Wagner changed the direction of love music forever with Tristan and Isolde. Joseph Boulogne de Chevalier de St. George was a black French contemporary of Mozart, who was one of France’s most celebrated composers during his life. Brant Taylor, a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and an accomplished soloist, performs Haydn’s First Cello Concerto.

Restored in 4K from the 35mm original picture negative and 35mm duplicate picture negative! Park Circus in collaboration with Metro Goldwyn Mayer presents The Apartment. From Park Circus: C.C. Baxter is an office clerk who courts favor with the executives in his office by giving them the key to his small apartment for their extramarital flings. Among them is his callous boss, J.D. Sheldrake, who Baxter eventually learns is using his place to sleep with Miss Kubelik, the sweet elevator operator the clerk has loved from afar. When Sheldrake coldly dumps the vulnerable young woman, she tries to commit suicide in Baxter’s apartment, giving the clerk the opportunity to save the woman of his dreams but possibly lose his job.

Mempho Presents Todd Snider on the Kemmons Wilson Family Stage at Crosstown Theater on Friday, February 4, 2022 and Saturday, February 5, 2022.

The story of four teenage girls living in LA in 1980, mostly doing what they hell they want, anytime they want, with hardly any supervision or input by any sensible adult. Foxes takes place in a world and a time when being a teenager was fun, free, and DANGEROUS. Directed by Adrian Lyne (Fatal Attraction, Flashdance)!! With a cameo concert by Kiss proteges and fellow Casablanca Records artist Angel (Punky Meadows!!!). Also with Jodie Foster (Taxi Driver, Bugsy Malone, The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane, Freaky Friday – and that was JUST WHAT SHE WAS IN THAT WAS RELEASED IN 1976!!!!!), Cherie Currie (THE RUNAWAYS LEAD SINGER YA’LL!!!), Randy Quaid (Midnight Express, The Long Riders, Independence Day) in an early, super-creepy role and HOT LIPS Sally Kellerman (MASH, A Little Romance), as Jodie Foster’s uptight but distant mother!! 

Indie Memphis is an official Sundance Satellite screen partner for 2022. In collaboration with Crosstown Arts, they will be screening a specially curated selection of 2022 Sundance Film Festival Films during the festival’s closing weekend, Friday, January 28 – Sunday, January 30, 2022,  at Crosstown Theater.

If you know, you know! Come see  The Holy Mountain on the Crosstown Theater’s giant screen in deep, full color!!!! From ABKCO: The scandal of the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, writer/director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s flood of sacrilegious imagery and existential symbolism in The Holy Mountain is a spiritual quest for enlightenment pitting illusion against truth. The Alchemist (Jodorowsky) assembles together a group of people from all walks of life to represent the planets in the solar system. The occult adept’s intention is to put his recruits through strange mystical rites and divest them of their worldly baggage before embarking on a trip to Lotus Island. There they ascend the Holy Mountain to displace the immortal gods who secretly rule the universe.

2K Restoration! From Janus: A senses-ravishing odyssey through the halls of time and memory, Andrei Tarkovsky’s sublime reflection on 20th century Russian history is as much a film as it is a poem composed in images, as much a work of cinema as it is a hypnagogic hallucination. In a richly textured collage of varying film stocks and newsreel footage, the recollections of a dying poet flash before our eyes, dreams mingling with scenes of childhood, wartime, and marriage, all imbued with the mystic power of a trance. Largely dismissed by Soviet critics upon its release due to its elusive narrative structure, Mirror has since taken its place as one of the titan director’s most renowned and influential works, a stunning personal statement from an artist transmitting his innermost thoughts and feelings directly from psyche to screen.

Due to rising Covid cases, the artist has asked to postpone his planned January 15th Musical Journalism: Continuing a Legacy Through the Flute performance at Crosstown Theater. Crosstown Arts is issuing full refunds to ticket holders.

Stay tuned to crosstownarts.org or our social media channels for an announcement about a new date.

Thank you for understanding!

Adam will be joined on stage by pianist Dr. Artina McCain, clarinetist Dr. Andre Dyachenko clarinetist, and a guest narrator.

*The artist has requested proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test for this event. Please be prepared to present your vaccination card or a negative Covid test taken within 72 hours at check-in.

Crosstown Arts tried this before back in series 6, but we got pandemic-ed before we could actually screen it, so we are trying again! The legend(s) surrounding Buford Pusser loom large over both Memphis and McNairy County, where he was sheriff from 1964 to 1970.  Buford was a professional wrestler who became a sheriff in an area overrun by the Dixie Mafia. He went to war with and killed Louise Hathcock, the operator of The Shamrock Motel, where the Babushka lady was supposedly seen hanging out a week or so before JFK got popped. 

Buford’s star really started to shine when his friend, country and rockabilly singer Eddie Bond, started singing about him. One story has it that when Buford got ambushed by the Dixie Mafia (and his wife was killed and his face was shot off), he hid out in Memphis at a nightclub on Madison that Eddie Bond owned with “The Fabulous One,” Jackie Fargo.  Buford’s legend and story was interesting enough that they made THREE movies about him and the first is Walking Tall. Walking Tall fictionalizes Buford’s journey from bear wrestler to one man crime crusader. The movie stars character actor Jo Don Baker (Joysticks, Fletch) as Buford Pusser and Elizabeth Hartman (A Patch of Blue, The Secret of NIMH) as his wife Pauline. Lief Garrett (Macon Count Line, Walking Tall Part II, Final Chapter: Walking Tall, Tiger Beat Cover Model) and Lief’s real-life sister Dawn Lyn as the Pusser kids!! Walking Tall is BACK ON THE BIG SCREEN IN MEMPHIS FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY!! YOU KNOW YOU HAVE TO SEE IT!!!!

In partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance and Indie Memphis, we are excited to be starting off Microcinema in the new year with a selection of films from Southern Foodways’ incredible catalog of films that document various Southern food cultures, traditions, and practices that have shaped the past, present, and future of the South. This program features short films that consider farmers’ (particularly Black farmers’) relationship to the land, water, and sky that they steward and the lineages that make it possible to consider the future in farming and food.

Out of an abundance of caution, with Covid cases on the rise, Citizen Cope has made the tough decision to postpone the planned January 6 show at Crosstown Theater. We’re issuing full refunds to all who have purchased tickets. We’re so sorry for any inconvenience!

Describing his music is difficult; he’s been inspired by artists such as John Lennon and Stevie Wonder to Bob Marley and Outkast. Citizen Cope’s compositions have been recorded by Carlos Santana, Dido, and Richie Havens. In 20 years of touring, he has built a devout following, performing at sold-out theaters and ballrooms across the country.

Over time, Cope’s music has become the soundtrack to the lives of those who have embraced it, and he continues to inspire audiences through what can only be described as deep personal connection.

Sorry for the inconvenience, but this film is being postponed until further notice.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn tells the story of an Irish immigrant family, the Nolans, living out their lives in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn in 1912, about 100 years before Williamsburg got to be the gentrified hell-hole that it currently is. This story takes place when the neighborhood was filled with thousands of first-generation immigrants from all different parts of the world, crammed together in tenements and hustling every day to put food on the table and maybe a little liquor down their gullet! With Dorthy McGuire (Old Yeller, Swiss Family Robinson) as the perpetually pregnant Katie Nolan! Joan Blondell (Glenda in Stay Away, Joe) as sassy Aunt Sissy!! Come out and get in the spirit with us!! A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a CAN’T MISS!!!

If you loved Last Night in Soho, come to the Crosstown Theater to catch Blood and Black Lace! From AGFA: Before Dario Argento’s Deep Red, there was Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace. At the Cristiana Haute Couture fashion house, models and their boyfriends excel at the art of backstabbing, blackmail, and snorting cocaine. That is, until a faceless maniac embarks on a mission of death! After the one-two punch of Black Sunday and Black Sabbath, Mario Bava unleashed Blood and Black Lace — the movie that perfected the ultra-violent sub-genre that would come to be known as “giallo.” With a mood that mashes together the elegance of a quiet rain on a summer night with the luridness of a trashy paperback, it’s no wonder why Martin Scorsese once referred to this movie as “an incredible moment for cinema.”

Throughout the year, Indie Memphis and Crosstown Arts bring cinematographers, directors, editors, writers, actors, and technicians to Shoot & Splice, the monthly filmmaking forum. Come help us celebrate the end of another wild year with the return of the annual Shoot & Splice Movie Trivia extravaganza!

Test your film knowledge against returning Trivia Masters John Beifuss of The Commercial Appeal and Chris McCoy of the Memphis Flyer. The trivia masters will take full advantage of the theater, so be prepared for some fun video and audio rounds!

A special evening showcasing Memphis sacred soul from the late 1960s to present day at Crosstown Theater. With an exclusive showing of The D-Vine Spirituals story documentary followed by performances by Elizabeth King and Elder Jack Ward, supported by the Sacred Soul Sound Section. A meet-and-greet/record signing with the artists will be held at Memphis Listening Lab prior to the show.

From JANUS: The whiplash, double-pronged Chungking Express  is one of the defining works of ’90s cinema and the film that made Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai an instant icon. Two heartsick Hong Kong cops (Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung), both jilted by ex-lovers, cross paths at the Midnight Express take-out restaurant stand, where the ethereal pixie waitress Faye (Faye Wong) works. Anything goes in Wong’s gloriously shot and utterly unexpected charmer, which cemented the sex appeal of its gorgeous stars and forever turned canned pineapple and the Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin’” into tokens of romantic longing.

Swimmer and actress Esther Williams wanted to tell the life story of Australian swimmer and actress Annette Kellerman, and Million Dollar Mermaid is that film! A feast for the eyes with choreography by Busby Berkeley! Esther Williams broke her neck and was temporarily paralyzed for this entertainment!! With Victor Mature (Head: The Monkees Movie) and Jesse White (The Maytag Repair Man!).

Join us for A Night of Brass chamber music with a program curated by Artina McCain, featuring works by local composer Evan Williams, the swinging tunes of David Wilborn, Gershwin, and more at Crosstown Theater!

A roots music trio featuring brothers Chris (upright bass, vocals) and Oliver Wood (guitars, vocals) along with multi-instrumentalist Jano Rix, the Wood Brothers bring a distinctive flair to their union of folk, blues, gospel, and jazz.

Featuring an opening performance by Sean McConnell

* Mempho Presents has requested proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test for this event. Please be prepared to present your vaccination card or a negative Covid test taken within 72 hours at check-in. Masks are required and must be worn unless actively eating or drinking.

A combination of art film, documentary, and narrative, Funeral Parade of Roses takes a deep dive into  gay subculture in late 1960s Tokyo, Japan. In between the loose narrative, characters are interviewed about their lives and gender identity and occasionally the fourth wall is broken, revealing the crew making the film. A wild combination of film technique, documentation of ’60s Japanese pop culture and gay life, Funeral Parade of Roses is a CAN’T MISS!

American jazz musician Billy Tipton developed a reputable touring and recording career in the mid-twentieth century, along with his band The Billy Tipton Trio. After his death in the late 80s, it was revealed that Tipton was assigned female at birth, and his life was swiftly reframed as the story of an ambitious woman passing as a man in pursuit of a music career. The genre-defying documentary No Ordinary Man seeks to correct that misrepresentation by collaborating with trans artists. As they collectively celebrate Tipton’s story as a musician living his life according to his own terms, they paint a portrait of a trans culture icon. No Ordinary Man features leading voices and breakout stars in the trans community, including Marquise Vilsón, Scott Turner Schofield, Susan Stryker, C. Riley Snorton, and Thomas Page McBee, among others.

Crosstown Concourse presents a matinee screening of Candyman at Crosstown Theater.

