Nashville 2012, a Tennessee First selection, was a perfect choice for opening night of the 2013 NashvilleFilm Festival. The eight-day event promising “Something for Everyone” provided a forum for this patchwork piece of our city’s communities. When an audience member asked directors/producers Jace Freeman and Sean Clark what they found most surprising when making the film about their city, Freeman quickly reflected and replied, “Its diversity.”
Threaded by dates, stand-alone, engaging stories from their internet channel, Nashville Docujournals, were woven together by seamless unperformances—people simply and consistently being themselves.
The Moving Picture Boys, Freeman and Clark, define docujournals as “stories told in the present tense from the perspective of an individual affected by the headline news of the day.” With this first film, their mission-- “to connect local communities to find common goals and increase our understanding of each other”—is accomplished. But in giving us the faces of those who occupy Nashville, there are face-offs, starting with those for and against the Occupy Nashville movement.
“You are not good neighbors,” says a resident stonewalled by unmoved builders of 12 South Lofts. Though his battalion of backers lost the battle against the four-story conglomeration of condos, some who fought to make Middle Tennessee home won. Immigrant families celebrated the opening of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro. But while Hispanic kids discuss feeling “protected” under the Deferred Action for Deportation for Childhood Arrivals, they are concerned that some of their parents and other relatives are not. One student voices frustration with those who assume immigrants don’t pay taxes. He says most do and receive no benefits other than education, though at the college level, they must pay out-of-state tuition.
In 2013 Freeman and Clark plan to dig deeper into communities covered in the film. For more on the documentary that will screen again tonight at 9:45 go here. Tickets can be purchased here or at the lower level of Green Hills Theater.
