The IFI is delighted to present the Irish premiere of Memphis, which recently had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

Willis Earl Beal is an artist, poet and musician making mesmerising, genre hopping albums which heavily reference the blues, soul and hip hop, a wilfully eccentric performing style and a backstory that includes a medical discharge from the U.S. army, a period of homelessness, an appearance on The X Factor and leaving CD-Rs of his music in public spaces around Albuquerque.

He makes a captivating, enigmatic acting debut in Memphis playing a musician wandering the city of the title and questioning his worth, encountering preachers, hustlers, music legends, bothersome kids and beautiful women, while the record company are pressurising him to make a new album. (Notes by Michael Hayden.)

This film is screening as part of Rock&Roll, the final of our three-month season dedicated to excess, presenting examples of how cinema has taken on sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll in Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll.