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A documentary entitled “The Tennessee 11,” directed by Rod Blackhurst, focuses on eleven Tennessee citizens who came together to try to reach consensus on solutions to gun violence in the state. The eleven were: Tim Carroll, Arriell Gipson Martin, William Green, Jaila Hampton, Ron Johnson, Brandi Kellett, Mariah Levison, Adam Luke, Alyssa Pearman, Ashley Phillips, Mark Proctor, Kevin Shrum, Kelly Wilder and Jay Zimmerman. The record of their discussions towards that goal became the documentary “The Tennessee 11.” It will be showing at the Nashville Film Festival on both September 21st and September 24^th.

The opening of the film, which involved body cam footage from Officers Rex Engelbert and Michael Collazo, responding to a call of a school shooting at 33 Burton Boulevard at the Covenant Christian School in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville on March 7, 2023, was riveting. On March 27, 2023, 28-year-old Aiden Hale (born Audrey Elizabeth Hale), a transgender man and former student of the Presbyterian Church elementary school, killed three nine-year-old children and three adults, before being shot and killed by the brave officers. It remains the deadliest mass shooting in Tennessee history.

The music and pacing and credits at the beginning of the film were riveting. I could only pray that the first 22 minutes accurately represented the rest of the 79 minute film. But quelling a shooting turned out to be more interesting than watching eleven people disagree politely for an hour, although the study of the differing viewpoints was absorbing in a more cerebral way.

CURRENT TENNESSEE GUN LAW

Demonstraters in Nashville.

Permitless carry became legal on July 1, 2021 for handguns in Tennessee. Tennessee does not require a permit to carry an open or concealed handgun in public and also expressly allows a person to carry any firearm, loaded or unloaded, in a lawfully possessed motor vehicle or boat, as long as they are not prohibited from purchasing or possessing a firearm. Many Tennessee natives are upset about this. They have been demonstrating in an attempt to convey their unhappiness about lax supervision of firearms.

This eleven member group was formed to try to reach consensus on some realistic solutions to the problem of gun violence in the United States. It was quite the task, given the vast differences in perspectives of the Tennessee Eleven. While the group seemed to make some slight progress and a bill was actually passed that represented 5 of the suggestions the panel made, that bill didn’t require any kind of permit for a firearm. Sadly, the statement about “the transformative power of conversation” seemed to fall apart upon further scrutiny.

Much more to the point was the remark, “What good is awareness without action?”

MASSACRES OF THE PAST

That latter remark reminded me of the day that President Obama said was the worst day of his presidency: December 14, 2012. On December 14, 2012, a mass shooting occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, United States. The perpetrator, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, shot and killed 26 people, after shooting and killing his mother. Twenty of the victims were children between six and seven years old; the other six were adult staff members. Not much was done to stem the tide of violence after Sandy Hook, and the parents of those children murdered twelve years ago are still fighting in court for change, including trying to get Alex Jones’ “Infowars” show, which insisted the event had been staged, off the air. There is an interesting HBO original 2024 documentary directed by Dan Reed entitled “The Truth vs Alex Jones” that shows the struggle of the families of the murdered children to bring Jones to justice, which I highly recommend.

Citizens of the United States might look at what was done in Australia after their worst massacre in modern history. The Port Arthur massacre in 1996 led to sweeping gun law reforms in Australia. It occurred on April 28, 1996 when Martin Bryant killed 35 people and wounded 23 others in a mass shooting at the Port Arthur Historic Site in Tasmania. Sweeping gun reforms were enacted in Australia, but here in America we can’t get our act together and “The Tennessee 11” illustrates why we can’t. Let’s not bring up the Las Vegas concert shooting or the Uvalde,Texas elementary school shooting that killed 19, because there have actually been more mass shootings this year, so far, (385) than there are days in the entire year. (Talk about depressing.) A mass shooting is defined as an event that took 4 or more lives.

THE GROUP

Like all groups, some individuals contributed more than others. The members ran the gamut from the man of God, Kevin Shrum, a pastor, who said, “When did gun violence start bleeding out in the way of guns?” Oh, I don’t know, Reverend…maybe when it became so easy to get a gun and carry it around without much (if any) attempt to regulate who gets a gun or where that gun can be carried. Reverend Shrum talked about “soul work,” adding yet one more layer of difficulty to finding any kind of workable solution to the problem.

JAY ZIMMERMAN, VETERAN

Jay Zimmerman (left) and Mark Proctor (right).

Veteran Jay Zimmerman, a member of the Tennessee 11 who helps counsel other veterans with PTSD, said his work involved suicide prevention. He was one of the dyed-in-the-wool members of the group who kept insisting that his need to have a gun was “a love instilled in me by my grandfather.” He also mentioned “hunting for food” as essential. He was a veteran and referenced his own personal failed suicide attempt. Jay was quite vocal about “the right guaranteed to me in the Constitution” to have guns and was shown strolling about in a wooded area with a rifle. I was less impressed with Zimmerman when he revealed that he had a best friend (Vic, from Fort Bragg) to whom he spoke on February 16, 2016, the night that Vic took a gun and killed himself. So, the last person to speak to him was a suicide prevention specialist and also his best friend. Vic’s wife called up the next day, wanting to know what Vic’s last words had been. (She may have had a few other blunt questions for Jay; I know I would have had). Jay seemed impossible to convince that guns kill people and letting them be so easily obtained might not be in the best interests of the veterans he counsels, himself, or the residents of Tennessee. He was very big on his Second Amendment freedoms, however, and seemed to have little concern for the blowback from letting every Tom, Dick or Jay have a gun that they enjoyed shooting just for fun, as he said he did.

MARK PROCTOR, HIGHWAY PATROL CAPTAIN

Mark Proctor.

