C-U Blogfidential

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

4/25: Marty McKee (writer, Johnny LaRue’s Crane Shot, Champaign-Urbana, IL)
4/28: John Isberg (cinematographer/co-producer, HAUNTED HOUSE OF PANCAKES, Haunted House of Pancakes LLC, Fort Thomas, KY)
4/29: Sophie McMahan Berkley (artist, Sophie McMahan, Urbana, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The Report is on hiatus until May. Thank you for your readership, CUvians and Agents! You should pay attention to Smile Politely, The Daily Illini, Champaign Movie Makers, and Chambana Film Festival for breaking news and updates in our scene. CUBlog will also keep in step with our friends and share to Facebook when we come across things you would like. Keep reading!

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing My Old Scene on Your Screen

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Since we’ve been spending extra time writing about the special-event slate in Champaign-Urbana and elsewhere for this week and next, we’ll need to play it modest for one more Calendar and sneak you a few peeks at the artifacts, collectibles, and tchotchkes we have on hand to share. Above and below, you will see most of the goodies sitting about in MFHQ Deux, awaiting their fifteen minutes (or, more likely, fifteen seconds) of CUBlog fame. If we can keep up with the photography and anecdotes, this series will run weekly into the summer; some will be an image and a paragraph, while others will take a few of both to explain how they reflect or represent part of the whole that is our film culture. You might pick out a few distinct things in our first candid, while the second hints that dear Dora Hall, whose recording we found at a local music storehouse a few weeks ago, will be along for the ride and not solely because her LP is a TV soundtrack. Squint closely and Google precisely if you want to guess in advance the significance of the spiral booklet with “Richard Greenberg” on its cover. For reasons, the Freaky Film Festival entry is the first one we’re setting up even though it will not be the first one we’ll run. And, the one-of-a-kind boards in the Barnes & Noble tote are not a purchase from that chain, but lucky discoveries at a seminal bookshop du C-U that Ye Ed adopted some twenty-five years ago. These mysteries and more will soon unfold!

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CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

20 Years Ago … Friday, April 22, 2005: Chris Folkens, an ambitious University of Illinois senior in LAS-Speech Communication and member of Illini Film & Video, premiered his second narrative featurette TOXIN during two shows at Armory 101 inside the Armory Building concurrent with that year’s Roger Ebert’s Film Festival. Rumored to be in attendance was Hollywood producer Roy Lee (THE RING, THE GRUDGE), otherwise visiting campus to speak at the East Asian Languages and Cultures department. Folkens’ action-drama starred then-UI students Aaron Golden (FALLING OVERNIGHT) and Karla Strum (TERRI, LITTLE ACCIDENTS) along with genre film veteran Robert Nolan Clark (RHINELAND). [R]

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Decatur, IL
“Special movie and memorabilia sale” in memory of Skip Huston and the Avon Theatre* (4/26, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., click here for more information and location)

@ Gregory Hall, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* presents “48 Hours” film challenge (4/25, 7 p.m.-4/27, 7 p.m., Room 215)

@ Lincoln Hall, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting w/“48 Hours” film challenge screening (4/28, 7 p.m., Room 1090)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Society* screening series presents SLICE OF LIFE (documentary) w/shorts (4/27, 4 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
THE ACCOUNTANT 2, THE LEGEND OF OCHI, ON SWIFT HORSES, THE SHROUDS, STAR WARS: EPISODE III – REVENGE OF THE SITH (re-release), UNTIL DAWN, THE AMATEUR, THE BALLAD OF WALLIS ISLAND*, DROP*, THE KING OF KINGS (faith animation), A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SINNERS, THE WEDDING BANQUET (4/25 on), ROADMAP TO REALITY: CARLO ACUTIS AND THE DIGITAL AGE (religious documentary) (4/27, 4 p.m.; 4/28-4/29, 7 p.m.), Blumhouse 15th anniversary “Halfway to Halloween” feat. M3GAN (4/30, 7 & 9 p.m.), THE SURFER sneak preview w/Nicolas Cage livestream interview (4/30, 7 p.m.), THE SURFER, RAID 2 (in Hindi with English sub) (5/1 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
THE ACCOUNTANT 2, CHEECH & CHONG’S LAST MOVIE (documentary), THE LEGEND OF OCHI, ON SWIFT HORSES, STAR WARS: EPISODE III – REVENGE OF THE SITH (re-release), UNTIL DAWN, THE AMATEUR, DROP*, THE KING OF KINGS (faith animation), A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SINNERS, SNEAKS* (animation), WARFARE, THE WEDDING BANQUET* (4/25 on), THE WOMAN IN THE YARD*, A WORKING MAN* (4/25-4/26), MICKEY 17* (4/25-4/26, 4/28-4/29, 5/1), The Metropolitan Opera: Le Nozze di Figaro (4/26, 12 p.m., simulcast; 4/30, 1 & 6:30 p.m., recorded), HAPPY GILMORE (4/27, 3 & 7 p.m.; 4/30, 7 p.m.), ROADMAP TO REALITY: CARLO ACUTIS AND THE DIGITAL AGE (religious documentary) (4/27-5/1), THUNDERBOLTS* (5/1 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (4/25-4/26, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
The College of Media at Illinois presents the 25th Roger Ebert’s Film Festival* (through 4/26) Schedule

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

4/13: Damon Foster (filmmaker, OF MUMMIES AND MARTIANS, Damon A. Foster, Sacramento, CA)

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

3/19: John Russell, 91 (manager, The Rialto Theatre, Champaign, IL, retired)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The Report is on hiatus until May. Thank you for your readership, CUvians and Agents! You should pay attention to Smile Politely, The Daily Illini, Champaign Movie Makers, and Chambana Film Festival for breaking news and updates in our scene. CUBlog will also keep in step with our friends and share to Facebook when we come across things you would like. Keep reading!

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing My Old Scene on Your Screen

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Despite our promise last week that we would begin a show and tell this week featuring some of the recently acquired movie ephemera of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond that we’ve given a home at MFHQ Deux up north in the Illinois Valley, Ye Ed decided that we could stand one more off ramp for context. The coincidence we shared in the previous Images, wherein the same Ye Ed singled out a Dora Hall LP at the Horizons Music Warehouse of Mendota largely because he had recently learned about Hall’s connection with the former Solo Cup plant of Urbana, is not out of the ordinary. Physical evidence of our film culture has never been abundant in the wild and, if we can make the connection and justify the price, it might just come back to HQ with us for safe keeping, enjoyment, and editorial inspiration.

We had piped up a few years ago about starting a series where our dearest readers could vicariously check out some of the cool collectibles and artifacts in our care while we talked about how we got them, why we had them, and where in the C-U cinema history they belonged. This was in part because we’ve always been disappointed that we never turned MFHQ, situated a couple of blocks away from the lovely West Side Park beside downtown Champaign, into a destination hangout for our friends and Confidential agents so we could visit in the comfortable space where all our ideas incubated and magic occurred. The illustrated anecdotes that will appear, starting in next week’s Calendar, are in the same spirit as before.

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Even with all the floor space we have at Momkoke Manor, establishing MFHQ Deux as more than a nebulous concept has not been high on Ye Ed’s to-do list as he continues to hash out the remnants of his parents’ lives and stabilize his own. Therefore, the items are being staged in a nondescript manner, similar to how we pictured the vintage Park Theatre handout featuring the actress Priscilla Lane in a previous post. This is in absolute contrast to the colorful and relatively organized backdrop that would have been the original Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters, which we’re giving you a rare peek at today. Above and below are pictures of Ye Ed’s hovel, where many years’ worth of MICRO-FILM, C-U Confidential, and New Art Film Festival activity took place and much of the tangible proof that informed our scene coverage was stored in all the boxes, shelves, filing cabinets, and closet space we could spare throughout Apt. 3D.

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Those snaps were taken in December 2020, not long after we had to agree to let go of 3D and move out of the world-famous “Building” in the Sesquicentennial Neighborhood. Sadly, MFHQ looked like this on January 20, 2021, the day before our twenty-five-year tenure on Prairie Street came to an end:

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Ye Ed decided that his last act in MFHQ would be to photograph and then remove all the decorations, fearing that some of them would be destroyed in the process. (He was right.) Here are good examples:

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The above picture shows a pair of bulletin board posters for Sam Ambler and Gab Reisman’s Film Dependency Film Festival at the Urbana IMC, circa 2003, featuring characteristic artwork by the late great Dave King. The picture below shows a handful of pieces that have CUBlog or MF relevance including a one-sheet for the DeKalb-filmed indie comedy LOVE 101 that its co-writer/director, Adrian Fulle, gave to your humble editor during a promotional stop in the C-U at the end of March 2000, as was just recalled in a Confidential Almanac entry. All of these survived and are currently stored at the covert MFHQ Annex in Champaign, along with other material directly related to the C-U filmography, where they are not convenient for us to access right now. That’s why we’ll be sharing with you what we have on hand in the coming weeks.

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Through very tired eyes after approximately eight weeks straight of clearing out 3D, constantly driving back and forth between Champaign and Mendota, attempting to put in hours at his employment, being conscious about his every move outside of “Building” due to pandemic restrictions, fretting from a distance about the health and well-being of Momkoke and Carlkoke, and wrapping his head around the attempted insurrection of the United States government in the middle of it all, Ye Ed took these archival images of MFHQ’s last breaths between 3 and 3:30 a.m. At around 4:45 a.m. on January 21, he turned in the keys and then drove a car bursting with belongings for two-and-a-half hours straight and on no sleep.

Any which way you can, join us next week for the first entry of our “Confidential Picture Show.” Thanks!

CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

15 Years Ago … April 15-20, 2010: Inspired by the warm reception given to his Boneyard Arts Festival “movie show” at Urbana’s Caffe Paradiso the previous spring, Jason Pankoke of C-U Confidential takes up a cross-town opportunity to build a more substantial showcase for independent cinema. He and Art Theater owner Sanford Hess collaborate to launch the first New Art Film Festival to offer Champaign-Urbana a unique program, drawing from both locally-made content and the work of producers from Chicago and several Midwest states. A free “non-taxing” reel, mixing trailers and film shorts in a similar vein to the Paradiso event, kicks off the NAFF on Thursday, April 15, after which the full potential of its concept is demonstrated to audiences. Blocks include various pieces from University of Illinois alumni and students, a selection of adventures from Dark Maze Studios of Champaign, the C-U debut of the documentary HOOPESTON, and features made by Pankoke’s contacts through the defunct MICRO-FILM journal such as EXISTO, RETURN IN RED, and DEADWOOD PARK. Screenings are paced across six days, the first three concurrent with Boneyard Arts and a closing “best of” presentation taking place on Tuesday, April 20, the night before Roger Ebert’s Film Festival commences. While an overall success, the NAFF would be modified to eliminate ticket sales, concentrate on selections from the state of Illinois, and consolidate to a single-day affair, becoming a signature Art event for the next decade that provided media storytellers who live downstate with a public space to convene. As reported on 4/14/10, 4/16/10 at CUBlog. [R]

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Lincoln Square, Urbana, IL
The IDEA Store presents “Camera and Sewing Machine Sale” (4/11-4/13)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
THE AMATEUR, THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER Part 3 (faith film), DROP, JAAT (in Hindi with English sub), THE KING OF KINGS (faith animation), WARFARE, DEATH OF A UNICORN, HELL OF A SUMMER, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SNOW WHITE, THE WOMAN IN THE YARD, A WORKING MAN (4/11 on), AX Cinema Nights presents VAMPIRE HUNTER D 40th anniversary (animé) (4/13, 4 p.m., in Japanese with English sub; 4/10, 7 p.m., English dub), KAIJU NO. 8: MISSION RECON (animé) (4/13, 2 p.m., 4/16, 7 p.m., English dub; 4/14, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (4/14, 7 p.m.), THE ACCOUNTANT 2 sneak preview (4/15, 7 p.m.), THE BALLAD OF WALLIS ISLAND, COLORFUL STAGE! THE MOVIE: A MIKU WHO CAN’T SING (animé), SINNERS (4/17 on)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
THE AMATEUR, THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER Part 3 (faith film) and Part 2* (faith film), DROP, THE KING OF KINGS (faith animation), WARFARE, THE FRIEND, HELL OF A SUMMER, MICKEY 17, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, PRINCESS MONONOKE (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub; re-release), SNOW WHITE, THE WOMAN IN THE YARD, A WORKING MAN (4/11 on), THE GOONIES (4/12, 7 p.m.; 4/13, 3 & 7 p.m.; 4/16, 7 p.m.), UFC 314: Alexander Volkanovski vs. Diego Lopes, more (mixed martial arts) (4/12, 9 p.m., simulcast), SINNERS (4/17 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents WALL-E (animation) (4/11-4/12, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
No movies this week!

