Halloween in July is coming! Horror/Sci-Fi films at the Belcourt (Friday) and a Halloween Bash at The Rutledge (Saturday) headlined by local rock band Telecommunicators, who share members Ernest Aloysius Chapman The Third, Bobby Holland, and Noah Hungate of Team Illuminati.
If you are in Nashville this weekend, you absolutely have to dress up in a Halloween Costume and come check this out! CLICK HERE FOR FULL INFORMATION AND TICKETING
Ernest {∆}: How did this start last year?
Libby (Organizer): We thought about how fun it is to have a halloween party and, since there’s really not a lot going on in the middle of summer, we made Halloween In July so people could go to a costume party, get professional makeup artists to mess them up in our Murder Makeover booths, see sci-fi and horror films and listen to some great bands. It turned out really great and, afterward, local filmmaker Miranda Megill approached us about turning it into an actual film festival, so we’ve grown from a single day event to a two-day event with a jury and prizes…
{∆}: What’s the inspiration for all of this?
L: Well, a good story can exist in sci-fi and horror and there is a real depth of emotion in these genres when it’s done well. So we wanted to create a place where people who are creating stories that really engage the audience emotionally can show off what they’ve done with the films in these genres…. There’s definitely a connection between film and music and all of the arts because they’re all a way to express, to absorb and react to emotional storytelling.
{∆}: But it’s more than just a film festival….
By combining the film festival with a concert and a costume contest, there’s an opportunity to watch films that have been created on their own budgets, and then go to a place where you’ve already re-created yourself as something else. You can feel the vibration from the bands (Telecommunicators, Kingston Springs and Run With Bulls), you can see art being created both at the makeup booth, on people, and by the performance painters on canvas. The whole time your’e there you’re interacting with art all around you.
{∆}: So audience members become walking peices of art….
L: And they are a part of a larger peice of art. It’s like a huge art organism and you’re just a little cell!
{∆}: The Murder Makeovers were awesome… you’re bringing those back, right? I remember last year when Team Illuminati played, we were the dead music industry…
L: Jessie Baker will be doing Murder Makeovers, he works with Performance Studios and does the makeup for Nashville’s “Repo! The Genetic Opera” production.
{∆}: Tell me about some of the films on Friday July 30 at the Belcourt.
Noah: Friday, at 5pm we’re showing “Special Dead” … imagine…. a world…. in which a zombie uprising….. began…. right on the borders of a…… camp for…. children….. with various ……. handicaps…..
{∆}: OH NO!!!!! (gasping)
N: and…
{∆}: YOU DIDN’T JUST SAY THAT!!
N: That’s what the [unintelligable]
L: [unintelligable, laughing]
{∆}: Oh my god.
N: Special Dead is the film most likely to offend….
{∆}: So you decided to just come out of the gates firing on all pistons.
N: Pretty much… the film’s tagline is “Sometimes heroes ride the short bus”….
{∆}: DOH!!
N: And the film’s director will be in attendance to do a question and answer session, so if you come to the film you can interview the directror.
L: I think Special Dead is a wonderful story about how people who are differently abled react to situations differently.
{∆}: So then at 7pm on Friday there’s some short films?
N: There are 7 films ranging from steampunk sci-fi to Lovecraftian horror to Bollywood zombies; it’s a great mix. These 7, along with our 9pm feature “Make-out With Violence,” are competing for the $500 Newcastle Brown Ale award, judged by a celebrity panel including Writer/Director/Producer/Singer Colleen Curtis of the Firepit Friday Podcast, Mitch Galin, a film and TV producer who was the Executive Producer of Pet Semetary, and last but not least best-selling sci-fi author Kevin J. Anderson…
{∆}: He worked on Dune, didn’t he?
N: After the death of Frank Herbert, the original author, all of the Dune books have been co-authored by Kevin J. Anderson. He also has written a lot for the Star Wars universe, including the Jedi Academy Trilogy.
{∆}: Then there’s Make Out With Violence
N: At 9pm, our final show is a feature length film made right here in Nashville. It’s an adolescent coming of age story that involves someone that has risen from the dead. One of the writers describes it as “a John Hughes movie with zombies”, and then alternately describes it as “Tarkofsky meets Weekend at Bernie’s”. It’s the tale of a high school student whose great crush who he never really connected with tragically dies and then mysteriously un-dies, and rises from the dead in zombie-like form, and antics ensue.
{∆}: Wow!
N: It’s very moving and emotional and just an amazing looking film.
{∆}: So then the next day there’s an after party at The Rutledge, tell me about that.
L: Local bands Telecommunicators, Run With Bulls, and The Kingston Springs will be playing, and Colleen Curtis will present our Best Film Award.
N: And it’s a costume party, anybody who shows up in a Halloween costume gets entered into a raffle for door prizes, and there’s also a costume contest with a prize for the winner. Don’t forget to bring your ticket stub from the day before, to get in for half-off.
{∆}: So basically you’re turning the Rutledge into a huge Halloween Party, on Saturday night….
N: It’ll be decorated, there will be performance painters, music playing, and a Murder Makeover booth. If you want to be a zombie, if you want an extra eyeball, if you need a hole in your head….
{∆}: What are some of your favorite murder makeover fantasies?
N: Was it you last year that had a weird worm thing coming out of your forehead?
{∆}: Yeah
N: I LOVED That!
{∆}: The Murder Makeover Booth really made the difference for my Dead Music Industry costume.
N: It’s all on the website, so check it out for tickets. http://www.halloweeninjuly.com. There’s tickets for individual movies, and we also sell day passes for all the movies, which saves you money.
L: Also, we’re donating a portion of our proceeds to a charity, Auctions for The Animals, that raises money for local no-kill animal shelters, so there will be a silent auction on the 31st.
{∆}: Thanks for being in the Spotlight!
