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!

12/21: Max Libman (founder/host, CU International Film Festival, Urbana, IL)
12/21: Linda McElroy (volunteer, Route 66 Film Festival, Springfield, IL)
12/25: Shea Kelly (producer/host, FILMWAR! YouTube channel, A Thousand Yard Stare Productions, Decatur, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

It won’t stay silent for long…

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

…for we have such sights to show you.

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
HOMESTEAD, MUFASA: THE LION KING, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, GLADIATOR II, HER STORY (in Mandarin with English sub), KRAVEN THE HUNTER, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM (animation), MOANA 2 (animation), RED ONE, WICKED (12/20 on), A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, THE FIRE INSIDE (12/24 on), BABYGIRL, BABY JOHN (in Hindi with English sub), NOSFERATU (12/25 on)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
HOMESTEAD, MUFASA: THE LION KING, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER* (faith film), GLADIATOR II, KRAVEN THE HUNTER, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM (animation), MOANA 2 (animation), THE ORDER*, RED ONE, WICKED (12/20 on), The Royal Ballet: The Nutcracker (12/22, 3 p.m., 12/23, 7 p.m.; recorded), IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (12/22, 3 & 7 p.m.; 12/24, 12, 3 & 7 p.m.), A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, THE FIRE INSIDE (12/24 on), BABYGIRL, NOSFERATU (12/25 on) *single screenings daily

@ 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!

12/16: Lauren Laws (vlogger, Nyx Namor YouTube channel, Champaign-Urbana, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

This week, the Report would like to give credit to the C-U online magazine Smile Politely for their unwavering coverage of the arts and culture of our communities, especially when they put front and center the local folks and their creations, vocations, and activism that might be readily glossed over or ignored in the mainstream press outlets of the immediate region. We also love the enthusiasm that is expressed by their Arts Editor, Amy Penne, and her willingness to incorporate film doings in that overall space embraced by the magazine’s mission. Among the virtues of their editorial breadth, SP more readily picks up on and address C-U Blogfidential topics in a timely fashion than we’re able to right now.

That’s a good thing in our removed-from-the-milieu situation. Film culture usually receives the coverage elsewhere when something is actively filming, about to premiere publicly, wins an award, appeals to families, or is “Ebertfest” branded. Ye Ed knows because he still looks through the websites and socials of central Illinois sources for story ideas. From afar. Daily. Whether it’s good or bad, for C-U’s sake.

Several recent pieces on SP that we’ve read are solid examples. Your humble editor was invited to attend a work-in-progress screening of BRIM, the period-shifting drama about systemic racism in American health care that has been in the works from Keenan Dailey, Trude Namara, Kevin Lau, and their collaborators at Visage Entertainment and partner companies, but could not go; plenty of others apparently did including Penne, who digs into the film’s heady aims and themes. SP also shared another press release from the Champaign County Film Office and Flyover Film Studios that highlights regional production, in this instance a few selections with elements of the Christmas holidays in their storytelling and design; we will Scrooge a bit again as we did at Halloween and clarify that half the movies mentioned are Chicago productions made with a helping hand from professionals with east central Illinois ties, in particular the Flyover folks. Still, feel free to check them out regardless of their overall C-U DNA.

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Last month, Penne wrote eloquently about the “patchwork quilt” qualities of the revived magazine show PRAIRIE FIRE, once a WILL-TV staple in the Nineties and now an upgraded and award-winning program that basks in the glow of down-home localism, often with portraits of folks who flourish with their creative passions and better their communities in the process; the recent article touches on several high points of the current second season of episodes. One can also find relevant nods in SP’s omnibus pieces; the brand-new and annual “BEST of 2024” concludes with a big hat tip to Flyover and its commercial potential for the county coffers and those who want to work in entertainment media for a living, while the also-new and annual “WORST of 2024” ends with “heartbreak” as it reiterates Café Kopi will close its downtown Champaign location after 31-plus years in business on Sunday, December 22. The homey coffee house is a seminal location for Ye Ed due to the indirect role it has played in our Confidential doings.

And, inherent in the ways that SP likes to dissect the arguable deficiencies of the C-U in order to arrive at constructive solutions for us all to consider, their “empty spaces” round-up piece from September includes the umpteenth reminder that we don’t have the Art Theater anymore to enjoy. I visited town on Monday for personal reasons and drove past the dimmed marquee with the current $870,000 asking price hung on it – still sad looking, still a bit irritating to think about, and fated to be a recurring topic now that the city is digging up its central downtown parking lot a mere block away to make room for a beautified public plaza in order to attract all the foot traffic they’re hoping for. The blight has to be documented, whether it’s the Smile Politely way or otherwise, because it isn’t just about a vacant movie house, folks.

It’s our lives and we’re definitely the lesser for it. We don’t want to hear or read it sometimes, but thanks to the mettle of publisher Seth Fein and his editorial staff, we can keep thinking and learning about the C-U. As a former contributor and employee of what was the most comparable precedent, the alternative print weekly The Octopus founded by Paul Young, it’s heartening to see SP stay the course. Well done.

You know the drill, then. Read SP, send in your story ideas and words and feedback to SP, contribute with your wallet to SP to help float the modest operating capital they need each year. Two full decades of fostering low-budget public service and journalism for Champaign-Urbana and its citizens is certainly nothing to take lightly. May they continue to highlight our worthwhile and needs-improvement sides for twenty years more, and make sure Amy Penne is always caught up on our weird little film culture world.

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

To that end, however, we wouldn’t be CUBlog-ging if we felt there was nothing more for us to contribute about the cinematic arts of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond. After nearly twenty years of keeping a sharp eye on our topics of choice, we’re versed in putting together the two-and-twos that might just go over the collective heads at our area’s television and radio stations, newspapers, websites, podcasts, and other blogs. The following is a case in point and, honestly, even we didn’t see it coming.

CUBlog watches over the intriguing fare that is presented in Chicago and the suburbs along with what goes down in the C-U and we’re subscribed to a few relevant email sources on that front. It includes Chicago Filmmakers, a long-running non-profit center that teaches filmmaking skills and also screens non-mainstream fare. So, when we receive an announcement about a CF program called “Picture ReStart,” we have to take notice. Why? It’s because 31-plus years ago – that fateful time again, 1993 – we lost a fellow named Ron Epple who once was the one-man film force of Champaign-Urbana, and in particular on the University of Illinois campus, before he relocated to the Windy City. Among his achievements, Epple operated a short film distributor called Picture Start out of his home in Champaign.

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The company’s library of 16-millimeter prints was acquired by Chicago Filmmakers in the Nineties, initially to make them available as viewing and research copies, but now the group acts as a caretaker for the collection. They and curator Ben Creech will share some of the spoils in their new and monthly “Picture ReStart” series beginning on Saturday, January 18, 6 p.m., at the Historic Firehouse Cinema on 1326 W. Hollywood Avenue in Chicago. The first grouping is called “Her Expansive Self,” the show on February 15 is “Surface Tensions,” and the follow-up on March 25 is “Animated Breakdowns,” all teasing at what lies therein. CF should announce the individual films of each program on Facebook prior to the events, and you can read more about Creech, Epple, Picture Start/“ReStart,” and future dates on this web page.

It is a neat offering for those who appreciate the experimental and art films of yore, while it is certainly relevant to us as a body of work assembled by a C-U original in the C-U. We don’t often get windows into our cinema past from an era previous to, say, when Mike Trippiedi and his creative clan made DOGS IN QUICKSAND in 1997, so this is an effort we should support however we can. Maybe a C-U screening of a “Picture ReStart” compilation could be arranged for later in 2025 or early 2026? Let’s dream into action, ambassadors and promoters du C-U! In the meantime, let your minds wander with the following “teaser films” of sorts photographed by Chicago Filmmakers, which includes the wonderful Maya Deren in her classic dreamlike meditation, MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON, from 1943. Otherwise … what are they?

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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Esquire Lounge, Champaign, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* meeting (12/16, 7 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
HER STORY (in Mandarin with English sub), KRAVEN THE HUNTER, THE LAST DANCE (in Cantonese with English sub), THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM (animation), THE MAN IN THE WHITE VAN, FLOW (animation), GLADIATOR II, MOANA 2 (animation), RED ONE, WICKED, Y2K* (12/13 on), I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION (religious documentary) (12/14, 4 p.m.; 12/17, 7 p.m.), RM: RIGHT PEOPLE, WRONG PLACE (music documentary; in Korean with English sub) (12/14, 2 p.m.), BLACK CHRISTMAS 50th anniversary (12/15, 4 p.m.), AX Cinema Nights: BABYMETAL: LEGEND – 43 THE MOVIE (concert film) (12/15, 4:30 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), HOMESTEAD advance screening (12/16, 7 p.m.), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (12/16, 7 p.m.), HOMESTEAD (12/18 on), MUFASA: THE LION KING, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 (12/19 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
KRAVEN THE HUNTER, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM (animation), THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (faith film), GLADIATOR II, MOANA 2 (animation), THE ORDER, RED ONE, WEREWOLVES, WICKED, Y2K (12/13 on), “For King + Country: A Drummer Boy Christmas Live” (faith concert recording) (12/13-12/18, 1:30 p.m.), “Seventeen: ‘Right Here’ World Tour in Japan” (concert performance) (12/14, 7 p.m., simulcast), I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION (religious documentary) (12/14, 12/17, 4 & 7 p.m.), “André Rieu Christmas Concert” (faith concert recording) (12/14, 3 p.m.), WHITE CHRISTMAS 70th anniversary (12/15, 1 & 7 p.m.; 12/16, 7 p.m.), HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS (2000) (12/15, 3 & 7 p.m.; 12/18, 7 p.m.), MUFASA: THE LION KING, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 (12/19 on)

@ The Canopy Club, Urbana, IL
Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin “Ultimate Anthology” tour (film music of Argento, Romero, etc.) (12/14, 7 p.m. doors, 8 p.m. show)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
Illinois Public Media presents “The Arthouse Experience Film Series” feat. ROBOT DREAMS (animation) (12/14, 7 p.m.)

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!

12/6: Andy Due (producer/performer, Rubber Chicken Films/RL3 Productions, Charleston, IL)
12/8: Britten Traughber (photographer, Britten Traughber Photography, Tucson, AZ)
12/10: Sidney Taiko (editor/publisher, Storm Cellar, San Diego, CA)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

We at CUBlog plan to petition for this Friday to be designated as “Pankoke Comes Clean Day” and the only payment required is you lend us an ear! The Report is therefore turned over to him, for once, and if you listen very closely as you read, you might just hear our humble editor orating about a few recent activities he’s participated in apart from the Confidential. All MFHQ Deux and no play makes … well, you know.

At first, let’s flash back. The online Cultured Focus Magazine talked with our good friend Andrew J. Rausch in November about all things Quentin Tarantino and being a professional author on the occasion of his new book, Generation Tarantino: The Last Wave of Young Turks in Hollywood, being listed for release in mid-2025 by Rowman & Littlefield. As it seems to happen lately when Rausch is interviewed, the article inevitably leans into the topic of the famous filmmaker’s “lost first film” and the subject of a prior book, My Best Friend’s Birthday: The Making of a Quentin Tarantino Film, for which Mr. JaPan wrote an essay.

