Memphis is not just a city; it’s a relationship.
Instead of serving as simply a backdrop in the lives of those who live here, Memphis is like a family member that challenges and influences our experiences. Every one of us has a unique relationship with this city, as its multifaceted character allows for both great enthusiasm and, at times, great disappointment. Like any relationship, the ebb and flow of passion and disenchantment creates an ideal environment for love to flourish.
Love is best expressed through art, so we are encouraging you to share your “love letter to Memphis” that may inspire additional material for an upcoming movie entitled OPEN FIVE set to begin filming in August.
Filmmaker Kentucker Audley
OPEN FIVE, the most recent feature from acclaimed filmmaker Kentucker Audley, is a celebration of the beautiful and sometimes complicated love story between Memphis and those who live here. The film will follow two New York sophisticated young women as they are introduced to the hidden treasures of the city during a weekend double date with two Memphis artists. The awkwardness of any first date is compounded with culture shock as the two women explore the unrefined, and yet completely captivating local artistic culture. The film co-stars Kentucker Audley, who was named to Filmmaker Magazine’s 2007 ’25 New Faces of Independent Film’ and received national acclaim for his first feature TEAM PICTURE, and writer Jake Rabinbach, from the band JUMP BACK JAKE.
We believe that OPEN FIVE will best capture the dynamics of a real life Memphis Love story if we involve the local community. We aim to finance the film entirely through an online donation drive and our “Love Letter to Memphis” party coming up on Thursday July 30th at Minglewood Hall. Our upcoming party will feature local music and a silent auction of unique Memphis items. Guests will also have an opportunity to mingle with the filmmakers and other members of the community who have helped make our film a success. We will also read some of our favorite love letter entries. The complete details for the event will be announced soon.
Click here to see the various THANK YOU GIFTS
we offer for your online donations.
We formed PAPER MOON FILMS, LLC to support local talented artists and cultivate the Memphis film industry. We offer you the opportunity to help us fulfill our mission by supporting the production of OPEN FIVE. You can donate online, send the donation link to your personal and professional networks, attend the Love Letter party and, of course, send us your own tributes to how Memphis has evoked your own passion.
We are seeking long or short narratives about your most memorable experiences in Memphis, and ask you to share your love letter below in the comments section. You never know, it may inspire a scene or dialogue for the movie! Your love letter may be funny or sad, unique or ordinary, bold or humble… whatever you wish to share. We want to hear what you want the world to experience within a Memphis story.
Thanks for supporting our upcoming artists!
Sincerely,
Nick Case & Ryan Watt
Paper Moon Films, LLC
When I was in college in Knoxville I came back to Memphis with a group of friends during a football game weekend. After a night on Beale street, I took them to Ernestine & Hazels. It was great to see people so excited about a Memphis original, I mean, what is better than having a drink in a former brothel? For the next 2 years in Knoxville, any night that we were looking for late night food in Knoxville they would always say “i would DIE for a soul burger right now”.
To me Memphis is all about the spots you have to bring your friends when they visit that they won’t find anywhere else… Alex’s, Raifords, Gus’s Chicken, Buccaneer, Wild Bills, The Cove (i’m noticing a bar theme here, hmmmmmm)
Baby,
I’m so glad that we are back together. I know that I left you – went after something prettier and shinier only to find that it’s beauty and allure were only skin-deep. It took me four years to realize that I was in love with you, and you were the only one that could love me.
Admittedly, we did have some hard times together. You were downright cold to me when I needed your warmth the most. It is only now that I realize that, had you coddled me during those days, I would not be the man that I am today – the man that stands before you and can finally appreciate all that you have to offer.
Truth be told, you do have quite the reputation. People say that you’re dangerous, reckless. I know that you can get wild from time to time but I also know the *real* you. With every ounce of your soul to drive others to succeed and you become a vital part of their continued success. You have given birth to great people and have a long history of always coming out on top.
While not nearly as glitzy as the others, you have a simple, timeless beauty that haunted me while I was away from you. Sometimes at night I would lay awake in bed, lost in memories of you. It was those memories that lulled me to sleep and, eventually, kept me going long enough to get back to you.
I do hope that you can forgive me. Since I’ve come back, you seem to have accepted me with open arms. It is my hope that we can make this last.
Memphis, I love you.
Martin Dinstuhl
My love, I am trying to be everything you need me to be. It is hard loving you, simply because at times I’m not even sure you love yourself.
I don’t know your history like I should, I apologize for that. I don’t understand the years of abuse, inequity and abandonment that have left you unappreciative of my presence, yet unreceptive to my ideas of departure.
You have given me more than enough reasons to leave over the last 13 years. And yet, as I tell everyone, (and they still don’t understand it til this day) I believe in you wholeheartedly and I am not giving up on you Memphis.
I am not trying to make you something you are not, L.A., Austin, Nashville, Atlanta. I am simply trying to let you know that you are loved and appreciated and that your diversity and creativity are nurtured here.
Strange Fruit Productions exists because of you. Because YOU ARE writers, dancers, poets, artists, designers and musicians. Because YOU ARE black, white, asian, hispanic, west indian, east indian and american indian. Because you are blues, soul, funk, jazz, hip hop, rap and rock. Because YOU ARE multi-faceted and I, through my events and experiences, am letting you know that YOU ARE A WORK OF ART MEMPHIS.
