The 52nd annual Nashville Film Festival, scheduled for Sept. 30 through Oct. 6, will screen some 160 feature-length and short-form titles at various venues around Nashville, Tenn., as well as virtually. Almost 30 of the movies were made in, or have some other connection to, the city or the state—like the documentary Thistle, about Thistle Farms, Nashville’s sanctuary for women trying to find, and work, their way out of cycles of abuse and addiction. What’s it like to be in a band with your best friends? Everybody is Looking for Some Light, an hour-long documentary, captures the youthful enthusiasm of the independent Nashville rock group Colony House as they venture cross-country, giving energetic performances and finding beauty in all the chaos. And as befitting a film festival in a town known as Music City USA, a healthy number of other films will also spotlight music and musicians, as well. The festival will open with Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road, a music doc about the legendary Beach Boys maestro, and Rolling Stone editor Jason Fine—who does the extensive on-screen interviews with the reclusive Wilson—will be on hand for the Nashville premiere. Other music-related film highlights include the short doc Dolly & I, in which three female filmmakers explore the allure of the iconic Dolly Parton, and what her legacy reveals about Southern identity. Invisible is a powerful documentary feature about gay women—and a trans man—who’ve made indelible impacts in country music as songwriters and musicians. I’m Wanita introduces you to a colorful, self-destructive Australian country singer who takes a crazy-train trek on her hell-bent mission to “make it” in Nashville. Poser is a social dramatic thriller about a podcaster (Sylvie Mix) who has more on her mind—and her agenda—than just simply recording her local underground music scene. Find out all about the trio of young men who became Norway’s first pop superstars in the 1980s, with the innovative MTV hit “Take On Me,” in ah-ha: The Movie. And Michael Dorman, Sophia Bush and Dermot Mulrooney star in Hard Luck Love Song, about a singer-songwriter whose bad decisions keep derailing his dreams; it’s inspired by the song “Just Like Old Times” by acclaimed Americana artist Todd Snider. Another festival highlight is the documentary Fanny: The Right to Rock, the mostly untold story of the pioneering all-female rock band of the early 1970s, the first “girl-rock” group to release a major-label LP. The ferociously fearless garage band, formed by a pair of Filipina sisters transplanted to California, toured with Joe Cocker, went on to record five critically hailed albums and pave the way for other female acts, such as the Go-Gos, the Bangles and the Runways. Anyone interested in the creative process of music will want to see The Fable of a Song, a moving documentary about the “life” of one particular piece of music, and how it took on an unexpected life, and a surprising poignancy, of its own. The festival will close with Leftover Feeling: An RCA Studio B Revival, a hyper-Nashville doc about the legendary studio known as the birthplace of “the Nashville sound.” The film is centered around two modern Nashville musical icons, John Hiatt and Jerry Douglas, as they record a new album at Music Row’s most significant site, recapturing the musical mojo in a place where the hits once poured out from titans like Elvis Presley, Eddy Arnold,Dolly Parton and Waylon and Willie. Hiatt and Douglas will also be on hand to perform following the closing night’s screening at Nashville’s historic Belcourt Theater. For more information on the Nashville Film Festival, or to register to attend virtually or in person, go to NashvilleFilmFestival.org