Throughout the month of October, Crosstown Concourse presents Fright-tober at Crosstown Theater! Join us every Saturday in October for spooky, kid-friendly matinees (2 pm) and even spookier adult-themed horror films in the evenings (7 pm). Films programmed by Crosstown Arts. Tickets are free, but capacity is limited so registration is required.

Candyman (1992, Rated R)
The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster’s myth.

Director: Bernard Rose
Starring Virginia Madsen, Xander Berkeley, and Tony Todd

Crosstown Concourse presents a matinee screening of Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Wererabbit at Crosstown Theater.

Throughout the month of October, Crosstown Concourse presents Fright-tober at Crosstown Theater! Join us every Saturday in October for spooky, kid-friendly matinees (2 pm) and even spookier adult-themed horror films in the evenings (7 pm). Films programmed by Crosstown Arts. Tickets are free, but capacity is limited so registration is required.

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Wererabbit (2005, Rated G)
Wallace and his loyal dog, Gromit, set out to discover the mystery behind the garden sabotage that plagues their village and threatens the annual giant vegetable-growing contest.

Multidisciplinary artist Lawrence Matthews, also known as Don Lifted, will transform Crosstown Theater visually and sonically with new music from his Fat Possum debut “325i.” The performance, which will have limited capacity to ensure the health and safety of guests, features immersive visual installations following the narrative of the new record and staples from his previous releases, Alero and Contour (2017, 2018).

The Masterpiece of German Expressionism and horror, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is the story of a megalomaniac doctor who uses a sleepwalker that he seems to control to carry out a series of murders. Crosstown Arts’ presentation of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari will feature a live score featuring the original music of The Pop Ritual, a Memphis-based industrial, psyche-pop trio. 

Crosstown Concourse presents a matinee screening of Us at Crosstown Theater.

Throughout the month of October, Crosstown Concourse presents Fright-tober at Crosstown Theater! Join us every Saturday in October for spooky, kid-friendly matinees (2 pm) and even spookier adult-themed horror films in the evenings (7 pm). Films programmed by Crosstown Arts. Tickets are free, but capacity is limited so registration is required.

Us (2019, Rated R)
A family’s serene beach vacation turns to chaos when their doppelgängers appear and begin to terrorize them.

Director: Jordan Peele
Starring Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, and Elisabeth Moss

Crosstown Concourse presents a screening of The Nightmare Before Christmas at Crosstown Theater.

Throughout the month of October, Crosstown Concourse presents Fright-tober at Crosstown Theater! Join us every Saturday in October for spooky, kid-friendly matinees (2 pm) and even spookier adult-themed horror films in the evenings (7 pm). Films programmed by Crosstown Arts. Tickets are free, but capacity is limited so registration is required.

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993, Rated PG)
Jack Skellington, king of Halloween Town, discovers Christmas Town, but his attempts to bring Christmas to his home causes confusion.

Hear Don Bryant & The Bo-Keys in a very special, one-night-only performance with members of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra will also be performing music from Craig Brewer’s 2019 film Dolemite Is My Name (music written by Scott Bomar of the Bo-Keys).

Crosstown Concourse presents a screening of A Vampire in Brooklyn at Crosstown Theater.

Throughout the month of October, Crosstown Concourse presents Fright-tober at Crosstown Theater! Join us every Saturday in October for spooky, kid-friendly matinees (2 pm) and even spookier adult-themed horror films in the evenings (7 pm). Films programmed by Crosstown Arts. Tickets are free, but capacity is limited so registration is required.

A Vampire in Brooklyn (1995, Rated R)
A ship docks in Brooklyn with all its crew dead, but someone gets off, and the killing continues on land. A Caribbean vampire is searching for a specific woman, half-human/half-vampire. Rita is the detective investigating the many killings.

Crosstown Concourse presents a screening of Coco at Crosstown Theater.

Throughout the month of October, Crosstown Concourse presents Fright-tober at Crosstown Theater! Join us every Saturday in October for spooky, kid-friendly matinees (2 pm) and even spookier adult-themed horror films in the evenings (7 pm). Films programmed by Crosstown Arts. Tickets are free, but capacity is limited so registration is required.

Coco (2017, Rated PG)
Aspiring musician Miguel, confronted with his family’s ancestral ban on music, enters the Land of the Dead to find his great-great-grandfather, a legendary singer.

From Metrograph: Banned upon its original release in 1981, Andrzej Żuławski’s stunningly choreographed nightmare of a marriage unraveling is an experience unlike any other. Professional spy Mark (Neill) returns to his West Berlin home to find his wife Anna (Isabelle Adjani, in a role that earned her Best Actress at Cannes) insistent on a divorce. As Anna’s frenzied behavior becomes ever more alarming, Mark discovers a truth far more sinister than his wildest suspicions. With its pulsating score, visceral imagery, and some of the most haunting performances ever captured on screen, Possession is cinematic delirium at its most intoxicating.

Crosstown Concourse presents a screening of Night of the Living Dead at Crosstown Theater.

Throughout the month of October, Crosstown Concourse presents Fright-tober at Crosstown Theater! Join us every Saturday in October for spooky, kid-friendly matinees (2 pm) and even spookier adult-themed horror films in the evenings (7 pm). Films programmed by Crosstown Arts. Tickets are free, but capacity is limited so registration is required.

Night of the Living Dead (1968, Rated R)
A ragtag group of Pennsylvanians barricade themselves in an old farmhouse to remain safe from a horde of flesh-eating ghouls that are ravaging the East Coast of the United States.

Crosstown Concourse presents a screening of Beetlejuice at Crosstown Theater.

Throughout the month of October, Crosstown Concourse presents Fright-tober at Crosstown Theater! Join us every Saturday in October for spooky, kid-friendly matinees (2 pm) and even spookier adult-themed horror films in the evenings (7 pm). Films programmed by Crosstown Arts. Tickets are free, but capacity is limited so registration is required.