Last month, Ye Ed put on his festival cap outside of the late New Art Film Festival and the C-U for the first time in nearly 20 years at the service of the Lake County Film Festival in upstate Grayslake. He volunteered on a jury with veteran comedy writer Steve Young and documentary director Leslie McCleave to view and deliberate over the “Narrative Shorts” selections of the 2024 program; “Best Narrative Short Film” was awarded to AS EASY AS CLOSING YOUR EYES, an affecting drama with science fiction overtones about a grieving mother who turns to group therapy and more after losing her son. Nat Dykeman of the Chambana Film Festival organized the LCFF, which took place between October 31 and November 11.

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And just yesterday, Thursday, December 5, indie publisher Jason “Java” Croft of Champaign released the digital edition of the 70th issue of Bachelor Pad Magazine, a compact celebration of the Fifties and Sixties swingin’ lifestyle. It seems like only yesterday – well, 17 years ago, if we’re real about it – that Jason “Needs More Java” Pankoke designed the debut issue of the long-running quarterly and he moonlights today as a proofreader on all the regular and special issues. Breaking news: he might earn his first-ever byline in “The Digest of Atomic Age Culture” if a story prospect or two pan out. Sorry, but they’re top secret for now!

On Tuesday, December 3, boutique juggernaut Vinegar Syndrome launched their annual “Partners Only Month” during which they promote the wares of all the participating video labels who work with their OCR Distribution arm. This usually includes a raft of brand-new December releases for customers to feast upon and, in the POM Class of 2024, we have from Saturn’s Core Audio & Video of New Jersey the Blu-ray debut of Mike Trippiedi’s made-in-C-U-and-Sidney opus, DOGS IN QUICKSAND! We’ll comb through the details of this disc for you soon, but we can now reveal that Ye Ed had a slight hand in helping the eclectic video oeuvre of Trippiedi, Bill Yauch, and friends finally make it to the hi-def age.

In closing, we made mention a few weeks ago about Pankoke’s rare weekday trip to Champaign. It happened on a Tuesday and his main destination was the television studio lab for students at Parkland College. It seems that our Confidential associate Drea Aarons is taking a media production class or two per semester and she needed guests for a talk show concept, so myself and the effervescent Kaity Bequette joined her for some seasonal spooky discussion! It’s not intended to air on PCTV or online as it is for her class, but we can share the following sneak peek courtesy of Aarons.

In other words, what a timeline this has been! It almost feels like, dare we say it, old times.

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p.s. Although AS EASY AS CLOSING YOUR EYES had played in dozens of film festivals worldwide prior to appearing at LCFF, yours truly learned after the fact why this might have been a little more personal for some of the film’s key participants. It turns out that actress/co-producer Laura Coover, who plays the role of the mother “Lila,” and co-writer/co-producer/sound mixer Aaron Golden are both from Chicagoland and attended the University of Illinois in Urbana at roughly the same time. On the side during their UI studies, Coover played a minor role in the Mark Roberts movie of his play, WELCOME TO TOLONO, and Golden the lead part in the second dramatic short made by fellow underclassmen Chris Folkens, TOXIN. Assistant camera Chris Blim and executive producer Jon Michael Hill are also alumni of UI.

Considering the pro pedigree of the work on display in CLOSING YOUR EYES, the recurring lesson remains – we all start out somewhere, including the friendly corn-fed confines of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond, where we learn, experience, grow, move on, and repeat. Kudos to director Parker Croft and his team for crafting a completely realized and compelling portrait with this film. Try to see it when you can, dearest readers, for its success is well earned. You can learn more about the making of the film through the official website of Paper Horse Pictures.

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

My primary contribution to the Blu-ray of DOGS IN QUICKSAND was to design the souvenir booklet included in the package. Although I did create a handful of jacket designs for DVD products in the mid-Aughts, this endeavor was on a different level and I relied on my professional training in publication layout to piece it all together. While you will need to purchase DOGS in order to enjoy the full spread in print, which includes a complementary essay on DOGS by Heather Drain and then-and-now interviews between myself and our long-time confidant in film, Mike Trippiedi, we’ve been given the thumb’s up from Ross Snyder at Saturn’s Core to exclusively tease the booklet right here on C-U Blogfidential! You can click on the graphics below to pull up larger versions for easier viewing, and the impressionistic collage of the DOGS cast that appears on the booklet front and the slipcase was created by the artist Nate Higley.

We hope you dig on DOGS once a copy is securely in your paws!

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CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

15 Years Ago … Tuesday, December 1, 2009: On the occasion of World AIDS Day, a locally-made dramatic featurette called THIS LIFE AIN’T PRETTY has its world premiere at Brookens Auditorium on the University of Illinois campus in Springfield. It features Danielle Ward as the main character, Brittney, a heterosexual and seemingly healthy young woman and mother who is diagnosed with the virus that ultimately kills her, hitting her family and community hard with anguish and a test of their faith. A cautionary tale about the health concerns and stigma faced by African-American individuals who contract HIV, THIS LIFE AIN’T PRETTY is the first film release from Predestined Arts & Entertainment, an independent company that was established by sisters and Champaign natives Candice and Kimberly D. Conner to develop creative media by and for women and people of color. Kimberly, now a resident of the capital city, wore several hats as director, writer, editor, and a producer on the half-hour-long project, which also stars Kevin Craig West, Dingani Beza, Cheyenne Smith-Youngblood, Shirley Crawford, Irma Norris, and James Johnson in the supporting roles. THIS LIFE AIN’T PRETTY would soon play numerous festivals and educational events around the world, winning awards and leading to larger feature-length stories for Conner such as JUMP IN and BEFORE ‘I DO’. As reported on 12/1/09 at CUBlog. [R]

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

DOGS IN QUICKSAND* U.S. Blu-ray Release: Tuesday, 12/3, Limited via Vinegar Syndrome, Bridgeport, CT/Saturn’s Core Audio & Video, Bloomingdale, NJ

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting (12/9, 7 p.m., Room 1002)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
FLOW (animation), GET AWAY, RAY* (re-release), SOLO LEVELING: REAWAKENING (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), WEREWOLVES, Y2K, BONHOEFFER* (faith film), GLADIATOR II, MOANA 2 (animation), RED ONE, WICKED (12/6 on), RM: RIGHT PEOPLE, WRONG PLACE (music documentary; in Korean with English sub) (12/6-12/8), “For King + Country: A Drummer Boy Christmas Live” (faith concert recording) (12/6-12/9), Studio Ghibli Fest: MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (animé) (12/8, 3 p.m., English dub; 12/9, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (12/9, 7 p.m.), AX Cinema Nights: BABYMETAL: LEGEND – 43 THE MOVIE (concert film) (12/11, 7:30 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION (religious documentary) (12/12, 7 p.m.), BLACK CHRISTMAS 50th anniversary (12/12, 7:30 p.m.), INTERSTELLA 5555: THE 5TORY OF THE 5ECRET 5TAR 5YSTEM (animé) (12/12, 7:30 p.m.), KRAVEN THE HUNTER, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM (animation) (12/12 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
THE ORDER, WEREWOLVES, Y2K, THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (faith film), MOANA 2 (animation), GLADIATOR II, RED ONE, WICKED (12/12 on), “For King + Country: A Drummer Boy Christmas Live” (faith concert recording) (12/6-12/10), Studio Ghibli Fest: MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (animé) (12/7, 3 p.m., 12/9, 12/11, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub; 12/8, 3 & 7 p.m., 12/10, 7 p.m., English dub), The Metropolitan Opera: Die Zauberflöte (12/7, 1 p.m., recorded), UFC 310: Alexandre Pantoja vs. Kai Asakura, more (mixed martial arts) (12/7, 9 p.m., simulcast), BONHOEFFER (faith film) (12/8-12/10, 12/12), LOVE ACTUALLY 20th anniversary (12/8, 3 & 7 p.m., 12/11, 7 p.m.), “André Rieu Christmas Concert” (faith concert recording) (12/11, 7 p.m.), I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION (religious documentary) (12/12, 4 & 7 p.m.), KRAVEN THE HUNTER, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM (animation) (12/12 on)

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS (2000) (12/6-12/7, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
The News-Gazette Film Series presents IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (12/7, 1 & 7 p.m.), “Holiday in Whoville 2024” feat. HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS (1966) (12/8, 12 p.m. doors, 1-4 p.m. cartoon (shown hourly))

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!

11/22: Chase Todd (cohost, Phil & Chase Watch Everything podcast, Earth-217 Studios, Villa Grove/Savoy, IL)
12/3: Greg Woods (publisher, The Eclectic Screening Room, Toronto, Canada)
12/3: Bryan Wendorf (programmer/artistic director, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Chicago, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Mere hours after filing last week’s Report, Ye Ed was taking a late-night break at MFHQ Deux and scrolling through Google headlines on his phone. Algorithm powers of persuasion aside, it surprised him to find several stories within a sixty- or seventy-count assortment that were relevant to the Confidential methodology, considering all the publishing that is done online every day. These are those stories…

In one, Bloody Disgusting reported that Nicolas Elert and John Pata, the respective music score composer and director-writer of the filmed-in-Rantoul horror tale BLACK MOLD, were collaborating on releasing a limited-run vinyl soundtrack as well as the expected digital downloads through Elert’s Bandcamp profile. In another, Variety broke that WWE wrestling star CM Punk had been cast in the upcoming Syfy original series REVIVAL that is currently being filmed in Canada under the watch of Aaron B. Koonz and Luke Boyce, the latter of Shatterglass Studios and Flyover Film Studios in Champaign/Rantoul. In yet another, the Collider entertainment site elected to cite the late Roger Ebert and his love for CHOP SHOP, the low-budget “realist” drama from filmmaker Ramin Bahrani set on the streets of the Queens neighborhood in New York City; it was barely released to theaters in 2008 by Koch Lorber Films but found a large and receptive audience at Champaign’s Virginia Theatre the next year during the eleventh Roger Ebert’s Film Festival.

And in one more, Bloody Disgusting paid tribute to another creative and native son from Illinois, Ray Bradbury, with a glowing review of a new “Treehouse of Horror” episode on THE SIMPSONS entitled “Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes;” the Fox Network aired it last Sunday, November 24. Apparently, the final segment of the anthology special takes its cues from Fahrenheit 451, which was previously adapted for HBO a few years ago with Michael B. Jordan and Michael Shannon in the leads and Bahrani in the director’s chair. For our finishing move this bout, we have a colorful piece from Cageside Seats about the kinds of television that inspired a young Champaign-Urbana boy named Tony Khan, well before he took the reins at several professional sports operations and founded the popular All Elite Wrestling; G. I. JOE, THE A-TEAM, and World Wrestling Federation broadcasts were all favorites. Go figure, brother.

We will probably play a little fast, loose, and brief with Reports over the next few weeks since it’s the end of the year. There are further local film developments that we’re asked to not write about yet – “ugh” to la vida C-U and movie business confidentiality, grumbles Mr. JaPan – but those breaking announcements and a nostalgic flashback track will be shared before 2025 chimes in. Stay tuned!