Then there was the Highway Patrol Captain, Mark Proctor, who, as an officer of the law, wanted to know that there were some gun laws in place that might help assure him that he was going to be able to return home safely at the end of his work day. Proctor was one of the better voices for sensible permitting regulations, but he was immediately opposed by firearm instructor Tim Carrol ( who valued his job security more than the lives of those who might be shot with a weapon they would not have been able to purchase if sane permitting laws existed), saying, “You start to chip away at what freedom is when you start limiting people.” Tim found the idea of having to have a permit to carry a handgun infringed upon his freedoms. He shared that if he endorsed one of the more creative solutions put forth regarding permitting in Tennessee, his career as a firearms instructor would be over. Mark and Tim did not seem to be on the same page or even reading from the same book. I sensed a great deal of disagreement between the lawman (Mark) and the firearms instructor (Tim) with the veteran allied on Tim’s side (Jay) and Mark only able to count on the female college professor (Brandi Kellett). When Mark said “my back-up might be 30 minutes away” and having some sensible rules about whether or not people were allowed, willy-nilly, to buy and carry firearms would help him stay safe during highway traffic stops, Tim retorted, “When seconds count, police are minutes away.” So, judge for yourself if those three are ever going to really reach an agreement.

Ron Johnson.

Ron Johnson—the only Black man on the panel— was a former gang member who had reformed and become the Director of Safety in Nashville for Governor Bill Lee. He contributed very little useful information. At one point the phrase uttered by someone was, “We can’t trust the man.” I don’t think it was intentionally aimed at Ron, but he was The Man. I wondered if bringing in an actual current gang member might have been an interesting contribution to the pace and language of the documentary. (We’ll never know.) The contention that we must all be allowed to have guns to protect ourselves surfaced. Usually, the person using the gun in these discussions was portrayed as 80 years old.

FROM THE GROUP

The Tennessee 11 at the state legislature

There were some creative suggestions that the members of the group contributed. My favorite was the idea of the gentleman shown addressing the legislature as the film ended, who contributed the idea of firearms training being a deductible amount of money that you would be able to subtract from your taxes. He was quite clear that the deduction would be “an incentive, not a “mandate.” At that point the conversation disintegrated into an exercise in semantics involving the term “incentive” versus the term “mandate.” There was the creative use of acronyms to sum up an entire range of issues represented by ACES, (which meant Adverse Childhood Experiences &/or Adverse Community Environments. It could also mean: All Consensus Eludes.)

Most of the female members of the group either remained relatively silent or expressed sensitive statements about how gun violence had affected them, personally, often in tears. College instructor Brandi Kellett contributed this statement: “The laws have only served gun owners’ needs.” I got the feeling that she could have articulately expressed the pro permits point of view and run circles around the Reverend and all but three of the other panel members.

Young Jalia Hampton, a 16-year old Black student activist from Memphis was also articulate, mourning the loss of her best friend, Braylon Murray, who was killed at 17. She talked about the violence in Memphis and how it had escalated dramatically. At one point she is shown visiting Braylon’s crypt, which took us out of the same room for a bit (a welcome relief).

Alyssa Pearman, a teacher, was reduced to tears as she shared experiencing the shooting of one of her 16-year-old students on April 29, 2022, saying, “It’s one thing to see it on the news, but it’s another to live it.” Alyssa then lost a second female student February 10^th. She said, “I can’t seem to separate from it because it keeps happening.” Another good series of remarks talked about mental health impacting gun violence. As one female member of the group said, “A child who does not feel the love of a village will burn the village down.”

THE BAD

The group got into the weeds and began trying to “address the underlying issues” which were so many and so major that bringing ALL of them up pretty much guaranteed failure . In addition to the front-and-center gun violence epidemic, the group discussed, among other weighty issues: the right to live freely; poverty; the lack of quality education; childhood trauma; the lack of communication skills; empathy for the killers as well as the victims and so many other major issues that my head began to swim. There was talk of the stigma around mental health issues and cultural stigmas and how the state (and, presumably the nation) needed to strengthen counseling services. [Gee…maybe pay teachers a living wage, since they are always expected to pick up the slack when home and counselors fail to do their jobs well].

The film slowed down after the very promising opening, but it still contained a semi-positive ending, when the legislature—which had previously been mired in stasis (and chaos)—did pass something that reflected 5 of the points that the Tennessee Eleven had come up with (and on which 30,000 Tennessee citizens had commented, online).

It’s a start, but, coming from Texas where I live 8 months of the year, I’d say without fear of contradiction, that there is much room for improvement on the part of the Tennessee (and Texas) legislature(s).

“Foe” Premieres on Amazon on October 6th: Closing Night of Nashville Film Festival

By Connie Wilson

On October 5, 2023

In Best Paranormal Stories Online to Read | Paranormal Podcast, Movies, Pop Culture, Scary stories, Television

“Foe’s setting is supposed to be the Midwest in 2065. Information projected on the screen tells us that the planet’s climate is growing worse as mankind continues to pollute and ruin the air and water. The government, like Elon Musk, is intent on using space as a safety valve for humans to flee our ruined Earth. Once we completely ruin our home planet, humans will be relocated to suitable locales. The husband of this couple is being recruited to go for a year. (Why?)

A representative of the government, Terrence (Aaron Pierre), comes to the couple’s remote farm home to inform them that the husband, Junior, has been selected to live aboard a government-built space station for a year. (Why?) While he’s gone, an A.I. Replicant will serve as a companion to Junior’s wife Henrietta. Terrence tells the couple that this is a great opportunity for them. Originally, Terrence says the year-long sabbathical will take place in roughly 2 years.

Terrence leaves, but then he returns in his modernistic DeLorean-like car much sooner.

Terrence returns in just one year. He says that he must live with the couple for a period of months in order to help make the Replicant-to-be-made as authentic as possible. Terrence will be conducting confidential interviews with each of the couple and generally butting into their lives. His presence seems unwelcome and, frankly, unnecessary.

The first impulse that Junior has when their doorbell rings at a very late hour is to grab a gun and shoot. Henrietta talks him out of loading the shotgun; no shots are fired at Terrence. [Perhaps they should have been.]

Junior is not thrilled by Terrence’s news. [I couldn’t help but think of the film we watched just prior to this one where a black family in North Carolina fights for 33 years to be able to stay in their home. Two of the principals in “Silver Dollar Road” go to jail for 8 years, just to be able to remain in the only homes they have ever known. “Foe,” which screened immediately after “Silver Dollar Road,” again presents us with a home-owner who does not want to be rousted from his habitat.]

