Sidewalk Film Festival Returns for its 20th Year
When the lights go down at the Alabama Theatre Friday evening, it will mark the 20th opening of the Sidewalk Film Festival. Sidewalk has been a source of independent movies and a touchstone for the Birmingham filmmaking community. WBHM’s Andrew Yeager spoke with Michele Forman, former president of the festival’s board and part of the group that got Sidewalk off the ground in the late 1990s.
Highlights
The challenge of convincing people a downtown festival would work:
“We kept telling people at that time it’s like [the now-defunct music festival] City Stages, but for movies … That probably in my mind was a sort of model that it can be done and that you can get people to come back to downtown to be able to go out at night, eat, hang out, be able to really activate that space again.”
Finding space to screen films:
“We really didn’t have any venues … We had the Alabama Theatre and we had a lot of empty storefronts. So that involved bringing in generators. Not just projection equipment, but actually bringing in our own electricity. In those early years there were folding chairs and bean bags. It really was a pop up that first year.”
How technology such as smart phones has changed filmmaking:
“The barriers to production have really never been lower. You have the power in your pocket essentially. But it still requires the kind of training, the kind of craft, to be able to direct, to be able to do the production and set design, to be able to cast, to be able to edit, be able to put together all those visual and audio elements, to be able to create a work of art, to be able to tell a story. Those things still require the same kind of education. It’s just the expense of making it have really shifted.”
Michele Forman’s Top Picks To See:
Studio 54: The Documentary
Three Identical Strangers
Michelin Stars – Tales From The Kitchen Trailer
White Tide: The Legend Of Culebra
Rodents Of Unusual Size
Madeline’s Madeline
**Note: this film was reviewed on NPR’s All Things Considered.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post
If I Leave Here Tomorrow: A Film About Lynyrd Skynyrd
Mass trial shines a light on rape culture in France
A harrowing and unprecedented trial in France is exposing how pornography, chatrooms and men’s disdain for or hazy understanding of consent is fueling rape culture.
What’s your favorite thing about fall?
With cooler mornings and shorter days, if feels like fall is finally here. So what’s your favorite thing about fall? We put that question to people at our recent News and Brews community pop-up in Cullman.
Teammates LeBron and Bronny James make history as the NBA’s first father-son duo
The Jameses, who both play for the L.A. Lakers, shared the court for several minutes on the NBA's opening night. They join a very small club of father-son teammates in American professional sports.
After John le Carré’s death, his son had the ‘daunting’ task to revive George Smiley
Nick Harkaway grew up hearing his dad read drafts of his George Smiley novels. He picks up le Carré's beloved spymaster character in the new novel, Karla's Choice.
When Steamboat goes WHOOSH, scientists look for answers
What triggers geysers to go off is still not well understood. A new paper shows that one small earthquake likely triggered an eruption of the world's tallest active geyser, Steamboat.
Trump’s ex-chief of staff warns his former boss would rule like a ‘fascist’
John Kelly is one of several Trump-era White House officials to publicly criticize their former boss, arguing that Trump is not fit to hold office again.