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

4/2: Pamela Powell (cohost and reviewer, “Reel Talk with Chuck and Pam,” Champaign-Chicago, IL/Racine, WI)
4/10: Kristen Johns (videographer, “Champaign Underground” YouTube channel, Champaign-Urbana, IL)

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

3/27: Robert W. McChesney, 72 (author, Rich Media, Poor Democracy, The New Press, New York, NY/host, “Media Matters,” WILL-AM 580, UIUC, Urbana, IL/professor emeritus, Department of Communication, UIUC, Urbana, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The Report is on hiatus until May. Thank you for your readership, CUvians and Agents! You should pay attention to Smile Politely, The Daily Illini, Champaign Movie Makers, and Chambana Film Festival for breaking news and updates in our scene. CUBlog will also keep in step with our friends and share to Facebook when we come across things you would like. Keep reading!

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing My New Scene on Your Screen

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Last week, we told you about the pleasure I had in discovering the hidden wonder of the Horizons Music warehouse, doing business in the same small Illinois town where I relocated the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters a few years ago. (Has it already been a few years?) The merchandise at this place will appeal greatly to those dearest listeners who are vinyl inclined, undeterred by obscure and overseas labels, and willing to dig. For those less endeared to the thrill of the hunt, names and faces of many well-known artists from across the expanse of twentieth century studio recording will leap out at you from all corners of the five thousand square foot floor. Since this is a movie blog, we are going to focus on the obvious today and show you a little of what might lie in wait for you that is in our wheelhouse. Read on!

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Much of the CD catalog at Horizons is tucked away in slim cardboard containers stacked on the shelves that line the outer walls. A smattering of random selections can be found on the tables in between the LPs, like this off-brand collection. Who knows how “original” the recordings on this might be.

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Videos are scarce here. They’re certainly not the bread and butter of a merchant like Horizons. Next to a wooden box filled with Beatles import LPs is this stack. Tempting, but these $5 DVDs are in the PAL format.

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Barely ten minutes before I made my way back to the front office of Horizons to pay for my small bounty and say thank you for allowing me to get my fill looking around the warehouse, I noticed these cartons. Stored along the inner wall, they’re filled with VHS. I’ll attempt to squeeze back there during my next visit.

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While I saw very few movie soundtrack CDs – one of them happened to be for the 1994 remake of LASSIE, one of the last films to play the Urbana Cinemas (Princess Theatre) in downtown Urbana before it closed down at Thanksgiving time that year – there was a decent selection of LPs on that front. I did not go in to take notes or photograph every single thing of interest I that I found, so you should visit the Horizons website to search the catalog for what might be music to your ears. Below are a few of the covers that stuck out to me including one for a film that is currently in the Criterion Collection. (Hint: it’s not JAWS 3, THE LONELY LADY, or HIGH ANXIETY.) VISIONS OF EIGHT is an anthology film about the 1972 Olympics with segments directed by the likes of Milos Forman, Kon Ichikawa, and Arthur Penn.

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Since the drive-in season is now upon us, with the Harvest Moon Twin Drive-in of Gibson City and Route 66 Drive-in of Springfield opening back up this weekend, let’s share an LP that I found away from the soundtracks. It’s exactly as advertised, filled with vintage radio songs by artists we all know: Buddy Holly, Connie Francis, Fats Domino, Richie Valens, Pat Boone, Chuck Berry, the Everly Brothers, and so on. Marked at $35 by Horizon, the price may seem a bit steep but it’s three platters and brand new in shrink wrap; some beautiful dreamers are trying to sell this for between $100 and $350 elsewhere. Shop smart!

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We’ll end our gallery with the nice surprise that I came upon late in my visit. Although I posed the covers a bit so they were easier to see, the following is depicted as I found it – standing by itself above the rows of soundtrack LPs, leaning against the back of something from the opposite side of the table. I had just been telling Confidential agent Drea, who is rediscovering her musical side through various doings at Parkland College, about the late Dora Hall; she was the wife of Solo Cup founder Leo Hulseman, who bankrolled her second wind in life as an entertainer through a series of LPs. 45s, television specials, and VHS tapes. This album checks two of those marks and was issued in 1972 by the Cozy Record Company of Chicago, one of several labels founded with the express purpose of introducing Hall to the world.

Next week, we’ll begin our survey of local film artifacts stored with love here at MFHQ Deux and, at some point, it will involve both Dora Hall and Urbana. To what effect, keep checking in with CUBlog to find out!

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CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

15 Years Ago … February 5-7, 2010: Seeking to establish a vehicle for video screenings that welcomes a variety of personal and political perspectives, the Independent Media Center in downtown Urbana presents the second annual IMC Film Festival. A modest program features more than 25 pieces, serving as a “celebration of the art of cinematography” per AmeriCorps hire and outreach advisor Nicole Pion, and is rich with interactive portions to engage audience members. Activists, students, and producers from the immediate community are behind many of the movie selections while live attractions include a deejay and projection set by DJ Belly and Matt HarsH, post-film discussions led by the Gesundheit! Institute and the People’s Potluck, and an orchestral performance synched up to the silent German classic, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, of an original score composed and conducted by University of Illinois graduate student Vin Calianno. Organizers and rotating hosts of the event are Pion, Katy Vizdal, Laura Fuhrman, Brian Dolinar, and Jason Pankoke, the latter taking the reins at the first New Art Film Festival a scant two months later. Dolinar and friends would bring back the IMC Film Festival for a third and final bow in September 2011. As reported on 1/13/10, 2/1/10, 9/14/11 at CUBlog. [R]

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER Part 2 (faith film) and Part 1* (faith film), THE FRIEND, HELL OF A SUMMER, THE LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, DEATH OF A UNICORN, MICKEY 17, THE PENGUIN LESSONS, SNOW WHITE, THE WOMAN IN THE YARD, A WORKING MAN (4/4 on), THE AMATEUR sneak preview (4/5, 6 p.m.), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (4/7, 7 p.m.), DROP sneak preview (4/9, 6 p.m.), AX Cinema Nights presents VAMPIRE HUNTER D 40th anniversary (animé) (4/9, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub; 4/10, 7 p.m., English dub), THE AMATEUR, THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER Part 3 (faith film), DROP, JAAT (in Hindi with English sub), THE KING OF KINGS (faith animation), WARFARE (4/10 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER Part 2 (faith film) and Part 1 (faith film), THE FRIEND, HELL OF A SUMMER, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, BLACK BAG*, CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, DEATH OF A UNICORN, DOG MAN (animation), MICKEY 17, PADDINGTON IN PERU, PRINCESS MONONOKE (animé) (re-release), SNOW WHITE, THE WOMAN IN THE YARD, A WORKING MAN (4/4 on), THE NOTEBOOK (4/6, 3 & 7 p.m.; 4/9, 7 p.m.), THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER Part 3 (faith film) (4/10 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents NOSFERATU (4/4-4/5, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

BACK OPEN! @ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
DROP sneak preview (4/7, 7 p.m., free)

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

4/2: Will “the Thrill” Viharo (author, One-Way Ticket to Thrillville, Thrillville Press, Seatle, WA)
4/4: Kamelya Alexan (filmmaker, I’M ONLY BLIND, Alexan Productions, Chicago, IL)

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

3/12: Caroline “Lady Red “ Princehouse, 78 (host, “Blues House Party,” WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign, IL, retired)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The Report is on hiatus until May. Thank you for your readership, CUvians and Agents! You should pay attention to Smile Politely, The Daily Illini, Champaign Movie Makers, and Chambana Film Festival for breaking news and updates in our scene. CUBlog will also keep in step with our friends and share to Facebook when we come across things you would like. Keep reading!

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing My New Scene on Your Screen

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Psych! Debbie Harry done up by H. R. Giger is not what you were expecting, maybe? Oh, please, let me explain… One month ago, I received a package at the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters and opened it post-haste, thinking it was something that I had ordered. Inside were a few packs of neon circle stickers that folks like to use to add prices on garage sale items. Even though I’ve been considering how to start unloading a lot of the excess that is still housed here at Momkoke Manor, they definitely weren’t mine. The delivery label listed a Spanish name and local address so I searched for them online and, lo and behold, the sticker stash was intended for a business located across town. I vaguely knew about it but never had the incentive to seek it out in person. Until now. “No time like the present,” I thought.

During my lunch break the next day, I drove to an unadorned building nestled between a few residential side streets and the freight train tracks that descend here from Chicago. After double checking on my phone to make sure they were open for customers, I found the proper entrance and walked inside. An older couple and a younger woman were sitting and talking in a side room, which I took to be the office, and I introduced myself before handing over the wayward package. (I had emailed them in advance so they at least knew their order made it to town.) After some chit-chat, the grateful gentleman and owner, Ron Sinkuler, led me back to the heart of the space and flicked on the overhead lights. Five thousand square feet of concrete, tables, and shelving, bearing more than one million music and video products, opened up before our eyes. I was stunned. And now, panning from left to right, you can be stunned, too:

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According to Sinkuler, Horizons Music has been in business for fifty years, starting up in suburban Brookfield and then moving to its current location about half way through its existence. Per my estimation, they would have set up shop in Mendota three or four years after Ma and Pa JaPan settled here at the house on the edge of an American small town. I only knew about them previously because I found mention of them while idling on my laptop late one night and scrolling slowly through a localized Google map to see what businesses and resources were located here. Given the parent and stepparent care that I was tasked with at the time, hitting up Horizons for a casual look-see wasn’t much of a priority.

Back then, I had considered writing a series about the relatively few signs of movie life to be found in a place like the Starved Rock region, compared to what I’ve borne witness to in Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond over the long haul, and I’m not sure this little corner of the Illinois Valley would have justified an entry. At present, I know plenty of friends who’ll probably be willing to spend an afternoon browsing at a merchant like Horizons, especially if skimming their website will simply not suffice. While talking with Sinkuler about his business, music commerce, and la Vida Mendota, it was clear he has retirement on the mind and asked me at one point if I ever had considered moving to Nashville; his son was set to pick him up the next day to make a Music City pilgrimage for the weekend and look around for living possibilities.

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So, who knows how much longer Horizons Music will continue if the family moves on. Moreso, what happens to all that material? You might want to plot among yourselves to visit them in the coming months and see it with your own eyes. Hopefully, you’d find a few goodies to take back home. A word of caution on their stock – indie rock, rap, electronic, and so on from after the year 2000 will be in very short supply. (“How can I carry music I don’t know?” said the owner to me in blunt honesty.) Big band, doo-wop, gospel, lounge, jazz, blues, soul, R&B, salsa, Latin, reggae, old-school hip-hop, classic rock, Top 40 and AM radio, country, bluegrass, show tunes, soundtracks, and so forth are present, accounted for, and on sale … cash preferred. In a show of trust, he left me alone to browse in the back for probably an hour and a half. I sure as heck didn’t blow the opportunity by taking pictures the entire time. I also sure as heck barely scratched the surface.

What did I pick up? Just a few things. I partly went outside my normal wheelhouse for variety, given how little music I purchase these days. I left with compilation CDs of Cab Calloway, Mel Tormé, and Squeeze, all of them issued by overseas labels, a late Nineties revival album from Canned Heat, Blues Band, that still had a Borders price tag on it, and the late Eighties album Revolution Now from Captain Sensible (“Wot”) that was issued in the US by Griffin Music of – huh! – Carol Stream. The lone LP in the batch, I’ll tell you about in next week’s Calendar where I’ll also share a few more snaps of a cinematic persuasion based on items I managed to find at Horizons. It’s been refreshing to encounter something neat in the consumer media milieu that is an improbable hop, skip, and jump away from MFHQ Deux here in good ol’ Mendota.