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

In the meantime, we’ll happily plug once again the world premiere of THE L.A.F. KIDS from NorthEnd Empire LLC and their label, NorthEnd Empire Films, which is set for 6 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday, November 30, at the restored Fischer Theater in downtown Danville. Below is their show poster, which you can enlarge with a click so the QR codes can be scanned; they will direct you to last year’s IRRESPONSIBULL feature and the more recent SCAREBUSTERS. Also be sure to skim the NorthEnd Facebook account for more details, images, trailers, and appearances in central Illinois media. The Peoria-based group is clearly going to town at the grassroots level and loving it. More power to them!

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THE L.A.F. KIDS is a NorthEnd Empire LLC (Peoria/Champaign-Urbana/Chicago, IL) production that is written and directed by Nate L. Morris and edited by Sylvio Fleurimond. The film stars Brian Yabrough, Chuck Gibson, Marissa Curry, Holden Hightower, Na’Vaiya Lewis, Adila Taylor, Naijier Morris, Williams “Big Bill” Dixon, Reesha Morris, and Amanda Allhands.

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ The Fischer Theatre, Danville, IL
NorthEnd Empire LLC presents THE L.A.F. KIDS* red carpet world premiere (11/30, 6 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
MOANA 2 (animation), THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (faith film), BONHOEFFER (faith film), GLADIATOR II, HERETIC, RED ONE, VENOM: THE LAST DANCE, WICKED, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (11/29 on), FLOW (animation), “For King + Country: A Drummer Boy Christmas Live” (faith concert recording), RM: RIGHT PEOPLE, WRONG PLACE (music documentary; in Korean with English sub), SOLO LEVELING: REAWAKENING (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), WEREWOLVES, Y2K (12/5 on)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
MOANA 2 (animation), THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (faith film), BONHOEFFER (faith film), CONCLAVE, GLADIATOR II, A REAL PAIN*, RED ONE, VENOM: THE LAST DANCE, WICKED, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (11/29 on), NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION (12/1, 3 & 7 p.m.; 12/4, 7 p.m.), The Metropolitan Opera: Tosca (12/4, 1 & 6:30 p.m., recorded), “For King + Country: A Drummer Boy Christmas Live” (faith concert recording) (12/5 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE (11/22-11/23, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ Spurlock Center for World Cultures, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies* presents GREMLINS (12/5, 7 p.m., Knight Auditorium, free)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
The News-Gazette Film Series presents THE WIZARD OF OZ (11/30, 1 & 7 p.m.), Illini Radio Group presents “Mix 94.5 Throwback Thursdays” feat. FRIDAY (12/5, 7 p.m.)

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!

11/28: Ryan Mitchelle (editor, A ROYAL CHRISTMAS BALLET, Hybrid LLC, Woodland Hills, CA)
11/28: Robert Patrick Stern (cinematographer, CURSE OF THE SIN EATER, Samuel Goldwyn Films, Los Angeles, CA)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Just in time for the gift-giving season, Facebook adverts-in-disguise have been appearing over the last week or so for a few “personality-and-a-movie” special events that are coming to the area next year, so we might as well Report on them in case you or your loved ones would have the itch to attend. On the afternoon of March 16, the McAninch Art Center at the College of DuPage in west suburban Glen Ellyn will play host to “John Waters: A Live Director’s Screening & Commentary of Hairspray,” at which the Baltimore legend will kvetch lovingly about his sweet 1988 musical comedy. A week later on March 22 at the Peoria Civic Center in Peoria, fans can drop plenty of peanuts to enjoy “The Princess Bride: An Inconceivable Evening with Cary Elwes” and join the veteran actor, who played “Westley” in Rob Reiner’s arch and funny 1987 skewering of fantasy and swashbuckling tropes, in the moment. And a year from now on October 10, the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Bloomington will ask their patrons to vote for “Napoleon Dynamite Live,” a screening that will feature cast members Jon Heder (“Napoleon”), Jon Gries (“Uncle Rico”), and Efren Ramirez (“Pedro”) riffing on their 2004 surprise hit. We guess this is a thing, now? Waters has made special event appearances over the years, and we’re sure they’ve been totally worth it, while the “Napoleon” gang recently brought their three-man jam to the Egyptian Theatre up north in DeKalb over the summer, so it isn’t new for them. We weren’t kidding about the peanuts, either. It will cost the following to attend: $62-$72 for HAIRSPRAY and Waters, $24-$49 for NAPOLEON DYNAMITE and Team Pedro, and $29-$89 on up to a $159 VIP option for THE PRINCESS BRIDE and Elwes. If the cost added to dinner, travel, and possible lodging are worth it to you, have at it.

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

We turn from the nostalgia for cult classics that still received a boost from Hollywood and made $80 million combined at the US box office to the here-and-now of two local indies stretching their legs as best they can and a surprise live performance the gorehounds will lap up. First, John Isberg’s FINAL SUMMER will be screened again at Day of the Dead Chicago, taking place this weekend at the Crown Plaza O’Hare in Rosemont, during the film festival portion on November 23 at 4 p.m. with costar Bishop Stevens in attendance. Then, Ash Hamilton and company’s F’D: TALES FROM THE END TIMES will be given its actual, for-real, red-carpet premiere at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Illinois Theater of Jacksonville, a town where some of the filming took place for the sci-fi/horror anthology. And finally, nothing says Xmas quite like Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin, a modern iteration of the Italian prog-goth outfit that famously composed the soundtracks for numerous horror and giallo films by the likes of Dario Argento, Michele Soavi, Luigi Cozzi, and George A. Romero; they will play their last North American “Ultimate Anthology” gig of the year on Saturday, December 14, at the Canopy Club in Urbana, of all places. The tour name is due to the show being a pastiche of Goblin’s screen work and other compositions recorded over their career. C-U doesn’t get esoteric live performance connected to the cinema very often, so, don’t miss it!

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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Festival* screening series feat. THE HOBBY (11/24, 4 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
BONHOEFFER (faith film), GLADIATOR II, WICKED, THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (faith film), HERETIC, RED ONE, SMILE 2*, VENOM: THE LAST DANCE, WE LIVE IN TIME, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (11/22 on), Studio Ghibli Fest: POM POKO (animé) (11/24, 3 & 7 p.m., English dub; 11/26, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub) and THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAYUGA (animé) (11/25, 7 p.m., English dub; 11/27, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), MOANA 2 (animation) (11/26 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
BONHOEFFER (faith film), GLADIATOR II, WICKED, THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (faith film), CONCLAVE, HERETIC, A REAL PAIN, RED ONE, VENOM: THE LAST DANCE, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (11/22 on), The Metropolitan Opera: Tosca (11/23, 12 p.m., simulcast), ELF (11/24, 3 & 7 p.m.; 11/27, 7 p.m.), Studio Ghibli Fest: POM POKO (animé) (11/24, 3 & 7 p.m., English dub; 11/26, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub) and THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAYUGA (animé) (11/25, 7 p.m., English dub; 11/27, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), MOANA 2 (animation) (11/26 on)

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE (11/22-11/23, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
Illinois Public Media presents “The Arthouse Experience Film Series” feat. RUSHMORE (11/22, 7 p.m.)

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!

11/16: Kymberly Harris (founder/producer, Firsthand Films, Los Angeles, CA)
11/17: Eric Stanze (director/co-writer/executive producer, ANXIETY, Wicked Pixel Cinema, St. Louis, MO)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Not a ton to Report this week, although there’s plenty to talk about in the long run. The Route 66 International Film Festival of Springfield and the Lake County Film Festival of Grayslake, organized by Nat Dykeman of the Chambana Film Festival series, recently wrapped and the former has announced their award winners. At home, Chambana returns this Sunday, November 17, 4 p.m., at the Savoy 16 with THE PROBLEM OF THE HERO, a topical dramatization of when the playwright Paul Green and writer Richard Wright collaborated to adapt for stage the latter’s novel, Native Son, and passes have gone on sale at the Virginia Theatre for the next Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, which will open on Wednesday, April 23, with a brand-new 70mm print of John Ford’s THE SEARCHERS according to the News-Gazette. On YouTube, John Isberg of Swede Films (FINAL SUMMER) has uploaded a new cut of his short film RED HORSE, which we had not seen before, and it can be described as “an American tolerance story;” it stars Aaron Munoz, Jace Jamison, and Kyle A. Thomas as solders on opposite sides of the Civil War who make a brief truce. And, most empowering for the potential future of film production in our immediate area, the drama ALBANY ROAD opens today on more than 100 screens across the United States for a minimum one-week run, including at the AMC Champaign 13 on North Prospect Avenue. Filmed in large part in Champaign County and brought to the area by the proactive folks at Shatterglass Films and Flyover Film Studios with a helpful assist from the Champaign County Film Office at Experience Champaign-Urbana, be sure to remind everyone you know about that very fact. Time to show up, C-U.

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

During the post-credits ALBANY ROAD interview session at “Ebertfest” back in April, director and writer Christine Swanson praised their overall filming experience in the area and said she was happy for her film to be a “poster child” for what could be accomplished in Champaign-Urbana. It was one of several graceful complements offered by Swanson, her husband and the film’s producer, Michael Swanson, and their lead actress, the great Lynn Whitfield. Therefore, if you happen to be attending an AMC multiplex and notice the one-sheet poster below, framed outside by the entryway or inside the lobby, consider seeing their movie and returning the favor. They could have taken their art and business to a hundred other places than where we call home. Support goes both ways and, even though ALBANY ROAD will inevitably resurface on any combination of streaming services in the coming months, tell your theaters with your dollars and presence that you want to enjoy movies like this one in a communal setting. Additionally, we hear it’s a good film and that’s always a bonus when you want to go to bat for a non-mainstream, low-budget, high-quality picture. This is a special occurrence, the likes of which has rarely happened to date with the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond. (For better or worse, we should know.) All the best fortune to the Faith Filmworks team on their theatrical play!

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ALBANY ROAD is a Faith Filmworks LLC (Los Angeles, CA/Champaign-Urbana-Sidney-Monticello-Rantoul, IL) production that is written and directed by Christine Swanson and produced by Michael Swanson with cinematography by Spencer Combs, production design by Stefanie Mitchell, costume design by Fontella Boone, casting by Marissa Ross, and editing by Grisha Alasadi. Music composer is Leon Lacey, co-producer is Abe Thompson, producers are Brett Hays, Sarah Sharp, and Kevin McGrail, and the film stars Renée Elise Goldsberry, Lynn Whitfield, J. Alphonse Nicolson, Lisa Arrindell, Gary Dourdan, Joe Holt, Rachel Nicks, Ben Rappaport, and Lily Cowles. It is a 2024 theatrical release through AMC Theaters and Malco Theaters, runs 135 minutes, and is rated PG-13.

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Festival* screening series feat. THE PROBLEM OF THE HERO (11/17, 4 p.m.)

