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!

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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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!

12/27: Matthew Gladney (co-host, Mashley at the Movies podcast, Champaign-Urbana, IL)
12/30: Paul Benson (grip, FINAL SUMMER, Front 76 Films/The Line Film Co., Champaign/Chicago, IL)
12/30: Jason Pankoke (editor/publisher, C-U Blogfidential, Champaign-by-way-of-Mendota, IL)

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

12/26/22: Patricia Ann Pellow, 78 (matron saint to our arts, C-U Confidential, Champaign, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Is it too late to mull over Christmas movies, dearest revelers? This peculiar genre of seasonal television programming that is designed to besiege basic cable packages in the months of November and December with manufactured warm fuzzies and cheer is finally infiltrating the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond. If the A- and B-list likes of Kristin Chenoweth, Bruce Campbell, Teri Hatcher, Christopher Lloyd, and Fred Olen Ray can go there, then so can we. If we have to. We guess.

On a higher budget level and very peripherally related is the new Disney streaming release DASHING THROUGH THE SNOW, directed by Tim Story (THE BLACKENING), which stars Chicago native Lil Rel Howrey as Santa Claus and Champaign native Ludacris as a social worker who resists enjoying the spirit of the season. On pocket change in comparison and much closer to home, we have the as-yet-unconfirmed feature – was anybody as highly amused as us by this WCIA-TV report that couldn’t bother (or, weren’t allowed) to identify the producer they interviewed and called the film I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, a title as over-used and subject to change as it comes? – filmed on location in Champaign County between March and May of this year; sites chosen to help tell the tale, about a snowstorm that forces a holiday layover for the main characters, include the UI Willard Airport of Savoy and Church Street in downtown Champaign with, sigh, the dormant Art Theater as a backdrop. Presumably, this action was brought to the C-U by locally-based Shatterglass Films, the Champaign County Film Office, or both.

And then we have A FARGO CHRISTMAS STORY, the latest from Dreamscape Cinema of Champaign, which received an online bow back on Friday, December 1, through a YouTube channel billed as “Empress Movies.” Directed by company head Robin Christian, the drama stars Cynthia Strahan (THE OFFER) as an assistant in a development firm from Minnesota who is sent to the eponymous North Dakota city to oversee a construction project and is met with very mixed reactions from the townsfolk, never mind the shady overtures from the mayor, played by Robert Donovan, and her boss, played by Douglas Wilson. Complications of all sorts threaten her return home for Christmas with her family and, you betcha, it takes a community who grows to care for her to aid in setting things right.

Filmed in early 2020 on location in the aforementioned states as well as at Geschenk Coffee, Café, & Gifts of St. Joseph, located 10 miles east of the C-U, FARGO also features Sadie Katz (BLOOD FEAST), Nico Zahniser (THE RELIANT), Richard Riehle (BARRY), Maxwell Caulfield (GREASE 2), and Gary Houston, who appeared in both the FARGO show on FX and the classic Coen Brothers film from 1996. Wilson and Donovan previously acted for Dreamscape in the studio’s C.O.R.N. horror trilogy, the second and third entries of which are still unavailable to see, and the late great Edward Asner, who appeared in Dreamscape’s first commercial release SHEEBA, cameos as a dispenser of sage small-town advice named “Popcorn Bud.” Upcoming features that filmmaker Christian will be pitching to potential financiers and distributors include his own pet projects like JOY TO THE WORLD, about young people who attend Woodstock, and THE LEACH OF LIVERPOOL, about an early manager of The Beatles. A spinoff of Christian’s multimedia firm Dreamscape Design, the company marked its 25th anniversary in 2022.

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A FARGO CHRISTMAS STORY is a Dreamscape Cinema (Champaign-Urbana/St. Joseph, IL-Fargo, ND-Moorehead, MN) production that is written, produced, and directed by Robin Christian with cinematography by Daniel Clarke, art direction by Jiovanie Velazquez, editing by Skye Marcía, sound design by Jim Parker, makeup and costume design by Krystal Depew, and visual effects by Jacob Kuhne. First assistant director is Alison Lecouris, gaffer is Tommy Garrett, key grip is Sean Nielsen, sound recordists are Scott Murphy and Matt Wheeler, and music composer is David Stahl. Executive producer is James Lenz, associate producer is Jeff Trainer, and the film stars Cynthia Strahan, Nico Zahniser, Sadie Katz, Maxwell Caulfield, Richard Riehle, Robert Donovan, Gary Houston, Douglas Wilson, and Edward Asner. It is a 2023 release via Empress Movies on YouTube and runs 97 minutes.