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CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

25 Years Ago … Friday, March 31, 2000: The independent feature LOVE 101 opens at the Goodrich Quality Theaters multiplex in Savoy, Illinois. Filmed on location at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb during the fall semester of 1997 by the Los Angeles-based company Poya Pictures, LOVE 101 is playing 12 consecutive one-week runs in 12 cities in the hopes of attracting an avid younger audience that will be receptive to its non-Hollywood depiction of college life and relationships. Chicago stage talents Michael Muhney, Mary Kay Cook, and Jon Collins lead the cast as students who find themselves in an awkward love triangle amidst the bustle of academia, a scenario loosely based on the personal experiences of writer and director Adrian Fulle. In support of the Savoy booking, he and LOVE 101 actor Will Carpenter visited nearby Champaign-Urbana earlier this week in a rented Chevrolet RV so they could promote the movie to media outlets and the public, handing out greetings and posters as they went. The “Love Tour” wraps once the duo finishes their trek across several hundred miles and five states. Fulle and his Poya partner David J. Miller, who met while enrolled in the film program at Columbia College in Chicago, will then attempt to find distributors in the theatrical and home video markets for their labor of love. RETURN TO ME, the MGM romantic drama that is directed by Chicago comedienne Bonnie Hunt and stars David Duchovny and Minnie Driver, opens at Savoy the day after the final showing of LOVE 101 on Thursday, April 6, a rare case of Illinois-made productions appearing back-to-back in a local cinema. [R]

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Festival* presents ROOM SIX + three short subjects w/filmmakers (3/30, 4 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
AUDREY’S CHILDREN, THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER Part 1 (faith film), DEATH OF A UNICORN, L2: EMPURAAN (in Telugu or Malayalam with English sub), THE PENGUIN LESSONS, SIKANDAR* (in Hindi with English sub), THE WOMAN IN THE YARD, A WORKING MAN, THE ALTO KNIGHTS, BLACK BAG*, CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES MOVIE (animation), MICKEY 17*, THE MONKEY, NOVOCAINE, ONE OF THEM DAYS “Laugh-Along” edition, SNOW WHITE (3/28 on), THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER Part 2 (faith film), HELL OF A SUMMER, A MINECRAFT MOVIE (4/3 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER Part 1 (faith film), DEATH OF A UNICORN, PRINCESS MONONOKE (animé) (re-release, IMAX), SIKANDAR* (in Hindi with English sub), THE WOMAN IN THE YARD, A WORKING MAN, THE ALTO KNIGHTS, BLACK BAG, CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES MOVIE (animation), DOG MAN (animation), LOCKED, MAGAZINE DREAMS*, MICKEY 17, THE MONKEY, NOVOCAINE, PADDINGTON IN PERU, SNOW WHITE (3/28 on), THE MUMMY 25th anniversary (3/29, 7 p.m.; 3/30, 3 & 7 p.m.; 4/2, 7 p.m.), THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER Part 2 (faith film), A MINECRAFT MOVIE (4/3 on) *single screenings daily

@ Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Center for World Cultures, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies* presents “Japanese Paper Print Project: Film and Live Music Event” (3/28, 7 p.m.), “Videographic Criticism Talk: Tracing Media Histories Through Videographic Criticism” (3/31, 5:30 p.m.)

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents PITCH PERFECT (3/28-3/29, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

3/22: JC Culp (multimedia artist, Unpopular Arts, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada)
3/26: Jack Snyder (co-producer, 57 SECONDS, The Avenue, Los Angeles, CA)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The Report is on hiatus until May. Thank you for your readership, CUvians and Agents! You should pay attention to Smile Politely, The Daily Illini, Champaign Movie Makers, and Chambana Film Festival for breaking news and updates in our scene. CUBlog will also keep in step with our friends and share to Facebook when we come across things you would like. Keep reading!

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Festival* presents “Secret Test Screening” (3/23, 4 p.m., free)

@ Rantoul Business Center, Rantoul, IL
Rantoul Theatre Group presents the Rantoul Film Festival* (3/25, 7 p.m., and 3/27, 7 p.m.) Information

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
THE ALTO KNIGHTS, ASH, COURT: STATE VS. A NOBODY* (in Telugu with English sub), LOCKED, MAGAZINE DREAMS, SNOW WHITE, BLACK BAG, CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES MOVIE (animation), LAST BREATH*, MICKEY 17, THE MONKEY, NOVOCAINE, OPUS*, PADDINGTON IN PERU (3/21 on), THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER Part 1 (faith film), DEATH OF A UNICORN, THE PENGUIN LESSONS, THE WOMAN IN THE YARD, A WORKING MAN (3/27 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
THE ALTO KNIGHTS, THE LAST SUPPER (faith film), LOCKED, MAGAZINE DREAMS, SNOW WHITE, ANORA, BLACK BAG, CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES MOVIE (animation), DOG MAN (animation), LAST BREATH, MICKEY 17, THE MONKEY, NOVOCAINE, OPUS*, PADDINGTON IN PERU (3/21 on), DONNIE DARKO (3/23, 3 & 7 p.m.; 3/26, 7 p.m.), ), THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER Part 1 (faith film) (3/27 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM (animation) (3/21-3/22, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

3/18: Joseph Muskin (co-author, The Art Theater, Champaign Urbana Theater History, Urbana, IL)
3/19: Andrew F. Gleason (associate director of video services, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The Report is on hiatus until May. Thank you for your readership, CUvians and Agents! You should pay attention to Smile Politely, The Daily Illini, Champaign Movie Makers, and Chambana Film Festival for breaking news and updates in our scene. CUBlog will also keep in step with our friends and share to Facebook when we come across things you would like. Keep reading!

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Esquire Lounge, Champaign, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* meeting (3/17, 7 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
BLACK BAG, THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES MOVIE (animation), THE DIPLOMAT* (in Hindi with English sub), NOVOCAINE, OPUS, CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, DOG MAN* (animation), HEART EYES*, LAST BREATH, MICKEY 17, THE MONKEY, MUFASA: THE LION KING, NE ZHA 2 (animation) (in Mandarin with English sub), PADDINGTON IN PERU, RULE BREAKERS (3/14 on), AX Cinema Nights “Gundam Fest” feat. MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM: CHAR’S COUNTERATTACK (in Japanese with English sub) (3/16, 4:30 p.m.), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (3/17, 7 p.m.), ASH sneak preview (3/19, 7 p.m.), THE ALTO KNIGHTS, SNOW WHITE (3/20 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
BLACK BAG, THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES MOVIE (animation), THE LAST SUPPER (faith film), NOVOCAINE, OPUS, ANORA, CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, DOG MAN (animation), IN THE LOST LANDS, LAST BREATH, MICKEY 17, THE MONKEY, NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCALYPSE (animation), ONE OF THEM DAYS*, PADDINGTON IN PERU, QUEEN OF THE RING*, RULE BREAKERS*, THE RULE OF JENNY PEN* (3/14 on), The Metropolitan Opera: Fidelio (3/15, 12 p.m., simulcast; 3/19, 1 & 6:30 p.m., recorded), TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (1990) (3/15, 7 p.m.; 3/15, 3 & 7 p.m.; 3/19, 7 p.m.), “Rad Day” event feat. RAD, A RAD DOCUMENTARY (3/20, 7 p.m.), SNOW WHITE (3/20 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents MUFASA: THE LION KING (3/14-3/15, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

3/9: Jason Lindsey (commercial photographer, Jason Lindsey Photography, Champaign-Urbana, IL)

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

2/18: Gene Hackman, 95 (actor, THE FRENCH CONNECTION, 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, Century City, Los Angeles, CA)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The Report is on hiatus until May. Thank you for your readership, CUvians and Agents! You should pay attention to Smile Politely, The Daily Illini, Champaign Movie Makers, and Chambana Film Festival for breaking news and updates in our scene. CUBlog will also keep in step with our friends and share to Facebook when we come across things you would like. Keep reading!

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting (3/10, 7 p.m., Room 1090)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
IN THE LOST LANDS, MICKEY 17, NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCALYPSE* (animation), RULE BREAKERS, THE RULE OF JENNY PEN, ANORA, CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, DOG MAN* (animation), HEART EYES, LAST BREATH, THE MONKEY, MUFASA: THE LION KING*, MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE*, NE ZHA 2 (animation) (in Mandarin with English sub), ONE OF THESE DAYS*, PADDINGTON IN PERU, RIFF RAFF* (3/7 on), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (3/10, 7 p.m.), AX Cinema Nights “Gundam Fest” feat. MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM: CHAR’S COUNTERATTACK (in Japanese with English sub) (3/12, 7:30 p.m.), BLACK BAG, THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES MOVIE (animation), NOVOCAINE, OPUS (3/13 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
IN THE LOST LANDS, MICKEY 17, NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCALYPSE* (animation), QUEEN OF THE RING, RULE BREAKERS, THE RULE OF JENNY PEN, CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, DOG MAN (animation), HEART EYES*, LAST BREATH, THE MONKEY, MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE*, ONE OF THEM DAYS, PADDINGTON IN PERU, RIFF RAFF (3/7 on), Nashville Music Network presents “Music Night Live!” (acoustic concert) (3/8, 3/11, 7 p.m.; simulcast), NOVOCAINE preview (3/8, 7 p.m.), UFC 313: Alex Pereira vs. Magomed Ankalaev, more (mixed martial arts) (3/8, 9 p.m., simulcast), MOONSTRUCK (3/9, 3 & 7 p.m. 3/12, 7 p.m.), NOVOCAINE (3/13 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents WICKED (3/7-3/8, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

~~~~~

MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

3/2: Kelly White (executive director, 40 North 88 West: Champaign County Arts Council, Champaign, IL)
3/2: Anne Lukeman (“chief adventurist,” C-U Adventures in Time & Space escape room, Urbana, IL)
3/3: Tariq A. Khan (assignment editor, KSDK News 5 (NBC-TV/Tegna, Inc.), St. Louis, MO)
3/5: James Treichler (producer/audio engineer, Wave Upon Wave, Champaign, IL)

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

2/23: Jay Warren (Dennis Wolkowicz), 74 (organist/program director, The Silent Film Society of Chicago, Chicago, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Ye Ed decided to put a few last things out there for you, dearest readers, and then the Report will go dark until the end of April or May. To watch: FROZEN AND FORGOTTEN: AN UNHOUSED WINTER IN BLOOMINGTON-NORMAL, the documentary project that was produced by Emily Bollinger and Melissa Ellin for WGLT-FM, a first for the NPR affiliate station based in Normal, and just received a showing at the Bloomington Public Library can now be viewed on YouTube; please check it out and consider what it means to be an unhoused American in the current climate, both meteorological and political. To listen: We did not realize until seeing a very recent Facebook post that Champaign’s community radio station, WEFT, had a show dedicated to the music of film, television, stage, and new media; “Frame Noise” airs every Wednesday night from 7 to 8 p.m. on 90.1 FM and is hosted by Przemek. To engage: Today, the News-Gazette published an article that reiterates a dire plea from the board of directors at the Vermilion Heritage Foundation, which oversees the Fischer Theatre in Danville, about accumulating debt that is due to the cost of operating the venue; after decades of planning and restoration, the Fischer reopened in September 2019 and has struggled to find grants and fiscal sponsors that could supply a foundation of funding instead of relying almost completely on public support, which can only be stretched so far. To read: In recent months, we’ve gone over the local highlights in terms of reporting and podcasting in the realm of filmmaking and film culture, so we’ll reiterate that you should pay attention to Smile Politely, The Daily Illini, Champaign Movie Makers, and Chambana Film Festival for breaking news and updates while we’re recharging our batteries and putting in the effort elsewhere; CUBlog will keep in step with our friends and share to Facebook when we come across things you would like. Still, be sure to reference our weekly Calendar and watch for our upcoming photo story in the Images department below. Cheers!

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CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

19 Years Ago … Saturday, February 25, 2006: After the seventh issue of the Champaign film journal MICRO-FILM is published, Opteryx Press adapts its “C-U Confidential” local-zine section into a new internet variation, C-U Blogfidential. The first entry written by editor and publisher Jason Pankoke, dated 8:57 p.m., describes an intention of “[making] a minor splash creating a community history through cinema, one that we can definitely call our own,” with CUBlog as its potential epicenter. Topics to be covered in the following months include the Danville fantasy-comedy SHOW; Dreamscape Cinema’s first features, CRAB ORCHARD and DISCONNECTED; the fan- and convention-favorite spoof of video game tropes, PRESS START, from Dark Maze Studios of Champaign; the second episodes of BrainSmart Productions’ WEREWOLF CEMETERY and THE ADVENTURES OF THE SCREAMING APE, directed by Jason Butler; the infamous UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS VS. A MUMMY and lesser-known ROBOTMAN, made by the UIUC students of Illini Film & Video and directed by Chris Lukeman; a video adaptation of Antigone by the Creative Dramatics Workshop and its director, Robert Picklesimer; an empowering documentary called AN UPHILL CLIMB from Callan Films of Effingham; Blue Bassoon Pictures’ darkly funny crime spoof MERRY CHRISTMAS!; visits from UI alumni working in professional media like Fred Rubin and Michael Wiese; and numerous community and campus screenings such as a run of MICRO-FILM Movie Shows at the beloved bar Mike ‘n Molly’s in downtown Champaign. As of January 2025, CUBlog has published content keyed in to the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond in every single month since its launch over more than 1,700 postings. [rev. 2/28/25]

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting (3/3, 7 p.m., Room 1090)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Festival* and ShortTV present The Oscar Nominated Shorts 2025: Animation (3/2, 4 p.m.)

@ Top Cat’s Chill & Grill, Springfield, IL
Central Illinois Film Commission* meeting (3/6, 7 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
EX-HUSBANDS*, LAST BREATH, MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM: GQUUUUUUX (animé) (in Japanese with English sub), MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE, RIFF RAFF, A SLOTH STORY* (animation), CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, DOG MAN (animation), HEART EYES, LEGENDS OF THE CONDOR HEROES: THE GALLANTS* (in Mandarin with English sub), LOVE HURTS*, THE MONKEY, MUFASA: THE LION KING, NE ZHA 2 (animation) (in Mandarin with English sub), PADDINGTON IN PERU (2/28 on), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (3/3, 7 p.m.), IN THE LOST LANDS, MICKEY 17, RULE BREAKERS (3/6 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
LAST BREATH, MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE, NE ZHA 2 (animation) (in Mandarin with English sub, IMAX), RIFF RAFF, BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN (music documentary), THE MONKEY, THE UNBREAKABLE BOY (faith film), CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, COMPANION*, DOG MAN (animation), HEART EYES, ONE OF THEM DAYS, PADDINGTON IN PERU, WICKED* (2/28 on), SHREK (animation) (3/2, 3 & 7 p.m.; 3/5, 7 p.m.), MICKEY 17 (3/6 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents SEPTEMBER 5 (2/28-3/1, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

