Wade on Birmingham

Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival

sidewalk.wadeonbirmingham.com

Subscribe to the RSS feed for the latest Sidewalk news and updates

2011 coverage

The 13th annual Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival takes place Aug. 26-28 in downtown Birmingham.

Also, the sixth annual Birmingham Shout gay/lesbian film festival runs concurrently with Sidewalk.

Features

2010 coverage

Teenage Paparazzo

Adrian Grenier’s “Teenage Paparazzo” opened
the 2010 Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival.

Features

Reviews for Sidewalk

  • Sept. 7 | “American Jihadist”
    Kenn McCracken: The must-see documentary of Sidewalk 2010.
  • Sept. 9 | “Dogtooth” (“Kynodontas”)
    Jennifer West: A Greek film explores the twisted world of children trapped at home for decades.
  • Sept. 10 | “Phillip the Fossil”
    Kenn McCracken: A well-worn tale of a slacker’s attempt to, you know, like grow up and stuff.
  • Sept. 13 | “Until the Light Takes Us”
    Kenn McCracken: Doc shines the spotlight on a dark corner of music history, Norwegian black metal.
  • Sept. 14 | “Ready, Set, Bag!”
    Jennifer West: Winning doc shows the speedy agility of champion baggers, while moving at an unnecessarily slower pace.
  • Sept. 15 | “Pelada”
    Kenn McCracken: Soccer documentary focuses on pickup games around the world, but needs more local flavor at each stop.
  • Sept. 16 | “Hey Boo: Harper Lee and ‘To Kill a Mockingbird'”
    Jennifer West: Documentary goes beyond the famed novel into the soul of its mysterious Alabama author.
  • Sept. 20 | “Gabi on the Roof in July”
    Jennifer West: Artists struggling to make it in New York grow tiresome quickly with their self-involved ways.
  • Sept. 21 | “Not My Son”
    Kenn McCracken: Documentary shows Birmingham mothers determined to move beyond tragedy.
  • Sept. 22 | “Teenage Paparazzo”
    Jennifer West: Opening night documentary shows fame has a dark side, even for a 14-year-old celebrity photographer.

Reviews for Shout

  • Sept. 8 | “An Ordinary Couple”
    Chance Shirley: A Birmingham man and a New York man celebrate their 30-year relationship with … a “funeral.”
  • Sept. 17 | “A Marine Story”
    Chance Shirley: This homecoming tale stumbles in tackling too many issues with a broken screenplay.
  • Sept. 23 | Reviews of “Howl”
    A roundup of critics’ columns for the Sundance opening film.
  • Sept. 23 | “Howl”
    Chance Shirley: Biopic ably gives life to poet Allen Ginsberg and his epic work through strong acting and fluid editing.
  • Sept. 24 | “The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls”
    Chance Shirley: This documentary introduces New Zealand’s established folk music humorous activist duo.

2009 Coverage

Alabama Moon - John Goodman

Alabama Moon, starring John Goodman, was the closing
film for the 2009 Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival.

Features

  • Aug. 27 | Local flavor
    A first look at the schedule, focusing on films with Alabama connections
  • Aug. 28 | ‘Best Worst Movie’ to open festival
    Documentary on making of “Troll 2” kicks off 2009 edition
  • Sept. 21 | Get your ass to Mars
    10 reasons to the see the North American premiere of sci-fi/horror/comedy film “Interplanetary”
  • Sept. 25 | The everything-must-go end-of-September blowout
    A guide to the festival, plus additional coverage
  • Nov. 6 | September success brings $20,000 surplus
    The exclusive story of how the festival overcame debt and broke in a new executive director