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
THE BOYS IN THE BOAT, THE COLOR PURPLE, FERRARI, ANYONE BUT YOU, AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM, THE BOY AND THE HERON (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), GODZILLA MINUS ONE (in Japanese with English sub), THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES, THE IRON CLAW, MIGRATION, POOR THINGS, SALAAR PART 1: CEASEFIRE (in Hindi or Telugu with English sub), TROLLS BAND TOGETHER* (animation), WONKA (12/29 on), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (1/3, 7 p.m.), NIGHT SWIM, SHINING FOR ONE THING (in Mandarin with English sub) (1/4 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
THE BOYS IN THE BOAT, THE COLOR PURPLE, FERRARI, ANYONE BUT YOU, AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM, THE BOY AND THE HERON (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), GODZILLA MINUS ONE (in Japanese with English sub), THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES, THE IRON CLAW, MIGRATION, NAPOLEON*, POOR THINGS, SALTBURN*, TROLLS BAND TOGETHER* (animation), WISH (animation), WONKA (12/29 on), NIGHT SWIM (1/4 on) *single screenings daily

@ Redbox (streaming), Champaign-Urbana, IL
Follow the link to view seasonal favorites and the hottest new releases! (12/26 on) Online rentals

@ 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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Ptew! Roughly a year ago, life took a nosedive here at Momkoke Manor on the edge of an American small town and it engulfed the attentions of yours truly so much that I have yet to regain my stride with C-U Blogfidential. It’s a drawn-out struggle to deliver consistently to this day, made all the more frustrating by the fertile pumpkin patch of ideas bound to inspire us this time of the season. I simply can’t act upon them all in good time, so, don’t be surprised when the ‘blog publishes an outburst of fully-baked content, such as our recent previews of locally-made horrors, and then coasts for several weeks on low-calorie Calendars before we plate our next treats. The seeds are always being sown at MFHQ Remote.

Today’s post is the CUBlog equivalent of the Hollywood studios’ recent tendency to “tease the trailer with a trailer.” While feature articles are in the works to highlight the filmmaking groups to be mentioned in a moment, we wanted to make sure you knew about their newest productions being added to Amazon Prime Video for streaming rental and purchase in case you’d like to watch them before we discuss!

Arriving on Amazon at the end of August, the first entry in the C.O.R.N. series is a bid by Dreamscape Cinema of Champaign to take a slice out of the lucrative horror genre market. Directed, written, and produced by company founder Robin Christian and originally filmed in and near Champaign County in mid-summer 2019, C.O.R.N.: A FIELD OF SCREAMS is about a pair of siblings (Kennedy Tucker and Mateus Ward) and their friend (Roger Cross) who become stranded in Midwest farm country during Halloween and must contend with the locals as well as a shadowy cult, influenced by the sinister Mr. Dr. (Robert Donovan), that practices bizarre rituals on unwitting victims. Harvest moon mayhem leads to a conclusion that sets up C.O.R.N. 2, shot in 2020 and starring Jessica Morris, and C.O.R.N. 3, wrapped in June of this year; both will stalk Amazon and other platforms in the coming months once the leg work is done by Total Content Digital, the Los Angeles-based firm that is a sales rep for A FIELD OF SCREAMS.

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Also staking its claim on Amazon bandwidth as of today, Tuesday, October 12, is the “directors cut” [sic] edition of UNLISTED OWNER. Filmed several years ago in the southern town of Sumner, Illinois, by first-time director Jed Brian for his fledgling label, Lawford County Productions, the thriller involves a group of teens and families who run afoul of an unbalanced young man, prone to squatting his childhood home and moving quickly to kill anyone else on the premises. Brian self-released a DVD of UNLISTED OWNER in 2017 and teamed up with Summer Hill Entertainment and J.R. Bookwalter’s Makeflix to offer Blu-rays and DVDs on demand in 2019 before agreeing to the current pact with POV Horror, a specialist in “found footage” horror fare. As told to CUBlog by Brian, DIRECTORS CUT adds briefly to the original “recorded live” scenes and incorporates brand-new material that introduces a handful of viral commentators who report on the slaughter several years after the fact. What more can they discern from the tapes?

Following the jump is a statement from Lawford County Productions on the UNLISTED OWNER re-release as well as a striking piece of promotional artwork. Watch for our exclusive conversations with Brian and Christian to appear in this space after we visit with another downstate Illinois storyteller who favors tales on the darker side, Ben Harl of Silver Compass Studios in Decatur.