Junior makes the usual accusations about how he doesn’t want some robot living with his wife while he’s gone. He repeats the usual things about his ties to the land and how he doesn’t think that his wife would like living on an artificial construct launched into space. We, the audience, are less sure of this the more we hear of Henrietta’s angst at the sameness of their lives and how she has always felt “that there’s something else out there for me.”

Farming is already nearly impossible in the Midwest of 2065, however; the bleak picture of the future of the planet certainly seems likely after the weather we’ve all experienced this past summer. The dust storm scene reminded me of the Margot Robbie 2019 film “Dreamland.”

THE GOOD

The scenes depicting the ruined planet are all very cinematic. The lonely tone of the farm and fields is impressive, even if it looks nothing like what I would imagine a ruined Midwest would look like in 2065. We could also say that the couple seem oddly stuck in the past, themselves, with a beat-up pick-up truck and a house that could easily be from the fifties. No flat-screen TVs in evidence and a very old-fashioned look and feel to the entire setting. The acting was top-notch, and I would urge you to check it out on Amazon if you have Amazon Prime and fill me in on the gaps in my interpretation, which are many and numerous.

THE BAD

Problems with the interesting landscape do present themselves to the viewer, however. The couple this film focuses on supposedly live in a remote area that is seeing Dust Bowl-like storms and very little rain. If it’s so remote, why is this huge chicken processing plant where Junior works located in the middle nowhere? And who are the customers that Junior’s wife, Henrietta, is seen waiting on in a fancy restaurant?

I’m an Iowa girl. The landscape looked completely foreign. Dying mucky pink fields and crop circles are not part of my Midwestern experience. Even with the passage of thirty-two years, it’s hard to accept that this is supposed to be the Midwestern United States in 2065. (It is, in fact, Victoria in Australia.)

Two Irish actors (Saoirse Ronan as Henrietta and Paul Mescal as Junior) portray the Midwestern couple on the farm, which is suffering the fate of the entire planet. Based on the book Iain Reid wrote and scripted by Reid and Director Garth Davis (“Lion”), this closing night film at the Nashville Film Festival, is an Amazon/MGM project and set to have a premiere on Amazon on October 6th. ( It premiered at the New York Film Festival and will open in the U.S. on October 6th and in the U.K. on October 20th. The reviews have been somewhat negative, but it is definitely worth a look.)

SPOILER ALERT

The film owes much to “Black Mirror” episodes we have seen before, like the 2013 episode Be Right Back, starring Domhnall Gleeson as an AI facsimile for Hayley Atwell’s late boyfriend. There was a similar one on “Black Mirror” in 2011 entitled “Beyond the Sea” that starred Aaron Paul as an astronaut. And, of course, who can forget the Replicants of “Blade Runner?”

The movie opens with Henrietta (Saiorse Ronan) crying in the shower. She is bemoaning the loss of interest in her that she feels she has seen from her husband of 7 years. (“In the beginning, everything seems so new and exciting until time makes it so predictable.”)

IMHO, Henrietta has made a sort of “deal with the devil” to allow the well-made robot early access to her home and marriage. She is tired of the hum-drum existence with which her husband seems content. She wants to play the piano; Junior makes her play in the basement. She wants to travel and leave this dead place. He does not seem to want to leave his familiar homestead. This seems fairly male, in my own experience, so Henrietta’s angst at her husband’s happiness with the status quo is a motive for her behind-the-scenes collaboration with Terrence to allow the husband substitute to enter her life earlier than we originally think as we watch the film. We only learn it in a climactic scene near the end.

The give-away for “which one is the real robot” is the fact that Henrietta obviously knows Terrence when he comes to their door in the middle of the night. My companion said, “Yes, but isn’t that just because she may have signed them up for the spacecraft because of her desire to leave the farm and get away from the sameness of life?”

Possibly, but the plot seems to give the nod to the wife shacking up with the robot from the get-go and the robot being in house throughout 90% of this movie. (This despite the audience thinking that there will come a later time when the robot will be introduced.) Our thinking is that the robot is “in house” from Scene #One. The ability of a replicant to learn to “love” has been pondered before in other films, and it seems to surface again in this one. (Terrence: “Henrietta didn’t know how this would end. They’ll be studying you for years.”)

A later brief absence on Henrietta’s part caused one of us to feel that Henrietta may have gone off on the spacecraft and sent a Replicant back to live with Junior-the-robot. This could be, although I’ll leave that up to you as you watch this on Amazon.

I think I need to read the book in order to completely understand the symbolism of the bugs and other plot points. Why it is called “Foe” is another good question. I can offer some possible reasons for that title, but it doesn’t seem like the strongest fit.

The acting was good. Saiorse Ronan is good in everything and I looked forward to this film. Paul Mescal was a fine counterpart, but not someone whose work I was familiar with;he rose to fame in England in a television series. Some felt the accents were off. I honestly did not notice any break-through Irish accent problems.

We enjoyed the film. Drop a line and we’ll thrash the plot out together.

“Cast

Saoirse Ronan as Henrietta

Paul Mescal as Junior

Aaron Pierre as Terrence

“The Herricanes” @ Nashville Film Festival on October 1, 2023

By Connie Wilson

On October 4, 2023

In Interviews, Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews, Sports

“Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and make a trail.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson) That quote appears at the beginning of the documentary “The Herricanes,” which played at the Nashville Film Festival on Monday, October 1, 2023.

Olivia Kuan’s Mom played football. Olivia thought it was something any girl could do. Upon learning how unique her mother’s experience was, the young filmmaker decided to document her mother, Basia Haszlakiewicz’s, participation in the female football leagues of the seventies. Basia played for the Houston Herricanes in the NWFL (National Women’s Football League.)