In 2018, filmmaker Jon Bryant Crawford was a Crosstown Arts resident artist. Jon used his time at Crosstown Arts to film interviews with anyone in the Queer community in Memphis willing to sit down and talk. Tell Me a Memory is the result of those sessions. Join Crosstown Arts and filmmaker Jon Bryant Crawford for a screening of Tell Me a Memory at Crosstown Theater. The screening will be followed with a panel discussion with Mr. Crawford.

From American Genre Film Archive: Joel grew up in the church but has recently started questioning his beliefs. After sensing a supernatural presence from his deceased father, Joel becomes compelled to visit his cousin in New York. But shortly after arriving, they become embroiled in a series of mysterious homicides of local men, all of whom were last seen in the company of a mysterious and beautiful woman. Beautifully photographed by Ernest Dickerson (Do the Right Thing) and starring Kadeem Hardison (I’m Gonna Git You Sucka), and Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction), this sole directorial effort from child actor James Bond III is a macabre, neon-tinged portrait of late 1980s Brooklyn. The movie blends supernatural horror and religious mysticism, punctuated by an electrifying hip hop and R&B soundtrack. Newly restored from the original 35mm camera negative!

Crosstown Concourse presents a screening of Eve’s Bayou at Crosstown Theater.

Throughout the month of October, Crosstown Concourse presents Fright-tober at Crosstown Theater! Join us every Saturday in October for spooky, kid-friendly matinees (2 pm) and even spookier adult-themed horror films in the evenings (7 pm). Tickets are free, but capacity is limited so registration is required.

Eve’s Bayou (Rated R)
What did little Eve see — and how will it haunt her? Husband, father, and womanizer Louis Batiste is the head of an affluent family, but it’s the women who rule this gothic world of secrets, lies, and mystic forces.

rosstown Concourse presents a matinee screening of Watcher in the Woods at Crosstown Theater.

Throughout the month of October, Crosstown Concourse presents Fright-tober at Crosstown Theater! Join us every Saturday in October for spooky, kid-friendly matinees (2 pm) and even spookier adult-themed horror films in the evenings (7 pm). Tickets are free, but capacity is limited so registration is required.

Watcher in the Woods (Rated PG)
When a family moves to a country home, the young girls experience strange happenings that have a link to an occult event years past.

Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror explores the folk horror phenomenon from its beginnings in a trilogy of films – Michael Reeves’ Witchfinder General (1968), Piers Haggard’s Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971) and Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man (1973) – through its proliferation on British television in the 1970s and its culturally specific manifestations in American, Asian, Australian, and European horror, to the genre’s revival over the last decade. Touching on over 200 films and featuring over 50 interviewees, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched investigates the many ways that we alternately celebrate, conceal, and manipulate our own histories in an attempt to find spiritual resonance in our surroundings.

Blueshift Ensemble performs a program of chamber music curated by composer and conductor Evan Williams featuring works by Williams and his musical mentors, friends, and colleagues in Crosstown Theater. The program includes works by Jennifer Jolley, Caroline Shaw, and Michael Fiday.

Memphis radio station WLOK will present a screening of Amazing Grace in Crosstown Theater as part of its annual Black Film Festival. 
The film documents Aretha Franklin’s recording sessions for a live album of the same name. As Rolling Stone put it, “a film crew was there to catch the Queen of Soul blow the roof off the place. Not to get closer to the Lord — surely He was already listening — but to testify to his glory with the black church music that helped form her and fired her faith.”

In the late 80s and early 90s, the streets of downtown Manhattan were the site of a collision between two vibrant subcultures: skateboarding and hip hop. Narrated by Zoo York co-founder Eli Gesner, with an original score by legendary hip-hop producer Large Professor (Nas, A Tribe Called Quest), All the Streets Are Silent brings to life the magic of the time period and the convergence that created a style and visual language with an outsized cultural effect.

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series presents Cirio Santiago’s The Muthers at Crosstown Theater. 1976/93 minutes/Rated R

“Sleaze ahoy! Directed by heroic smut merchant Cirio Santiago (TNT Jackson, Vampire Hookers) and shot on-the-cheap in the Philippines, The Muthers is like stepping into one of Martin Denny’s exotica LPs while it plays in Jess Franco’s living room. Filled with karate chops and epic psychedelic-funk jams, this is the story of two pirates (Jeanne Bell and Rosanne Katon) who rob and loot on the China Seas, get sent to a women’s prison presided over by a sadistic warden, then revolt and turn the sky black with the smoke from their machine guns. In other words, this is the only revolutionary-pirate-women-in-prison movie that you’ll ever need. Restored from the original negative for maximum savagery!” — American Genre Film Archive

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series presents Juzo Itami’s Tampopo at Crosstown Theater. 1987/118 minutes/Rated M

Tampopo is a 1985 Japanese satirical “ramen western” comedy by Juzo Itami that tells the story of two truck drivers, Goro and Gun, who embark on a search for the perfect ramen restaurant, but have yet to find it. They meet Tampopo, a young ramen-making widow whose restaurant is besieged by mediocrity and overrun with unpleasant patrons. Goro takes Tampopo under his wing and helps guide her on her quest to find the perfect ramen recipe.

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series presents Lisa Rovner’s Sisters With Transistors at Crosstown Theater. 2020/86 minutes/Rated M

Sisters With Transistors is the remarkable untold story of electronic music’s female pioneers, composers who embraced machines and their liberating technologies to utterly transform how we produce and listen to music today. The film maps a new history of electronic music through the visionary women whose radical experimentations with machines redefined the boundaries of music, including Clara Rockmore, Daphne Oram, Bebe Barron, Pauline Oliveros, Delia Derbyshire, Maryanne Amacher, Eliane Radigue, Suzanne Ciani, and Laurie Spiegel.

Pay-what-you-can screening of short films presented with partner organization Indie Memphis.