~ Jason Pankoke

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During the more productive years here in Champaign County, the arrival of summer means that teams of media-makers will be out in the field realizing their dreams. It may involve setting up a scene in a literal field such as, not surprisingly, one filled with miles’ worth of corn stalks that might be hiding nefarious truths. This is the general scenario of the upcoming horror-thriller CORN from Dreamscape Cinema of Champaign, who recently announced a casting and crew call to staff the shoot that will take place between July 25 and August 14 in central Illinois. The studio is needing 18-years-and-older actors for all roles, the breakdowns for which can be found at this brand-new Facebook page, while paid positions behind the scenes in the camera, lighting, wardrobe, art, and makeup effects departments are detailed in this notice at the Champaign Movie Makers group on Facebook. Interest and headshots should be directed to robin [at] dreamscape [dot] la about CORN, said to be “a scary take on isolation … similar to HOSTEL, HOUSE OF WAX, and CHILDREN OF THE CORN,” as well as their next project, a “holiday movie” set in Fargo, North Dakota, that will be cast in July and filmed at the end of 2019. Dreamscape head Robin Christian tells C-U Blogfidential that BELOW, the bull shark attack flick they made last summer, is approaching picture lock and will be pitched to distributors in the next few months.

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Also spinning those storytelling gears is John Isberg of Swede Films in Urbana – look for his educational Web series MAGNETIC FIELDS to be unveiled on-line shortly – as he prepares for his debut in the full-length narrative format. A post to the Champaign Casting Call group on Facebook describes his venture as “horror [in the] haunted house genre in the vein of POLTERGEIST, THE INNKEEPERS, [and] THE AMITYVILLE HORROR” that will be filmed from July 7 to 15 in our immediate area. Swede Films is looking primarily for preteen-to-teenage actors in the main roles and is aiming to cast all talent from central Illinois. Hopefuls should forward their headshots to john [at] swedefilms [dot] com as soon as possible so they may be in the running for auditions to be held soon at Shatterglass Studios in Champaign. A brief skim through the timelines of the groups linked above will reveal bonus opportunities from DeShawn Hill of HD Productions Media and numerous point people behind this year’s armada of Pens to Lens films. Get involved in our film scene, friends!

~ Jason Pankoke

p.s. For those with deep-cut knowledge of the CUBlog milieu, we want to clarify that CORN is completely separate from an earlier attempt to harvest horror from our crops. Dreamscape Cinema lent production gear and good cheer in August 2004 to the makers of a proof-of-concept alternately titled STALKED and STALKED IN THE CORN. The brainchild of Ryan E. Heppe, a voice actor and former executive at the David Foster Company whose credits include COLLATERAL DAMAGE and THE CORE, the short was photographed on his parents’ farmland in his hometown of Homer with the help of several moonlighting technicians from WILL-TV and myriad contributors from the Chicago area. STALKED never took root as a feature and evidence of this version is hard to come by, but your humble editor did escape the set with a handful of snaps that have never been seen before. The portrait below of Heppe’s scarecrow fiend is one of them. You will also find mention of STALKED in C-U Confidential #10 if you look closely!

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While putting together our SHOT report from a few weeks ago, we happened upon a Facebook announcement from Robin Christian of Dreamscape Cinema in Champaign that BAD COMPANY, his company’s bioterrorism action film that was originally produced in Piatt County in July and August of 2013, would street on the same day as the vintage student adventure – Tuesday, August 28. This included placement in Family Video locations across North America and additional exposure in Redbox kiosks nationwide thanks to the connections of MTI Home Video, the long-running genre label that picked up the rights to BAD COMPANY from sales agent Artist View Entertainment. Other than securing international distribution for the project, previously called LOWLIFES, this clears the deck for Dreamscape as all the studio’s completed features are now in commercial release with most available via Amazon streaming. You can access the older catalog – SHEEBA, DISCONNECT, ACT YOUR AGE, MY DOG THE SPACE TRAVELER, and the VOD-only DISPOSABLE – at this Amazon search result.

Starring up-and-coming talents like Booboo Stewart (X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST), Giselle Bonilla (FREEDOM WRITERS), Kyle Massey (THAT’S SO RAVEN), Madelyn Deutch (THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN), and Quinton Aaron (THE BLIND SIDE) as well as veteran actors like William Atherton (DIE HARD), Christopher Judge (STARGATE SG-1), Tzi Ma (THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE), and Mark Derwin (THE SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER), the film follows a group of teenagers that is enrolled in a disciplinary boot camp and becomes isolated when a rogue militia invades the immediate countryside. Troop members who survive an early search-and-destroy sweep by the invaders must put aside their pasts and band together in order to thwart a scheme to disable the nearby nuclear plant. Other than aiming to produce a yarn that is exciting and colorful, Christian took inspiration from the Lincoln’s Challenge Academy in Rantoul and their serious mission to help wayward youth turn around their lives so they may be productive or even heroic in the face of adversity.

