Celebrating a 10th anniversary this week, On Location: Memphis
International Film Festival is back with 100 screenings and numerous
panels and workshops and Q&A’s from Thursday, April 23rd to Sunday,
April 26th. It will be in its new home at Malco’s Ridgeway Four theater
in East Memphis.

Highlights of this year’s slate are films that will take you to
places as unfamiliar as the other side of the world (Ibadan, Cradle
of Nigerian Literati) and as familiar as our own hometown (The
Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306). You’ll meet new people
(You Are Not Alone), and you’ll see people you thought you knew
in a different light (Sam Cooke: Crossing Over and Johnny
Cash at Folsom Prison).

Things will start with a screening of the Morgan Freeman-involved
documentary Prom Night in Mississippi Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
Following will be an opening-night party at Ground Zero Blues Club off
Beale Street downtown. A red carpet will greet attendees, there will be
live music, and the festival awards — for the categories Live
Action Short, Feature, Music Video, Documentary, and Animated Short
— will be given out beginning around 10 p.m. Admission is free
with a festival pass or $10 at the door.

Other special events include films chosen for younger audiences,
screening Saturday at 10 a.m., and a “Fright Night” selection of horror
films Saturday night.

Two films will be of particular interest to local audiences and act
as bookend statements on modern-day American racial realities: The
Witness and Prom Night.

The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306 is a documentary
short that examines the events leading up to and the moment Martin
Luther King Jr. was killed at the Lorraine Motel, from the point of
view of the only other person who was on the balcony when the shot rang
out, the Rev. Samuel “Billy” Kyles.

Through interviews and sermons with Kyles and conversations with
civil rights leaders and key players Maxine Smith, Benjamin L. Hooks,
and sanitation worker Taylor Rogers, The Witness reconstructs
Memphis in the spring of 1968: the sanitation workers’ strike in full
swing, the “I Am a Man” marchers, the chaos and failure of the March
29th demonstration, and King’s return a week later to prove that the
demonstration could be done peacefully. And then Mason Temple the night
of April 3rd. And the Lorraine the next evening.

With archival footage and photos, The Witness leverages
considerable power, charging the particles of the past with the
emotional immediacy of the moment. Kyles, too, gets lots of credit for
reminding the audience of the frustrations, disappointments, and even
pleasures of King’s last days — and the pain of the end —
especially for those, like me, who weren’t yet born.

The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306

Kyles admits that for some time following the assassination, he
wondered why he should have been the one to be standing by King at the
time of his death. It’s no small question for a man to ask, much less a
man of God: Why me? And then, at some point, Kyles found his answer:
“Crucifixions have to have witnesses.”

The Witness was directed by Adam Pertofsky and produced by
native Memphian Margaret Hyde for the National Civil Rights Museum. The
film was nominated for an Academy Award this year for documentary
short. Kyles will be present at the 7 p.m. screening and will conduct a
Q&A, Friday, April 24th.

“Shoot the dreamer and see what happens to the dream.” That’s Kyles
in The Witness, but the statement applies to another top film at
On Location: Memphis, Prom Night in Mississippi. The
feature-length documentary takes its own look at the legacy of King and
the civil rights movement, this time examining the racial relations in
the small town of Charleston, Mississippi (pop. 2,100, “A Good Place To
Live”).

The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the desegregation of all schools in
1954. But Charleston High School wasn’t integrated until 1970. And even
then the school continued the practice of holding separate white and
black proms. Charleston native Morgan Freeman offered to pay for an
integrated prom in 1997 but was rebuffed by the school board. He tried
again in 2008 and was finally accepted. Prom Night follows
Freeman’s endeavor, the kids’ reactions to his offer, and some of the
parents’ actions against it.

There were 415 students enrolled at Charleston High in 2008 —
70 percent of them black. For the film, some students were given
cameras to record diaries of their thoughts. And so it’s through the
kids’ eyes that we see the drama unfold, as most students embrace the
opportunity for an integrated prom, other students lash out at the
idea, and the weight of the town’s bigotry starts to weigh on them
all.

What emerges is that the majority of the teens have made healthy
decisions about the value of judging others based on race and that
problems are introduced by parents and older generations. As
frustrating as it is to see bigotry passed down to those with the least
ability to resist, it’s still exciting to realize that this backward
thinking may be in the process of being extinguished.

Prom Night also works as teen ritual. The customs of prom
prep remain a universal rite of passage. And like any great prom movie,
it’s got choreographed dancing.

Prom Night in Mississippi screens Thursday, April 23rd, at
7:30 p.m., followed by a Q&A with director Paul Saltzman and some
of the Charleston High students.

On Location: Memphis International Film Festival

Ridgeway Four

Thursday, April 23rd-Sunday, April 26th

Admission $10 opening night, $8.50 other screenings

See onlocationmemphis.org for a full
schedule.

Check out the Flyer‘s new film, music, and
pop-culture blog, “Sing All Kinds,” at memphisflyer.com/blogs/singallkinds
for more festival content.