This month: 2021 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour 

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series presents Martin Scorsese’s After Hours at Crosstown Theater. 1985/97 minutes/Rated R

Ever have a night where nothing seems to go right? After releasing The King of Comedy just a few years before, Martin Scorsese kept working on his “comedy chops” with After Hours — the story of one night in the life of everyman, data entry worker Paul Hackett, played by Griffin Dunne (An American Werewolf in London and My Girl).

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series presents Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus at Crosstown Theater. 1959/107 minutes/Rated PG

Black Orpheus is a retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus (Breno Mello) and Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn) and is set in the streets of Rio during Carnival. When released in 1959, Black Orpheus was an arthouse hit, driven by the incredible cinematography, the location, and the bossa nova music.

This Elvis Week, Indie Memphis and Crosstown Arts presents the theatrical world premiere of The Faithful,  filmmaker Annie Berman’s 20-year exploration of fandom, memorabilia, memory, and legacy within the orbits of three of the biggest cultural icons of our time: Pope John Paul II, Elvis Presley, and Diana, Princess of Wales.  PLUS: Annie Berman will be in attendance for Q&A following the film!

The Crosstown Arthouse film series presents Frank Perry’s The Swimmer at Crosstown Theater. 1968/95 minutes/Rated PG

Burt Lancaster (From Here to Eternity and Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair) plays the character of Ned Merrill in The Swimmer. Ned goes on an adventure of sorts as he swims from pool to pool through his well-heeled neighborhood. That is it. Or is it? As Ned swims toward his goal of making it home to his own pool, the audience is slowly let in on what is perhaps a psychotic break. With Joan Rivers, Janice Rule (3 Women!!), Kim Hunter (STELLA!!!!!!!!!) and Bernie Hamilton (Captain Dobey!!).

Join Indie Memphis and Crosstown Arts for the first in-person Shoot & Splice in over 16 months! Actors Rosalyn Ross and Syderek Watson will join director GB Shannon in a panel discussion and scene exercise designed to showcase the importance of building a symbiotic relationship between actors and directors. When communication and trust is built between the talent and the director, a world of opportunity and creative discovery opens up.

Crosstown Arthouse Film Series presents David Lynch’s Wild at Heart in Crosstown Theater. 1990/124 minutes

Crosstown Arts is excited to kick off its post-pandemic return to the Crosstown Arthouse Film Series with a screening of the 1930 silent film Hell-Bound Train with musical accompaniment by Bible & Tire recording artist Elizabeth King. She’ll be joined by Will Sexton (guitar), Matt Ross-Spang (guitar), and Will McCarley (percussion).

Hell-Bound Train was shot by a pair of self-taught Christian evangelists, James and Eloyce Gist, on 16 mm film. The Gists toured Black churches to show the film,  paired with a sermon. Elizabeth King is a Memphis-based gospel singer who, after leaving music for some time to raise a family, has returned at 77 years young to release the extremely well-reviewed, gospel masterpiece Living in the Last Days. Crosstown Arts is thrilled to pair this early example of Black filmmaking with the incomparable voice of Elizabeth King.

Crosstown Arts presents Memphis garage rockers Reigning Sound at Crosstown Theater.

Founded by Memphis blues-punk legend Greg Cartwright — a former member of the Oblivians, the Compulsive Gamblers, and ’68 Comeback — Reigning Sound fuse the hot-wired energy of garage rock with the deep emotional resonance of classic soul music in a manner that suggests a cross between the early Rolling Stones and the Sonics.

This tour has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Electro pioneers Kraftwerk are bringing their 50th anniversary tour to the Kemmons Wilson Family Stage at Crosstown Theater. The performance will benefit Crosstown Arts, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2020. The multi-media project Kraftwerk was started in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. They set up their electronic Kling Klang Studio in Düsseldorf, Germany, where they conceived and produced all Kraftwerk albums. By the mid-1970s, Kraftwerk had achieved international recognition for their revolutionary electronic soundscapes and their musical experimentation with robotics and other technical innovations. With their visions of the future, Kraftwerk created the soundtrack for the digital age of the 21st century. Their compositions — using innovative techniques, synthetic voices, and computerized rhythms — have had a major international influence across an entire range of music genres: from Electro to Hip Hop, from Techno to SynthPop.

** This event is postponed until further notice.
Walking Tall fictionalizes Buford Puser’s journey from bear wrestler to one-man crime crusader. Starring character actor Jo Don Baker (Joysticks and Fletch) as Buford Pusser and Elizabeth Hartman (A Patch of Blue and The Secret of NIMH) as his wife Pauline, plus Lief Garrett (Macon Count Line, Walking Tall Part II, Final Chapter: Walking Tall, Tiger Beat Cover Model) and Lief’s real-life sister Dawn Lyn as the Pusser kids!

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series showcases a diverse collection of independent, international, historically significant, artistic, experimental, cult, underground and documentary features.

** This event is postponed until further notice.
Join us for a performance by Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Ruthie Foster at Crosstown Theater.
Ruthie Foster’s latest album, “Joy Comes Back,” described as “some folk, some blues, some soul, some rock, some gospel,” illustrates Ruthie’s genre-spanning talent. Ruthie has been nominated for three Grammys and has won multiple Blues Music and Austin Music Awards, plus the Grand Prix du Disque from Académie Charles-Cros in France.

** This event is postponed until further notice.
We can’t say it better than the incredible American Genre Film Archive, who are lovingly saving films like this for folks like us to show again in all their glory on a giant screen!

Says the American Genre Film Archive: “Sleaze ahoy! Directed by heroic smut merchant Cirio Santiago (TNT Jackson, Vampire Hookers) and shot on-the-cheap in the Philippines, The Muthers is like stepping into one of Martin Denny’s exotica LPs while it plays in Jess Franco’s living room. Filled with karate chops and epic psychedelic-funk jams, this is the story of two pirates (Jeanne Bell and Rosanne Katon) who rob and loot on the China Seas, get sent to a women’s prison presided over by a sadistic warden, then revolt and turn the sky black with the smoke from their machine guns. In other words, this is the only revolutionary-pirate-women-in-prison movie that you’ll ever need. Restored from the original negative for maximum savagery!”
The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series showcases a diverse collection of independent, international, historically significant, artistic, experimental, cult, underground and documentary features.