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting (11/18, 7 p.m., Room 1002)

@ Esquire Lounge, Champaign, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* meeting (11/18, 7 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
ALBANY ROAD, KANGUVA (in Tamil with English sub), THE OUTRUN, RED ONE, ANORA, THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (faith film), CONCLAVE, HERE*, HERETIC, MEMOIR OF A SNAIL* (animation), SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE*, SMILE 2, VENOM: THE LAST DANCE, WE LIVE IN TIME, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (11/15 on), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (11/18, 7 p.m.), BONHOEFFER (faith film) (11/18 on), GLADIATOR II, WICKED (11/21 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
A REAL PAIN, RED ONE, ANORA, THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (faith film), CONCLAVE, ELEVATION, HERE, HERETIC, SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE, SMILE 2, VENOM: THE LAST DANCE, WEEKEND IN TAIPEI, WE LIVE IN TIME, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (11/15 on), UFC 309: Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic, more (mixed martial arts) (11/16, 9 p.m., simulcast), THE POLAR EXPRESS (animation) (11/16, 11:30 a.m. & 2 p.m.; 11/17, 12:30, 3 & 7 p.m.), THE FIFTH ELEMENT (11/17, 4 & 7 p.m.; 11/20, 7 p.m.), GLADIATOR II, WICKED (11/21 on)

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents SCREAM (1996) (11/15-11/16, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
Illini Radio Group presents “Rewind 92.5 Movie Series” feat. THE BOY AND THE HERON (animé) (11/20, 7 p.m.)

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

~~~~~

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!

11/10: Andrew Nygard (filmmaker, PIG OF JUSTICE AND THE UNBELIEVABLE ROBOTS, Pens to Lens 2024, Champaign-Urbana, IL)
11/10: Andrew Stengele (filmmaker, THE WRONG THAT MADE THINGS MORE RIGHT, Pens to Lens 2024, Champaign-Urbana, IL)
11/14: Ross Snyder (co-owner, Saturn’s Core Audio & Video, Bloomingdale, NJ)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

It’s a folksy refrain that I’ve heard direct from the source a good number of times now. “Just another day,” says the cashier to Ye Ed at one of the gas stations out by the highway. If ever there was a small-town-livin’ mantra, that’s it. No matter our station in life at the present – where we reside, what we do, who we love and commiserate with, how we feel, why we keep hanging on – we’ll always have another day to look forward to. It can be a gift, even in the seemingly shittiest of times, based on what you, me, or we end up doing with it. Take care of yourselves and don’t give up. Always easier said than done. Always.

To that end … just another day, just another Report for you, dearest readers, revelers, and recoilers.

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Two of the local indie horror groups that we keep coming back to because they keep on screaming down the finish line fast with their respective projects are now campaigning for funds to help afford upcoming filmed frights. Acrostar Productions is deep in post on RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES, putting the final touches on NIGHT OF THE DEAD SORORITY BABES for their distributor, BayView Entertainment, and in full swing on Indiegogo with 23 days left to raise preproduction seed money for PERFECT SOUL; the supernatural thriller about one woman’s shaken faith, based on the book by Acro-head S. J. Hermann, is scheduled to be filmed in early 2025. Also howling for help are the creators of THE FAIRFIELD COUNTY FOUR, a found-footage drama pitting a team of cryptid vloggers against a werewolf in the Connecticut woods, which has its own Indiegogo in effect for the next 22 days to raise starting funds; set to be shot on location in April, FAIRFIELD will be directed by Joshua Brucker for his own labels, Gray Sky Pictures and Horror Dadz Productions, as well as Eye4Eye Productions of Georgia. His previous outings in the first-person vein are MOTHMAN, SPLIT SCREEN, and THE WOODMEN.

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Two other locally-filmed indies are making their whereabouts known this month. A year after staging a red-carpet premiere for the comedy IRRESPONSIBULL at the Virginia Theatre, the folks at NorthEnd Empire LLC are back with another “home talent” romp in THE L.A.F. KIDS, which will world premiere in style at the Fischer Theatre in downtown Danville on Saturday, November 30, 6 p.m. There is a link for ticket sales and a trailer available at the NorthEnd Facebook account; directed by IRRESPONSIBULL’s Nate L. Morris, the self-described family film stars Brian Yarbrough, Chuck Gibson, Marissa Curry, Holden Hightower, Na’Vaiya Lewis, Adila Taylor, and Naijier Morris in a tale involving nefarious-looking men in black and kidnapping – hence, the “lost and found kids” of the title. Also, at long last, Champaign-Urbana will finally get a first look at the realist drama DEATH ON THE STREETS, filmed partly in the county and partly along the New Jersey coast a few years ago, when director Johan Carlsen and producer Micah Magee present it at 2 p.m. on this Sunday, November 10, at the Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX in Savoy. Described as “a nature film from the agrarian democracy of America,” the piece stars Zach Mulligan and Katie Folger and has been all but AWOL since its brief international festival play in 2020 and 2021.

In closing, we congratulate a long-time contributor to our film scene, Andrew Stengele, on accepting the reigns to Champaign Movie Makers from Thomas Nicol, becoming only the third person to run the social and networking group in its 16-year history starting with CMM founder Johnny Robinson. Their next meeting is on the calendar for Monday, November 18, 7 p.m., at the Esquire Lounge in downtown Champaign, so be sure to cry a tear in your beer for ol’ Mr. JaPan since he won’t be there, remind DEATH ON THE STREETS background extra Michael Fuerst that he’s sitting in my seat again, and ask bartender Shelley about WEREWOLF CEMETERY. Awoo!

CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

25 Years Ago … Sunday, November 8, 1999: PBS affiliates premiere the hour-long television special TRANSISTORIZED!, which dramatizes the creation of the solid-state electrical component that would replace the vacuum tube and make possible much of the consumer technology we use to this day. Archive materials, reenactments, and narration by host and cowriter Ira Flatow (NEWTON’S APPLE) recall the many months of trial and error that physicists Walter Brattain, John Bardeen, and William Shockley went through that led up to December 23, 1947, the day Brattain invented a “triangle” of plastic, germanium, and gold foil based on Bardeen’s ideas that successfully amplified currents. Shockley, a supervisor for the project at the Bell Telephone Laboratories in New Jersey who was not present during the discovery, improved on their design independently from the entire team in an effort to control how this potential breakthrough would be credited in the future. Bardeen left Bell Labs in 1951 thanks to Shockley’s micromanagement streak and joined the faculty of the physics and electrical engineering departments at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he taught until 1975 and continued to research and publish until his death in 1991. Despite a falling out between the three primary researchers as coworkers, they celebrated together in 1956 as laureates after accepting the Nobel Prize for physics in Stockholm, Sweden, in honor of their achievements with superconductivity. Colleagues from Illinois who appear in interview segments include the physicists Frederick Seitz and Nick Holonyak, Jr., and historians Charles C. Stewart and Lillian Hoddeson. Richard O’Rourke plays Bardeen in the flashback scenes of TRANSISTORIZED!, which was directed by Gary Glassman for KTCA-TV and ScienCentral, Inc., in association with Boston Science Communications. [R]

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Makrorama presents DEATH ON THE STREETS* local preview (11/10, 2 p.m., free)

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting (11/11, 7 p.m., Room 1002)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
ANORA, THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (faith film), CESIUM FALLOUT (in Cantonese with English sub), ELEVATION, HERETIC, MEANWHILE ON EARTH, MEMOIR OF A SNAIL (animation), SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE*, BHOOL BHULAIYAA 3* (in Hindi with English sub), CONCLAVE, HERE, SINGHAM AGAIN (in Hindi with English sub), SMILE 2, VENOM: THE LAST DANCE, WE LIVE IN TIME, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (11/8 on), RED ONE sneak preview (11/10, 4 p.m.), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (11/11, 7 p.m.), KANGUVA* (in Tamil with English sub) (11/13 on), RED ONE (11/14 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
“Andrea Bocelli 30: The Celebration” (concert special), ANORA, THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (faith film), ELEVATION, HERETIC, SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE, WEEKEND IN TAIPEI, BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, CONCLAVE, HERE, HITPIG! (animation), SMILE 2, TERRIFIER 3, VENOM: THE LAST DANCE, WE LIVE IN TIME, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (11/8 on), ABSOLUTION* (11/8, 11/11-11/14), The Royal Ballet: Swan Lake (11/8, 5 p.m.; 11/9, 2:30 p.m.; 11/10, 1:30 & 7 p.m.; IMAX), THE SUBSTANCE (11/9-11/14), PULP FICTION (11/10, 3 & 7 p.m.; 11/13, 7 p.m.), RED ONE sneak preview (11/10, 4 p.m.), DRAGON BALL DAIMA (animé) (11/10, 11/12, 7 p.m., English dub; 11/11, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English dub), RADIATING JOY: THE MICHELLE DUPPONG STORY (religious documentary) (11/12, 4 & 7 p.m.), RED ONE (11/14 on) *single screenings daily

@ Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Center for World Cultures, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies* presents ALIEN: ROMULUS (11/14, 7 p.m., free)

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents IT ENDS WITH US (11/8-11/9, 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!

10/29: Julie Staley (producer/director, FIELDS OF GOLD, Spencer Films, Springfield, IL)
11/1: Amy Lynn Best (co-owner, Happy Cloud Media, LLC, Pittsburgh, PA)
11/3: Wes Melton (actor, RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES, Acrostar Productions, Chicago, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Let’s keep the Report on the brief side this week, shall we? Spencer Films of Springfield, led by the multi-hyphenate media producer and personality Julie Staley, announced last week that FIELDS OF GOLD, their acclaimed and well-traveled documentary on the life of Decatur business legend A. E. Staley, is now available to watch on Amazon Prime; the Spencer team, including Tim Lynn and Laura Richter, also just received a Mid-America Emmy Award for their affecting short subject, MUSIC OF HOPE, about the outreach done by University of Illinois-Springfield instructor and violinist Dr. Yona Stamatis to keep alive the memory of those affected by the Holocaust. Happening as well in the Capital City is the 23rd annual Route 66 International Film Festival, which is showing a program of approximately thirty shorts and features between today, Friday, November 1, and tomorrow, Saturday, November 2, at the Hoogland Center for the Arts in the downtown district; the array includes a half-dozen “Made in Illinois” selections, such as Ben Harl’s documentary AFTERLIFE and Thomas Nicol’s drama THE VENUS GAMBIT, and a set of shorts made by youth involved in the local 4-H chapter. And, helping young people find their talents and voices was surely on the mind of professional media veterans Leslie and Richard Frank who, according to a Daily Illini article from September 23, have bestowed a $2.5 million donation upon the College of Media at the University of Illinois in Urbana for major upgrades to Gregory Hall; the work, expected to start next summer, would modernize the basement classrooms and hallways as well as install a multi-purpose media production area that will provide space for “a press conference room, a cinema production studio, and a hybrid teaching classroom” to be utilized by students enrolled in Media’s various majors.

25 YEARS DU C-U | Publishing and Our Screen Scene

We won’t be shy about the significance that today’s Almanac entry holds for us here at the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters – behold the “anniversary collage” made by Ye Ed over on a site we haven’t had a legitimate occasion to highlight for some time – and we might as well point out the less-obvious dual meaning of it. Even though C-U Blogfidential was launched in 2006 and its companion print digest arrived the following year, it was within MICRO-FILM issue 1 where the concept of characterizing the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond under the “C-U Confidential” umbrella was born. Therefore, the overall project of chronicling and lifting up the film culture local to us has technically reached the quarter-century mark of existence along with our original Paper Opteryx endeavor. Since we don’t have the master files handy from the past life of MICRO-FILM – who knew we’d reach a point where CD-ROMs and compatible drives were not needed in the weekly workflow? – we’ll share a snap of the very first page of content to ever brandish that Confidential flair. We need to celebrate this close-to-impossible DIY milestone, we know, and should have figured it out by now. Oh, what will it be, C-U?

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CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

25 Years Ago … Friday, October 29, 1999: After more than a year of development, networking, and production, the first print issue of MICRO-FILM magazine is introduced on opening night of the third annual Freaky Film Festival at the New Art Theater in downtown Champaign, Illinois. [R]

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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Hoogland Center for the Arts, Springfield, IL
23rd Route 66 International Film Festival* (11/1-11/2)

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting (11/1, 7 p.m., Room 1002)

@ Golden Corral, Springfield, IL
Central Illinois Film Commission* meeting (11/7, 7 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
ABSOLUTION, BHOOL BHULAIYAA 3 (in Hindi with English sub), CHASING CHASING AMY (documentary), GODZILLA MINUS ONE* and …MINUS COLOR* (re-release) (in Japanese with English sub), HERE, HITPIG!* (animation), LOST ON A MOUNTAIN IN MAINE*, SINGHAM AGAIN (in Hindi with English sub), BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, CONCLAVE, SMILE 2, TERRIFIER 3, VENOM: THE LAST DANCE, WE LIVE IN TIME, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (11/1 on), THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER advance screening (11/2, 4 & 7 p.m.), AX Cinema Nights presents METROPOLIS (animé) (11/3, 11/6, 4:30 p.m., in Japanese with English sub; 11/4, 7:30 p.m., English dub), ANORA, THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (faith film), ELEVATION, HERETIC, MEANWHILE ON EARTH, MEMOIR OF A SNAIL (animation), SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE (11/7 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
GODZILLA MINUS ONE (re-release) (in Japanese with English sub), HERE, HITPIG! (animation), BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, CONCLAVE, GOODRICH*, JOKER: FOILE À DEUX*, SMILE 2, THE SUBSTANCE, TERRIFIER 3, VENOM: THE LAST DANCE, WE LIVE IN TIME, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (11/1 on), CORALINE (animation) (re-release) (11/1, 12:45 & 6:15 p.m. standard, 3:30 & 9 p.m. 3-D), THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER advance screening (11/2, 4 & 7 p.m.), Brandon Lake and Phil Wickham present “For the One” (worship concert film) (11/2, 3 p.m.), JOHN WICK 10th anniversary (11/3, 4 & 7 p.m.; 11/6, 7 p.m.), TWISTER (11/3, 3 & 7 p.m.; 11/6, 7 p.m.), THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (faith film), HERETIC (11/7 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents FLY ME TO THE MOON (11/1-11/2, 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!