The disc reproduces the film adequately – we can’t help but be impressed by the look of sequences involving woodlands and farm country, lushly captured by veteran cinematographer Bruce Logan (TRON, JACKSON COUNTY JAIL) – yet is barren of extras other than removable subtitles and trailers for MTI fare. (A similar fate befell this year’s other commercial releases of locally filmed features, CONSUMED and BEFORE ‘I DO’, although SHOT benefited from landing at a collector’s label that regularly supplements its titles with bonus content.) You can segue to the official Facebook page for a closer look behind the scenes or locate any fan site devoted to buff TWILIGHT star Stewart for a peek at the actor in character and then, maybe, something else BAD COMPANY. Christian’s current ensemble has recently wrapped the next Dreamscape production, a bull shark-in-the-Midwest-river saga called BELOW, and is now filming pickup shots in Illinois and Missouri. We’ll talk about that a bit more in an upcoming post. Until then, be alert when the cornfields surround you…

~ Jason Pankoke

p.s. William Kephart, we hardly knew ye in this movie and it’s not because you went uncredited in your cameo. Snif.

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The pleasures of combining family time and enjoyable movie viewing in the out of doors during the summer months are not restricted to surviving drive-ins or programs in larger cities, so it seems! Dearest readers living along the I-72 corridor, which connects Decatur and Champaign-Urbana, will have a new entertainment option beginning later tonight, Friday, June 10, when the city of Monticello launches their “Monticello Movie Nights” for the season. An inflatable screen and refreshments will be set up by the parks and recreation department in a blocked-off corner of their cozy downtown area, leaving folks plenty of room to camp out comfortably and relax with their friends and neighbors. Headlining the series debut will be MY DOG THE SPACE TRAVELER, the most recent release from Champaign’s Dreamscape Cinema and producer Robin Christian, a Monticello resident who filmed much of this all-ages adventure on the home front a few years back. According to Facebook posts by Christian, cast members will kick back with the locals to watch MY DOG, which we believe has yet to play the C-U in any public capacity. (You might take a quick peek at our Calendar entries dated today as well as Friday, March 11, to learn about previous Dreamscape premieres.) Titles announced for future Friday evenings include HOME on June 17, MINIONS on July 1, THE PEANUTS MOVIE on July 15, INSIDE OUT on July 29, and STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS on August 5. Of course, the event will begin at dusk if weather permits; click here for potential updates alongside the show listings. Admission is free for all.

~ Jason Pankoke

[Squirrel! This is post #1100 on CUBlog! Rural space is the place!]

And a good Saturday to you, film faithful du C-U Blogfidential! We’d like to plunk down one of our patented omnibus posts to help you catch up on cinematic activities stemming from Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond. This time, our particular stress is in helping out these respective parties with their goals and strengthening our media-making subculture in the process. However much or little you can provide or participate, we think you will find both satisfaction and fun in enabling their success! To that end…

A need for student-written film scripts and student-made films has been signaled by the Champaign-Urbana Film Society, which is now accepting entries for both its third annual Pens to Lens Screenwriting Competition and first-ever Pens to Lens High School Film Festival. Winning entries of the former will be made into short subjects by local filmmakers as in prior years; those finished works, as well as the chosen submissions from the latter, will be presented during gala public showings at summer’s end…

A need for extras and other crew positions has been voiced by Danny Hill, a young video producer and photographer from Champaign who is in pre-production on his first full-length movie, HOLLY, described as a “fast-paced thriller” per this Facebook page. Other HD Productions projects include the comedy Web series DOWNTOWN and an Internet interview show, ALMOST INTIMATE. CUBlog previously told you about Hill’s zombie apocalypse short INFECTION two years ago…

A need for fundraising has arisen for Champaign filmmaker Robin Christian and Dreamscape Cinema as they begin development of a documentary titled LIVES MATTER, which will aim to tell “both sides of these very real stories” stemming from aggravated encounters between police officers and urban youth. Dreamscape is seeking $25,000 to cover production and promotional costs; the Kickstarter campaign runs through Friday, February 13. Enlisted to narrate is actor Quinton Aaron of THE BLIND SIDE…

A need for dedicated board members has been proposed by the Art Theater Co-op in Champaign. They are accepting applications from current co-op members through Sunday, February 22, to fill three vacant seats on their Board of Directors. Candidates will then state their respective cases for inclusion during the annual owners’ meeting at the Champaign Public Library on Sunday, March 1, after which votes will be cast. Please write the [dot] art [dot] theater [at] gmail [dot] com for details or hit the link above to apply…

A need for holding an organization to its word has been self-implicated by David Thiel, the program director of WILL-TV 12 in Urbana and a sitting Art Theater board member, who offered a commentary on the local PBS affiliate’s Web site earlier this week “restating our commitment [at WILL] to independent films.” This stance is mainly in reference to documentaries and showcases of the same such as P.O.V.; we do remind the station to step up its game in narrative and locally-based content as well…

And finally, a need for supporting independent publishing has been highly implied in an e-mail blast sent out by Michael Wiese Productions, the California-based specialty imprint founded by Urbana native Michael Wiese nearly 30 years ago. In this case, a 75% off sale of select titles in the MWP library, your business can help them help you if you happen to be a budding filmmaker, producer, cinematographer, screenwriter, et cetera. The discount applies to these volumes between now and Sunday, March 22!