~~~~~

MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

2/21: Eric Benson (co-host, Damian Duffy Hates Everything podcast, DD Media Empire, Champaign, IL)
2/25: Josh Schafer (actor, COVEN OF THE BLACK CUBE, BloodSick Productions, Philadelphia, PA)
2/29: Julia Megan Sullivan (actor, I WANT TO TALK, Rising Sun Media/Kino Works, Mumbai, India)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Finally, we get to our breaking point, dearest readers. No, no, we’re not going to crumble into dust from all the world’s pressures, but we are going to take a break from filing Field Reports after this one for the next two months. And for today, as we’ve wanted to do for a few weeks now except that all the people and places of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond keep throwing things of interest into our editorial peripheral vision and compelling us to write, write, write, we finally get to a set of talking points that have caught our eye outside the traditional geographical boundaries of our coverage. They happen to be the genus and species of topics that we would have incorporated into MICRO-FILM back in the day. It’s actually kind of refreshing to see the old guard still in the thick of creative ventures here in the present as well as the old guard’s older work coming back. Gives us hope for, well, Ye Ed…

Our Austin-based friend Christopher Sharpe and his wife and business partner, Hilah Johnson, have built a solid following and reputation with their online shows, first with HILAH COOKING and currently with the popular YOGA WITH ADRIENE and its host, Adriene Michler; Sharpe recently debuted on Substack with “YouTube and the Creator Economy” on which he shares stories about how the duo learned the ropes and found viable careers in the process. We reviewed Sharpe’s early indie feature SEX MACHINE at The MICRO-FILM Review and showed it at Mike ‘n Molly’s in downtown Champaign in 2006.

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And then, MVD Visual announced a month ago the launch of an offshoot from their MVD Rewind Collection line to be called Smodcastle Cinema. The Kevin Smith-oriented label will put out new editions of older View Askew productions and the first release is the 1997 drama A BETTER PLACE starring Eion Bailey and Robert DiPatri; having been out of print for some time, we were happy to hear directly from writer/director Vincent Pereira, a long-time Smith confidant and self-described “View Askew historian,” early last year that a restoration was in the works and it will finally be available on Blu-ray as of May 27. Yours truly interviewed Pereira for the cover story of MICRO-FILM 3 all the way back in 2000 with a sidebar assist from the astute Danielle Cloutier about the film’s ties to the “View Askewniverse.”

While tooling around on Tubi recently to look for this or that, Y. E. found in a search result THIS OLD CUB, the seminal documentary by Jeff Santo about the life of his father, the late Chicago Cubs third baseman and WGN Radio announcer Ron Santo. We’re sharing a fresh link to it right now since the link in our last Tubi title round-up is no good. It looks as if BayView Entertainment, the outfit that is now handling the distribution of horror fare from Acrostar Productions of Chicago and the film AFTERLIFE from Silver Compass Studios of Decatur, has also signed THIS OLD CUB and provided it again to the popular FAST channel service for their customers. Anthony Zoubek talked with the younger Santo for us about his take on the Major League Baseball hall-of-famer’s life and diabetes struggles in MICRO-FILM 7 from 2005.

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Also, we’d like to remind you the Molly Schlich Independent | International Film Series is still presenting twice weekly at the AMC Classic 12 in Springfield. The next title was supposed to be the Apple+ documentary THE LAST OF THE SEA WOMEN, a portrait of ladies from Jeju, South Korea, who carry on the dying tradition of the haenyeo (divers hunting for seafood by hand) but it has been replaced with an Ernest Hemingway adaptation directed by Paula Ortiz, ACROSS THE RIVER AND INTO THE TREES, from Level 33 Entertainment. It stars Liev Schreiber, Matilda de Angelis, Josh Hutcherson, and Danny Huston in a story set in Venice after World War II about a heroic solder facing his memories and mortality. Molly Schlich, named so after a former volunteer and benefactor who passed in 2021, will show ACROSS THE RIVER on Sunday, February 23, at 1 and 4 p.m. and Tuesday, February 25, at 7 p.m., to be followed by the last film in the series, THE TASTE OF THINGS, on March 2 and 4. We’re calling attention to this program because we like how dependably it books international fare that does not play elsewhere in our area’s theaters and reminds us of the refined art films we’d sneak into MICRO-FILM’s review section.

Let’s conclude with mention of a pair of productions that are related to the home front and now available nationwide. Los Angeles producer Christopher Folkens announced that his long-in-the-works feature film debut, CATALYST, is renting on Amazon Prime as of last week Tuesday, February 11; we’re elated to see him reach this height in his career and he continues to fulfill the potential that he showed as a young man from the Chicago suburbs who attended the University of Illinois in Urbana and began carving his own path in movies due to sheer determination. The 4Digital Media Ltd. release stars Michael Roark, David Bianchi, Noel Gugliemi, Patrick Kilpatrick, Melanie Liburd, and Jermaine Love in a militarized and psychological variation on films like SAW where a group of individuals is assembled unwillingly and turned against each other. Is it a sick game or conspiracy? Folkens, who sought to affect a professionalism on tiny budgets for his undergraduate films, was highlighted in MICRO-FILM 6 and 7.

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Bowing this past Tuesday, February 18, on Amazon Prime as well is FINAL DAYS: TALES FROM THE END TIMES, the slightly retitled future-shock feature from Horror-Fix Films of Springfield and producer Ash Hamilton, who did well for his studio with their initial offering, HOLES IN THE SKY: THE SEAN MILLER STORY. Distributed by the genre specialists at Terror Films Releasing, FINAL DAYS is comprised of a wraparound story directed by Hamilton and segments directed by Michael Gregory, Ben Harl of Silver Compass Studios, and Joshua Brucker and Dillon Brown of Horror Dadz Productions that depict scary episodes from an imagined end of the world; the anthology stars Robert LaSardo, Kayla Kelly, Rodney Snyder, Chloe Franks, Jenna Heckethorn, and Thom Gebhart and was crewed in part by several familiar names in downstate Illinois filmmaking. This is the sort of outlier indie that we also liked to sneak into MICRO-FILM somehow and then made sure to point out the local connections.

There we have it, friends in the fold. We’ll still share the breaking news and such on Facebook, so make sure you are following us there, and next week we’ll have a one-off Image of the Week before we start our limited series in which your humble editor shares a few unique items that we take care of in the MFHQ Archive. How did we get it, why do we have it, and what does it possibly teach us? You’ll learn!

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Bloomington Public Library, Bloomington, IL
WGLT presents FROZEN AND FORGOTTEN: AN UNHOUSED WINTER IN BLOOMINGTON-NORMAL* screening and discussion (2/26, 6 p.m., free, Community Room 2)

@ Foellinger Auditorium, UIUC, Urbana, IL
UI Entomology Graduate Students Association presents the 42nd Insect Fear Film Festival* feat. ARACHNOPHOBIA, professional “bug wrangler” Steven Kutcher (5 p.m. doors and activities, 7 p.m. program, free)

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting (2/24, 7 p.m., Room 1090)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Beard Culture Barbershop & Gallery presents THE EVOLUTION OF THE BARBER* documentary showing (2/22, 6 p.m.)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Festival* and ShortTV present The Oscar Nominated Shorts 2025: Documentary (2/23, 4 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
LEGENDS OF THE CONDOR HEROES: THE GALLANTS (in Mandarin with English sub), THE MONKEY, BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE*, CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, DOG MAN (animation), HEART EYES, LOVE HURTS, MUFASA: THE LION KING, NE ZHA 2 (animation) (in Mandarin with English sub), ONE OF THEM DAYS*, PADDINGTON IN PERU (2/21 on), HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS (re-release) (2/21), HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN (re-release) (2/22), HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE 20th anniversary (re-release) (2/23), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (2/24, 7 p.m.), LAST BREATH, MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE, NO ADDRESS, RIFF RAFF (2/27 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
THE MONKEY, THE UNBREAKABLE BOY (faith film), BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN (music documentary), CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, COMPANION, DOG MAN (animation), HEART EYES, LOVE HURTS*, MUFASA: THE LION KING, ONE OF THEM DAYS, PADDINGTON IN PERU, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, WICKED*, YOU ME & HER* (2/21 on), HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS (re-release) (2/21), HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN (re-release) (2/22), HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE 20th anniversary (re-release) (2/23), GOODFELLAS (2/23, 3 & 7 p.m.; 2/26, 7 p.m.), NO ADDRESS (2/27 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents GLADIATOR II (2/21-2/22, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ Spurlock Museum of World Cultures, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies* presents DOG DAY AFTERNOON screening (2/27, 7 p.m., free, Knight Auditorium)

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

1/31: Skip Huston (owner/operator, The Avon Theater 3, Decatur, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

We’re simply not feeling on the up-and-up this Valentine’s Day, dearest readers. As much as living life and giving love should be a goal for all of us on a regular basis, we also can’t ignore that some folks aren’t with us anymore to do just that and many more folks are heartbroken because of it. When a few of our friends and neighbors who were integral to the arts and culture we cover on CUBlog happen to leave this earthly plane in succession, while we also learn belatedly about a few more who have already gone, it’s a bummer of a coincidence and we’ll show our appreciation for them all the same. We did not know at the beginning of 2025 that we’d be running notices of passings for several weeks in a row but, at times, that’s how it works. I can now hear the Head Honcho telling us from afar the show must go on!