** This event is postponed until further notice.
Black Orpheus is a retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in the streets of Rio during Carnival. When released in 1959, Black Orpheus was an arthouse hit, driven by incredible cinematography, location, and bossa nova music. 

Only later, people started to re-examine Black Orpheus, its popularity, and its audience — especially the idea of an all-black cast being shoehorned into a Greek myth through the lens of a white French director.

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series showcases a diverse collection of independent, international, historically significant, artistic, experimental, cult, underground and documentary features.

** This event is postponed until further notice.
Jennie Livingston’s Paris is Burning documents African-American and Latinx drag culture in 1980s New York City. Focusing on ballroom competition culture, Paris is Burning introduced the rest of America to voguing. Beautifully shot in 16mm,  the film told the stories of gay and trans people of color and how, after being rejected by their families and straight society, they managed to find accepting family units and ways to survive (which sometimes included shoplifting and sex work). Paris is Burning was the inspiration for the television show Pose. The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series showcases a diverse collection of independent, international, historically significant, artistic, experimental, cult, underground and documentary features.

** This event is postponed until further notice.
Join Grammy-winning saxophonist Kirk Whalum for Kafé Kirk, a monthly jazz series in Crosstown Theater featuring musical and spiritual collaborations with special guest artists. This month’s performance will feature saxophonist Dave Koz.

This show will feature two performances — a matinee at 4 pm and an evening show at 7 pm. VIP tickets will ONLY be available for the 4 pm performance.

** This event is postponed until further notice.
It’s probably enough just to say “David Lynch,” but let’s hit on some of Wild at Heart’s high points, like the stars of the movie: Laura Dern (Foxes; Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains); Nicolas Cage (Valley Girl); Thrashers Powermad playing Elvis Presley; Diane Ladd (Laura Dern’s real-life mother) manically covering her face with lipstick; Crispin Glover (Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, River’s Edge) as Jingle Dale; Laura Dern’s cousin, who wants Christmas to be all year long and puts cockroaches in his own underwear; Harry Dean Stanton (Alien, Repo Man, Red Dawn) as Diane Ladd’s pathetic lover; Sherilyn Fenn (The Wraith, Two Moon Junction) in one the best and most traumatic Lynch car wreck scenes ever put to screen; Willem Dafoe (Streets of Fire, The Last Temptation of Christ) as Bobby Peru; a cameo by Laura Palmer herself (Sheryl Lee) as the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz; Koko Taylor singing a song written by Lynch and composed by longtime collaborator Angelo Badalamenti; and CJack Nance (Eraserhead!!) as a random crazy dude with an invisible dog in a trailer park. The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series showcases a diverse collection of independent, international, historically significant, artistic, experimental, cult, underground and documentary features.

** The event is postponed until further notice.

Tokyo Knights  is about a boy named Koji who is good at, well, everything. Koji’s pop passes, and Koji goes home to take over his family’s “construction business,” crush it at school, and get the truth as to what happened with his daddy. The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series showcases a diverse collection of independent, international, historically significant, artistic, experimental, cult, underground and documentary features.

** The event is postponed until further notice.

Join us at Crosstown Arts for Memphis vs New Orleans, featuring The Stax Music Academy & Trombone Shorty Foundation with special guests.

Stax Music Academy’s 20th Anniversary celebration continues as The Stax Music Academy and Trombone Shorty Foundation join forces to celebrate the indigenous sounds of the world-renowned music cities of Memphis and New Orleans. Enjoy one night of Memphis soul battling it out with New Orleans’ funky jazz at Crosstown Theater.

** The event is postponed until further notice.

Jane Fonda (Cat Ballou, They Shoot Horses Don’t They?, Barbarella) stars as a groovy call girl and wannabe actress who may or may not be connected to a dead john (who ran a chemical company by day). Donald Sutherland (MASH,  The Kentucky Fried Movie) plays the title character Klute, a detective brought in by a chemical company executive to find out what really happened. Co-starring Roy Scheider (Jaws, Jaws II) as Jane Fonda’s pimp. Also co-starring the super-fun and sleazy NYC of the 1970s. Klute won a lot of Oscars, but don’t hold that against it. IT IS A GREAT MOVIE ANYWAY!! 

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series showcases a diverse collection of independent, international, historically significant, artistic, experimental, cult, underground and documentary features.

** This event is postponed until further notice.
Join us in Crosstown Theater for the Spotlight Concert Series, featuring piano quintets by composers Dora Pejacovic and Zdenek Fibich.

This special performance by Memphis Symphony Orchestra musicians Priscilla Tsai, Jordan Musgrave, Ruth Burgess, Josh Muzzi, and pianist Tingting Yao features a program of piano quintets “lost in time” by composers Dora Pejacovic and Zdenek Fibich.

You know that story “Little Red Riding Hood”? You know that girl who works over at the City Thrift on Summer? The one with the creepy stepdad and the mom who hooks up by Tee Jay’s? The one who’s always talking about blowing Memphis to go live with her me-maw in a trailer park in Tipton County? Take “Little Red Riding Hood” and that girl we all know, and put them in L.A., and have the girl played by Reese ….

David Byrne makes his directorial debut with TRUE STORIES, a movie loosely based around drawings Bryne had made about tabloid stories. Byrne is the main narrator as he traverses through the town of Virgil, Texas, as they prepare for the “Celebration of Specialness.”  With Spalding Gray (Swimming to Cambodia!! Farmer’s Daughters!!) and Pops Staples!!!

