LIVE FROM MEMPHIS

I'd never try to pass myself off as a movie critic. I don't know celluloid from cellulite and I pretty much want the boy and the girl to get together in the end because if they don't, I have a really hard time chalking it up to art. I don't doubt that it is, it just has to be said that I can critique music all day long but movies are just for fun.

 ^{Jessica Morgan in The Conversion}

And I do so love them. I love the theaters, I love the comfy seats, the pitch-black darkness, the big screen, the big sound. I love the experience of watching movies. And it turns out, that experience is even better when you recognize almost every location in the film, or you're sitting behind five of the actors or you're down the row from someone's sisters or friends who hoot and holler when they see them come on screen. As someone who has always felt the natural inclination to applaud at the end of a movie even though no one is there to hear me, trust me, I found this experience VERY satisfying.

I digress.

Last night I saw two films, one short called "Chasing Daylight" and one feature film called The Conversion. "Daylight" was a documentary about the making of a feature-length film shot entirely in Memphis called Daylight Fades. Everything about it captured me, and I wished it had been twice as long. I particularly loved the soundtrack, which featured a healthy dose of Jump Back Jake—a pretty sure way to win me over musically.

Beyond that, I just love documentaries. And I loved the sort of taking a picture of a picture vibe—a movie about a movie. It worked, and the documentary had its own flavor and its own merits that I imagine (not having seen the feature) are entirely unique. Incidentally, it also made me really want to see Daylight Fades—a welcome side effect of viewing the short, I'm sure.

Next up was the feature presentation, The Conversion, which has been the talk of the Twitterverse for the past two or three weeks. If you missed the two showings last night, you can catch the movie online for free right here on Live from Memphis.

Here's the gist: it's June of this year and the switch-over from analog to digital signal is about to take place. But at the stroke of midnight on June 12, instead of seeing a crystal clear picture, Americans see fuzz. Television and internet signals are out and soon enough the communication of the nation is being controlled by a government agency called EMMA (Electronic Media Management Agency).

What I loved about The Conversion was its mix of traditional film formulas with what I considered to be much more abstract concepts. The use of old stock footage and sound reel, animations and other images to set scenes or just create transition in the film really gave the piece an eerie, other-worldliness that got you suspecting something was amiss before anything ever was. That unsettled feeling lasted from the opening credits through to the film's resolution and for me, was The Conversion's greatest success.

I'm out again tonight to see Hometowner Shorts. I can't wait to see what else Memphis filmmakers can do.