Reviews

  • Sept. 18 | “Forgetting Dad”
    A father suffers severe amnesia and reboots his life with a new family in this documentary on the mind and memory.
  • Sept. 19 | “Courting Condi”
    A lovestruck suitor chases the woman of his dreams, Birmingham native and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice!
  • Sept. 20 | “The Dungeon Masters”
    A straight-up documentary about the lives of three participants in role-playing games and an up-close look at their hobby.
  • Sept. 21 | “The Vicious Kind”
    Two brothers, one girl. A familiar tale wrapped in indie style.
  • Sept. 22 | “They Came to Play”
    A film about Van Cliburn competitors (including Birmingham’s Drew Mays), and one of the best, most inspiring and uplifting documentaries in Sidewalk history.
  • Sept. 22 | “45365”
    A documentary shows small town Ohio life, warts and all, in entertaining and provocative fashion.
  • Sept. 23 | “Official Rejection”
    A documentary about the funny meta-tale of getting a movie into a festival.
  • Sept. 23 | “Dead Snow” (“Død snø”)
    A Nazi zombie flick from Norway that delivers on the right mix of laughs and scares in a frozen horror show.
  • Sept. 24 | “You Might as Well Live”
    The quirky comedy about a suicidal nobody out to prove he’s somebody is one of the best in Sidewalk’s lineup this year.
  • Sept. 24 | “That Evening Sun”
    A slow-paced but remarkable film that portrays a love story in the guise of an old farmer’s battle for his house.
  • Sept. 25 | “Best Worst Movie”
    A documentary that provides a good look at how an unintentionally bad movie gets made.

• • •

2008 Coverage

Adventures of Power

Sidewalk 2008 opened with the
rock comedy, ‘Adventures of Power.’

Features

  • Sept. 9 | ‘Adventures of Power’ to open Sidewalk 2008
    Exclusive: Film fest kickoff stars Adrian Grenier, Michael McKean

Reviews

  • Sept. 18 | “Goliath”
    An unnamed man deals with personal setbacks and a missing cat.
  • Sept. 22 | “‘Bama Girl”
    A documentary on a black finalist for Homecoming Queen at the University of Alabama.
  • Sept. 24 | “Crawford”
    A documentary on President Bush’s adopted hometown in Texas.
  • Sept. 25 | “The Dhamma Brothers”
    A documentary on a west Jefferson County prison taking on Buddhist meditation.
  • Sept. 26 | “Adventures of Power”
    Mine worker, air drummer, dreamer. Can Power fulfill his musical destiny and save his town?

Aftermath

• • •

2007 Coverage

Reviews

  • Sept. 20 | “The Ten”
    The Commandments get a comedic take from The State; holy hilarity ensues.
  • Sept. 24 | Alabama Shorts Block No. 4
    Homegrown short films with a darker side.
  • Sept. 25 | “Overflow”
    Birmingham filmmaker focuses on teenage misfits in detention.
  • Sept. 27 | “Row Hard No Excuses”
    A look at rowers who race across the ocean in this gripping doc.

Extras

  • Sept. 10 | Look ahead
    A sneak peek at this year’s lineup
  • Sept. 28 | The last roundup
    Prizes! “Lunch” first look! Bitter media rivalries! And more!
  • Oct. 1 | End scene
    Recaps of hits and misses from the weekend

• • •

2006 Coverage

Reviews

  • Sept. 17 | “Puzzlehead”
    Love triangle with scientist, robot and (gasp!) woman lacks humanity
  • Sept. 18 | Shorts Block No. 3
    Quirky appealing block features international flavor around a theme of responsibility
  • Sept. 19 | “Darkon”
    Documentary takes all-too-serious look at role-playing knights
  • Sept. 21 | “LOL”
    Lackluster comedy follows wired slackers nowhere

Extras

  • Sept. 19 | “Muckfuppet”
    A Birmingham filmmaker’s script comes full circle
  • Sept. 22 | Off and running
    10 reasons to hit this year’s festival
  • Sept. 27 | fin
    A recap of more films at the festival

Aftermath

  • Nov. 30 | Sidewalk shuffle
    Festival director Erik Jambor resigns
  • Dec. 5 | Sidewalk shuffle 2
    Board president Alan Hunter discusses changes behind the scenes
  • Feb. 9, 2007 | Sidewalk shuffle 3
    Staff changes at Sidewalk; Jambor heads to Oregon

• • •

Subscribe to the RSS feed for the latest Sidewalk news and updates

• • •

More special reports.