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Movie Night in the Magic City

The Sidewalk Film Festival is Back this Month

As with many other art forms, sharing the film experience is very different from viewing a movie alone. Fortunately, from August 23 through the 29, we can get back to collective watching with friends and local movie buffs at the annual Sidewalk Film Festival. We spoke to a few passionate team members behind the Sidewalk Film Festival (as well as the Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema), and we’re excited to buy our passes and enjoy exceptional motion pictures in the Magic City, both during the festival and beyond. 

According to Rachel Morgan, creative director, the Sidewalk Film Festival was initiated by a group of people who shared the desire to bring more independent films to Birmingham. When the festival got started an impressive 23 years ago, an independent film cinema was only a cherished dream, but a festival felt doable. The Sidewalk Film Festival has steadily run for all 23 years, including summer of 2020, when the entire event took place at a drive-in theater due to the pandemic. And, since September 2019, the accompanying Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema, located at the bottom of the Pizitz Building, does the great work of bringing boutique films to town all year long. 

Executive Director Chloe Cook reflected on the lengthy yet purposeful journey to establishing the Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema. “We wanted our own space many years before the festival,” she noted. “The bulk of the time was focused on the historic theater district, and, when the idea became more than an idea, we were looking at a property on 3rd Avenue North, in the same block as the Lyric Theatre. We invited a friend in real estate to check out that property, and he replied that he wanted us to consider a property he was developing at the time: The Pizitz. We knew the central location would benefit us.”

While as of press time the films included in this year’s Sidewalk Film Festival hadn’t yet been revealed, Cook and Morgan assured me that an engaging assortment of both feature-length and short films in different genres — from Western or comedy to horror or drama  — will grace the screens. And, by the way, those screens will be everywhere in the city this year: the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Alabama Theatre, The Lyric Theatre, First Church Birmingham and others. They were able to share the title of one film that is a certainty: “Socks on Fire,” a hybrid documentary directed by Bo McGuire, who is local to Gadsden, Alabama. 

“Like any traditional film festival, we conduct a call for entries, and that call goes out usually in November or December of the year before,” Morgan explained. “We receive submissions from all over the world, and we have a committee to review the submissions. We take into consideration all aspects of the films, and we consider the best ones for Birmingham. Films are in competition for multiple prizes. Often, the films we are screening won’t emerge for a year; we show things that might earn an Oscar the next year.” 

“We are excited for the festival to be downtown again,” added Kiwi Lanier, program manager. 

Tickets for the 2021 Sidewalk Film Festival will increase in price after August 15, so be sure to get tickets for the whole family early. And, of course, visit the Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema, if you have not done so already, and keep the movie magic alive.  

“At the cinema, we offer a lot of different films, just like at the festival,” Morgan noted. “We offer blocks of shorts; we offer all genres. We screen new releases and old films, especially related to educational programming and the art of film.” 


Are you a podcast person AND a movie person? Check out SideTalks, the official podcast of the Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema. New episodes air every Monday, Wednesday and Friday on any major podcast app and cover all things cinematic. 


 

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