-based band founded by Ryan Norris (Lambchop) that describes itself as “an exploration of the intersections of man and machine, live and recorded, composed and improvised, stasis and flux.”
SCORE: A Film Music Documentary
Director: Matt Schrader
Q&A with Chattanooga Symphony Principal Pops Conductor Bob Bernhardt
What makes a score unforgettable? SCORE: A Film Music Documentary will tell you. The film shows how painstaking the process of writing any score, let alone a memorable one, can be, and features interviews with many of the world’s finest film score composers, including John Williams (Star Wars, Jaws, Indiana Jones), Danny Elman (Batman, Spider-Man) and Hans Zimmer (Driving Miss Daisy, Rain Man, Pirates of the Caribbean).
The Crest
Director: Mark Covino
Q&A following with Mark Covino
Mark Covino has had a long tradition of CFF attendance, with screenings of his debut feature A Band Called Death, and workshops on documentary filmmaking. This year he returns with a new documentary. The Crest is a gorgeously shot and edited surf documentary, but a closer look reveals a timely tale of family, of immigration, and the importance of preserving traditions and cultures.
Whose Streets?
Director: Sabaah Folayan
The activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice bring you a documentary about the Ferguson uprising. When unarmed teenager Michael Brown is killed by police and then left lying in the street for hours, it marks a breaking point for the residents of St. Louis County. Grief, long-standing tension, and renewed anger bring residents together to hold vigil and protest this latest tragedy. In the days that follow, artists, musicians, teachers and parents turn into freedom fighters, standing on the front lines to demand justice.
Beauty is Embarrassing
Director: Neil Berkeley
Intro and Q&A by Wayne White
Beauty Is Embarrassing is a funny, irreverent, joyful and inspiring documentary featuring the life and current times of one of America’s most important artists, Chattanooga’s own Wayne White, whose multi-faceted talents are on display at Wayne-O-Rama. Wayne will be on hand to introduce this film and do a post-film Q&A.
This is a free event that will be shown at Neural Alley—Passageways in partnership with River City Company, Wayne-O-Rama and generously sponsored by Maclellan Apartments.
Lost in Paris
Directors: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon
Fiona visits Paris for the first time to assist her myopic Aunt Martha. Catastrophes ensue, mainly involving Dom, a homeless man who has yet to have an emotion or thought he was afraid of expressing. This crowd pleasing comedy looks and feels like a classic screwball picture and gave us some serious warm fuzzies.
24x36
Director: Kevin Burke
A documentary that explores the birth, death and resurrection of illustrated movie poster art. Through interviews with a number of key art personalities from the past four decades, 24×36 aims to answer the question of what happened to the illustrated movie poster? Where did it disappear to, and why?
Deus Ex Machine: The Philosophy of Donnie Darko
Director: Daniel Griffith
Daniel Griffith in attendance
The 15th Anniversary 4k Restoration along with new documentary about the classic film Deus Ex Machine: The Philosophy of Donnie Darko. Also an evil Easter Bunny photo booth in the CFF tent will help us celebrate this honest-to-god contemporary classic.
The Chattanooga Film Festival runs April 6-9.