Ms. Kuan’s excellent documentary traces the origins of female contact football. She interviewed many members of several teams; she has done a great job of labeling each interview subject onscreen. Olivia Kuan’s research and editing team did an even better job gathering and assembling the interviews into a coherent whole.The archival production team consisted of Kelsey Carr and researcher Chris Morcam. Still photographs and film footage from the actual games take us back in time.

The documentary embraces the concept”it’s okay for women to be whole people.” Another truth the film underscores is: “It’s important to create a world that welcomes everyone.” Interesting timing. Olivia Hill, the first trans-gender woman to hold office in Nashville, was sworn in this very day as one of 5 council-members at large for the Metro area. (Meanwhile, the state of Tennessee has banned drag shows.)

Title IX

The entire idea of letting women play contact football grew out of the cultural shift of Title IX in 1972. Title IX said that no school could discriminate on the basis of sex in extra-curricular offerings in public schools. Today’s youth don’t remember what a sea change this was.

Olivia’s mother, Basia Haszlakiewicz, played for the Houston Herricanes in the seventies. To the argument women “don’t want to play contact sports” the rebuttal was,”They’ve never been given the opportunity to see if they want to play football.” Today, one of the early supporters of female football runs Gridiron Girls camps.

Be the Revolution

As the film emphasizes, it is not easy to be first.

Four National Women’s Football League teams were founded in 1974. Among the teams participating over the years were the Toledo Troopers, the Dallas Bluebonnets, the Los Angeles Dandelions, the Dallas/Ft. Worth Shamrocks, the Oklahoma City Dolls, the San Antonio Flames, and the Houston Herricanes.

There were initially 14 teams with 3 divisions. The power team was Oklahoma City. In fact, the Oklahoma City Dolls didn’t lose a game until their sixth season. The Dolls put a real beat-down on the Herricanes in their first meetings. Oklahoma averaged 35 points a game and routinely beat the early versions of the Herricanes by scores as lopsided as 40 to 0 and/or 56 to 0.

Director Olivia Kuan and her mom, Basia Haszlakiewicz.

But the Herricanes steadily improved and were competitive near the end of the league’s existence. The players had to buy their own equipment ($88,15 in Olivia’s Mom’s case) and it took $50,000 to keep a team afloat. There were more people on the field than in the stands. This did not help the financial situation of the league. The comment is made that parity for women in any sport is yet to be achieved.

The documentary also made it clear that support for women’s contact football in Europe is much stronger, citing the 2019 World Championship in Leeds, England. Teams thrive in countries like Sweden, Finland, New Zealand, Germany and England.

As for the original NWFL teams, they began to fold in ’78 (Los Angeles Dandelions) and ’79 (Toledo Troopers, Oklahoma City Dolls, Houston Herricanes,) Some (the Dallas/Ft. Worth Shamrocks) had folded earlier. The 1979 Championship game was canceled.

“The Herricanes” was a highly entertaining and engaging trip back in time. It has a great message for the future about inclusivity. One of the best documentaries here at the 52nd Nashville Film Festival.

“Minnie Pearl: Facing the Laughter” at Nashville Film Festival

By Connie Wilson

On October 3, 2023

In Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Movies, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews

“Minnie Pearl: Facing the Laughter”, directed by Barbara Hall, an 89-minute 7-year labor of love, screened at the Nashville Film Festival on Monday, October 2nd, 2023. Those singing the praises of Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon were a Who’s Who of Country Music. Minnie Pearl as a character appeared on the Grand Ole Opry from 1940 to 1991. She was invited to become a member after her very first appearance on the show. She appeared on the television show “Hee Haw” from 1969 to 1991. Her early education at Belmont College and her years spent traveling a rural circuit in 7 rural areas and performing for as little as $50 a week, often with Roy Acuff, were described.

Who was Minnie Pearl? What was her “brand?”

Today’s youth—[much like those who have no idea who Shere Hite of “The Hite Report” was]—-don’t know Minnie Pearl. We learned this from an instructor at Belmont during the Q&A. However, her unique branding of the straw hat with the price tag still attached remains. Some in their tributes to what a nice person she was said they felt she would be better recognized than Carol Burnett or Mary Tyler Moore. They quantified that comment, saying she would be better identified in profile, with the omnipresent price tag still hanging from her hat. Comments that she didn’t want the same kind of fame as those better-known female pioneers should be taken with a grain of salt.

The Minnie Pearl of the Grand Ole Opry was described as “a transformative figure.” Barbi Benton (better known as Hugh Hefner’s long-time girlfriend), who knew Sarah from appearing with her on “Hee Haw” said, “She was a woman who had absolutely no style.” That was meant in a flattering way. Minnie Pearl gave voice to country women who were ordinary looking and considered hillbillies. She was a pioneer for future female comedians, using racy, sexual innuendo and dressing her intelligence and beauty down with a hearty “How-dy!” greeting, while attired in the plain cotton sun dress and straw hat that became her tademarks.

Minnie Pearl as a “Real” Person

What came through most clearly is that Sarah/Minnie was a very nice person. She was inclusive when it was not the norm. She comforted other country performers when they were at their lowest. One, in particular, who choked up when offering his opinions on the woman was Dwight Yoakam. Garth Brooks also seemed to have forged deep bonds with Sarah/Minnie.

Among the more interesting testimonials was that of the recently deceased Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman), who pointed out that Sarah and he had alternate personas. The fame of her alternate persona Minnie Pearl sustained her for decades. The filmmakers said that the problem was not getting famous people to sing her praises, but trying to accommodate all of those who wished to participate. She was described as having “befriended everyone” and praised as someone who showed many other people how to be genuine, sweet and amazing. Paul Reubens, in particular, cited Minnie Pearl’s “realness, believability, and genuineness.”

Barbara Hall, Director of “Minnie Pearl: Facing the Laughter” at the Nashville Film Festival.

The real Sarah was said to exhibit elegance, grace, kindness and humility. Her longstanding marriage to a pilot, Henry Ripperton, was covered, with director Barbara Hall saying, “It’s so hard to tell a whole life in 90 minutes.” Ms. Hall added, “I felt she was really an open book about her life and there were really no deep, dark secrets.” She described her part in the production as being “an honor” and said she was “very grateful” to have been part of the project.

