Ira Sachs attends the premiere of "Peter Hujar's Day" during the Sundance Film Festival on Monday Jan. 27, 2025, at the Ray Theater in Park City, Utah. (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
The Arts Beat is a weekly deep-dive into Memphis arts, music, dance, theater, fashion, film and events. Keep scrolling for a roundup of the best arts and culture stories from the week. Have a story idea? Send it to eperry@dailymemphian.com.
Ira Sachs film in competition at Cannes
A film written and directed by a Memphis filmmaker will be in competition at the world’s most prestigious film festival.
Ira Sach’s “The Man I Love” is scheduled to screen on Wednesday, May 20, and Thursday, May 21, at the 79th Cannes Film Festival. The festival is held in Cannes, France.
Rami Malek stars as a fictional theater actor in 1980s New York, who is ill. The film has been described as a fantasy musical. It also stars Tom Sturridge, Luther Ford, Rebecca Hall and Ebon Moss-Bachrach.
Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias wrote the screenplay.
The Cannes Film Festival began on Tuesday, May 12, and runs through Saturday, May 23.
Criterion Collection recently added a Blu-ray edition of Sach’s debut feature “The Delta” to its collection. Set in Memphis, the film centers on a white teenager and a Black Vietnamese immigrant who meet at a cruising spot along the Mississippi River.
The Criterion Collection is an independent streaming service offering classic and contemporary films digitally and on DVD and Blu-ray.
The Criterion Collection recently posted a video of Sachs visiting the Criterion Closet, a video series where filmmakers and related artists select films from the collection and highlight them, explaining why.
Southaven, Mississippi-native, singer-songwriter KIRBY (Kirby Lauryen Dockery) is the vocalist behind the theme song for the new Prime TV show, “Spider-Noir.” The theme song is called “Saving Grace,” and was written by Alabama gospel/country singer Pynk Beard.
The live-action series starring Nicolas Cage is based on the Marvel comic “Spider-Man Noir.” Cage plays Ben Reilly, a “seasoned, down-on-his-luck” private investigator and former superhero in 1930s New York.
The series premieres May 25 on MGM+ and May 27 on Prime Video.
Earth, Wind & Fire doc to open Tribeca
Musician and filmmaker Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Earth, Wind & Fire documentary will open the Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday, June 3.
Tribeca takes place June 3-14 in New York.
A performance from Earth, Wind & Fire and The Roots will follow the premiere of “Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial VS That’s the Weight of the World).”
The documentary traces the story of the soul/funk band founded by the late Memphis-native Maurice White.
According to Tribeca, the film includes White’s origins, according to his family and friends and how the band developed. Among those interviewed in the film are former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, as well as Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Lionel Richie.
The film includes “a plethora of archival concert footage.”
It will also screen on June 4 and June 13 at the film festival.
The Culver City, California-based Symphonic Jazz Orchestra, which commissioned White to create a work called “Passages” in 2002, performed the world premiere last weekend.
Snoop Dogg biopic to be released in 2027
Billboard reports that the Snoop Dogg biopic directed by Memphian Craig Brewer will be released in 2027. Production will begin this summer, on the film, which is called “Snoop,” according to the magazine.