Who the hell wanted a break in these aggravated times, anyway? Just as well, we’ve caught a few whiffs of “old business” in the C-U movie scheme returning to haunt us over the last couple of weeks, so we’ll now Report the basics for your entertainment if not more. It will certainly jostle loose a few memories…

First, we found a welcome surprise from The Daily Illini on Monday in the form of a new article that provides an update on the efforts of Joshua Harris, the media preservation coordinator at the University of Illinois Main Library, and others to restore the surviving “sound-on-film” test elements created on campus by the late electrical engineering professor Joseph Tykociner in the 1920s. News to us is the talk about a film project by Jake Metz of the UI IMMERSE program, Eric Kurt of the UI Media Commons, and Harris that would document the process, although it apparently has been stalled due to a lack of funding; the famous-to-us Tykociner footage, thanks to a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation and ace work from professionals both within and outside of UIUC, has been digitized and properly mated with its soundtrack again. In this trailer, you can view crystal clear snippets of it which look and sound much better than the muddy analog dupe presented to the New Art Film Festival audience back in 2012.

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Speaking of older reels, the second installment of the “Picture ReStart” monthly series that is hosted by Chicago Filmmakers in their unique Firehouse Cinema at 1326 W. Hollywood Avenue (coincidence?) in the Windy City will take place this Sunday, February 16, starting at 6 p.m. “ReStart” curator Ben Creech and CF have on tap “Surface Tensions,” a program nicknamed “Seven Films Caught Between the Image and its Depths,” and the set of “mysteriously beautiful” 16-millimeter short subjects directed by Chel White, Gary Beydler, Ines Sommer, Karen Johnson, Lewis Alquist, Sheri Willis, and Willie Boy Walker is as much a celebration of an old guard of independent artists – their works date between 1970 and 1992 – as it is a culmination of the efforts made by the former C-U resident Ron Epple to exhibit films like these on the UIUC campus and distribute them nationwide through his Picture Start label as rental prints and home videos before the internet was available. Be sure to get on the Chicago Filmmakers mailing list so you can receive the detailed e-mail blasts about “ReStart” and their other screenings and classes.

Speaking of online, the adage that “anyone can be a star” is more apropos and wide-ranging in this day and age than ever before but, a hundred years ago or more, one had to go to where the action was. For performers wanting to catch a break in the nascent motion picture business of the early 20th century, that meant leaving home or wherever you were from and stepping foot in or near Los Angeles, California, with a full suitcase and a dream. Such a migration included central Illinois folks, of course.

Our friend Mike Trippiedi, who is an aficionado of the silent era and its actors, recently ruminated on Facebook that actress Ethel Clayton might have been the first from C-U to become a major name in the flickers; she appeared in almost 200 features, serials, and one-reelers between 1909 and 1947. Due to this prompt, Ye Ed remembered he had a copy of Springfield’s Illinois Times from the year 2000 with an article about Neva Gerber, who was born in Argenta, made more than 100 films between 1912 and 1930, and earned recognition for her roles in Westerns and serials. Even a week ago, Y.E. was perusing the catalog of Oldies.com, stuffed to the gills with silent and early sound films, and happened to notice the description for a Robert Wiene production, GENUINE (1920), which notes that its lead, Fern Andra, was a native of Watseka and yet became a prolific actress, writer, and producer in the German cinema.

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Speaking of the stars who rest in peace, one of the colorful stories kept in his back pocket and shared at the drop of a hat by Skip Huston was that of a screen siren named Jacqueline Logan who had been interred at a family plot in Greenwood Cemetery, located only a few blocks south of the Avon Theater in Decatur. At turns a stage actress, spokesmodel, and Ziegfeld Girl in New York before her brief Hollywood career in the 1920s, Logan appeared in 60 films including a few high-profile highlights like A BLIND BARGAIN (1922) with Lon Chaney, Sr., and Cecil B. DeMille’s THE KING OF KINGS (1927). It is probable the fare in which Logan and the other women appeared was booked at the Avon in its earliest years and also pretty certain that a high percentage of those works is lost to time or the deteriorating remnants of their craft.

As we now know, also lost to us in a deflating double blow is Huston himself, who succumbed and passed away on January 31 according to his family, and the Avon, which the family announced would be closed down this week due to mounting financial issues. We feel for them and wonder if they were holding on until the Head Honcho was manning the ticket booth in the sky before making the painful decision on the movie house so its greatest champion didn’t have to bear witness to it. Cheers to the Hustons and Rinchiusos and their staff for keeping the Avon’s doors open for more than 25 years, when it could have become yet another small-town vacant storefront, and providing the Decatur faithful with memories, magic, and more buttered popcorn than one could ever imagine. It is sheer coincidence the Lorraine Theatre of Hoopeston is springing back to life this weekend after a decade-plus of tenuous existence, not unlike the recent revival of the Lincoln Square Theater only a couple of blocks away from the Avon, so we can never rule out a new chapter behind the marquee on Water Street if the right people come along.

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scene on the Screen

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The clock has not stopped for those of us who continue on and among all our purposes in the land of the living is to make sure that our stories will be told. This brings us to Skip Huston’s former business partner and a dyed-in-the-wool paranormal investigator, author, podcaster, and entrepreneur, Troy Taylor.

Having published dozens of volumes in the last thirty years through his imprints, Whitechapel Productions Press and American Hauntings Ink, and conducted ghost haunting tours in Decatur and elsewhere as American Hauntings since 1994, the man knows his stateside arcana and has opened an exhibit space in his hometown of Alton catering to all those tales of the strange, criminal, and unexplained. Launched in early 2024, the American Oddities Museum is quite a sight from what little we can see from afar at this Facebook page, but we say that deliberately because somehow, via a previous Facebook account linked to Taylor’s ventures, hackers took over and stole what amounted to his operating funds just before the holidays last year. That’s a bad deal no matter who it happens to, especially in a volatile climate such as this one for small businesses, and we’d like to push this GoFundMe account if you’d be willing to help him out as a good number of others have already done. We’ll also share a separate GoFundMe drive that was started to mitigate the debt facing the Huston family. Friends of Skip and his beloved Avon have stepped up in kind as well, but anything further you can give on either front will surely be seen as a blessing.

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Considering how central and spectral the modern Avon success story had been to both men – Taylor recalled the shock of his encounter with the ghost of the late Avon manager Gus Constanopoulos in a recent segment of PRAIRIE FIRE on WILL-TV, an unusual and defining moment for them in the early going – it’s too bad the old Whitechapel book about the location is apparently out of print as it is not present in the American Hauntings web store. Flickering Images: The History & Hauntings of the Avon Theatre, first appearing in 2001 and reissued with a full-color cover a few years later, takes a look at the legacy of theaters, opera houses, and nickelodeons built to entertain the masses in the Soy Capital during the early 20th century and anticipating the Avon’s arrival in 1916, then continuing on with the Avon’s up-and-down timeline leading to the new millennium. Skip and company had reopened the venue in 1999 and its longevity was not a foregone conclusion, although it comes through quite clearly in their words how exciting a prospect it turned out to be. The stage was then set for a solid twenty-five-year run.

So, can we enjoy this unique Avon memory bank at all? Some of Flickering Images may have been incorporated into the 25th anniversary Haunted Decatur volume that Taylor released in 2020, based on the product description, and the Haunted Illinois website reprints the heart of the book, presumably with the author’s consent, but unless one finds a stray copy of it in the wild somewhere like at the Old Book Barn in Forsyth or through a web merchant, where we’re finding asking prices of $50 to $80 for something that originally cost $9.95, one may not get to enjoy it fully here in 2025. There is no eBook of it. Maybe a second edition or follow-up would be worth Taylor’s and the Hustons’ while as a heartfelt postscript on a job well done. We’ll see if any sort of tribute comes about once the grief subsides. In due time…

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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting (2/17, 7 p.m., Room 1090)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Festival* and ShortTV present The Oscar Nominated Shorts 2025: Live Action (2/16, 4 p.m.) and Animation (2/16, 6 p.m.)

@ Spurlock Museum of World Cultures, UIUC, Urbana, IL
3rd annual CU International Film Festival* (2/15, 6:30 p.m. red carpet gala, 7:30 p.m. program)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN (music documentary), CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, NE ZHA 2 (animation) (in Mandarin with English sub), PADDINGTON IN PERU, ROB PEACE*, COMPANION*, CHALLENGERS*, DETECTIVE CHINATOWN 1900 (in Mandarin with English sub), DOG MAN (animation), HEART EYES, I’M STILL HERE (in Portuguese with English sub), LOVE HURTS, MUFASA: THE LION KING, ONE OF THEM DAYS* (2/14 on), HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE (re-release, standard and 3-D) (2/14-2/16, 2/20), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (2/17, 7 p.m.), LEGENDS OF THE CONDOR HEROES: THE GALLANTS (in Mandarin with English sub), THE MONKEY (2/20 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, PADDINGTON IN PERU, YOU ME & HER, BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN (music documentary), COMPANION, HEART EYES, LOVE HURTS, DOG MAN (animation), MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, ONE OF THEM DAYS, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, WICKED (2/14 on), CASABLANCA (2/14, 7 p.m.), HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS (re-release) (2/14), HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN (re-release) (2/15), HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE 20th anniversary (re-release) (2/16), TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (2/16, 3 & 7 p.m.; 2/19, 7 p.m.), HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE (re-release, standard and 3-D) (2/20), THE MONKEY (2/20 on)

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG (animation) (2/14-2/15, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

2/8: Robin Christian (producer/director, C.O.R.N. II: MIND HARVEST, Dreamscape Cinema, Champaign, IL)
2/12: Gela Rediger (producer/designer, Camp Nostalgic Studios, Champaign-Urbana, IL)
2/13: Steven Bentz (director, The Virginia Theatre, Champaign Park District, Champaign, IL)

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

1/28: Kay Bohannon Holley, 71 (actress, WELCOME TO TOLONO, Me Me Productions, Los Angeles, CA)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

We suppose a fresh Report on timely filmy things wouldn’t hurt anyone this week, but we swear that we’re keeping this one short. And by that, we mean shorts! First, it sounds like a few entrants as well as past projects were screened by Champaign Movie Makers at the Phoenix Savoy 16 this past Tuesday, February 4, to mark the conclusion of another 48-hour filmmaking contest; the winner for this outing is a gooey lark titled THE BLUE OOZE BROTHERS from Andrew Nygard and company, which can be viewed right here at YouTube. Also on the ‘tube is a teaser for AN AFFAIR AT THE END OF TIME, the first “official” short subject from Earth-217 Studios, which features local talent Myles Valentine and Katherine Bokenkamp in the lead roles; producer Phillip Hazen and director/writer Chase Todd are submitting the piece to film festivals as we write. And then, we’d love to tell you that free tickets are still available via the CU International Film Festival website for their February 15 event at the UI Spurlock Center of World Cultures, but, not so fast; skip to this page instead, since all the tickets have apparently been claimed, and add yourself to the wait list by February 12 in case any seating opens up. Good luck!

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Back in Savoy, the Chambana Film Festival invites you to cavort about the Savoy 16 en route to the auditorium where they will be presenting all of this year’s Academy Award-nominated short subjects over the next three weekends with the following schedule: “Live Action” category on Sunday, February 16, 4 p.m., followed by the “Animation” category at 6 p.m.; “Documentary” category on Sunday, February 23, 4 p.m.; and, an “Animation” reprise on Sunday, March 2, 4 p.m., which should conclude before the televised Oscar ceremony gets underway. You can also feel free to hit the Savoy 16 on Saturday, February 22, 6 p.m., when, as was probably expected, the folks behind the locally-made documentary THE EVOLUTION OF THE BARBER will host an encore after all the tickets to their first screening were snapped up in advance through specific channels – hint, Beard Culture Barbershop & Gallery of Urbana, hint – as with the CU International fest in the last week. Pens to Lens is still accepting student-crafted screenplays for short films through Friday, February 28, to be reviewed and possibly produced by local film pros. And, Scott Murphy of Neon Street Productions in Danville shared with CMM on Facebook that his film, SHUTEYE, was completed and finally released to YouTube as of January 16; the 22-minute mystery, shot at locations in Vermilion and Douglas counties, stars Aereol Murphy, Pamela Adam, and Makiah Payne.