Interesting Things Learned Accidentally

Paul Reubens—better known as Pee Wee Herman—was a close friend of Minnie Pearl’s. Also, Paul Reubens has a sister in Nashville who is a prominent civil rights attorney.

Dwight Yoakam gave praise for as long as 2 hours. Many Kleenex helped him through his emotional testimony. Indeed, he paused so long at one point in his effusive memorial to Minnie Pearl that we thought he had fallen asleep.

Garth Brooks really, really liked Minnie Pearl. He said that, from her, he had learned how to treat his fans. Not sure if Garth is held in as high esteem in country music circles since the beer can female impersonator incident (look it up), but he was very eloquent in his praise of Minnie Pearl as a female pioneer.

Other luminaries offering praise: Amy Grant (who named her daughter Sarah after Minnie Pearl); Dolly Parton; k.d. lang;Kenny Rogers, Willie Nelson; Tanya Tucker; Reba McEntire; Brenda Lee; Ray Stevens; Roy Acuff; Barbi Benton and many, many more.

Sarah’s only education was at the finishing school in Nashville known then as Ward-Belmont School. Belmont had a strong drama program, and Sarah’s original goal was to be a dramatic actress. It is known today as Belmont College and is my daughter’s alma mater.One of Sarah’s early instructors at Belmont told her: “You’ll bruise the tips of your fingers on the tips of stars, but you won’t ever be a star.” [So much for the prescience of his or her crystal ball.]

Later Years

Sarah’s health declined as her career wound down, with a breast cancer diagnosis and strokes. She donated the money to found the Sarah Cannon Cancer Institute. The documentary makes the statement that she was one of the few, aside from Betty Ford, who allowed her name to be used to help others with their disease. I immediately thought of several others who have done the same: Olivia Newton-John, Danny Thomas and celebrities like Michael J. Fox, Mary Tyler Moore, Nick Jonas, and Halley Berry who have lent their name or star power to helping others suffering from the same disease. Not every celebrity started an actual hospital (although Olivia Newton-John did) but there are many instances of famous folk supporting research aimed at their disease.

The Verdict

Well-done archival footage that will help introduce younger generations to a pioneer female comic. Interesting and entertaining. I am old enough to remember Minnie Pearl and rural enough (Iowa) to feel her brand of humor was aimed at me, but I was more of a “Laugh In” girl. It is a well-done puff piece, in large part because so many celebrities sincerely liked the real person.

Minnie Pearl’s advice to other performers (“Love them and they’ll love you back.”) is much needed today.

“Another Body” Traces Deep-Fake Porno in Timely Documentary

By Connie Wilson

On September 29, 2023

In Editorial, Education, Movies, News, Pop Culture, Reviews, Science and Medicine

A timely issue for our time is the use of deep-fake video. It was one of the sticking points during the recent 148-day Hollywood entertainment strike. It is bound to rear its ugly head again during the 2024 presidential race. Porno videos with famous people’s faces super-imposed on the bodies of others are out there. In this documentary, it is a college student who makes the discovery that there is “Another Body,” represented as hers, circulating on the Internet. The supreme irony is that, in able to testify to the damage being done to victims like the fictional Taylor Klein, she had to “deep fake” her own testimony, (which made it all the way to the White House.)

In the timely documentary “Another Body,” directed by Sophie Compton and Reuben Hamlyn (co-written by Isabel Freeman), a college student discovers deep fakes represented as being Taylor, circulating online. Using video diaries, synthetic media, and 2D and 3D animation, the documentary takes you behind the scenes: who did this and why and how can it be stopped and rectified? :”I kept asking myself who would do this and why would they want to do this? I worry that they are going to do something more drastic? I believe that, in his mind, he is getting back at us for rejecting him.”

THE GOOD

I marveled at the expertise that the filmmakers showed in presenting this complicated story to us, using dummy-like automatons to represent the fictional “Mike” (the perpetrator that Taylor and friends track down over time.) It was very impressive in regard to its technical achievements.Bravo!

I empathized with statements like, “I’ve had to deal with all the consequences that he should have had to deal with. I’ve had to leave the fun group, but he hasn’t.” 9,500 porno sites with 14 million hits a month sounds like the death throes of a decadent society. Are sites like PornHub that “normal” in this country’s incel culture that this sort of thing is doubling every six months, as the film says? Do those who use such sites routinely end up on a roof with a gun, shooting at spectators at a Fourth of July Parade in Illinois? What-the-heck is going on? Yes, Trump is the poster boy for such bad behavior, but…really?

I also recognized that the misogyny that today’s women of the MeToo movement are not willing to put up with has been going on for decades. DJT is a throwback to those decades when it truly was “a man’s world” and, as he bragged on video, if you were male you could get away with just about anything, because that is what women were told they had to put up with in order to be “good” female citizens. Women were not supposed to “take a man’s job” and we were supposed to stay barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, waiting on our man. R-i-i-i-g-h-t. So, I enjoyed seeing the new generation of women take on the male establishment. Maybe the good guys—err girls—will win, this time. I hope so. The request that she be respected for her professional achievements and viewed as “good” is not a pie-in-the-sky goal for the fictional Taylor of this tale; it is what women deserve, but have seldom achieved without a fight.

THE BAD

Like many other documentaries, this one could have been shorter. A half hour trim would not have taken away from the film, which became repetitive. Some of the interactions between Taylor and other victims could have been shortened.

Worst of all, the conclusion that Taylor draws near the end of the film is depressing: Sometimes the bad guys win.

“Caterpillar” Documentary to Screen at Nashville Film Festival

By Connie Wilson

On September 24, 2023

In Health/Medicine, Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews, travel

This was a fascinating documentary about a new YouTube fad, changing one’s eye color, which is done, surgically, in India. It sounded very dicey, and, as it turns out, it is.

The documentary, written and directed by Liza Mandelup of the Parts & Labor film enterprise, followed the journey of Raymond David Taylor of Miami as he set off for India to have his brown eyes turned into a color described as “frost.”

