IM09: Flyer picks today's best

Memphis Flyer film critic Chris Herrington and former New York Times

critic Elvis Mitchell at Saturday's workshop on the state of film criticism.

The Flyer serves up its Indie Memphis Sunday choices here, with The Hand of Fatima as pick of the day. Also: Easier with Practice is feature pick, Ghost Bird is documentary pick, Li'l Film Fest 11 (Musical Horror) is local pick and Nowhere Kids is shorts pick. Wildcard picks include Joe Swanberg's workshop on working with nonprofessional actors, plus the films St. Nick, Hair High and the documentary The Way We Get By. 


Thanks to Chris Herrington for this plug of Li'l Film Fest:
Local Pick: Li'l Film Fest 11: Musical Horror (5:30 p.m., Brooks Museum of Art)
Live From Memphis' Li'l Film Fest series is a very good thing. By giving local filmmakers a manageable task — creating a short film (roughly 5 minutes) on a set topic — the fest has helped to inspire and hone talent in the local scene, while also creating a setting to build the local filmmaking community. The latest Li'l Film Fest — with the promising theme "musical horror" — is being held alongside Indie Memphis. As always, a jury award will be matched by an audience award voted on by those in attendance. Among the notable names in local filmmaking presenting films: Geoffrey Brent Shrewsbury, Jon W. Sparks, HG Ray, and Adam Remsen.




And here's my summary of "The Way We Get By" that I wrote for the Indie Memphis program:


This documentary takes a sympathetic yet unwavering look at three senior citizens determined to maintain purposeful lives even in the face of personal adversity. The trio have assumed the demanding volunteer task of greeting troops coming through the airport at Bangor, Maine. This is no small chore as the airfield has been the departure and return point for hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops going to and coming from Iraq and Afghanistan. For Bill Knight, Joan Gaudet, and Jerry Mundy, this is something they simply must do at any hour of the day or night. Yet they have their own personal issues, such as health, financial problems and for Gaudet, the anxiety of having a granddaughter who will fly helicopters in Iraq. In examining the personal lives of these "troop greeters," documentarian Aaron Gaudet (the son of Joan Gaudet) shows that theaging population of America is tirelessly finding ways to sustain their own humanity, and to teach the rest of us by example.