Indie Memphis Film Festival 2023: Here are the award winners

This year's Indie Memphis Film Festival awards show was, as usual, a celebration of bold filmmakers embracing limited resources to manifest distinctive visions.

But Saturday night's ceremony at Playhouse on the Square functioned, in particular, as a sort of public introduction for two rising local filmmakers, Zaire Love and Alicia Ester.

"My mission is to honor, amplify and immortalize the stories and voices of the Black South," said Love, who earned back-to-back awards, in the categories of Hometowner Narrative Short, for "Etto," and Hometowner Documentary Short, for "Slice."

Produced in part with an Indie Memphis grant, "Etto" invites viewers to watch as "an unapologetically ghetto Black woman navigates the work space," Love said as she accepted the award.

"Slice," meanwhile, chronicles the "slicing" swimming-pool athleticism of Rico Golden and other Memphians. It's an attempt to demonstrate that "Black boy joy, Black men joy in Memphis does live," said the exuberant Golden, who joined Love onstage. "It's not a perfect city, but we love it."

Close to 40 awards were doled out during the show, which was hosted by local comic Richard Douglas Jones; produced for the 11th year by Savannah Bearden; and "interrupted" with intentionally awkward comedy segments alleged to have been scripted by ChatGPT.

Also honored in the "Hometowner" category, which recognizes films produced in the Memphis area, Ester won the Best Hometowner Feature award for "Spirit of Memphis," a documentary that revisits the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike via interviews with surviving participants and emphasis on the significance of historic Clayborn Temple as a sanctuary and focal point for activism.

Ester also was awarded an "Indiegrant" worth $15,000 in cash and production services to help her complete her next project, a film titled "55 South."

The Best Narrative Feature award went to "Mountains," by Monica Sorelle, a drama about a Haitian demolition worker contracted to dismantle his own rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. The Best Documentary Feature was "Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project," a portrait of the Black Power-influenced poet.

The Indie Award, which recognizes a working filmmaker/crew member who has been invaluable to independent production in the Memphis area, went to Laura Jean Hocking, who has become a first-call editor for directors making movies in the Mid-South. Hocking also has made her own highly personal short films and has worked numerous film jobs through the years, but she is now perhaps best known as an editor. She was the editor on three significant features film at this year's Indie Memphis festival: "Scent of Linden," a comedy-drama about Bulgarian refugees in Memphis; "The Blues Society," a documentary about the Overton Park Shell blues festivals of the late 1960s; and "Juvenile: Five Stories," a documentary that follows several young people caught in the maze of the juvenile justice system.

The Vision Award, "established to honor those who have made a permanent impact" on the festival, went to Molly Wexler, a longtime Indie Memphis board member, former interim director of development for the festival and sometime filmmaker whose experience with the Memphis Jewish Federation and other agencies proved crucial as she similarly worked to sustain and elevate Indie Memphis. Wexler was not present to accept her award, but she had a good excuse: She was at the Stevie Nicks concert at FedExForum.

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With Kimel Fryer in her second year as Indie Memphis executive director and Miriam Bale returning as artistic director, the 26th Indie Memphis Film Festival ran Oct. 24-29. The slate of 170-plus films included all types of features and short films, plus music videos and classic revivals, from the Memphis area and around the world, at five screening venues.

2023 Indie Memphis Film Festival winners

Here is a full list of winners:

Best Narrative Feature: "Mountains," Monica Sorelle.

Best Narrative Short: "Benedicton," Zandashé Brown.

Best Documentary Feature: "Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project," Joe Brewster, Michele Stephenson.

Best Documentary Short: "This Is Not a Sport Film," Lily Ahgree Siegel.

Best Sounds Feature: "Even Hell Has Its Heroes," Clyde Petersen. (The "Sounds" category is devoted to films about music.)

Best Departures Feature: "La Bonga," Sebastian Pinzon Silva, Maria Canela Reyes. (The "Departures" category is devoted to unusual or experimental films.)

Best Departures Short: "Amma Ki Katha," Nehal Vyas.

Best After Dark Short: "Be Thyself," Daniel Rosendale. (The "After Dark" category is devoted to eerie or unsettling films.)

Best Hometowner Feature: "Spirit of Memphis," Alicia Ester.

Best Hometowner Narrative Short: "Etto," Zaire Love.

Best Hometowner Documentary Short: "Slice," Zaire Love.

Best Hometowner Music Video: Black Hippie song "If You Feel Alone at Parties," Lawrence Shaw.

Best National Music Video: Pollyanna song "Slut," Jasia Ka.

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Duncan-Williams Scriptwriting Award: "The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed," Joanna Arnow.

Best Poster Design: "An Evening Song (for three voices)."

The Ron Tibbett Soul of Southern Filmmaking Award: "Mississippi River Styx," Andy McMillan, Tim Grant.

The Craig Brewer Emerging Filmmaker Award: "Donna and Ally," Connor Mahony.

The Indie Award: Laura Jean Hocking.

The Vision Award: Molly Wexler.

Indiegrants: "55 South," Alicia Ester; "Friend Shaped," Lo Norman.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Indie Memphis Film Festival 2023: The award winners