It seems that there is a thriving cosmetic industry in Cairo, Mexico, Panama, and India and, of course, the recent deaths of two American citizens in Matamoros, Mexico, (we now know), was a trip for cosmetic surgery. A friend of mine flew to Costa Rica for dental work, so I’m surprised I had not heard of this latest vision fad, but I don’t spend much time watching videos on YouTube.

David had a very rough childhood, even getting kicked out of the house while young, at one point, and he (and most of the other patients) seem to think that “Changing me will change my outlook on life.” As David says, “If I feel sad one more day, I don’t know if I’m going to make it.”

“Caterpillar” to screen at Nashville Film Festival. (Raymond David Taylor).

He doesn’t have the money for the surgery, but a well-written letter to BrightOcular explaining his desire for the implants brings an offer from them to come have the cosmetic procedure for free, if he will let the company use his story and his photos for advertising purposes.

We then meet others on this medically unregulated journey, including Izzy, a woman from New Delhi, a young man from Japan, a male underwear model and a beautiful girl from Jamaica, but the focus is on David, which filmmaker/writer Mandelop explained was her attempt to initially start out with three main characters and trace their journeys, with one emerging as central to the story.

She described this engrossing film journey into eye surgery this way: “I wanted to visually convey it. I wanted to do something that people wouldn’t think was cinematic, like eye surgery, but make it cinematic. It became an emotional journey. David allowed me to make the film that I was craving.”

In the course of the journey, we meet David’s mother, who also suffered a rough, abusive life, but tried her best as a young single mother to care for her children on wages of $2.35 an hour. David’s mother and David don’t agree on a lot of things. She is okay with David’s being gay, but she says, “I cannot deal with that if you start cutting parts of your body off and adding stuff.” She adds that she thought he was a great female impersonator. Mom’s point-of-view is, “You’re stubborn. You don’t listen.” She adds, “You’re never satisfied with the way you look.” Others in the film describe the cosmetic procedure as “a bandaid to the past.” Most of the others have selected jade green as the color their brown eyes

It is a big blow to David when they do three patients’ surgeries simultaneously and, in the process, he is given jade green eye color by mistake, rather than frost. This will mean another eye surgery to fix the error.

If you are thinking, “This can’t be safe,” you’re right. It is only about four months post-surgery after David undergoes the procedure that he describes it as “the worst mistake of my life” when headaches and visual problems begin.

All of the prospective patients seem to want to transform to some ideal person they have created in their heads. When the subject of the film appeared before us in person, however, the audience got the feeling that the subject of “Caterpillar” has, in fact, bettered his life, moving back to Brooklyn and now working as an EMT. He explained his mother’s absence from the showing as his way of “avoiding drama.”

Director Liza Mandelup and David Raymond, subject of the SXSW documentary “Caterpillar”on Opening Night, March 10, 2023.

On the left, Director Liza Mandelup and Raymond David Taylor, subject of the SXSW documentary “Caterpillar”on SXSW Opening Night, March 10, 2023.

Some other patients, we learn, who did not heed the United States opthalmalogists’ warning about the damage the implants have done (or are doing) to their eyes ended up blind or partially blind. One former patient whom David tracks down after he begins encountering headaches and blurry vision said that he woke up after 5 years with blood on his cornea. “I had to remove them or go blind.”

The unfettered access to the surgery and the patients seems quite unusual. That is, until we learn that the leadership of BrightOcular is very circumspect. No one ever comes forward to represent BrightOcular or another entity called Spectra. These agencies exist and are offering this service and heavily advertising how it will “change your life” on social media, with beautiful pictures of patients like David. They are not as forthcoming about the negatives of the procedure. The Indian physician who says he, personally, would not undergo the procedure knows this is a very risky way to change one’s outlook on life and seems to convey that through his reticence to heartily endorse the procedure.

David bought into it with words like, “This is my new beginning. I’m changing,” or “Beauty matters. Beauty gets you through the door.

Musical selections like “Stand By Me” and “I Want to Dance With Somebody,” selected by Music Supervisor Melissa Chapman, merge with the early upbeat theme of positive change seamlessly and add much to the extremely well-done production.

Afterwards, the writer/director (Liza Mandelup) and David, the chief subject, answered questions about the inspiration for the film and its aftermath. Liza said she had been doing research on the apps that can change one’s appearance when she learned of this eye surgery. She sent the BrightOcular company an e-mail asking I f she could do a documentary about the process. They were very positive in their response and never really surfaced as an entity. Their leadership remains a mystery.

Writer-Director Liza Mandelup.

She cautions that David was one of the few patients who listened to the warnings from U.S. eye doctors, post-surgery, and had his implants removed fairly quickly. Others have faced the need to have cornea transplants and some have gone blind because they refused to give up the implants over a period of years. One patient, asked what she would be content with in regards to improving her appearance, answered, “What am I content with? Just more.”

Among the best compliments of the terrific job the filmmaker did with this riveting documentary was a woman who stood up in the back during the Q&A and said, in heavily accented English, “You mean this was a documentary? I thought it was a movie!”

Nashville Film Festival Screens from September 28th to October 4th, 2023

By Connie Wilson

On September 16, 2023

In Local, Movies, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews, travel

Nashville Film Festival September 28th through October 4th, 2023.

The Nashville Film Festival commences September 28^th, and I will be there, in person, covering it. It runs from September 28^th until October 4^th. The Nashville Film Festival presents more than 125 film screenings, a selection of post-film Q&As and in-depth discussions with attending filmmakers.

NashFilm hosts events and programs that highlight the many aspects of filmmaking, including: a Screenwriting Competition (September 28-October 4); a Music Supervisors Program; the Creators Conference (film and music industry panels; and live music performances and new artist showcases throughout the week.

The festival opens with the documentary “I Will Survive,” from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville. It is the story of the career and resurgence of Gloria Gaynor and Gaynor, plus director Betsy Schechter will be present at the post-party afterwards at Anzie Blue.