My love, I am trying to be everything you need me to be. It is hard loving you, simply because at times I’m not even sure you love yourself.
I don’t know your history like I should, I apologize for that. I don’t understand the years of abuse, inequity and abandonment that have left you unappreciative of my presence, yet unreceptive to my ideas of departure.
You have given me more than enough reasons to leave over the last 13 years. And yet, as I tell everyone, (and they still don’t understand it til this day) I believe in you wholeheartedly and I am not giving up on you Memphis.
I am not trying to make you something you are not, L.A., Austin, Nashville, Atlanta. I am simply trying to let you know that you are loved and appreciated and that your diversity and creativity are nurtured here.
Strange Fruit Productions exists because of you. Because YOU ARE writers, dancers, poets, artists, designers and musicians. Because YOU ARE black, white, asian, hispanic, west indian, east indian and american indian. Because you are blues, soul, funk, jazz, hip hop, rap and rock. Because YOU ARE multi-faceted and I, through my events and experiences, am letting you know that YOU ARE A WORK OF ART MEMPHIS.
My love, I am trying to be everything you need me to be. It is hard loving you, simply because at times I’m not even sure you love yourself.
I don’t know your history like I should, I apologize for that. I don’t understand the years of abuse, inequity and abandonment that have left you unappreciative of my presence, yet unreceptive to my ideas of departure.
You have given me more than enough reasons to leave over the last 13 years. And yet, as I tell everyone, (and they still don’t understand it til this day) I believe in you wholeheartedly and I am not giving up on you Memphis.
I am not trying to make you something you are not, L.A., Austin, Nashville, Atlanta. I am simply trying to let you know that you are loved and appreciated and that your diversity and creativity are nurtured here.
Strange Fruit Productions exists because of you. Because YOU ARE writers, dancers, poets, artists, designers and musicians. Because YOU ARE black, white, asian, hispanic, west indian, east indian and american indian. Because you are blues, soul, funk, jazz, hip hop, rap and rock. Because YOU ARE multi-faceted and I, through my events and experiences, am letting you know that YOU ARE A WORK OF ART MEMPHIS.
Dearest Dad…..in case you might not remember, you left us suddenly, dramatically, and painfully in 1955. This “love Letter to Memphis” is more about Memphis as a father figure, than the simple emotions of that loss.
Memphis, you became the father that I missed and needed. Your community, Memphis, provided the opportunity for a single parent and child to find a way to move forward. There were cub scout packs that gave me new things to learn and the priviledge of hanging around boys with fathers. There was my church that provided baseball, choir, people who could keep my busy, but never totally explain my loss, at least not in a way that I could understand and agree with.
Memphis, you provided a community in which a homemaker could become a babysitter and somehow provide for us. As an asside, this homemaker, well past her prime, was a mover and shaker when you were younger….the first woman in Memphis to own and run her own men’s barber shop, living down on Rembert.
Memphis, you provided outstanding public education during the school year and wonderful public pools in the summer, where I learned to swim. You provide a new concept for underprividged kids, Neighborhood Youth Corps, which allowed kids like me to earn a little summer cash (or to help keep us out of trouble, not clear which was more important). Besides my Black housekeeper, Mary. and our handyman, John, who had worked with my father in home building, I had not known any other Blacks. Working hand in hand, toe to toe mowing schoolyard grass, mopping school floors, etc, you provided me a way to move past years of this separation of race that continues today.
Memphis, you provided me with a first rate College, Memphis State University, and with the help of a work scholarshap, you allowed me to be the first of our family to ever graduate from college.
You allowed me to start a business, raise a family, serve my country….so all in all you must have been a pretty damn good Father
I truly love you Memphis….always have….always will
fred
Seemingly cast away
With temporary intentions
I lived
Not quite touching your heart
Unashamed, you revealed your flaws
I moved
Closer … poor and hungry for adventure
Seduced by the firm embrace of your fragrance
I feel
My dreams walk the line along your tender belly
Keeping pace with your hustle and flow
I know
To leave you would be a challenge
Greater than naming forty shades of blue
My love
Page, my girlfriend at the time, now wife and I were at Botanic Gardens for Fireworks and a concert and it was as usual a sultry Memphis summer night. We walked to our car to leave. I was driving an 86′ BMW 5 speed and the AC did not work that well, but it had a ratchet sunroof that you rolled down like reeling in a fish gangsta’ style. We were stuck in traffic waiting to get out of the Garden and “Everybody Hurts” by REM came on the radio. I turned to her and asked her to dance. We hopped out of the car and started dancing in our headlights in the middle of traffic. It didn’t matter that we were soaking wet from the humid night, but we were 19 and didn’t have a care in the world. Another couple in a convertible, snapped a picture. After we finished dancing he waived me over and asked me to write down my address on a napkin. Later that night before we went home we drove down to the river and sat on a park bench and watched the traffic roll across the bridge. I think that deep down I knew I was going to marry her. The next week the man dropped the picture in the mail to me and that picture became a big moment in our relationship. To this day the Botanic Gardens and the River are special places for us to sneak away for a moment alone amidst the flow of the City.