Sidewalk Film Festival, Secret Stages return to in-person events
Two popular Birmingham cultural events are returning to an in-person format at their regular locations.
The Sidewalk Film Festival, in its 23rd year, is back in Birmingham’s Theatre District downtown Aug. 23-29.
Due to COVID-19, Sidewalk hosted a drive-in festival in 2020 at The Grand River Drive-In at The Backyard in Leeds.
Secret Stages, a two-day music discovery festival, will be back live in Avondale on Aug. 6-7.
The event was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic, and so is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.
The late summer in the Magic City will perhaps seem a little more familiar with the return of these popular live events.
Sidewalk Film Festival
The Sidewalk footprint for 2021 will consist of the Alabama and Lyric theaters, First Church Birmingham, the Alabama School of Fine Arts and the Birmingham Museum of Art Steiner Auditorium, as well as the Sidewalk Film Center and Cinema.
The Sidewalk staff is excited about showing off their Film Center and Cinema to a festival audience for the first time since the pandemic, said Chloe Cook, the event’s executive director.
“Having our own home within the Theatre District has been fantastic,” she said.
However, the facility was forced to close temporarily in 2020 due to the pandemic.
“Our entire industry changed during our closure, so we have reopened, but it feels like we are learning a whole new business,” Cook said.
The pandemic did push the festival stuff toward creative solutions.
“Our team is accustomed to being creative, adapting and innovating,” Cook said.
For example, Sidewalk quickly transitioned its educational programs to virtual formats and used pop-up drive-ins.
The full lineup of the festival had not been announced at press time, but the festival will screen “Socks on Fire,” described as an Alabama-centric creative non-fiction film about a complex, darkly humorous Southern family whose lead storyteller is deeply inspired by poetry, drag and Dolly Parton.
“That’s exactly the kind of thing that the Sidewalk programming team gets super excited about,” said Rachel Morgan, the festival’s creative director.
In June, Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema and The Law Firm of Stacey A. Davis announced that the Black Lens Filmmaker Grant they created in 2020 to support Black voices in film had been has been increased to $1,500 for 2021.
The grant is open to filmmakers of all levels.
There’s an “undeniable need to provide a platform for” Black storytellers, Cook said.
Stacey Davis, founder of the law firm, is a Sidewalk board members and a screenwriter, director and producer.
“I understand the impact additional funds and the support of an entity like Sidewalk can have,” Davis said.
The Black Lens Filmmaker Grant recipient will receive a $1, 500 cash prize funded by the firm, as well as a one-year Director’s membership to the Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema (a $2,500 value) and one free year of access to Sidewalk’s education/outreach programs. This year’s grant was increased by $500.
The application deadline was July 23, but the grant recipient will be announced at the annual Sidewalk Film Festival awards ceremony on Sunday, Aug. 29, at the Lyric Theatre.
For schedule information and tickets, call 205-324-0888 or go to sidewalkfest.com.
Secret Stages
All Secret Stages venues in Avondale are within walking distance of each other and filled with up-and-coming acts from around the country.
There will be three stages for the festival: Saturn, the Avondale Brewing courtyard stage and an outdoor stage that the organizers are building.
The event, described as a music discovery festival, normally hosts about 50 bands but this year will bring only about 30 in order to accommodate COVID-19 safety protocols.
However, “it’s perhaps one of our strongest lineups yet,” said Sam George, the event’s creative director and one of four festival co-founders.
The lineup is also diverse, “so there’s a little something for everyone,” he said.
National acts will include Armand Hammer, Ian Noe, Becca Mancari, Katie Toupin and R.A.P. Ferreira.
Local acts will be Dree Leer, Rude & True, The Blips, GT, Resort Realism, Oxford Con, Fathom and Mel. Crosby.
“Most festivals are focused on bringing you artists that you already know you like, while our primary mission is to introduce you to artists that you will like, but that you haven’t heard of yet,” George said.
For schedule and ticket information, go to secretstages.net.