On Friday, in addition to composer Mark Isham (“Crash”) in conference, the short “The Hit Man” (18 minutes) with Richard Kind and Peter Riegert and Nancy Allen screens at the Rothschild Black Box Theatre. Later that night, “Another Body,” about a coed who finds fake nude photos of herself online, will show at the same theater.

Saturday, 9/30, a Joan Baez documentary (“I Am A Noise”) is up, along with a documentary entitled “The Disappearance of Sheri Hite.” (Sheri Hite wrote a groundbreaking book on female sexuality and then largely disappeared from public view.)

Sunday, October 1^st, I am looking forward to some documentary shorts, as well as David Straithorn in “Remember This.” David Strathairn portrays Jan Karski in this genre-defying true story of a reluctant World War II hero and Holocaust witness. After surviving the devastation of the Blitzkrieg, Karski swears allegiance to the Polish Underground and risks his life to carry the first eyewitness reports of war-torn Poland to the Western world, and ultimately, the Oval Office. Escaping a Gestapo prison, bearing witness to the despair of the Warsaw ghetto and confronted by the inhumanity of a death camp, Karski endures unspeakable mental anguish and physical torture to stand tall in the halls of power and speak the truth.

Monday, October 2^nd, brings a Minnie Pearl documentary, “Facing the Laughter” and a documentary entitled “The Tuba Thieves,” about real-life thefts of that instrument in California.

Tuesday, October 3^rd, is a day to do some streaming, with many options there.

Wednesday, October 4^th is closing night at the Belcourt, featuring the film “Foe” with Saiorse Ronan, with a closing night party at Exit/In. Earlier, there is a documentary entitled “Silver Dollar Road,” also at the Belcourt, From Academy-Award Nominee Raoul Peck, Silver Dollar Road follows the story of the Reels family as told by the matriarch Mamie Reels Ellison and her niece Kim Renee Duhon, two fierce and clear-eyed women bending to safeguard valiantly their ancestors’ land and their brothers and uncles Melvin and Licurtis, who were wrongfully imprisoned for eight years – the longest sentence for civil contempt in North Carolina history.

58th Chicago International Film Festival (Oct. 12-23) & Austin Film Festival (Oct. 27-Nov. 3) Next

By Connie Wilson

On October 7, 2022

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

Kenneth Branaugh on October 21, 2021, with his Lifetime Achievement Award fro the Chicago International Film Festival.

If you were mourning the loss of the Nashville Film Festival, which ended yesterday, stay tuned for the beginning of the 58th Chicago International Film Festival, beginning next week. Technically, it will kick off Oct. 12 and run through the 2rd.

Then it will be the Austin Film Festival, Oct. 27-Nov. 3, which may (or may not) be followed by the Denver Film Festival (streaming).

So, keep checking for upcoming reviews of the very newest of features, documentaries and shorts.

“Sheet Music” by Jaran Huggins Screens at Nashville Film Festival

By Connie Wilson

On October 4, 2022

In Movies, Music, Pop Culture, Reviews

It’s hard to grab an audience’s attention in 15 minutes. The attention span of the average audience member is about that of a gnat, especially these days, with so many things competing for our attention.

That being said, if I had been in Writer/Director/Producer Jaran Huggins’ shoes while writing directing his short “Sheet Music,” I would have started the 15-minute short with the song that concludes “Sheet Music.”

What song?

“The Song We Sing,” is the song, performed by Chloe Kibble, a Nashville girl whose father was one of the members of the group “Take6.” She is truly wonderful delivering the closing original song; her gold dress is the perfect wardrobe choice.

Kudos to the writer of the song, Bryard Huggins, who wrote the lyrics. He is an accomplished performer who tours with Gladys Knight as her featured guest artist. Bryard has released 6 albums and 7 singles. Bryard Huggins is the brother of “Sheet Music” Writer/Director/Producer Jaran Huggins, a recent graduate of Temple University (BFA in Film and Media Arts.)

“Sheet Music”—the 15-minute short that Jaran created, which screened at the 53^rd Nashville Film Festival— has some things going for it, but most of what makes it truly riveting happens in the final frames, when Chloe Kibble lets loose with “The Song We Sing.” Yowza! That girl can sing! I wanted to hear more of Chloe and to hear her sing much earlier in the short.

The plot, according to the press notes, “Tells the story of two Black performers who are able to find their liberation in the roots of oppression.” There really is not much evidence of “oppression” onscreen, other than the white usher failing to bring the about-to-perform female singer a glass of water.

For the first approximately 13 minutes, nothing happens.

Two Black performers wait backstage to perform in a white establishment in a Black neighborhood. The two are Adryan Coogan Jr. (played by Ty Norwood Jr.) and Leilani Drakeford (played by J.C. Willis). Leilani did a credible job with a not-very-riveting script. Her inability to get the white usher to bring her a drink of water is our clue that she and her accompanist are victims of oppression, along with a less-than-welcoming white doorman who opens the club door for the duo.

The production designer (Kimberly Redman) has done a fantastic job of reproducing a slightly down-at-the-heels small dressing room of the era. There are appropriate posters and, as J.C says, the dressing room is a small closet that might have belonged to the janitor. Then again, are dressing rooms in small, seedy establishments glitzy, as a general rule?

The conflict that Jaran shows us comes from Adryan forgetting the duo’s sheet music. The lead singer (J.C. Willis)—one half of the team billed outside as “Adryan Coogan Jr. and J.C. Willis” of “The All American Ragtime Blues” duo—doesn’t seem that concerned about the missing sheet music. However, the pair is waiting for their call to go onstage, which is imminent. Because of the MIA sheet music, the pair ultimately walks out, hand-in-hand down the alley.

This struck me as a poor way to launch a singing career (or any career). I was not overwhelmed at the logic of the two getting a shot at performing in front of an audience (that will be mostly white) and simply walking out, leaving the club owner to deal with the fall-out.

So, to sum up: 1) Slow opening

2) Not very interesting dialogue; the first 13 minutes dragged.

3) Adequate articulation of the dialogue (better from Leilani Drakeford than from Ty Norwood, Jr.). For me, the couple’s decision to stiff the owner of the night club and run off was a very bad idea for a duo trying to jump start their performing career.