Many people assume that the role of a producer is only about finding money and selling a film. But what does it mean to be a creative producer? Join Indie Memphis & Crosstown Arts in a conversation with producers Tracee Comfort and Princeton Echols to find out why producing is one of the more misunderstood but creatively fulfilling roles in production.

Topics will include how to manage a production, casting, story and script development, working with a director, and much more.

Directed by Otto Preminger and based on an Oscar Hammerstein musical, in turn based on the opera Carmen, CARMEN JONES tells the story of Carmen Jones , who works in a parachute factory in North Carolina during WWII.  Carmen is arrested for fighting with a co-worker who reported her for arriving late for work. Foreman Sgt. Brown assigns young soldier Joe to deliver her to the authorities, much to the dismay of Joe’s fiancée Cindy Lou, who had agreed to marry him during his leave.  Carmen Jones features a Saul Bass title sequence and Diahann Carroll (Dominique Deveraux in the hit television show Dynasty)!

BLUE COLLAR was Paul Schrader’s debut as a director, and making the movie reportedly literally drove him insane. BLUE COLLAR is a caper about three auto workers (Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, and Yaphet Kotto) who rob their union and unexpectedly uncover an illegal loan operation and ties to organized crime. BLUE COLLAR is about corruption, the impossible grind of the working class, powerlessness, and most definitely, the use of racial difference as a weapon by the oppressors against the oppressed.  

WITH A PIECE IN HIS HAND, HE TAKES ON THE MAN! The epochal cultural moment that first brought reggae to the international stage, made Jimmy Cliff a star, and demonstrated how music can change the world. Fifty years on, THE HARDER THEY COME is still electric with the feeling of discovery. This SCARFACE-y blend of crime drama and musical tracks Cliff’s country-boy-in-search-of-fame through Jamaica under the guises of laborer, recording artist, convict, ganja dealer, and outlaw folk hero. Before THE HARDER THEY COME, the collective perception of a “foreign film” was limited to the Bergmans and the Kurosawas of the world. This game-changer forever blew those doors off — and it still hasn’t lost a drop of its cool, its edge, or its way of making you dance.

In John Waters’ POLYESTER (JOHN WATERS/1981/86 minutes), Divine is a suburban housewife who turns to the bottle when life gets too hard. She has a husband who runs a porno theater and two lousy children with serious problems of their own. Teen pregnancy, murder, cocaine, booze, Edith Massey the egg lady as Cuddles Kovinsky!, Stiv Bators (RIP!). From the Dead Boys as Bo-Bo Belsinger, dogs dead by apparent suicide, macrame (the craft!), and TAB HUNTER AS TODD TOMORROW (!!), THIS MOVIE IS TOO GOOD TO MISS!!  We are still unsure as to whether or not we will be able to present this film in its original format complete with Odorama, but we can assure viewers that there will be smells.

Whether you are capturing audio on set, using foley, integrating sound effects and ADR, or getting that perfect score, every filmmaker knows audio is a key component for their craft.

Please welcome back to Shoot & Splice SCOTT BOMAR (Musician, Audio Engineer and Composer), KEVIN HOUSTON (Audio Engineer), DANIEL LYNN (Audio Engineer), and NATHAN REISMAN (Audio Production Sound Engineer) to walk through, from start to finish, every aspect of getting great sound on film.  

Lee Moses (1941-1998), a music prodigy, is considered one of the greatest unknown musicians among Baby Huey or Sixto Rodriguez (Sugar Man). He was part of a soul scene in Atlanta between the ’60s and the ’70s. His one album, Time and Place (1971), did not take off. During his time in New York, Moses played with greatest, including Jimi Hendrix and James Brown. His music has now garnered a community of appreciation. Songs such as “Bad Girl” was used in the 2014 French film House of Tolerance, and “If Loving You Is A Crime” was used in 2013 American film The Teacher. What makes his story remarkable is there’s not much to be found on Lee Moses. Even in his hometown of Atlanta, there are no physical traces of him. The locations where Moses once performed no longer exist. TIME AND PLACE aims to connect the time of Lee Moses with the place Atlanta is becoming now.

Considered by many to be one of the greatest and most influential silent-era films ever made, A TRIP TO THE MOON has turn-of-the-20th-century astronomers taking a proto-rocket to the moon and back to Earth. While on the moon, they are attacked and captured by moon natives who turn out to be surprisingly easy to kill and out-maneuver. In a similar tale of Earthmen hurling themselves into the void of space, AELITA: QUEEN OF MARS is a Russian silent film about a man who leaves his boring Earth wife behind to go to Mars and lead a revolution with the help of a Martian Queen named Aelita. These two silent-era classics will be live-scored by Alex Greene and The Rolling Head Orchestra!

Booker T Jones celebrates the release of his memoir, Time Is Tight, with a special concert on the Kemmons Wilson Family Stage at Crosstown Theater.

Join Indie Memphis & Crosstown Arts for Shoot & Splice: The Business of Acting with Jade Abrielle. Jade will discuss the many facets of being a professional actor, both on set and off, including how to market yourself, identifying your type, how to get an agent, audition taping, budgeting for your career, and more. Whether you are an actor or a filmmaker looking to learn more about the actor’s process, you don’t want to miss this presentation.

The Gamble Brothers Band and CYC join forces for a double bill reunion at Crosstown Theater.

Grammy Award-winning saxophonist Kirk Whalum presents his 8th annual “A Gospel According To Jazz” Christmas Tour with John Stoddart and Kevin Whalum, along with this year’s featured guests, vocalist Maysa and guitarist Adam Hawley.

Join us for a performance of Big Star’s Third and more on the Kemmons Wilson Family Stage at Crosstown Theater. Featuring Big Star’s Jody Stephens and conducted by Carl Marsh, the album’s original arranger. Plus, Mike Mills (R.E.M.), Chris Stamey (the dbs), Mitch Easter, Skylar Gudasz, Django Haskins (the Old Ceremony), Brett Harris, Charles Cleaver, Dale Baker, Jimmy Stephens, and members of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.