We’ll discuss another need for supporting independent publishing with you in a week or so. Stay tuned!

~ Jason Pankoke

Two weeks ago we first wrote about the impending film production FOOD, for which crew and cast will shoot on location in and near Champaign-Urbana beginning next weekend. Many local talents who actively feed into “the film scene” covered by C-U Blogfidential will no doubt take part, while an inevitable cloud of curious onlookers, media reporters, business leaders, and arts proponents will hover around the periphery to try and better understand how such an occurrence impacts our community, if not merely to be nosy. Although FOOD might not exude the scope or star power of something like THE INFORMANT!, it will be too easy for everyone to get caught up in the excitement.

How can the non-filmmakers du C-U help if they are not already lending FOOD services, locations, props, vehicles, or their pretty faces? We suggest they investigate other ways in which to aid our subculture, such as giving the gift of funding to those already making movies in our shared backyard. You’ve no doubt heard of “crowdsourcing,” the Internet fundraising method popular with producers who use it to appeal to potential consumers in order to secure budgets for various aspects of film production, post-production, marketing, and merchandising, yes? Several camps amongst us currently need you to help achieve their goals via said methods, so let’s take a look at the details!

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Space out, gang! Three full years after C-U Blogfidential last posted about SHEEBA, the first feature-length movie by Dreamscape Cinema of Champaign to be released in the United States, we’ve come full circle with the domestic distribution of MY DOG THE SPACE TRAVELER through NAMP/Cinedigm Home Entertainment as of yesterday, Tuesday, February 25. Not only has the studio revisited the boy-and-his-dog formula of SHEEBA but also successively sold international rights to all their initial titles, including DISCONNECT and ACT YOUR AGE. (This excludes their low-profile, micro-budget efforts seemingly mired in limbo, DISPOSABLE and LINK.) As you might have discerned, above is the cosmic box art and here is a more earthbound trailer:

Now available on extras-free DVD through Netflix and the expected merchants – Amazon, Best Buy, etc. – DOG is an adventure story involving the efforts of preteen Robbi (Logan Borsari), his parents Vernon (Chris Lemmon) and Pearl (Tonja Walker), and friends to rescue the family dog from an intergalactic portal hovering over a pond on their land. Silly as the conceit might be, it probably has the potential to attract more attention than SHEEBA due to the science fiction angle. We’ve already found this amusing DOGS notice by one MaryAnn Johanson, a.k.a. the “Flick Filosopher,” a.k.a. one of the many self-styled movie critics aggregated on Rotten Tomatoes. Johanson clues her readers in to comparable UK/Australia artwork that is oddly devoid of juvenile appeal save the title canine; see for yourself below.

DOGS director Robin Christian has been working on post-production for his most recent project, the action thriller LOWLIFES starring Booboo Stewart, Giselle Bonilla, Kyle Massey Mark Derwin, Quinton Aaron, Christopher Judge, Madelyn Deutch, and GHOSTBUSTERS veteran William Atherton, filmed in the Monticello and Champaign-Urbana areas last summer. According to Christian, Dreamscape will soon be announcing a drive to raise finishing funds for that film as they prep resources for production on a brand-new feature, the company’s first foray into the horror genre, later in 2014.

~ Jason Pankoke

p.s. Yes, we absolutely did go there with our headline. Deal.

The C-U Film Leader
November 23, 2012

Featuring: Dreamscape Cinema, Nina Paley & more!

The C-U Film Leader normally appears Thursdays on C-U Blogfidential to point our readers towards interesting cinema activity relevant to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, and the surrounding area. Please support the artists and their work, attend screenings and events, and otherwise become active in our wondrous little world!

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Happy post-Thanksgiving, dearest readers! We hope you are enjoying time with family and friends but can steal away a moment from the dinner table, televised football, and Black Friday consumerism to skim through this week’s C-U Film Leader, our new “beta mode” column. We plan to drum(stick) up at least one more helping next Thursday, November 29, so feel free to send feedback via cuconfidential [at] gmail [dot] com or unload your thoughts in the Comments field below. Cheers!

