Since its origins in 1969 as The Sinking Creek Film Celebration, Nashville's annual week-long film festival, now simply known as the Nashville Film Festival has become one of Nashville's must-attend events. Taking place at the Regal Green Hills Cinema from April 14-21, as the 2011 Nashville Film Festival reaches the halfway mark, this year's celebration is proving to be no exception, despite challenging weather.

As in past years, the 2011 Nashville Film Festival is once again offering local, national & international filmmakers and film buffs alike the chance to experience both upcoming major films & documentaries as well lesser-known indie movies & shorts.  

Thursday's opening night events set Nashville Film Festival records with more than 1000 tickets sold for the opening party alone. The festival kicked off with performances by three Music CIty-based troupes including a hula hoop performance from The Spinderellas and a special performance by Music CIty Soul Dance Troupe and drummer from the Global Education Center. 

Then it was time for opening night screenings of The Nothing, The Last Summer of La Boyita, Submarine, Weekend and Bloodworth. Following the screenings it was out to the hospitality tent for the Opening Night Party.

Taking into consideration those who may have partied late at the Opening Night Party, things started at the oh-so-reasonable hour of 12 noon Friday, April 15 with a live Podcast featuring The Film Talk's Jett Loe and Gareth Higgins. The award-winning Podcast will be broadcasting daily throughout the festival's run. 

As for the day's film's The Sleeping Beauty, Falling Overnight and Broke* were among the daytime favorites screened on Friday. 

Friday's red carpet arrivals featured a number of the cast and crew from Bloodworth, including former Watkins student, director Shane Dax Taylor, screenwriter/actor W. Earl Brown, actor Reece Thompson, members of The Oak Ridge Boys, Big Kenny and others.

Country singer Chely Wright's documentary, Wish Me Away screened at 5:30 as one of the night's many music-centered films. Wright's process of coming out as country music's first openly gay chart-topping artist is chronicled in the film.

From incredible truth to incredible fiction, another of the evenings music-related films came in the form of singer-turned occasional actor, Kris Kristofferson's mesmerizing performance in Bloodworth. In the moments just before Bloodworth screened it's second consecutive sold-out night, Music City favorite, singer Emmylou Harris presented her longtime friend, Kristofferson with the 2011 Career Achievement Award. As for Bloodworth, based on the novel Provinces of Night, it tells the story of an aging Tennessee man played by Kristofferson, who, after a 40-year absence returns to his family with the hope of reconnecting with those he abandoned.

Saturday's unexpected storms didn't put a damper on the festival as Loe and Higgins were once again back in the theatre lobby for their live noon Podcast. Offering festival goers the chance to get off-site, Grimey's New and PreLoved Music Store, located at 1604 8th Avenue South, hosted free screenings of three music-related films: Broke*, Heavy Metal Picnic and Better Than Something: Jay Reatard.

For those who opted to say inside at Regal Green Hills and avoid the rain, it was the perfect day to take in a wide assortment of films from Shorts-Young Filmmakers Showcase to Bhutto, a documentary of former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, the first woman to ever lead a Muslin nation.

Among Saturday night's favorites was documentarian Kierda Bahruth's Bob and The Monster, which chronicles indie-rocker Bob Forrest, formerly of Thelonious Monster, and his transformation from drug-addicted stereotype to influential albeit controversial drug counselor. As if the ups and downs of Forrest and friends including The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Courtney Love and others wasn't enough to satisfy the rocker in us all, prior to Bob and The Monster, the packed-house was treated to a late-addition short, Fight For Your Right Revisited from The Beastie Boys, in which Elijah Wood, Danny McBride and Seth Rogan as The Beastie Boys battle their future selves: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly and Jack Black with cameos from more celebrities than I can fit in this already lengthy recap.

Another popular film offered Saturday night was The Big Uneasy, as New Orleans resident, actor, humorist and provided of multiple voices on The Simpsons, Harry Shearer offers his take on Katrina, including the controversy surrounding ways the disaster could have been handled differently.

With a brighter forecast, Sunday celebrated local filmmakers with back-to-back screenings of documentary and narrative films from local filmmakers. Among the documentary favorites was Ed Lambert's presentation of 40 Years on the Farm, a unique inside look at The Farm, a hippie community located in Summertown, TN. Nashville Rises from filmmaker Zac Adams offered personal accounts of Nashville's resilience following last years flood. Nashville Rises was awarded the Tennessee Spirit Award for Best Documentary.

As for Sunday night's narratives, they too ran the gamut and proved so popular that extra seating had to be brought into the theatre in an effort to accommodate the capacity crowd. Judging from the non-stop laughter during the screening of local filmmaker Drew Langer's hilarious 30 Day Challenge, it was an obvious fan favorite. 

On the opposite end of the emotional scale, Nashville filmmakers Matt Schosser and Shane Bartlett's Swing, a somber look at the after-effects of a child's death on her young friends was equally well-received. Following the screening of 30 Day Challenge, Swing and the other Tennessee filmmaker's narrative shorts: Figure/Ground, Jesus with a Mohawk, John Delaney Died Last Night,M.I. and A Toast to J. Edgar Hoover, the makers of Swing were presented with the Tennessee Spirit Award for Best Narrative Film.

Sunday's feature-length favorites included a sold-out screening of Ain't In It For My Health, a documentary ofLevon Helm, former member of The Band, the iconic 60s-70s rock group. Also screening before a packed house was Heavy Metal Picnic, another documentary filmed at The Farm, focuses on the 1985 Full Moon Jamboree.  The night's final sold-out presentation came at 10pm, when the lines of reality and fiction were cleverly blurred in the faux-documentary/horror film Tontine Massacre., which according the the filmmaker's introduction, includes footage recovered from video cameras given to a group of reality show contestants who were were murdered following being accidentally shipwrecked on an uncharted island. Nashvillians in the audience were further confused as to whether the film was documentary or doctored fiction by the inclusion of news footage featuring longtime Nashville news anchor Demetria Kalodimos.

The films and events mentioned here don't even begin to fully scratch the surface of the number of movies being screened or events being held at this year's festival. For a full schedule of films, events and special presentations yet to be offered during the festival's remaining four days, CLICK HERE.

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