In October 1985, Britain witnessed a spate of civil disturbances in the Birmingham district of Handsworth and in urban centers of London. These were violent, tragic events, marked by the death of an elderly black woman, Joy Gardner, and a white policeman, Keith Blakelock .

HANDSWORTH SONGS (BLACK AUDIO FILM COLLECTIVE/JOHN AKOMFRAH)/1986/58 minutes) takes as its point of departure these events and the inability of the British media to go beyond its concern with demonizing or rationalizing the rioters and their motives, to break the anxiety-driven loop of morbid responses to the presence of blacks in Britain. 

Join us for a performance by jazz trio The Bad Plus on the Kemmons Wilson Family Stage at Crosstown Theater.

Four years after Breathless, Jean-Luc Godard reimagined the gangster film even more radically with BAND OF OUTSIDERS (Bande à part, 1964, 95 minutes). Two restless young men (Sami Frey and Claude Brasseur) enlist the object of both of their fancies (Anna Karina) to help them commit a robbery — in her own home.

Throughout the year, Indie Memphis & Crosstown Arts brings cinematographers, directors, editors, writers, and technicians to Shoot & Splice, the monthly filmmaking forum. Come help us celebrate the end of another year with the Sixth Annual Shoot & Splice Cinema Trivia blowout with Trivia Masters Chris McCoy and John Beifuss! Test your filmmaker mettle! Prizes! Holiday cocktails! Food and deliciousness! Did we say, FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC?

Join Grammy-winning saxophonist Kirk Whalum for Kafé Kirk, a monthly jazz series in Crosstown Theater featuring musical and spiritual collaborations with special guest artists. This month’s guest: Memphis-based jazz vocalist Wendy Moten.

North Mississippi Allstars celebrate their latest release, Up and Rolling, on the Kemmons Wilson Family Stage at Crosstown Theater.

Welcome Luther and Cody Dickinson back home to Memphis as they celebrate the release of their ninth studio effort, Up and Running. Joining them will be Memphis-born comedian Deric Poston.

Winner of the Golden Bear at Berlinale, the latest from Nadav Lapid, SYNONYMS features a dynamic lead performance from newcomer Tom Mercier, whose feral intensity practically bursts out of the frame. Mercier plays Yoav, a disaffected young Israeli who flees Tel Aviv for Paris to start a new life.

Winners and runner-ups from each Spillit Slam from 2019 take the stage at Crosstown Theater to share their six minute homecoming stories and compete for the title of 2019 Spillit Grand Master Storyteller of Memphis. 

Crosstown Arthouse presents Yashira Jordan’s short film, ANACRONTE, and Ildikó Enyedi’s fairytale-like, unconventional ironic film luminaire MY 20TH CENTURY.

The Withers Collection is hosting the official book launch and signing for Revolution in Black and White: Photographs for the Civil Rights Era by Ernest Withers on Tuesday, Nov. 12 from 6-8 pm at Crosstown Theater.

Doors open at 6 pm in the theater for a booksigning and slideshow, followed by a panel discussion at 6:30 pm with Richard Cahan, Michael Williams, and Rosalind Withers. Moderated by Emmy-nominated journalist and author, Katina Rankin, evening anchor for WATN-TV Local 24.

Join us for the premiere of the Mellotron Variations concert film, recorded live at Crosstown Arts on April 21, 2018. Mellotron Variations is a performance of new works and collaborations for the Mellotron by Robby Grant, Jonathan Kirkscey, John Medeski, and Pat Sansone. Projections by Winston Eggleston and John Markham. Videography by Justin Thompson. 

The Crosstown Arthouse Film Series is proud to present DUBICEL, the work of animator, writer and director Yashira Jordan. Yashira was an inaugural participant in the Crosstown Arts Residency program. DUBICEL (12 minutes) is a cosmic child who lives in a galactic dome alone and wants to open the walls that imprison him to discover what is beyond and to discover the stars. DUBICEL will be followed by the full-length film, STALKER, about a metaphysical journey through an enigmatic post-apocalyptic landscape.

Join Grammy-winning saxophonist Kirk Whalum for Kafé Kirk, a monthly jazz series in Crosstown Theater featuring musical and spiritual collaborations with special guest artists. This month’s guest: Grammy-winning jazz keyboardist, arranger, and record producer Bob James.

In HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) is an eccentric millionaire who rents a reportedly haunted mansion for one night under the pretense of hosting a party for his wife, Annabelle, whom he believes to be after his fortune. He explains to his guests that any among them who survives in the house for one night — during which all communication with the outside world will be cut — will receive a prize of $10,000.

Indie Memphis kicks off its annual film festival at Crosstown Theater with an opening party at 5 pm.
That’s followed by a sold-out screening of Harriet, the extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman’s escape from slavery and transformation into one of America’s greatest heroes, at 6:30 pm.
Stick around for the Hometowner Narrative Shorts #1 Competition at 9:30 pm. Featuring Always Open, The Eureka Hotel, Life After Death, Now the Sun Asks to Rise, TAGGED, The Bee, and The Indignation of Michael ….

Join us at Crosstown Theater for a performance by psychedelic garage-rock band Spaceface. Alongside the city’s favorite astral apparitions, members of The Memphis Symphony Orchestra will be performing under the guise of THE UPSIDE DOWN ENSEMBLE

Double feature with HAXAN (1922) and a live score by 1000 LIGHTS, followed by a screening of DEEP RED (1975).

Join us for a performance by Spanish guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas at Crosstown Theater.
Time: doors at 6:30pm / performance at 7:30pm
Tickets: $20 (students $10 with ID at the door)
“virtuosic playing characterized by its vividly shaded colors and irresistible exuberance …”
— The New York Times
“Master of the guitar”
— Plácido Domingo

About the artist:
Praised as “the soul of the Spanish guitar,” Pablo Sáinz Villegas has become a worldwide sensation known as this generation’s great ….