4 :: DREAMSCAPE CINEMA LAUNCHES KICKSTARTER
CAMPAIGN FOR HAUNTED LAKE PICTURE

It’s been a while since Monticello/Champaign producer Robin Christian has alerted us about projects under development at his Dreamscape Cinema studio, but it seems he intends to combine elements from a recent box-office smash and his own previous production in the story for his next film. While seeking distribution for the family fantasy MY DOG THE SPACE TRAVELER, the main location of which is a lake in the countryside, Christian is taking a stab at Kickstarter fundraising for the horror tale PARANORMAL LAKE, the main location of which is most likely a similar lake saddled with PARANORMAL ACTIVITY style mayhem. You can read over the plot crunch and pledge levels on this page; Dreamscape looks to amass a $25,000 budget by Friday, December 21, with shooting to presumably take place in 2013.

3 :: ANIMATION FAVE NINA PALEY RETURNS TO URBANA,
RELEASES BRAND-NEW SHORT

Remember those Heartland Magnetic Powers [TM] we mentioned last week in CULead? Come to find out, they’ve struck again as alternative cartoonist and animator Nina Paley has returned to her native Urbana for a spell after wowing the world with colorful tour-de-force SITA SINGS THE BLUES. News-Gazette writer Melissa Merli discussed with Paley the motivations behind her move in a “Studio Visit” piece run last month, also delving into her macabre Jewish-themed short THIS LAND IS MINE which is a sample scene from the proposed feature SEDER-MASOCHISM. You can review many of her early visual concepts, animation tests, and thought processes on her Web site as well as donate to the project; however, turn away if you can’t handle the lack of Disney sentimentality or DreamWorks superficiality.

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Once again, a locally-filmed production from Dreamscape Cinema of Champaign is being prepped for national domestic release! Distributor Vanguard Cinema has issued DVD specs to retailers for ACT YOUR AGE, the studio’s third official production, although sparse details imply the DVD will be just as bare-bones as the other Dreamscape discs which appeared at the beginning of 2011 through other labels, SHEEBA and DISCONNECT. CUBlog likes the simplicity of Vanguard’s duotone cover, on par with their typically bold design sense:

Filmed in the summer of 2005 in Champaign-Urbana and Monticello, ACT YOUR AGE dramatizes the lengths to which a young theater actor named Lake (Michael Muhney) will go to snag the lead role of an elderly man in a Broadway-bound show. Eccentric friends Doody (Mark Allan Stuart) and Vaughn (Frank Nicotero) help Lake concoct an alter ego named Ed and admit him into a local retirement home so the actor can observe residents much to the consternation of Lake’s girlfriend E.B. (Adrienne Frantz). What Lake ultimately learns from his new neighbors such as Andrew (Max Gail), Harold (Eddie Jones), and Tom (Pat Morita) changes his negative mindset about the aged and humbles his personal expectations from life itself. ACT YOUR AGE also stars Amber Benson as Harold’s daughter Julia and DISCONNECT’s Amanda Troop as a nurse.

Written, produced, and directed by Robin Christian, ACT YOUR AGE is scheduled to come out on Tuesday, December 20. No Blu-ray option seems to be in the offing, as with the other Dreamscape titles, while merchant pages list the running time as 91 minutes as opposed to the 105 minute cut we presented at last year’s New Art Film Festival.

~ Jason Pankoke

“C-U Biz-en-scène” appears every Thursday/Friday on C-U Blogfidential to give our readers a succinct snapshot of the cinema activity in and near Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA. Please support the artists and their work, attend screenings and events, and otherwise become active in our esoteric little world!

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MFHQ & YOU:
Speaking Confidentially du C-U

Rampant thoughts and fervent dreams are scampering underfoot at the ol’ MFHQ. The closer we inch towards 2012, the more strongly your humble editor yearns to shake things up and flip back numerous pages in the calendar of his life – possibly as far as 15 years or more – to reclaim unfulfilled glories with the most future potential. If all goes well according to his nascent plan, our production slate will not only ramp up but diversify well outside familiar C-U Confidential territory. Fans should not fear that we’re giving the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond the shaft, however, while all onlookers had better be on the alert for Opteryx-approved tomfoolery that will hopefully open everyone’s eyes, ears, minds, and hearts. Look out, world, you’ve been warned!

Until then, enjoy quality time with family and friends this Thanksgiving holiday weekend, and maybe even watch a little movie or two if you can. Bonus points will be earned by those who actually cook up projects while relatives sleep off their food comas. Artistic subterfuge will be ours!