~~~~~

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.

~~~~~

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Given this week is suddenly over and your humble editor is swamped after a brief and impromptu tip to Champaign to participate in one of several recent not-the-usual activities that will be revealed at a later time, we’re going to pass on a full-blooded Report. Our dearest creatures know well enough to research their Halloween delights – well, the public-facing delights, anyway – in the Calendar below, and we’ll get back to it on the flip side. A big “boo!” to all of you as the creepy season winds down!

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

So, we’ve learned about a couple of indie frights recently that are tangential to the C-U. One is HAUNT SEASON, a slasher set in a haunted house that apparently is an atypical take on the scenario that emphasizes characterization and drama over the visceral. Directed by Jake Jarvi and filmed in the real-life Realm of Terrors attraction in the north Chicago suburb of Round Lake Beach, HAUNT SEASON was released to VOD by Dread/Epic Pictures on October 8 and will be given a rare theatrical screening this Sunday, October 27, 4 p.m., at the Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX by the Chambana Film Festival, who plan to have participants from the film in attendance. This will be the last CFF show before their annual Lake County Film Festival takes over the College of Lake County campus in Grayslake, their opening night set for this coming Thursday, October 31, and runs for two consecutive weekends. You can peruse their impressively loaded program right here and should consider a trip to check it out in person.

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The other is CURSE OF THE SIN EATER, which to our C-U trained eyes was a surprise inclusion in a “suggested Halloween viewing” bit carried by WCIA-TV and other media outlets in the region. All the other films in the piece, offered up by the Champaign County Film Office and Flyover Film Studios with the intention of promoting local production, have been talked about to some degree on CUBlog: BLACK MOLD, FINAL SUMMER, REVEALER, BROOKLYN 45, and SLICE. The distinction to be made here is the latter two, along with SIN EATER, are really Chicago/land productions in which industry talents from central Illinois took part. We looked into it and SIN EATER is a recent VOD release from Samuel Goldwyn Films filmed in Chicago and Barrington Hills with an assist from Hoke Construction of Paxton; it involves a young construction worker (Carter Shrimp) who unwittingly inherits the manifestations of sins from a wealthy businessman (Larry Yando) after the latter passes; Elizabeth Laidlaw, Marcelo Wright, and REVEALER’s Shaina Schrooten also star in the tense-looking film, which was directed by Justin Denton.

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Finally, to fall back with reason on our long-standing “set but not filmed in Illinois” hang-up, we suggest to you one of the original and ultimate “gateway horror” classics, however flawed it seems in retrospect. In the next few weeks, we’ll tell you how this movie and its source material contributed to the foundation of the study of the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond. It may surprise you, or even shock you. Feel that chilly air? Not a coincidence at all. For, by the pricking of Ye Ed’s thumbs…

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A bonus for everyone who kept reading: WCIA also aired a short interview early Friday, October 25, with veteran film director Dwight H. Little (HALLOWEEN 4, MARKED FOR DEATH), and we can only presume that it was intended to promote his memoir, Still Rolling (McFarland & Co.), even though the book was published more than a year ago. Still, seems like a friendly chap with a wealth of knowledge to impart; a more in-depth discussion with Bee Delores of Bloody Disgusting from the beginning of the year will give you a better idea about Little’s late-career outlook and ideals. He is still active in the industry; a new action film is in pre-production and a horror tale, NATTY KNOCKS, arrived last year via Vertical Entertainment.

CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

10 Years Ago … Friday, October 31, 2014: Thanks to a resolution sponsored by representative Kay Hatcher, the Illinois General Assembly has decreed today “Svengoolie/Rich Koz Day” in the state of Illinois. The veteran entertainer will make several media and personal appearances in celebration, while his (presumably prerecorded) alter ego appears all day long on national cable network MeTV. Also, props and ephemera from his long-running B-movie program (1979-1986 on WFLD-TV 32, 1995-present on WCIU-TV 26/MeTV) recently went on display in Chicago’s Museum of Broadcast Communications. [R]

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL, 4 p.m.
Chambana Film Festival* screening series feat. HAUNT SEASON* w/filmmakers (10/27, 4 p.m.)

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting (10/28, 7 p.m., Room 1002)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
CONCLAVE, LONGLEGS w/THE MONKEY sneak preview, VENOM: THE LAST DANCE, WE LIVE IN TIME, BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, JOKER: FOILE À DEUX, THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS* (animation) (re-release), PIECE BY PIECE (documentary/animation), SATURDAY NIGHT, SMILE 2, TERRIFIER 3, TRANSFORMERS ONE (animation), THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (10/25 on), Studio Ghibli Fest: KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE 35th anniversary (animé) (10/26, 3 p.m.; 10/27, 3 & 7 p.m.; 10/29-10/30, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub or English dub), Brandon Lake and Phil Wickham present “For the One” (worship concert film) (10/27, 4 p.m.), MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM III: ENCOUNTERS IN SPACE (animé) (10/27, 4:30 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), HERE (10/31 on)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
CONCLAVE, VENOM: THE LAST DANCE, WE LIVE IN TIME, THE APPRENTICE, BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, EXHIBITING FORGIVENESS*, GOODRICH, GRACIE & PEDRO: PETS TO THE RESCUE!* (animation), HOCUS POCUS* (re-release), JOKER: FOILE À DEUX, THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS* (animation) (re-release), PIECE BY PIECE (documentary/animation), RUMORS*, SATURDAY NIGHT, SMILE 2, THE SUBSTANCE, TERRIFIER 3, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (10/25 on), Studio Ghibli Fest: KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE 35th anniversary (animé) (10/26, 3 p.m.; 10/27, 3 & 7 p.m.; 10/28-10/30, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub or English dub), THE EXORCIST (10/27, 3 & 7 p.m.; 10/30-10/31, 7 p.m.), Brandon Lake and Phil Wickham present “For the One” (worship concert film) (10/27, 4 p.m.; 10/28-10/29, 7 p.m.), CORALINE (animation) (re-release) (10/31, 12:45 & 6:15 p.m. standard, 3:30 & 9 p.m. 3-D), HERE (10/31 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents HOCUS POCUS (10/25-10/26, 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!

10/16: Chaz Ebert (producer/host, Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, College of Media, UIUC, Champaign, IL)
10/18: Mike Everleth (publisher, Underground Film Journal, Los Angeles, CA)
10/20: Lana Wildman (volunteer, Route 66 Film Festival, Springfield, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Monsters from lore, aliens not of this earth, and beings that are arguably human exist all around us if you believe the films being made by a new collective, Horror Dadz Productions, and in this Report we reveal how to find their found footage exploits. Follow our leads (but beware!) if you want to explore more…

We’ve mentioned before a Horror Dad named Joshua Brucker who hails from Watseka, a small Illinois town within easy driving distance of Hoopeston and Onarga, and his group specializes in the “reality” horror subgenre launched a quarter of a century ago with THE LAST BROADCAST and THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT that has seemingly never let up since. In various producing combinations over the last few years, the Horror Dadz have pumped out around ten shockers so far that are told, at least in part, from the camera’s vantage point. The Report won’t even try to unravel all the nitty gritty of their combined oeuvre within this space, so we’ll focus on Brucker’s own work as director/writer to send us down a few of their “Cryptidverse” rabbit holes. There are four major projects realized under his creative watch so far.

The Clifton native came to our attention about a year ago when he arranged for a premiere screening of his then-new tale, THE WOODMEN, at the former Little Lorraine black box theater in Hoopeston. It is a co-production between Horror Dadz, Brucker’s Gray Sky Pictures, and partner 105ive Films, with the latter releasing the film on Blu-ray commercially back in June and securing it spots at VOD sites like Amazon Prime and AVOD such as Tubi. Filmed in eastern Tennessee in 2023, the film pits a trio of explorers played by Anna Clary, Dan Grogan, and Hunter Nino against a band of the titular creeps who haunt the Smoky Mountains with feral savagery. This is Brucker’s second feature.

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Before that came MOTHMAN, a previous joint between Gray Sky and Horror Dadz, in which a couple played by Liz Fletcher and Christopher Kuriata go searching in the central Ohio wilds for the truth behind the disappearance of the wife’s brother (Randall Cole) seemingly connected with the well-known cryptid. This title was issued in both standard and collector Blu-ray editions at the beginning of 2024 by a label called Not Quite Reality Distribution, which counts several of the Dadz’ pictures in its catalog. On a separate site run by Horror Nerd Productions (sounds … familiar?) is the Blu-ray for SPLIT SCREEN, a duology feature with segments shepherded by Dillon Brown – “Greys: The Nevada Alien Incident” – and Brucker – “The Illinois Valley Murder Tapes” – the latter of which stars Samantha Hupp, Tayler Holler, and Nino and has the distinction of being the first Cryptidverse story to be shot in our region.

The second, UNTITLED FOOTAGE, is an extension of the “Murder Tapes” serial killer segment and involves the sister of Hupp’s character, played by Tori Zanoni, heading out with a camera-equipped friend (Rodney B. Snyder) to uncover the truth behind Nino’s “Claw Hammer Killer.” It is one of the first features to debut exclusively on the just-launched service, Found TV, which is populated with exactly the types of indies you think such a site would love and curate. Found joins the established POV Horror site as go-to destinations for found footage fare, and you’re guaranteed to find the Horror Dadz lurking within.

Brucker himself is responsible for a segment in Horror Fix Films’ upcoming anthology, F’D: TALES FROM THE END TIMES, and has more Horror Dadz duties in store. As for what we make of it all, right now we’re awaiting copies of his material evidence that allegedly captures the unexplainable in America from our unnamed sources – why spoil the first-time viewing with commercials? – and will report back on our findings. That’s assuming we make it through to the final minutes without being abducted or something…

Don’t try it, Dadz. We have eyes in the backs of our heads. Oh … wait … we redact that comment. Carry on, then.

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

Since we spent a lot of effort digging into the on-screen mythology and conspiracy being set up here, we’re keeping it simple with this week’s Images and presenting to you a map of Horror Dadz hot spots (it can be enlarged with a click) and some artwork from Brucker’s contributions.