4) Great sets and costumes. (Kudos, Kimberly Redman).

5) Great performance of the song “The Song We Sing.”

I’m not sure whether this short was originally created for a thesis at Temple or if it is merely a way for Jaran to launch a film career, but, if he is as talented as his brother Bryard, his anticipated move to Los Angeles may prove fruitful. There wasn’t enough of the music, but the one song was thoroughly enjoyable. After 13 minutes of waiting for it, it was like a cool drink after a long hot walk up a steep hill.

This Harriet Tubman quote from the press notes is prominent: “Every dream begins with a dreamer who dares to dream.” I don’t want to get into a debate with Harriet Tubman, but the quote made me think of that other oft-used quote (author unknown): “Every journey of 1,000 miles begins with one small step.”

Both are true, but it would be a good idea to have talent, drive, stick-to-it-iveness, and maybe some influence with somebody at the top who can help you as you dream your dream or struggle towards your goal(s).

I wish Jaran Huggins the very best as he sets about making his dreams come true.

As for me, I would have started with the show-stopping song and lost most of the dialogue that preceded it. The conflict was not that evident in the dressing room scenes that lead up to the song.

Sitting through the pointless dialogue at the outset was still worth it, to hear Chloe Kibble, who was glorious. I wish she had had more to do (and sing) in the film.

“Alta Valley” Screens at Nashville Film Festival

By Connie Wilson

On October 2, 2022

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

“Alta Valley” screens at 53rd Nashville Film Festival.

“Alta Valley” screened on October 1st at the 53^rd Annual Nashville Film Festival. The synopsis for the film says, “To save her dying mother, Lupe, a Mexican Navajo mechanic, bands together with an outlaw cowgirl. She is bound to Maddy Monroe by accidentally helping her rob a pawn shop. Lupe and Maddy must outrun the men from the pawn shop, travel to Alta Valley, and confront Lupe’s father Carl for the first time. Upon their arrival Carl’s many injustices are revealed, including his mistreatment of Lupe’s Navajo family, forcing Lupe to stand up to the corruption.”

The plot seemed primarily a vehicle to show off the blonde cowgirl, Maddy (who is unfortunately given the surname Monroe). At the outset, Maddy-with-the-long-blonde-hair extensions is in trouble with the man connected to the pawn shop and his sons. We never really find out exactly what was the nature of Maddy’s beef with the pawn shop person, but her purse from a rodeo bucking bronco appearance is totally devoted to paying him back.

That $10,000 is deemed inadequate. Maddy needs even more money to satisfy the violent boss, so she throws in with the young Navajo-Mexican girl (Lupe, played by Briza Covarrubias), who is in the pawn shop to pawn valuable Indian jewelry needed to get her ailing mother treatment for a brain tumor. Maddy is on her way to seek a handout from Carl (the man she has recently discovered was her biological father). She thinks Carl owns Alta Vista. The request? $50,000 for medical treatment for her mother’s brain tumor. If Maddy travels with Lupe, maybe there might be money in it for her, too.

[*An aside: two famous people who died in the not-that-distant past of a malignant brain tumor were Ted Kennedy and John McCain. No amount of money can successfully treat a malignant glioblastoma, a very aggressive brain tumor with an average life expectancy of 14 months. Also, the mother seems to fall into and out of a coma in a willy-nilly fashion. But nevermind about that…back to the lightweight plot.]

The beautiful blonde with the long blonde hair extensions, (who, by film’s end, rides a black horse in to save the day,) is played by Allee Sutton Hethcoat. She reminded me of the blonde co-star of “Big Sky,” Katheryn Winnick, who played Jenny Hoyt for 37 episodes on that TV series.

I was puzzled by how eager everyone was to shoot guns at each other in this one, although it is a western. These people spend inordinate amounts of time shooting at each other as they crouch behind cars. (Doesn’t say much for their marksmanship.)

The mountain vistas were gorgeous. It reminded me very much of what you see when traveling cross country on Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica (which I once did, collecting ghost stories). Kudos to the cinematographer, Jesse Edwards, (who also wrote and directed).

Early In the movie, Lupe’s mother, Adamina (Paula Miranda) tells her, “One day, you, too, must do the unthinkable and leave what you know to protect the greater good.” She explained to her young daughter how she fled from Cedar City to Alta Valley years earlier. (What she didn’t tell her young daughter was that Lupe’s father was an unscrupulous liar, whom she was fleeing.)

As it turns out Carl (Micah Fitzgerald) was a married man with a wife and 2 children. Mom chose to keep the specifics of Lupe’s parentage from her, but Lupe and Maddy will discover it together. After the “meet cute in the pawn shop” unlikely alliance of Lupe and Maddy, we are also going to be treated to an equally unlikely scene where the two females on the lam must join a group of Hispanic dancers onstage to avoid the men pursuing them. Of course, the two men pursuing them sit in the crowd and watch the dancing, apparently oblivious that the two girls they have been chasing for miles are onstage (even though Maddy is not “in costume” but still wearing the obligatory black jacket, black hat, and holstered pistols, as well as the long blonde hair extensions).

The plot did not seem too well thought out; Carl (Micah Fitzgerald) is either overplayed or overwritten. He is both unattractive and mean, with no redeeming social characteristics, but his demise still seems abrupt and unmourned. (However, it made as much sense, plotwise, as the flamenco dancing scene, so— whatever.)

Mostly, I found the film forgettable. I saw it immediately after watching “Jacir,” which had a lot to say and said it well. “Alta Valley” doesn’t have much of a message. It is not a film I will think about again or one that conveys many universal truths.

Perhaps the one universal truth that we can point to that is articulated in “Alta Valley” is, “There ain’t nothin’ more important than family,” a plot point that has resonated since at least “The Godfather.”

If that is the main “message” of the film, the finale directly contradicts the film’s one universal truth.

I wondered “Why this film at this festival?” Writer/director/cinematographer Jesse Edwards—who has won 3 National Emmy awards and been nominated for 30 more—is the co-founder of the Nashville based Evolve Studio.