ITEMS OF THE WEEK

Until we share the large-size cover art tomorrow on C-U Blogfidential, we’ll direct you to this Amazon listing for the third domestic DVD release this year of a feature film produced by Dreamscape Cinema of Champaign. This time, it’s ACT YOUR AGE, the one starring VERONICA MARS’ Michael Muhney as a struggling actor who checks himself into a retirement home incognito and learns more about the elderly generation than anticipated. Directed by company president Robin Christian, ACT YOUR AGE also stars Adrienne Franz, Eddie Jones, Max Gail, Pat Morita, Frank Nicotero, and Amber Benson. The Vanguard Cinema release is scheduled to drop on Tuesday, December 20 … And, until we catch a breath and post about the just-elapsed 49 Hour Film Festival next week, we can update you on other Illini Film & Video business involving the “club film,” SNOWBOUND. A cast has been announced, as University of Illinois students Ron Bowden, Austin Gomez, Victoria Thompson, Chuntanay Phillips, Jr., Gordon Agunobi, and Michael Kozuchowski will star as college friends who seek shelter in a campus building inhabited by a slightly creepy janitor to be played by IFV regular Michael Bach. Appropriately enough, production will begin this winter … CUBlog friend Bogdan Heretoiu of Urbana announced via Champaign Movie Makers a new “docu-drama” project he plans to shoot in locations from Champaign-Urbana to Chicago during the first half of 2012. “All positions will require a very good work ethic, passion, professionalism, excellent and prompt communication skills, a positive attitude, and last but not least, commitment,” he writes. Heretoiu does plan to pay crew, so interested parties should send contact information, resume, and minimum daily rates (as well as gear availability) to the filmmaker at HeretoiuHB [at] Arts4Hope [dot] com.

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“C-U Biz-en-scène” appears every Thursday/Friday on C-U Blogfidential to give our readers a succinct snapshot of the cinema activity in and near Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA. Please support the artists and their work, attend screenings and events, and otherwise become active in our esoteric little world!

~~~~~

MFHQ & YOU:
Playing 52-Column Pick-Up

Happy Saturday, gang! This CUBiz edition marks one full year’s worth of our signature weekly column, offering you the movie news pertaining to Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond! Despite a few struggles issuing the Biz in a timely manner, we’re pretty happy with the format and would love to keep ‘em coming alongside our other C-U Blogfidential editorial, but we’ve decided to break from active blogging for a few weeks beginning Monday, August 1. Between now and then, we will assemble one additional Biz for you as well as a few bonus goodies including a new “Double Life of a Cinéaste” entry from contributor Tyler Tharpe, while afterwards we will either go completely silent (excepting brief bits of activity on Facebook and YouTube, so befriend us now) or concede to writing calendar-only Biz columns and a Clean Slate or two. Any which way, don’t think we’re taking a true breather! Your humble editor, along with guest writers and editors, will begin work on fresh CUBlog material as well as brand-new C-U Confidential print product! No later than Friday, September 15, you should watch for not one but several important announcements right here, kicking off a new flow of local movie wonderment! Now is a great time for the C-U semi-empire to experience an “evolution of expression” which always starts from within – the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters, of course! – so while we put a new spin on old Biz-ness, we ask you to read on, MacDuffs:

• Just in time for yesterday’s nationwide release of CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, Dark Maze Studios of Champaign has unleashed yet another episode of its DEJA VIEW remakesploitation series, this one exploring the wild Turkish mash-up 3 DEV ADAM (1973) in which Cap and luchador superhero El Santo take on evil crime lord Spider-man (!);
• Filming began this week in Terre Haute, IN, on the comedic feature THE DRUNK, loosely inspired by the life of labor activist Eugene V. Debs, and Tanoos Fleschner Productions as issued a call for a “wide range of background extras.” Read up on the indie right here and then send your name, age, and phone number to extras [at] thedrunkmovie [dot] com if you want in. THE DRUNK is scheduled to wrap August 13;
• Johnny Robinson needs a last-minute presenter to anchor next week’s Champaign Movie Makers meeting which will take place on Tuesday, July 26, 7 p.m., at the Class Act Interactive/SODO Theatre space in downtown Champaign. Please write johnny [at] johnnyrobinson [dot] com if you might be interested in heading discussion about particular aspects of the filmmaking process;
• Dreamscape Design of Champaign is looking for actors to appear in a television commercial campaign for a hearing aid manufacturer, to be produced during the next several weeks. Roles include a grandfather, age 55-75, his best friend, age 48-68, his wife, age 55-70, his grandson, age 8-13, and a female laboratory technician, age 20-30. Candidates may send contact information, potential scheduling conflicts, and one head shot/photograph to PA [at] dreamscape [dot] bz;
• Sister company Dreamscape Cinema requires a digital artist to help complete post-production on their family sci-fi feature, MY DOG THE SPACE TRAVELER. Special effects work will include compositing, tracking, and rotoscoping; contact Robin Christian at (217) 359-8484 or Johnny Robinson at (217) 714-2748 for more information;
• We’ve received a mini-barrage of messages reminding everyone that the final deadline to submit films for inclusion in the Independent Film Quarterly Film & New Media Festival of New York City is next Friday, July 29. This annual event, sponsored by the festival-friendly IFQ Magazine based in Santa Monica, CA, will take place November 10-13, 2011;
• Finally, we send out a big drunken “Happy Birthday!” wish to our friend Colin Price, who turns a quarter-century old tomorrow, Sunday, July 24. Price is currently scripting the skin-crawling tales for an untitled thriller anthology film he intends to shoot soon in MICRO-FILM Country!

We also ask that you please read and heed this Call for Submissions proposed a few weeks ago on CUBlog; we would love nothing more than to learn about our dearest readers’ C-U movie lives in their own words during our break in the on-line action! Thank you in advance!

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We’re back with a second sampling of cinematic imagery pulled from our electronic archives that has never before appeared on C-U Blogfidential or in C-U Confidential! This round kicks off with an outdoor scene from TOO MUCH FLESH, starring Jean-Marc Barr and Élodie Bouchez as accidental lovers making life miserable for housewife Rosanna Arquette in the conservative American heartland. Directed by French filmmaker Pascal Arnold and filmed in nearby Rankin, IL, FLESH is the second of three “FreeTrilogy” dramas produced by Arnold and Barr, none of which have been distributed in the United States despite international festival play and home video release. LOVERS (1999) and BEING LIGHT (2001) are the two other features in this trilogy.

The above image appears in the filmed portion of Salvatore Martirano, Michael Holloway, and Ronald Nameth’s late Sixties multimedia collaboration L’s G.A., which we first wrote about a few years ago when Martirano’s colleagues revived the piece during the annual experimental music concert held at the University of Illinois School of Music in the late composer’s honor. Eventually re-edited and released separately, the film component of L’s G.A. is trippy montage set to Martirano’s electronic notations and a creepy recitation of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address by Holloway. Not surprisingly, it is rarely seen or performed although pricey copies of the original Polydor LP soundtrack appear regularly on eBay.

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“C-U Biz-en-scène” appears every Thursday/Friday on C-U Blogfidential to give our readers a succinct snapshot of the cinema activity in and near Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA. Please support the artists and their work, attend screenings and events, and otherwise become active in our esoteric little world!