There is certainly more to unearth (read: Facebook), and here are a few prompts for your Google-y fingertips. The current Dadz line-up includes Michael Rock, Matt Van Bodegraven, Dustin Tamplen, Nino, Brown, and Brucker, who are located throughout the Midwest and Southwest. [Not twenty-four hours after this Calendar went live, CUBlog received a mysterious message that pinpointed the artists’ whereabouts as being in Indiana, Michigan, and Nevada as well as Illinois … the same locations as the sightings noted on the map. Coincidence? – ed.] Other films in the Cryptidverse and beyond include GHOST (demonic forces!), LIGHTS OVER MONTGOMERY COUNTY (aliens!), TAHOE JOE (Bigfoot!), TAHOE JOE 2 (Bigfoot back for more!), and MIDNIGHT FEATURE, a five-part, half-hour anthology series with a possibly undead host, “The Curator,” played by the busy indie horror actor John Potash.

We mere mortals will be swarmed with phenomena films from the Horror Dadz stable in the near future such as a second season of MIDNIGHT FEATURE, Brown’s slasher with a stylistic switch-up, THE SUMMER WE DIED, and Brucker’s newly announced werewolf romp, THE FAIRFIELD COUNTY FOUR. We’re also going to need to set up a custom idea board in the spare office space of MFHQ Deux in order to keep track of all this. Sigh. Our work is never done…

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CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

30 Years Ago … Friday, October 21, 1994: Following early-bird reviews by The New York Times‘ Caryn James and The Los Angeles Times‘ Kenneth Turan, The Chicago Sun-Times would print Roger Ebert’s ecstatic vote of confidence in the documentary HOOP DREAMS, a Chicago-based production about two inner-city high school students banking on college basketball careers as a step towards the proverbial “way out.” His persistent support of this film famously hit a crescendo when the movie critic cried foul over the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences overlooking it in both the “best picture” and “best documentary” Oscar categories. HOOP DREAMS director Steve James would ultimately return the favor with his work on the Ebert documentary LIFE ITSELF. [R]

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Esquire Lounge, Champaign, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* meeting (10/21, 7 p.m.)

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting (10/21, 7 p.m., Room 1002)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
EXHIBITING FORGIVENESS, GRACIE & PEDRO: PETS TO THE RESCUE!* (animation), KENSUKE’S KINGDOM* (animation), RUMORS, SMILE 2, STAND BY ME* (in Mandarin with English sub), THE APPRENTICE*, BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, IT ENDS WITH US, JOKER: FOILE À DEUX, MY HERO ACADEMIA: YOU’RE NEXT* (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS* (animation) (re-release), PIECE BY PIECE (documentary/animation), SATURDAY NIGHT, SPEAK NO EVIL*, TERRIFIER 3, TRANSFORMERS ONE (animation), THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (10/18 on), DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE* (10/18-10/22), AX Cinema Nights presents “Gundam Fest” feat. MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM II: SOLDIERS OF SORROW (animé) (10/20, 4:30 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (10/21, 7 p.m.), LONGLEGS w/THE MONKEY sneak preview (10/23, 7:15 p.m.; 10/24, 7:45 p.m.), AX Cinema Nights presents “Gundam Fest” feat. MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM III: ENCOUNTERS IN SPACE (animé) (10/23, 7:30 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), CONCLAVE, VENOM: THE LAST DANCE (10/24 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
EXHIBITING FORGIVENESS, GOODRICH, GRACIE & PEDRO: PETS TO THE RESCUE!* (animation), HOCUS POCUS (re-release), RUMORS, SMILE 2, THE APPRENTICE, BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE*, JOKER: FOILE À DEUX, THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (animation) (re-release), PIECE BY PIECE (documentary/animation), SATURDAY NIGHT, THE SUBSTANCE, TERRIFIER 3, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (10/18 on), MY HERO ACADEMIA: YOU’RE NEXT* (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub) (10/18-10/19, 10/21-10/22), The Metropolitan Opera: Grounded (10/19, 12 p.m., simulcast; 10/23, 1 & 6:30 p.m., recorded), BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II 35th anniversary (10/19, 10/21, 7 p.m.), SAW 20th anniversary (10/20, 4 & 7 p.m., 10/23, 7 p.m.; unrated), THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN – PART 2 (10/20, 3 & 7 p.m.; 10/23, 7 p.m.), VENOM: THE LAST DANCE, WE LIVE IN TIME (10/24 on) *single screenings daily

@ Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Center for World Cultures, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies* presents “Documentaries on the Frontline of Democracy: How Kartemquin’s Storytelling Works for Stronger Publics” lecture (10/18, 2 p.m.)

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents DESPICABLE ME 4 (animation) (10/18-10/19, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
The News-Gazette Film Series presents REAR WINDOW (10/19, 1 & 7 p.m.)

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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FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

No surprise at all, there has been even more movement on locally-photographed and produced movies that we wish to Report, dearest readers! To start with the seasonally creepy one, Into the Night Motion Pictures of Normal shared a week ago that HUNTING FOR THE HAG, their outdoors thriller mentioned in our previous Report, is now available to watch on the ad-supported sites Tubi and Plex as well as through Fandango at Home and Amazon Prime. Since completing HAG and securing their distribution deal, the studio has embarked on investigations anew for their GHOST GIRLS paranormal reality series and filmed a pair of new episodes in the fall of 2023 that should finally be arriving in the coming months; the pilot has been haunting Tubi since 2021 at this very spot, cold with alleged activity and hot with hot tub action.

Joining GIRLS and HAG in the catalog of the popular service as of last week is HOLIDAY HOLD-UP, the comedic heist romp we told you about earlier in the summer. We know nothing else about the distribution plans for the project, which is the latest collaboration between The Line Film Co. of Chicago and Shatterglass Films of Champaign to see commercial release, but their hands are otherwise full. Shatterglass’ Luke Boyce is overseeing production with Aaron B. Koontz in the New Brunswick province of Canada on the first season of the Syfy program REVIVAL, which was ordered to series a few months back and has been in the works for some time, while the rest of their team shores up the Flyover Film Studios location in Rantoul as they seek outside investments to the tune of $3.5 million total on top of the $1.1 million “soundstage grant” awarded to them by the state of Illinois back in February.

Finally, we learned the other indie production apart from HOLIDAY that made its presence known in and around Champaign County in the late winter and spring of 2023 with an assist from Shatterglass/Line Co., ALBANY ROAD, is set to receive a limited theatrical release through the AMC Theaters and Malco Theatres chains beginning on Friday, November 15. According to this article by The Hollywood Reporter, an agreement was made directly with filmmaker Christine Swanson and her company, Faith Filmworks. It is unclear if ALBANY will appear at all AMC locations including the ones near us, although the C-U populace had their opportunity to watch the movie at Roger Ebert’s Film Festival in April, and home video prospects for practically everything we’ve title-dropped today is anybody’s guess. No surprise, there.

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

The Ghost Girls and the Hag-Hunting Ladies wanted to say “hi” and remind you to savor the spooky season! (Note: MFHQ Deux is a spoopy-free zone, kthanxbai.) The paranormal investigators are, from left, Sarah Nicklin, Sierra Renfro, Ashley Troub, and Karaleigh Antoinette; the urban legend debunkers are, from left, Alexa Maris, Jasmine Williams, and Renfro pulling double duty. We still don’t know who or what the Hag actually is. (One might ask Nathan Brandon Gaik if one feels brave enough to discover the truth.) All will be revealed to a degree when you watch their respective adventures and, as hinted during Brooks and Renfro’s appearance on the Horror Pop After Midnight podcast in May, more strangeness is afoot once the new GHOST GIRLS episodes drop. What could it possibly be? Stay tuned, as they say!

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CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

110 Years Ago … Monday, October 19, 1914: Owners of the brand-new New Orpheum Theatre in downtown Champaign open for business according to the Urbana Courier-Herald; entertainment scheduled for 7:30 and 9 p.m. shows includes “five high-class vaudeville acts,” an “enlarged orchestra,” and “special exclusive photo plays” per a news item and advertisement in that day’s edition. Designed by the Chicago architectural firm of Rapp & Rapp after the Royal Opera theater within the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, France, the building now houses the “destination venue” Orpheum Champaign. [R] [Rev. 10/11/24]

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
THE APPRENTICE, MY HERO ACADEMIA: YOU’RE NEXT (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (animation) (re-release), PIECE BY PIECE, SATURDAY NIGHT, SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY (documentary), TERRIFIER 3, BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, JOKER: FOILE À DEUX, MY OLD ASS*, SPEAK NO EVIL, TRANSFORMERS ONE (animation), THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (10/4 on), COCO* (animation) (10/11-10/15), JUNG KOOK: I AM STILL (concert documentary “party edition”) (10/11-10/13, 1 p.m.; in Korean with English sub), AVERAGE JOE (faith film) (10/13-10/14), AX Cinema Nights presents “Gundam Fest” feat. MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM II: SOLDIERS OF SORROW (animé) (10/16, 7:30 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), SMILE 2 (10/17 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
THE APPRENTICE, AVERAGE JOE* (faith film), MY HERO ACADEMIA: YOU’RE NEXT (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (animation) (re-release), PIECE BY PIECE, SATURDAY NIGHT, SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY (documentary), TERRIFIER 3, BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, JOKER: FOILE À DEUX, THE SUBSTANCE, TRANSFORMERS ONE (animation), WHITE BIRD, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (10/4 on), MONSTER SUMMER* (10/11-10/12, 10/14-10/17), THE LOST BOYS (10/13, 3 & 7 p.m.; 10/16, 7 p.m.), SMILE 2 (10/17 on) *single screenings daily

@ Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Center for World Cultures, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies* presents “Kartemquin’s Labor Films: Stories of Working in America” screening (10/17, 7 p.m.) and “Documentaries on the Frontline of Democracy: How Kartemquin’s Storytelling Works for Stronger Publics” lecture (10/18, 2 p.m.)

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents LONGLEGS (10/11-10/12, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
Illini Radio Group presents “Rewind 92.5 Movie Series” feat. FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980) (10/17, 7 p.m.)

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!

10/4: Jason Christ (actor/executive producer, ANXIETY, Wicked Pixel Cinema, St. Louis, MO)
10/6: Niccole Powers (art department, BLACK MOLD, Raven Banner Entertainment, Toronto, ON/Tubi Originals, San Francisco, CA)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

“F” is for fall as well as filmmaking, so let’s begin our Field Report dedicated to out-of-town friends and creators who elected for quick shoots over the last few weeks to carve out some creepy stories.

