Tickets are now on sale for the U.S. premiere of "Cigarette Girl," the new feature by "the Godfather of Memphis independent cinema," John Michael McCarthy.
The premiere is set for Sept. 10 at Malco's Studio on the Square, where the movie will be shown on two screens, at 7 and 7:30 p.m. The event represents the first collaboration between the city's two main film festival organizations, Indie Memphis and On Location: Memphis.
"Cigarette Girl" -- which had its world premiere in July at the Revelation Perth International Film Festival in Australia -- is set in the year 2035, when smoking has been made illegal except in designated and increasingly ghettoized urban "smoking sections." Cori Dials stars as the title character, an avenger in fishnet stockings who packs a pistol alongside her packs of butts after she runs afoul of the mob. The movie's tagline: "She'd kill for a smoke."
For tickets or more information, visit cigarettegirlmovie.com, onlocationmemphis.org or indiememphis.com.
Scruff stuff
Musician Stephen Burns is in town this week to finish work at Ardent Studios on Conquest, the new album from the latest incarnation of Burns' long-running power-pop band, The Scruffs.
Sometimes associated with their local fellow travelers in Beatles-esque songcraft, Big Star, the Memphis-based Scruffs released their first album, Wanna Meet the Scruffs?, in 1977. The band never achieved the commercial success some critics had predicted, and the original lineup dissolved. Group leader Burns kept the name, however, and has continued to release albums and reissue classic material by The Scruffs over the years.
The current band members are from England and Scotland (where Burns lived for most of the past decade, before moving to Portland). The new album includes contributions from members of Belle & Sebastian and The Proclaimers, as well as from such Memphis musicians as saxophonist Jim Spake and Big Star drummer Jody Stephens.
Most of Conquest was recorded earlier this year, in Glasgow, Scotland, and at Ardent. Burns said he and engineer Adam Hill this week will add some new sounds and make other minor changes to the tracks. Conquest is slated for release in January.
A graphic movie
The director of "Died Young, Stayed Pretty" -- a documentary about the subculture of artists who create underground and indie-rock posters, handbills and fliers -- will be in Memphis for a one-time-only screening of her film at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Overton Park.
Born in Iran and based in Canada, Eileen Yaghoobian will introduce her film and answer questions after the screening. Tickets are $8, or $6 for Brooks members.
The movie touts the artists as "unheralded masters of the silkscreen and Xerox machines." Featured posters advertise shows by such artists as the Arcade Fire, the Melvins, Radiohead and Bob Dylan.
For tickets or more information, visit brooksmuseum.org or call 544-6208.
John Beifuss: 529-2394
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