Rebel Country, a documentary featuring Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson and other country artists, will be the opening night attraction.
It’s entirely unfair, and more than a little presumptuous, to ask the executive director of a prestigious film festival to choose among the favorites on their program. But as I discussed the lineup for the Sept. 19-25 Nashville Film Festival, it was hard not to notice the unprompted and enthusiastic praise Jason Padgitt had for Rebel Country, an opening night feature for the 55th annual event in Music City.
Directed by Francis Whately (Rock ‘n’ Roll Guns for Hire: The Story of the Sidemen), Rebel Country is an inclusive overview of contemporary game-changers in country music, featuring such notables as Jelly Roll (pictured above), Lainey Wilson, Blanco Brown, Chely Wright, BRELAND, Sam Williams and Rissi Palmer.
Lainey Wilson in Rebel Country
“From a programming standpoint,” Padgitt says, “we’re always very dynamic. We always try to bring the best of independent film from around the world. So, thematically, the programming is by design intended to be very diverse and engaging for a wide variety of tastes.”
Rebel Country, he says, “underscores our commitment to music documentaries, which is a big core of what we always like to lead off the festival with. At least in the time that I’ve been here. That’s been a commitment of ours. We love to celebrate the musicians of all genres. Like, right before Rebel Country, we’ll be having a companion feature” — Devo, a documentary by Chris Smith (American Movie, Tiger King) about the titular new wave band — “just to show a little bit of the breadth of musical tastes here.
Nashville Film Festival executive director Jason Padgitt
“But yeah, Rebel Country also is something that we’re very excited about. It’s a documentary that talks about how country music in general has evolved and continues to evolve. And it focuses on artists who are breaking down barriers and kind of reinventing the genre as time goes on. That’s something that’s obviously been a consistent theme of what we call country music. But that definition is always evolving. It’s an ever-changing thing, and it’s very exciting.
“I mean, you can argue over what was the best period or what was the worst period. But the fact is that country music is not going to stay the same. Sometimes it comes back, as it did in the ‘90s, to the traditional sound. But it’s great to examine those things. And there’s no better way to do that than in the form of a music documentary. It's just a great way to celebrate the genre here in Music City.”
Among the other titles likely to be of special interest to C&I readers:
A Man Called Hurt: The Life and Music of Mississippi John Hurt
Directed by Jamison Stalsworth and Alex Oliver, A Man Called Hurt: The Life and Music of Mississippi John Hurt is a documentary portrait of the legendary country blues singer, guitarist and songwriter, celebrating his enduring influence and featuring interviews with John Sebastian of The Loving Spoonful, neotraditional country artist Dom Flemons, blues guitarist Rory Block and others. The film will be shown on the same program with Chet Atkins’ Jitterbug Waltz, an original performance video of the Nashville Ballet’s tribute to Atkins set to the late country artist’s recording of “Jitterbug Waltz.”
The Day the Music Stopped
According to the movie's website: “The Day the Music Stopped is a feature-length documentary examining the decade-long struggle of independent music venues and the creative class they support against developers and concert promoter Live Nation. Taking place in Nashville, Tennessee, dubbed ‘Music City USA,’ our story is depicted through the lens of Exit/In, one of the nation’s most historic independent venues. We watch as the club’s owner/operator Chris Cobb, the musicians who perform there, and political allies work together to save the club from imminent corporate takeover.” The film will be shown on the same program with a short documentary about another iconic Nashville music venue: Legacy in the Making: The Bluebird Cafe.
Bang Bang
Old Henry star Tim Blake Nelson plays retired Detroit pugilist Bernard “Bang Bang” Rozyski, who’s inspired to try his hand at training once he reconnects with his estranged grandson. While their partnership brings Bang Bang out of the hole he’s been living in, his motives are questioned by almost everyone else around them — including an ex-girlfriend from decades ago who was privy to both Bang Bang’s meteoric rise in the sport during the 1980s, and the rivalry with his former opponent, Darnell Washington, her cousin and mayoral candidate Darnell Washington (Glenn Plummer). Is Bang Bang merely passing down inherited rage, or is there true altruism behind his tutelage?
Sugarcane
A genuine gut punch of a documentary, Sugarcane is an enlightening and infuriating look at the abuse and disappearances of Native American children that occurred over decades in residential Indian schools throughout North America. As I noted in my Variety review: “Co-directors Emily Kassie and Indigenous filmmaker Julian Brave NoiseCat show restraint and empathy while cataloguing the horrors that were endemic at the now-shuttered St. Joseph’s Mission residential school near the Sugarcane Reservation of Williams Lake in British Columbia. But their disciplined approach to their material actually makes the movie even more effective in its cumulative impact, especially during interviews with survivors of St. Joseph’s — including NoiseCat’s father and grandmother — who only gradually dredge up memories they obviously have long sought to suppress.”
Jazzy
Director Morrisa Maltz sets out, with her The Unknown Country star Lily Gladstone on board as executive producer and co-star, to document the life of Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux, a young Oglala Lakota girl growing up in Spearfish, S.D., from the age of 6 to 12, alongside her best friend Syriah. When Jazzy finds out her BFF is moving, she is confronted with the pains of growing up, and the realities of the adult world. The film explores the lives and ever-changing relationships of their peer group as they leave the dreamlike world of childhood behind, from their own unique perspective.
Melissa Etheridge: I'm Not Broken
Brian Morrow and Amy Scott’s docuseries tells an inspiring story of healing and transcendence through the power of music when five female residents from the Topeka Correctional Facility, a women’s prison in Kansas, write letters to singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge that she then uses as inspiration to create and perform an original song for them. Having recently lost her son to opioids, Etheridge works to understand and interrupt the cycle of addiction while connecting with these women who, so often, are forgotten by society.