First, Jason Huls of Ten Wing Media in Chicagoland has followed up THAT DAMNED YELLOW RAINCOAT with THE FAWN, which he describes as “a blend of folk horror and cosmic horror.” Facebook photographs show the team of Huls, Paul G. Lyzun, and Paul A. Brooks working away in late September on the private property in Pontiac where Brooks filmed his full-length debut, HUNTING FOR THE HAG, and young Windy City actress and Illinois State University alumna Nora McKirdie, who played the briefly seen “fourth friend” in HAG, is the lead. And then, Shea Kelly of Thousand Yard Stare Productions in Decatur traveled long distance to small-town Rushville on the weekend of September 13-15 to produce the dramatic short, A MAN OF CHARACTER; cast and crew who collaborated with Kelly, a videographer for WAND-TV and host of the “movie game show podcast” Filmwar!, included Christopher Ryan Trone, George O’Brien, Jordan and Jessica Baker, Lee Larkin, Nathan Scott, Shelby Rozanski, and Greg M. Trumbold, who makes a return to acting in a downstate Illinois-made indie for the first time in years.

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Remaining at the home front in the Soy Capital, Ben Harl of Silver Compass Studios filmed the “short psychological thriller” MARA during the same weekend with a cast and crew featuring Dayton Emery, Heather Harlow, Justin Taylor, Katherine Bokenkamp, Laura Richter, Lesley Harl-Black, Mindy Smith, Rick Jensen, Seth Boyer, and Thomas Nicol. Silver Compass is prepping to shoot another short later this month and is still seeking talent, so skim their latest Facebook posts for details. And in the wilds of Carroll County in northern Illinois, Jarod Hussey of Refinery Films directed the horror tale GRINNERS from his script, which pits a cooking show host and retired detective against a pair of serial killers in animal masks during the Halloween season; starring Magdalena Conway, Tanna Jacobs, Andrew Byard, and the great John Bloom (a.k.a. Joe Bob Briggs) and photographed by Derek Huey in primary CREEPSHOW colors, GRINNERS was filmed on a tight schedule in the Mt. Carroll area last week. Got all that? We’re not even sure that we do. Updates and the downlow shall be had in future Reports, dearest grinners.

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

Courtesy of writer/director S. J. Hermann and producer Ann Myrna of Acrostar Productions, we share with you an exclusive sneak peek at the recently-wrapped sequel, RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES, which was filmed early September in the northernmost reaches of Champaign County. A large number of performers and behind-the-scenes staff traveled from far and wide to stage for the screen this low-budget adventure, in which survivors of the plague unleashed in ATTACK OF THE CORN ZOMBIES seek refuge at a farming community that is not as welcoming as they had hoped. “Hurrah” to everyone from Myrna and Hermann to co-director Mia Katz, cinematographer Ashley Hefner, make-up effects artist Beth Metcalf, and the rest for their horror film hustle and reminding their set visitor, our very own Mr. JaPan, what it’s like to witness the action. We hope to talk with a handful of Acrostar acolytes about their movie ambitions and fan-fueled success for an article on CUBlog before the end of the year. Chomp, chomp!

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We normally tuck our figure captions in those tidy pop-up blocks you can trigger when hovering an arrow or fingertip over an image but, since we dropped some names that are related to the other groups mentioned in the Report, we’ll also do it for our fine Acro-folks. From top to bottom, talent appearing in the upcoming RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES includes (photo one) Delilah Hefner, Hunter Redfern, Chloe Lutz, Angel Nichole Bradford, Christopher Kahler, Chanda Rawlings, (two) David J. Paul, Mel Heflin, Bradford, Kelsey Ann Baker, (three) Gwyneviere Ray, and (four) zombie players who may be extras or leads turned into zombies or crew drafted to be zombies – we just don’t know who lives, dies, or rises up again! Keep watch on their very active Facebook group for chances to participate in future films and consider visiting this Indiegogo campaign to assist in the finishing funds for putting the final polish on the flick.

CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

30 Years Ago … Friday, October 7, 1994: SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN, the 1952 classic from MGM starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and Donald O’Connor as talent caught in the Hollywood transition from silent to sound pictures, is the main attraction during the grand reopening of the Normal Theater in downtown Normal, Illinois. Previewed in euphoric terms by Dan Craft of the Bloomington Pantagraph earlier today, the sold-out show marks the end of a long journey by the Town of Normal to restore this venue to the Art Moderne veneer of its earliest years – essentially, harking to the past to ensure its future as did the makers of SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN with the movie musical genre. In its previous era, the Normal had operated circumspectly on West North Street as a second-run house owned and “twinned” by the GKC Theaters chain, closing in May 1991 due to paltry attendance. The Town of Normal purchased the property a few months later and raised the necessary capital through donations, gifts, and taxes for a complete restoration; the Normal of today closely resembles the one designed by Bloomington architect Arthur F. Moratz and opened in 1937 by real estate broker Sylvan Kupfer and his wife Ruth. [R]

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
JOKER: FOILE À DEUX, FURIOUS 7 (re-release), MONSTER SUMMER, THE OUTRUN, BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, DEVARA: PART 1 (in Telugu with English sub), MEGALOPOLIS, MY OLD ASS, SPEAK NO EVIL, TRANSFORMERS ONE (animation), THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (10/4 on), AX Cinema Nights presents “Gundam Fest” feat. MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM (animé) (10/6, 4:30 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (10/7, 7 p.m.), TERRIFIER 2/TERRIFIER 3 double feature (10/10, 5:30 p.m.), THE APPRENTICE, MY HERO ACADEMIA: YOU’RE NEXT (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), PIECE BY PIECE, SATURDAY NIGHT, TERRIFIER 3 (10/10 on)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
JOKER: FOILE À DEUX, MONSTER SUMMER, WHITE BIRD, AM I RACIST? (op-ed/documentary), BAGMAN*, BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE*, DEVARA: PART 1* (in Telugu with English sub), LEE, MEGALOPOLIS, SPEAK NO EVIL, THE SUBSTANCE, TRANSFORMERS ONE (animation), THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (10/4 on), The Metropolitan Opera: Les Contes d’Hoffmann (10/5, 12 p.m., simulcast; 10/9, 1 & 6:30 p.m., recorded), UFC 307: Alex Pereira vs. Khalil Rountree, Jr., more (mixed martial arts) (10/5, 9 p.m., simulcast), MEAN GIRLS 20th anniversary (10/6, 4 & 7 p.m.), HEART OF A SERVANT: THE FATHER FLANAGAN STORY (religious documentary) (10/8, 7 p.m.), THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN, PART 1 (10/9, 7 p.m.), TERRIFIER 3 (10/10 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents BORDERLANDS (10/4-10/5, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
Illinois Public Media presents “The Arthouse Experience Film Series” feat. MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON (animation) (10/4, 7 p.m.)

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!

10/1: Jason Croft (editor/publisher, Bachelor Pad Magazine, Champaign, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

We’re going to play hooky from the Report this week. Researching and writing extra doesn’t get the yard work and grocery shopping done, never mind Momkoke Manor in better shape than it’s been. Plenty for you to do as listed in the Calendar below, so hit the Google and socials for further details you might want to know. October at CUBlog feels like it’s going to be more loaded than the sweetest pumpkin spice specialty drink that you could order from anywhere. Feel free to visit us on the regular for all of the treats and none of the tricks (or calories).

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing a Weird Scene on the Screen

Lately, every time your humble editor visits Box Office Mojo to help him crunch numbers in his overloaded noggin, he sees the following promotional banner atop the home page and it just feels like a weird M3GAN/HAL 9000 moment despite being a mere JPEG graphic and not generative AI that inserts the device user’s name into the art:

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JSON is apparently a “data interchange format” derived from JavaScript. Internet Movie Database, also the owners of Box Office Mojo and IMDb Pro, pitches other companies on using the method to integrate movie and user data onto other websites from their own. This is why you might see an IMDb-branded rating placed on the physical media product pages of certain online merchants, for instance. Click our links to learn more about it.

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Hoogland Center for the Arts, Springfield, IL
Route 66 Film Festival presents “Get Your Flicks at Route 66” screening and activities (9/28, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., free, all ages)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Festival* presents A TIME APART (9/29, 4 p.m.)

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting (9/30, 7 p.m., Room 1002)

@ Golden Corral, Springfield, IL
Central Illinois Film Commission* meeting (10/4, 7 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
AZRAEL, DEVARA: PART 1 (in Telugu with English sub), MEGALOPOLIS, MY OLD ASS, PACIFIC RIM (re-release), Studio Ghibli Fest: HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE 20th anniversary (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), THE WILD ROBOT (animation), BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, IT ENDS WITH US, NEVER LET GO*, SPEAK NO EVIL, THE SUBSTANCE*, TRANSFORMERS ONE (animation), WHIPLASH (re-release) (9/27 on), JUNG KOOK: I AM STILL (concert documentary) (9/27-9/28, 7:30 p.m.; 9/29, 4:30 p.m.; in Korean with English sub), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (9/30, 7 p.m.), AX Cinema Nights presents “Gundam Fest” feat. MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM (animé) (10/2, 7:30 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), JOKER: FOILE À DEUX (10/3 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
BAGMAN, DEVARA: PART 1 (in Telugu with English sub), LEE, MEGALOPOLIS, Studio Ghibli Fest: HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE* 20th anniversary (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), THE WILD ROBOT (animation), AM I RACIST? (op-ed/documentary), BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, DESPICABLE ME 4 (animation), NEVER LET GO, REAGAN, SPEAK NO EVIL, THE SUBSTANCE, TRANSFORMERS ONE (animation) (9/27 on), IT ENDS WITH US (9/27-9/28, 10/3), THE SHINING (1980) (9/29, 3 & 7 p.m.; 10/2, 7 p.m.) JOKER: FOILE À DEUX preview (9/30, 7 p.m., IMAX), MEAN GIRLS 20th anniversary (10/3, 7 p.m.), JOKER: FOILE À DEUX, WHITE BIRD (10/3 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents TWISTERS (9/27-9/28, 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!

9/21: Lisa Cerezo (co-owner, Neon Moth, Champaign, IL)