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We’ll tack on a mention of the following project that was recently introduced on CMM FB since the indie features are what we really like to see taking root in Champaign-Urbana. Despite the deadline of January 31 to apply for both crew positions as stated in the following graphic – you can click it to enlarge – and in this online notice at Backstage for acting positions, we encourage you to contact the producers of DARK SOUL RIVER by writing darksoulriverfilm [at] gmail [dot] com to show interest in case they still need help in certain departments. There is not much that is freely available about this film at the moment; writer-director Vijay M. Rajan, who is a recent transplant from California to central Illinois based on what we have found online, talks about the cross-cultural concept behind his psychological thriller in the materials he has posted on a fiscal sponsorship platform called Filmmakers Collab. He has at least ten narrative films under his belt, as noted on the Internet Movie Database, and also directed for the stage, produced industrial and online content, and taught courses and seminars at colleges and community organizations as well as through his own virtual studio, The Hive SJ. Rajan is clearly an enterprising fellow and that’s pretty key in getting any substantial movie off the ground, especially in our neck of the cornfields, so feel free to welcome him aboard to the C-U and also tell him CUBlog sent you if you decide to check in!

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IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scene on the Screen

In the course of digging up this’s and that’s for today’s Report that we didn’t know a week ago we’d be writing, we came across evidence that the first of two sequels to Dreamscape Cinema’s horror yarn C.O.R.N. is finally being primed for release. Below we share with you the one-sheet design that is now on the Internet Movie Database page for C.O.R.N.II: MIND HARVEST and, if you hit this link, you can watch the trailer for it over at the Vimeo account of Playa Media Group. The series is a “taxidermists of death in the cornfields” concept and in this outing, per the description available at the official Dreamscape website, “The C.O.R.N. people want to perform taxidermy on 13-year-old Summer after she took down their leader, her father known as the ‘Doctor.’ Summer soon realizes her scarred face will prevent her from ever blending in. She befriends Maggie, a criminal psychologist, who becomes her replacement mother. But when Maggie decides to bring the law after the C.O.R.N. cult, she might have guaranteed her and Summer will become C.O.R.N.’s next stuffed art display.” Clearly, a dark sense of humor nourishes this variety of C.O.R.N., which, by the way, stands for “Collective Order of Recreational Necrophilanthropists.”

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Maggie is played by Jessica Morris, a busy character actress with lots of television and genre work to her credit, while Summer Olshefski and veteran heavy Robert Donovan (who appears briefly in SHUTEYE, talked about in the Report) return from the first adventure as Summer and the Doctor, respectively. Keep an eye out for MIND HARVEST and its follow-up, KISS OF DEATH, to soon sprout among the rows of entertainment viewing options out there along with the original C.O.R.N., which has been available to watch on Tubi and other services since 2021. We also wish a happy birthday to C.O.R.N. series creator and Dreamscape founder Robin Christian, who we presume will be cranking some Beatles music to eleven for the occasion at his home in Monticello this weekend. Upcoming projects for Christian and his Champaign-based studio include a long-in-the-works pair of music culture movies: JOY TO THE WORLD, a period comedy, and THE PRINCE OF MATHEW STREET, a biographical portrait of an early Fab Four manager, Sam Leach. Dreamscape releases that debuted in between parts one and two of C.O.R.N. include A FARGO CHRISTMAS STORY, the feel-good drama starring the late Ed Asner that is available for free on YouTube, and BELOW, a shark thriller that recently premiered on Amazon Prime.

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Danville Public Library, Danville, IL
Danville Library Foundation and DPL present “Filmmaking 101” seminar with Demetrius Witherspoon of DV Entertainment Pictures (2/8, 12:30-1:30 p.m., free, Howard Rutan Meeting Room)

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting: “Speed Dating” (2/10, 7 p.m., Room 1090)

@ University YMCA, UIUC, Urbana, IL
UI Global Relations, etc., present “Uman Tok: Tailoring Hope, Renewing Futures” discussion and trailer screening of documentary made by students at the University of Illinois-Urbana, Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone, and the University of Birmingham, UK (2/13, 6-7:30 p.m., free, Latzer Hall)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
HEART EYES, I’M STILL HERE (in Portuguese with English sub), LOVE HURTS, COMPANION, CREATION OF THE GODS II: DEMON FORCE (in Mandarin with English sub), DETECTIVE CHINATOWN 1900 (in Mandarin with English sub), DOG MAN (animation), THE FIRE INSIDE*, FLIGHT RISK, THE FORGE* (faith film), MUFASA: THE LION KING, ONE OF THEM DAYS, WICKED*, WOLF MAN* (2/7 on), KRAVEN THE HUNTER (2/8, 1 p.m.), PADDINGTON IN PERU preview (2/8, 1 p.m.), AX Cinema Nights presents COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE (animé) (2/9, 4:30 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), ATTACK ON TITAN: THE LAST ATTACK (animé) (2/10-2/12, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub; 2/10, 8 p.m., 2/11-2/12, 3 p.m., English dub), MEMOIR OF A SNAIL event with filmmaker Q&A (animation) (2/11, 7 p.m.), BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN (music documentary), CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, NE ZHA 2 (animation) (in Mandarin with English sub), HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE (re-release, standard and 3-D), PADDINGTON IN PERU (2/13 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN (music documentary, IMAX), HEART EYES, LOVE HURTS, THE BRUTALIST, COMPANION, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, DOG MAN (animation), MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NOSFERATU*, ONE OF THEM DAYS, PRESENCE, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, VALIANT ONE, WICKED (2/7 on), PARASITE (re-release) (2/7-2/8, 9:45 p.m.; 2/10-2:12, 9 p.m.; IMAX). UFC 312: Dricus du Plessis vs. Sean Strickland, more (mixed martial arts) (2/8, 9 p.m., simulcast), CASABLANCA (2/9, 3 & 7 p.m.; 2/12, 7 p.m.), CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE (re-release, standard and 3-D), PADDINGTON IN PERU (2/13 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents CONCLAVE (2/7-2/8, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

1/30: Eric Watkins (composer/engineer, Studio E, Decatur, IL)
1/31: Paul Scrabo (video technician, NBC Studios, New York, NY, retired)

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

1/19: David Gilmore, 84 (professor/chair, Cinema and Television, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, retired)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

After we posted last week’s Calendar, Ye Ed called an audible and today’s Report will be a mishmash of topics that we want to talk about before our Report hiatus. Some of the subject matter might even have to do with the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond! This will be the most flavorful crock pot of verbiage we’ve cooked up in a while … that said, gentle friends, let’s broaden our minds. Lawrence?

Show business is good business to go with first. The Entomology Graduate Students Association at the University of Illinois announced the details for the next Insect Fear Film Festival late yesterday, Thursday, January 30, and the star attractions will be tarantulas, professional Hollywood “bug wrangler” Steven Kutcher, and a showing of the 1990 thriller-comedy ARACHNOPHOBIA with Jeff Daniels and John Goodman; per the tradition long established by EGSA and entomology department head Dr. May Berenbaum, the 42nd IFFF will bug us on Saturday, February 22, at Foellinger Auditorium starting at 5 p.m. with educational and art activities for the whole family before the films begin at 7 p.m. One event that will not happen is the INSIDIOUS-branded “live experience” we previously told you about. The page on the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts website that had been promoting the show set for next Friday, February 7, is now removed. Word is that customers seeing the show in other cities over the last few weeks have been very critical about its misleading marketing and overall quality, feeling ripped off by the experience and cost; this news segment aired on WXYZ-TV in Detroit goes over the gripes. And, Confidential agent C-Day tipped us about the Heart Theater of Effingham, designated as a historic landmark in 2023, being donated by its owner Amy Van Bergen to a new non-profit group, The Heart Theatre, Inc., which is tasked with renovating and reopening the space for community use in the future.

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Movie business is good business to chat up as well. Building on our mention last week of the extras casting that will be hosted in the afternoon tomorrow, Saturday, February 1, at Parkland College by Bokeh Background, we caught this News-Gazette interview with the firm’s founder, Sarah Cayce, in which she describes what applicants can expect from the process; a handful of folks who live in east central Illinois provide anecdotes about their on-set experiences after they were selected by Bokeh to participate in local production. CUBlog was also sent a very special link by Normal resident and indie filmmaker Paul A. Brooks (HUNTING FOR THE HAG) who recently picked up the Saturn’s Core Audio & Video release of the low-budget C-U movie DOGS IN QUICKSAND. His patient and generous unboxing video of the package can be viewed here on his YouTube channel while, along the bottom of the product page at Vinegar Syndrome, you will find brief opinions from some of the customers who’ve given DOGS a chance since its re-release; the late Nineties dark comedy from Mike Trippiedi and friends is practically a blind buy for them all. Back over to Bloomington, we could not help but notice on a recent Facebook post the performing arts program at Illinois State University is now apparently called the “School of Theatre, Dance, and Film.” Ho-ho! One look at their spring semester calendar, however, and one would be hard-pressed to know cinema was a facet of their curriculum other than as live event bling. We’ll have to look into it…

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Tangential business is good business from which to consider the “what if” possibilities. Sal Nudo of Smile Politely recently interviewed the C-U native Sarah Lariviere, who currently lives in Los Angeles and decided to move from social work to professional writing in her career; Riot Act, published last summer by Alfred A. Knopf/Penguin Random House, is her current book and a fictional tale about theater kids in Champaign growing up in 1991 and going up against an autocratic regime that rules the land. Gee, think we might have reasons to check it out and look into its lessons? A copy now resides at MFHQ Deux, thanks to the team at Prairie Fox Books of Ottawa, and we plan to read it before the sequel novel arrives next year and wanton compromise trickles down to this American life. (Yes, the thought is obvious – could Riot Act make for a good RIOT ACT movie that’d reach millions?) We’ve also neglected to mention that Champaign Movie Makers’ Andrew Stengele is think-tanking with your humble editor to identify all the C-U-leaning film productions that we can in the hopes of entrusting legitimate copies of them with one or more applicable places in Champaign County, such as local libraries and historical groups; contact Andrew via CMM on Facebook if you’d like to learn more or offer your materials for the cause. And, to cap the Report in both an archival and rebellious manner, we’ve seen this evergreen scene making the social media rounds and encourage all our brothers and sisters to wield their Blues wisely. Hit it!

Now that we’ve stuffed the last few Reports to the seams with plenty of interesting and entertaining prompts for you, dearest reader-citizens, to use to your hearts’ content, we will come back next week with a Special Report of the MICRO-FILM persuasion and then take leave for a couple of months to spend time working hard on other areas of our Confidential world. Make sure you keep visiting CUBlog for our weekly Calendars and a few bonus articles that we’re crafting. They will sober us up a bit. Onward…

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting: “Directing Workshop” (2/3, 7 p.m., Room 1090)

@ Lincoln Square, Urbana, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* 48 Hour Film Competition (1/31, 7 p.m., to 2/2, 7 p.m.)

@ Market Place Shopping Center, Champaign, IL
Quad Con presents Champaign Comic & Toy Show (2/1-2/2, free, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Victoria’s Secret wings)

@ Parkland College, Champaign, IL
Bokeh Background* casting call (2/1, 12-4:30 p.m., Parkland Theater)

@ Peoria Camera Shop, Peoria, IL
“Cash 4 Cameras Event” (2/6-2/7, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX
Beard Culture Barbershop & Gallery presents THE EVOLUTION OF THE BARBER* premiere screening (2/1, 6 p.m.)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Festival* screening series feat. The IRLMovieClub Screening: THE THINKING GAME (documentary) (2/2, 4 p.m.)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX
Champaign Movie Makers* 48 Hour Film Competition screening (2/4, 7 p.m., free)

@ Route 66 Motorhead’s Bar and Grill, Springfield, IL
Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Illinois and Spencer Films* present FIELDS OF GOLD* fundraiser (6:p.m. cocktails, 6:30 p.m. dinner, 7:30 p.m. film)

@ Top Cat’s Chill & Grill, Springfield, IL
Central Illinois Film Commission* meeting (2/6, 7 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
COMPANION, CREATION OF THE GODS II: DEMON FORCE (in Mandarin with English sub), DETECTIVE CHINATOWN 1900 (in Mandarin with English sub), DOG MAN (animation), LUTHER: NEVER TOO MUCH* (music documentary), VALIANT ONE, BRAVE THE DARK* (faith film), THE BRUTALIST, FLIGHT RISK, MOANA 2* (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NICKEL BOYS*, NOSFERATU*, ONE OF THEM DAYS, PIECE BY PIECE* (animation), PRESENCE*, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3*, WICKED*, WOLF MAN* (1/31 on), GREEN AND GOLD (2/2, 4:30 p.m.), AX Cinema Nights presents COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE (animé) (2/5-2/6, 7:30 p.m.), HEART EYES, I’M STILL HERE (in Portuguese with English sub), LOVE HURTS (2/6 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
COMPANION, DOG MAN (animation), GREEN AND GOLD, VALIANT ONE, BABYGIRL*, BRAVE THE DARK* (faith film), THE BRUTALIST, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, FLIGHT RISK, MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NOSFERATU, ONE OF THEM DAYS, PRESENCE, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, WICKED, WOLF MAN* (1/31 on), DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA* (1/31, 2/3-2/6), The Metropolitan Opera: Aida (2/1, 1 p.m., recorded), GONE WITH THE WIND (2/2, 3 & 7 p.m.; 2/5, 7 p.m.), HELLRAISER (2/5-2/6, 7 p.m.) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents VENOM: THE LAST DANCE (1/31-2/1, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

1/26: Mike Watt (publisher/editor, The Movie Stories by William Richert, Happy Cloud Media LLC, Venetia, PA)

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

11/7/24: Connie Hosier, 73 (host, CRITIC’S CHOICE, WILL-TV 12, Urbana, IL/“Connie’s Hot Flashes on Movies,” WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign, IL, retired)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

We get to hold our own horses here at MFHQ Deux for we have yet another mound of local film news to dole out in this week’s Report and, well, what we had intended to Report on can wait for one more week. Buckle up as we gallop all across east central Illinois in order to update you on all the movie happenings!

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On Saturday, February 1, from 12 to 4:30 p.m., Bokeh Background will be hosting a casting call for screen extras at the theater of Parkland College in Champaign; this seems to be a general “who’s interested?” session that is not geared to a specific upcoming production in the area, and you can read the Bokeh webpage about the needs and expectations for talent who may decide to attend. On the next Saturday, February 8, the Danville Public Library and Danville Library Foundation will present visiting filmmaker Demetrius Witherspoon and his “Filmmaking 101” workshop for creative folks “13 and up” to learn the ins and outs of making their own movies; the speaker’s Indianapolis-based label, DV Entertainment Pictures, produces science-fiction comics, novels, and web shorts rooted in the “Submerge Universe” and an earlier example of the latter, SUBMERGE: ECHO 51, can be viewed at Tubi. On the Thursday after that, February 13, the Lorraine Theatre in Hoopeston is primed to resume the showing of first-run features with CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, because nothing says “Valentine’s Day” like a violent Marvel Studios movie starring a CGI cinnamon red-hot villain; in all seriousness, the staff and volunteers who’ve devoted several years’ worth of sweat equity in order to shape up the palace for a grand rebirth deserve a hearty round of applause. We hope that Opening Day is a big ol’ smash!

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Rewind back to February 1, when the videographer Pancho Moore and his lifelong friend Ausharra Knox, owner and head stylist at Beard Culture Barbershop & Gallery in Urbana’s Lincoln Square, will premiere their debut documentary, THE EVOLUTION OF THE BARBER, at the Phoenix Savoy 16. As of this posting, the 6 p.m. screening is just about sold out, according to Moore on Facebook, so watch the local media for future dates and ticket availability as well as enjoy this inspiring feature story by Jill Pyrz of the News-Gazette on Knox’s personal evolution that led to his success as a Black businessman in the C-U. On that same busy day, folks in Springfield will be attending a fundraiser at the Route 66 Motorhead’s Bar and Grill, Museum and Entertainment Complex, that benefits the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Illinois and the Staley Museum of Decatur. A $60 entry fee will entitle you to a prime rib dinner buffet, cocktail bar, red-carpet photo op, and exclusive screening of FIELDS OF GOLD, the documentary about the Soy Capital entrepreneur A. E Staley, courtesy of co-sponsor and producer Spencer Films. Finally, the next week on Thursday, February 6, will be the first meeting of 2025 for the Central Illinois Film Commission at a new location, Top Cat’s Chill & Grill in the Capital City; members and newbies alike can gather starting at 7 p.m. to order up and then hunker down with the evening’s updates and special topics. Got all that?

Sorry to spin your heads on the plethora of unique opportunities in the area, dearest readers, but film action is what we like to see! We’ll be addressing a few last items in regards to regional production in an article separate from the Calendar, so please watch CUBlog for that in the next few days.

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IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scene on the Screen

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I miss taking my time with print media to enjoy it, and I don’t really mean in the nose-to-the-grindstone way as with C-U Confidential or MICRO-FILM. There’s nothing like grabbing a magazine or paperback or digest or hardcover and finding a comfortable enough place to sit down or recline with it. I have plenty of choices here in the house on the edge of an American small town, between Ma JaPan’s library that waits patiently on the shelves and my own library slowly making its way here and a nominal amount of material that I’ve bought in the last few years. I’ve spent way more time doing my part in making publications as a professional than I have partaking in publications that I simply have a personal interest to peruse. That reality kind of saddens me. I don’t even have a designated corner set up for the pleasure. Hrm.

Movie magazines, monster magazines, specialty magazines, comic books, and the occasional history, science, literature, and art periodicals have been my jam since I was a young lad, many of which have fallen by the wayside given the fickle state of publishing. I learned at the end of the summer that one of my readin’ and collectin’ mainstays from the Eighties and Nineties, the “yesteryear” media title Filmfax, was being cancelled after nearly 40 years in print by its founder and editor, Michael Stein of Evanston. That’s an amazing run for any niche publication, let alone one sticking it out so far into the 21st century, but given this particular market, the oversaturation of similar internet content, and Stein’s age of eighty years, it’s of little surprise that he would bow out. I always liked picking it up as a flashback-heavy alternative to the headier Cinefantastique, techier Cinefex, and more fan-friendly Starlog and Fangoria.

On one of my recent trips to Champaign-Urbana, I found the last gasp Filmfax for sale on the shelves of Barnes & Noble. While the 165th issue is right in line with the vintage territory Stein and company know well, the tell-tale signs are present – a reduced 68-page count, next to no advertising, a lack of regular departments like the letter column – and it could have gone out on a much lesser note. I’m using this denouement as an example of periodical decay because it also marks the end of a small group of movie magazines originating in Illinois that I grew up devouring. Others included Stein’s predecessor to Filmfax, Fantastic Films, and a sister title, Outré, as well as the aforementioned Cinefantastique, which has been gone for two decades, and Scary Monsters, which is still issued quarterly by its Arizona-based owners who bought the property from creator Dennis Druktenis, formerly of Highwood, about ten years ago.

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I know that I can always check out other and similar avenues in print and electronic form. The death of close-to-home familiars after all these years is simply a big bummer. The same can be said for all the local publications I used to read on the regular, whether or not they still are active. Upstairs, I have a box of old print issues from various downstate sources, mostly found in the C-U, which reminds me of the more tactile times when we learned and experienced off the computer, tablets, and phones, sharing our findings directly with our friends and acquaintances. It includes myriad copies and tear sheets from the News-Gazette, Pantagraph, Daily Illini, Daily Vidette, public ‘I’, CU Cityview, The Paper, and of course, The Octopus, a 2000 issue of which featured the photograph at the head of this segment. It was taken by yours truly in the upper level of Jane Addams Book Shop with one of their workers, Kara, when I served as the alternative weekly’s production manager. Cultural fun times in the C-U, those days were.

A resident of Champaign who easily understands my “print pain” is Jason Croft, the radio producer and announcer who works for Illinois Public Media at the University of Illinois. Mirroring to a point my horde of monster and cinema magazines is the collection of golden-age comics and hot-rod, Tiki, and men’s magazines and digests amassed by “Java” and storied in his “Dirty Old Man Cave.” Whereas I did not directly reflect my early reading interests in the self-publishing that I’ve done over the last twenty-five years, Java went all in to launch Bachelor Pad Magazine, his ode to the saucy print lit of the Fifties and Sixties that is based on a prior website where he expressed his love for all things mid-century modern. BPM just released their 70th issue and a Nylon Nightcap spin-off, found for sale along with many other editions at this website, and I do my small part in proofreading the goodies. Yes, there are words too.

Here’s to Java and all the indie publishers with eclectic taste and an acute awareness of the joy it still brings to some when you put ink to paper and periodically drop something kewl into our hot little hands.

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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Analog Wine Library, Urbana, IL
PERMANENT RESIDENCE* short film premiere (1/25, 6 p.m., free)

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting (1/27, 7 p.m., Room 1002)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Festival* screening series feat. AFTER THE FALL: TWO GENERATIONS OF THE VIETNAM CONFLICT (documentary) (1/26, 4 p.m.)

@ Spurlock Museum of World Cultures, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Flatlands Dance Film Festival* Short Film Competition 2025 (1/24, 7 p.m., free)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
BRAVE THE DARK (faith film), THE BRUTALIST, FLIGHT RISK, NICKEL BOYS, PRESENCE, SKY FORCE* (in Hindi with English sub), DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA, MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NOSFERATU, ONE OF THEM DAYS, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, WICKED, WOLF MAN (1/24 on), BETWEEN BORDERS (1/26, 5:30 p.m.), AMC “Scream Unseen” (mystery movie) (1/27, 7 p.m.), DETECTIVE CHINATOWN 1900 (in Mandarin with English sub) (1/28-1/30, 7:30 p.m.), COMPANION, CREATION OF THE GODS II: DEMON FORCE (in Mandarin with English sub), DOG MAN (animation), VALIANT ONE (1/30 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
BRAVE THE DARK (faith film), THE BRUTALIST, FLIGHT RISK, HARD TRUTHS, PRESENCE, BABYGIRL, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA, MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NOSFERATU, ONE OF THEM DAYS, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, WICKED, THE WILD ROBOT (animation), WOLF MAN (1/24 on), INTERSTELLAR* (re-release; IMAX) (1/24-1/30, 4:15 p.m.), THE LAST SHOWGIRL* (1/24-1/26), The Metropolitan Opera: Aida (1/25, 11:30 a.m., simulcast; 1/29, 1 & 6:30 p.m., recorded), THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1/25, 2, 4:30 & 7 p.m.; 1/26, 3 & 7 p.m.; 1/29, 7 p.m.), BETWEEN BORDERS (1/26-1/28, 4 & 7 p.m.), DOG MAN (animation) (1/30 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents SMILE 2 (1/24-1/25, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

1/16: Zoe Southlynn-Savage (special events manager, Champaign Park District, Champaign, IL)
1/18: Michelle Kaffko Ebner (owner, Organic Headshots, Chicago, IL)
1/19: Mark Roberts (creator, Bad Mule Rag & The Lonely Banjo, Bad Mule Inc., Red Hook, NY)

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

3/2023: Robert Carringer, 81 (English and cinema studies professor, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, retired)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Well, that erupted quickly! We’re apparently not done with dumping links on our dearest readers via the Report for we’ll now explore the film events coming our way shortly in Champaign-Urbana and beyond!

There’s a fair amount to see on local screens but it helps to know where to look for the smaller-scale and more interesting fare. Essentially a biannual event at this point, timed as it is by the Department of Dance at the University of Illinois as a “welcome back” gesture to the campus ecosystem at the beginning of each semester, the Flatlands Dance Film Festival returns with a short film program for some artistic wintertime viewing; the show will be held in Knight Auditorium at the Spurlock Museum of World Cultures next Friday, January 24, starting at 7 p.m. If you return to the same venue in three weeks, you can also attend the third CU International Film Festival on Saturday, February 15, to enjoy a selection of quality shorts from all over the world; you need to commit and go prepared, however, as you have a window between February 1 and February 12 to reserve your free ticket online and claim it on site once the doors open at 6:30 p.m. that evening. After a red-carpet walk, master of ceremonies Max Libman will host the screening at 7:30 p.m. and expound on how their films aim to “entertain, educate, and elevate.”