~~~~~

MFHQ & YOU:
It’s One Hundred Thirty Miles from Chicago, We’re Running Out of Gas, We’ve Got a Full Pint of Beer, Half an April Schedule to Go, It’s Dark, and We’re Supporting Local Filmmakers

We don’t know about you folks, but we’re digging our abbreviated format below for the time being as we muddle through MICRO-FILM Country to accomplish what we’ve set out to do the next week plus – finish and distribute C-U Confidential no.5, attend and enjoy the 13th annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, table and speak at the first Midwest Zine Fest at the Independent Media Center, and otherwise sleep, eat, and survive! The Biz will continue keeping it quick for the next month, particularly since we’ll have a hearty surge of new and super-cool material to post for you as all of the above transpires. “It’s madness,” we say, but please enjoy the fruits of our labor!

Hit It:

• Robin Christian of Champaign’s Dreamscape Cinema confirmed for CUBlog that yet another of their productions has landed domestic distribution! ACT YOUR AGE, the drama-comedy about a desperate young actor who disguises himself as an elderly man and moves into a retirement home to study the inhabitants for an upcoming audition, will be released later this year by independent film label Vanguard Cinema. Release date and product specs are forthcoming;
• Julie Morgan of the Illinois Film Office also contacted CUBlog, letting us know that the IFO and the state’s Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity will once again sponsor the “Shortcuts” filmmaking contest, open to all Illinois residents 18 years of age and older. Entries should creatively showcase Illinois locations and talent; submissions should be sent on DVD and postmarked no later than Monday, August 1. You can write julie.morgan [at] Illinois [dot] gov or visit their Web site for full details;
• On the cinema studies front, Robin Murray of Eastern Illinois University sent CUBlog a Call for Papers that would be presented as part of this fall’s Embarras Valley Film Festival in Charleston. This year’s theme is “Films For and About Children and Young Adults;” 150-word abstracts should be submitted by Saturday, October 1, to either rlmurray [at] eiu [dot] edu or: Dr. Robin L. Murray, English Department, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL 61920. The symposium will take place Friday, November 11;
• We mentioned A. Lawrence Dreyfuss’ short film HAD HE FIDELITY last week but forgot to mention he’s raising a $3,000 budget for it via Kickstarter. Check here for a teaser video and sales pitch about the project, which Dreyfuss is positioning as “the first ever senior thesis film to come out of the University of Illinois,” a claim that is shaky if taking all campus departments into account but may be true in that “accomplished at a university without a film school” sense.

Of course, we’ll have even more to report next week!

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