Local Features Get Second Run
by Chris Herrington
That Evening Sun isn't the only Indie Memphis winner returning to local screens this week. The Conversion, a made-for-the-web serial directed by local director Edward Valibus Phillips and his cohorts in the Corduroy Wednesday filmmaking crew, won the Hometowner Award for best local feature at the film festival last fall. This week it returns to share a screen at Studio on the Square with an even more high-profile local feature, Mike McCarthy's dystopian Cigarette Girl, which debuted at Studio last September.
The Conversion is a 12-part, web-conceived series inspired by the analog-to-digital television conversion and by episodic television shows such as Lost and 24. An inventive techno-thriller, it's rooted in conspiracy and paranoia but also has a palpable sense of humor.
Cigarette Girl is the first feature in nearly a decade from local filmmaking pioneer McCarthy. The low-budget, futuristic noir stars Amazonian wonder Cori Dials in the title role, a black-market cigarette dealer who quits smoking and defies her mob employers, forcing her to simultaneously fight against nicotine withdrawal and for her life. The film's tagline: "She'd kill for a smoke."
The Conversion and Cigarette Girl will alternate showings. See malco.com for showtimes and ticket info.
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