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We also have upcoming events that require some confirmation as well as collaboration. Andrew Stengele of Champaign Movie Makers shared on Facebook a call for entries, launched by the Rantoul Theatre Group for a brand-new event called the Rantoul Film Festival, which will close after February 28 and has a nominal $5 entry fee; a date for the showing at the Rantoul Business Center has yet to be announced and the money raised, including donations, will be split to help fund the theater as well as local domestic violence agencies. Also approaching quickly is CMM’s own 48-hour filmmaking contest, for which teams can gather the weekend of January 31-February 2 and make their short subjects from start to finish within the time frame, reflecting prompts that will be handed out at the Lincoln Square mall of downtown Urbana on the 31st; get some friends on board and register very soon to have some fun! Creators du C-U should also plan ahead to participate in this year’s Pens to Lens productions; the area’s youth who are enrolled in grades K-12 or are in the comparable age bracket can submit their original screenplays by Friday, February 28, and the participation guidelines for their parents and teachers are available at this website. The gala premiere of the films is set for August at the Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign.

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Oh, what else to we have to see? The Chambana Film Festival will emerge from the holiday break with a string of screenings at the Phoenix Savoy 16 in Savoy beginning in a week on Sunday, January 26, 4 p.m. with the self-descriptive documentary, AFTER THE FALL: TWO GENERATIONS OF THE VIETNAM CONFLICT; the schedule continues a week later on February 2 with THE THINKING GAME, a documentary about the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI), and three consecutive Sunday presentations of the 2024 Oscar-nominated short films starting on February 16 and finishing the afternoon before the Academy Awards presentation on March 2. Following in the footsteps of Thomas Nicol’s THE VENUS GAMBIT, which we mentioned in last week’s Report, is the premiere and meet-casual at Urbana’s Analog Wine Bar on Saturday, January 25, 6 p.m., for a new short subject called PERMANENT RESIDENCE; made in town with assistance from Nicol, Chambana’s Nat Dykeman, GAMBIT actor Matthew Green, and artist Matt K, the piece by writer-director Bi An is an immigration story that is apparently told not in the typical manner. Get on your feet and get thee involved in our film culture!

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And to close, primarily as a follow-up to other points in last week’s Report, who else do we have to hear from and read? C-U resident and avid movie fan Chike Coleman, a co-host of the REEL REVIEWS show on Urbana Public Television with Sanford Hess, has apparently taken a breather from the cable access airwaves as well as writing for his website, The Wheelchair Watcher, over the last year; we hope he is doing well and that more is in store. The pause button has also been hit for the last year on Family Home Theater, the forum overseen by James Plath of the English department at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington; he’d like to transfer ownership to someone interested in keeping the site going and will field queries about it, as is stated on the sister Facebook page. Not slowing down one iota is Brad Jones, known to his fan base as The Cinema Snob, who moved from Springfield to Chicagoland with his wife Laura and the Stoned Gremlin Productions hustle in order to have access to all the theatrical flicks and novelty snacks he can handle; now the proud dad of an infant son, the Snob can still muster a few informative and snarky videos per week on YouTube in an effort that is undoubtedly “Lloyd Approved.”

These activity suggestions should keep everyone busy in our immediate future while we bow out of Report-ing for a couple of months after next week’s post. The Calendar itself will be compiled as usual, so be sure to send over any relevant dates for us to add by writing cuconfidential [at] gmail [dot] com!

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scene on the Screen

Anyone for another quick and lively entry this week? Acrostar Productions is promoting the imminent commercial release of their movies through BayView Entertainment and, at last, we have confirmation that among the wave of titles to be introduced on multiple streaming platforms next week are ATTACK OF THE CORN ZOMBIES and NIGHT OF THE DEAD SORORITY BABES. We also have learned THEY CAME BACK FROM SOMEWHERE will join them in the near future. So, when you go looking for your fix of good-natured, genre-friendly flicks done the Acrostar way, watch for graphics like the ones you see below; fans of the Chicagoland indie studio should be familiar with the promo cards for CORN ZOMBIES and SORORITY BABES, although it looks like THEY CAME BACK received a new coat of digital paint for the occasion. BayView-branded trailers for all three are available at this YouTube account and a fresh new teaser for RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES, which will also be handled by the New Jersey-based firm, was just introduced on Facebook. The current round of filming activity for Acro-head S. j. Herman, producer Ann Myrna, and their loyal players and partners includes the feature PERFECT SOUL and a second batch of SPLINTERED LOVE episodes, the latter of which are being filmed as we write and the former slated for production in the spring. Do keep abreast of Acro-business by joining their online group and pitching in when you can, especially for when they gather in central Illinois to make their movies!

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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Esquire Lounge, Champaign, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* meeting (1/20, 7 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
AUTUMN AND THE BLACK JAGUAR, ONE OF THEM DAYS, THE ROOM NEXT DOOR, WOLF MAN, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, CONCLAVE*, DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA, FROM GROUND ZERO: STORIES FROM GAZA* (documentary; in Arabic with English sub), THE LAST SHOWGIRL*, MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NOSFERATU, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, WICKED, THE WILD ROBOT* (animation) (1/17 on), BRAVE THE DARK, THE BRUTALIST, FLIGHT RISK, PRESENCE (1/23 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
INTERSTELLAR* (re-release; IMAX), ONE OF THEM DAYS, THE ROOM NEXT DOOR, SING SING, WOLF MAN, BABYGIRL, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA, THE LAST SHOWGIRL, MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NOSFERATU, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, WICKED, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (1/17 on), BETTER MAN* (1/17-1/18, 1/20-1/23), INTERSTELLAR (standard) (1/19, 3 & 7 p.m.; 1/20, 1/22, 7 p.m.), THE GOONIES 40th anniversary (1/19, 4 & 7 p.m.; 1/20, 7 p.m.), MARKED MEN: RULE & SHAW (1/22-1/23, 7 p.m.), *single screenings daily

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

1/12: Damian Duffy (co-adapter, Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, Abrams ComicArts, New York, NY)

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

12/24: Barbara Evans, 72 (actor, BUCKY McSNEAD, Shut Up and Do It Productions, Champaign, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The New Year is as good as time as any for a link dump in our Report to share what our online media friends and neighbors are thinking and doing, so, by all means wander a little closer and click away!

Some folks want to foster the funny via their videos. Camp Nostalgic Studios posted a big conclusion to their production season last month, first with the last episode of SATURDAY MORNING for 2024 wherein hosts Alex Duquette and Dave Rediger attempt to make it to the end credits with the heat turned off in order to save money; they remember the reason for a different season and share an on-the-street update from Vadim Nuebeck (looks familiar…) as he searches for an elusive toy doll with a certain je ne sais quoi that is flying off the shelves. Across the creek at Rubber Chicken Films, versatile impressionist Andy Due (looks familiar…) finished the year with Episode 27 of THE ANY DUE SHOW and his patented take on Golden Age and retro Brit humour, this time involving an Irish pastor’s service, a pair of strangers at a park bench, and a surf rock band eulogizing their jalopy. A-hem. (Let’s not forget The Andy Due Book, a print expansion of the programme that is now available on Amazon.) And floating back down to Camp Nostalgic, we have the finale of LATE NIGHT URGE in which host Ariel Julie (looks loverly…) ruminates about Jewish holidays and the seeming lack of sexy in the belief’s public-facing patina.

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Other folks have opinions on the movies. Our man Colin Gabriel Price goes over his primary picks for the best releases of 2024 in the most recent episode of Priceless B Movies and, to no one’s surprise, it’s ladled liberally with horror. Over at Mashley at the Movies, Matt and Ashley dropped a couple of episodes for Xmas-time where they discuss the Bob Dylan picture A COMPLETE UNKNOWN with fellow C-U podcaster Elizabeth Hess and NOSFERATU with local writer Aaron Polk. A few steps in the other direction, Chase Todd of Chase & Shep fame has a new talker through their Earth-217 shingle that is called Phil & Chase Watch Everything with co-host Phillip Hazen and, in their newest recording, Shep and Bel join them to discuss more than twenty cinematic “slays” for the holidays. And, although their time at WCIA-TV is complete, professional critics Chuck Koplinski and Pam Powell continue their work as Reel Talk with Chuck and Pam through their own podcast, where they took on THE FIRE INSIDE, BABYGIRL, and more just before 2025 chimed in, and still appear together or solo in various outlets like CBS Channel 58 in Milwaukee, The Daily Journal of Kankakee, and The Illinois Times of Springfield.

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Even more folks are making the movies. Thomas Nicol went behind the camera for his first short in a few years, THE VENUS GAMBIT, in which a date goes charmingly between a duo played by Mindy Smith and Matthew Green as they enjoy a chess game; filmed and premiered at the Analog Wine Library in downtown Urbana, the piece has appeared in a handful of regional festivals. Also returning to filmic business are The Andrews (Andrew Stengele and Andrew Nygard), who made a quickie short named SANTA DOESN’T EXIST on behalf of Champaign Movie Makers and for the newest iteration of the annual cable-access tradition du C-U, THE TRAVIS WAYNE HURT CHRISTMAS SPECIAL. Their ditty is pure wryness, a Nygard specialty, and depicts the tragedy encountered by a young girl (Logan Tarr) who can’t sleep on Christmas Eve; the witty that surrounds it is merely AWOL at the moment, for Hurt elected to premiere the sketch comedy at the Channing-Murray Foundation last month instead of on Urbana Public Television where all the prior specials reside. Behind the scenes, local filmmaker John Isberg (FINAL SUMMER) concluded the first season of his talk-shop podcast, Shudder to Think, with Episode 13 where he was joined by a fellow horror storyteller from Britain, Jonathan Straiton (JOHNNY Z).

Finally, certain individuals want to discuss the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond for the record and on the regular like … oof. That doesn’t exist in C-U recorded media, does it? No radio show, no podcast, no livestream, no vlogcast, no cable access show to cover the cinema creation and culture of our own making? Oh, don’t do that. Stop looking in your humble editor’s direction from a long distance. He can only do so much from here in the Illinois Valley, other than offering up good ideas.

That said, freely return the favor if we forgot to include any similar and relevant outlets for arts and entertainment discourse in the C-U area by writing cuconfidential [at] gmail [dot] com with a tip. Thanks!

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scene on the Screen

We needed an easy one this week, folks, and a lo-fi photo gallery from THE TRAVIS WAYNE HURT CHRISTMAS SPECIAL is it. All the shows to date that were aired by UPTV 6 are available on YouTube, with the latest one (apart from the brand-new one we talked about above) being THE TRAVIS WAYNE HURT CHRISTMAS SPECIAL VS. THE NOG MONSTER from 2023. You can find out who’s in which ones at a glance on the Internet Movie Database and learn about the making of most episodes with this podcast series hosted by Erin Gillis and TWH. As our dearest readers should know by now, movies are not just for careers, resumes, or artistic statements. These folks want to get weird and that’s just ducky with us.

If a few pictures of friendly and game townies (and animated friends) paint a thousand words…

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Happy National Peculiar People Day, C-U! Stay reliably offbeat!

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA, FROM GROUND ZERO: STORIES FROM GAZA (documentary; in Arabic with English sub), GAME CHANGER (in Telugu with English sub), THE LAST SHOWGIRL, OCTOPUS WITH BROKEN ARMS (in Mandarin with English sub), A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, THE DAMNED, THE FIRE INSIDE*, HOMESTEAD (faith film), KRAVEN THE HUNTER*, MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NOSFERATU, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, WICKED (1/10 on), AX Cinema Nights: PAPRIKA 15th anniversary (animé) (1/12, 4:30 p.m., in Japanese with English sub; 1/8, 7:30 p.m., English dub), PETER PAN’S NEVERLAND NIGHTMARE (1/14-1/15, 7:30 p.m.), ONE OF THEM DAYS THE ROOM NEXT DOOR, WOLF MAN (1/16 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
BETTER MAN, DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA, THE LAST SHOWGIRL, BABYGIRL, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, THE FIRE INSIDE, HOMESTEAD (faith film), MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NOSFERATU, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, WICKED (1/10 on), INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (1/12, 3 & 7 p.m.; 1/15, 7 p.m.), WOLF MAN (1/16 on)

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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