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Watch Willis Earl Beal Act in Meditative ‘Memphis’ Trailer

willis earl beal, memphis, trailer

Willis Earl Beal’s sophomore album, the precisely punctuated Nobody knows., arrives September 10, but first the Chicago bluesman will premiere another project. Beal stars in Memphis, a film directed by Tim Sutton (2012’s Pavilion) that debuts on August 31 at the Venice Film Festival. According to The Dissolve, he plays an outsider artist “surrounded by beautiful women, legendary musicians, a stone-cold-hustler, a righteous preacher, and a wolfpack of kids.”

The upcoming movie is one of the first projects to be funded by a grant from the Venice Biennale Cinema College, a new program created by the festival to help workshop and support films by up-and-comers. Memphis‘ cast is entirely made up of non-actors found in the city of Memphis — aside from Beal, of course, who also wrote and recorded the film’s soundtrack. Watch the feature’s just-released trailer above and visit the film’s site for more footage.

As mentioned earlier, Beal’s follow-up to the SPIN Essential Acousmatic Sorcery will drop next month, bringing with it previously heard songs “Everything unwinds.” and “Too Dry Too Cry,” plus an appearance from Cat Power.