9/22: Sue Trippiedi (actress, DOGS IN QUICKSAND, Shut Up and Do It Productions, Champaign, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Some weeks, you’d think the filmmakers in Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond only like to make horror and horror-adjacent movies, and this week’s Report can’t help but feed into the theory as we have movement on several projects the public will soon be able to see and see again. The RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES crew finished planting their seeds of terror in Dewey and Farmer City on Wednesday, September 11, after a week’s worth of location filming; writer/co-director S.j. Herman and friends are doing post-production on it now and a few color-corrected frames can be seen in the video displayed at this Indiegogo finishing funds campaign, while a casting call has already been issued for the next Acrostar Productions genre flick, PERFECT SOUL. Decatur-area creator Jessie Seitz has teased on Facebook that her documentary MONSTER GIRLS will be screened twice in Los Angeles on October 7 and 13 at private functions with official dates to follow; the first-ever comprehensive look at women working in the make-up effects world will be hosted by Diana Prince of THE LAST DRIVE-IN fame with several featured artists yet to be revealed. F’D: TALES FROM THE END TIMES will receive a red-carpet premiere during the sixth annual American Horrors Film Festival in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, on Saturday, October 5; the apocalyptic anthology from Ash Hamilton’s Horror-Fix Films is also set to play at the Phobia Film Festival in central Missouri and the Cinema Scares Film Festival of Shelbyville, Indiana, with distribution plans a big unknown for the mostly-made-in-downstate-Illinois indie. And the Canadian label Darkside Releasing went stealth and surprised everyone last week on Friday, September 13, by dropping the belated Blu-ray release of John Isberg’s FINAL SUMMER with little warning; we’d like to think that drawing the overt FRIDAY THE 13TH parallel is yet another complement to the Champaign County-produced film, which has been available on streaming and video-on-demand services for the last year and a topic on numerous horror culture podcasts. Whew! Some weeks…

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

Special features on the FINAL SUMMER Blu-ray include: director’s audio commentary, making-of featurette including several behind-the-scenes videos, FINAL SUMMER II: PROWLER test footage, Night Dreamer “The Taste” official music video, official trailer, and Trinity Releasing trailer reel. If nothing else, Isberg and his counselors escaped the curse of bare-bones physical media releases that have struck the vast majority of C-U et cetera movies, and they’ve implicitly gained a lot of mileage out of that striking publicity art designed by Creepy Duck Designs. May the long afterlife of the legend of Warren Copper continue.

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NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
NEVER LET GO, THE SUBSTANCE, TRANSFORMERS ONE (animation), WHIPLASH (re-release), ALIEN: ROMULUS*, AM I RACIST? (op-ed/documentary), BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, IT ENDS WITH US, THE KILLER’S GAME, SPEAK NO EVIL (9/20 on), JUNG KOOK: I AM STILL (concert documentary) (9/20-9/21, 7:30 p.m.; 9/22, 4:30 p.m.; in Korean with English sub), DC Comics movies: BATMAN* (9/20-9/22, 9/25-9/26), BATMAN FOREVER* (9/20-9/21, 9/23), BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM* (animation) (9/20-9/21, 9/24), and BLUE BEETLE (9/20-9/25), SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY (documentary) (9/21, 9/25, 4 & 7 p.m.), DEVARA: PART 1 (in Telugu with English sub), MEGALOPOLIS, MY OLD ASS, Studio Ghibli Fest: HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE 20th anniversary (animé) (in Japanese with English sub), THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (9/26 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
NEVER LET GO, THE SHADE, THE SUBSTANCE, TRANSFORMERS ONE (animation), ALIEN: ROMULUS, AM I RACIST? (op-ed/documentary), BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, DESPICABLE ME 4 (animation), THE FORGE (faith film), GOD’S NOT DEAD: IN GOD WE TRUST* (faith film), IT ENDS WITH US, THE KILLER’S GAME, REAGAN, SPEAK NO EVIL (9/20 on), SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY (documentary) (9/21, 9/25, 4 & 7 p.m.), THE MATRIX 25th anniversary (9/22, 3 & 7 p.m.), PSYCHO (1960) (9/22, 3 & 7 p.m.; 9/25, 7 p.m.), Studio Ghibli Fest: HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE 20th anniversary (animé) (in Japanese with English sub), THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (9/26 on)

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents MEAN GIRLS (2004) (9/20-9/21, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
The News-Gazette Film Series presents THE LONG GOODBYE (9/21, 1 & 7 p.m.), Illini Radio Group presents “Mix 94.5 Throwback Thursdays” feat. OFFICE SPACE (9/26, 7 p.m.)

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!

9/14: Kimberly Conner (filmmaker, LIPSTICK, Predestined Arts & Entertainment, Springfield, IL/Los Angeles, CA)
9/14: Jason Huls (filmmaker, THAT DAMNED YELLOW RAINCOAT, Ten Wing Media, Chicago, IL)
9/14: Tim Cain (entertainment reporter, Decatur Herald & Review/Lee Enterprises, Decatur, IL)
9/16: Jay Rosenstein (producer, Jay Rosenstein Productions, Champaign-Urbana, IL/New York, NY)
9/19: Paul A. Brooks (director, HUNTING FOR THE HAG, Into the Night Motion Pictures, Normal, IL)
9/19: Eric Pankoke (webmaster, C-U Blogfidential, Champaign/Mendota, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

This was a week for breaking news in the C-U, as you probably have seen by now, so we’ll just herald the obvious in today’s Report. The not-obvious will be reserved for next week, Ye Ed guesses.

BREAKING! The Save the Lorraine Foundation, a non-profit group that has been working for a long time to restore the Lorraine Theatre in Hoopeston to its previous grandeur, has announced they may be in a position to book theatrical movies again by early next year, according to the News-Gazette. A hefty sum of a little more than $40,000, awarded to them in August by the T-Mobile Hometown Grant, will complete the group’s $120,000 fundraising goal and allow for the purchase and installation of a complete DCP projection and Dolby Atmos sound system. The constant stream of live and community events at the Lorraine and the black-box Little Lorraine, which sadly will be closed and converted into office space in light of this development, has helped towards reaching the foundation’s goal over the last dozen years. The Lorraine would then become the only operational first-run house in Vermilion County. Good on them.

BREAKING!! Faculty in the Theatre Arts program at Parkland College in Champaign are collaborating with the operating group at Flyover Film Studios in Rantoul to design classes that will teach students craft, construction, and performance skills and how to apply them in real working productions on site, as reported by Smile Politely. The “pipeline” is intended to fill below-the-line positions with interns, providing valuable experience for those individuals and Flyover with a growing and local work force that can meet the needs of visiting film productions. Located in one of the former hangars of the long-closed Octave Chanute Air Force Base, Flyover is the brainchild of the filmmakers behind Shatterglass Films and The Line Film Co. along with other business leaders; they received a $1.1 million grant in February from Governor J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity through the Illinois Soundstage Program to establish and equip their location with the dedicated space, personnel, materials, and gear that could be as attractive to out-of-the-area producers and distributors as the Illinois film tax credit. Fly by, please!

BREAKING!!! Variety shared today the reveal of a new partnership between the popular boutique label Severin Films and the trust of the late film director Russ Meyer, which holds the rights to all of the work he distributed independently under the RM Film International and “Bosomania” banners. It will result in the long-delayed restoration and re-release of a catalog that has been out of circulation for years. The first titles, which will go on sale in December via the Severin website and in UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD formats, are Meyer’s so-called “vixen trilogy”: VIXEN, the 1968 hit that led to Meyer’s studio deal with 20th Century Fox and the incredible BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS (available elsewhere in the Criterion Collection) co-written by Roger Ebert, SUPERVIXENS, a 1975 opus in which Farmer City native and Illinois Wesleyan University alumna Shari Eubank played dual roles, and BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRA-VIXENS, his last completed feature from 1979 that starred the club entertainer and former University of Illinois student, Ann Marie, and was co-written by Ebert behind a pseudonym, “R. Hyde.” Naughty!

These are all great and/or fun, and these all still have their caveats. From the bottom up, the Meyer revival will not be widely shared in other C-U media, despite our lede and the unlikely and long-lasting friendship between him and Urbana native Ebert, as the reasons fall under the “arguably outdated mores” blanket. Craft talents on a film set are vital and necessary roles that can earn you money to live, but those choosing to enter the “Parkland pipeline” should not mistake it as an automatic in-route to “directing/producing/writing some day” at Flyover. And the Lorraine may bill itself as “The Best Place for Movies,” but they have a long road to build up a new repertoire and consistent (and visiting-from-a-distance) clientele as they are not in “the best placement for movie-going” in terms of geography and a still-recovering theatrical climate. There have to be realistic and financially-sound components to make the film fantasy work. We also cross our fingers for them all.

Keep filming, et cetera, the purveyors of the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond! May the spirit of Matt Damon-as-Mark Whitacre smile upon everyone’s efforts and dreams.

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

No. Really.

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Designed by Kellerhouse, Inc., as was last week’s SEVEN SAMURAI promotional piece for Janus Films/Criterion, coincidentally. Also coincidental is our Almanac entry for today, which is a nagging reminder that it has been more than 15 years since a Hollywood production has visited the immediate region with a substantial presence. Maybe the Flyover Fates will deliver an end to this peculiar drought if all goes well.

CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

15 Years Ago … Friday, September 18, 2009: Warner Bros. releases the corporate intrigue drama THE INFORMANT! in more than 2,500 theaters across the United States a year and a half after much of it was filmed in the Decatur, IL, area. Unfortunately, the studio has attempted to market the picture as a snappy comedy along the lines of director Steven Soderbergh and star Matt Damon’s OCEAN’S ELEVEN franchise, blowing out of proportion the sly touch applied to the stranger-than-fiction story of real-life whistleblower Mark Whitacre and his double-crossing of both the agricultural giant Archer Daniels Midland and the Central Intelligence Agency. THE INFORMANT! would finish in second place for the weekend, well below the animated hit CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS, and concluded its run with a modest $33 million earned. As reported on 9/18/09, 9/26/09, 10/9/09 at CUBlog. Box Office Mojo [R]

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Festival* and the IRL Movie Club present JOIN OR DIE! (9/15, 4 p.m.)

@ Esquire Lounge, Champaign, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* meeting (9/16, 7 p.m.)

@ English Building, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* introductory meeting (9/16, 7 p.m., Room 108)

@ Spurlock Museum of World Cultures, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies* presents PAN’S LABYRINTH (9/19, 7 p.m., Knight Auditorium, free)

@ Gallery Art Bar, Urbana, IL
Half House Studios presents 217 Film Festival* (9/19, 9-11 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
AJAYANTE RANDAM MOSHANAM (in Malayam with English sub), AM I RACIST? (op-ed/documentary), THE CRITIC*, THE KILLER’S GAME, SPEAK NO EVIL, UNTOUCHABLE (in Mandarin with English sub), ALIEN: ROMULUS, BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, DESPICABLE ME 4 (animation), ENCANTO* (animation), THE FORGE (faith film), THE FRONT ROOM*, THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME (in Tamil with English sub), INSIDE OUT 2 (animation), IT ENDS WITH US (9/13 on), USHER: RENDEZVOUS IN PARIS (concert film) (9/13-9/15, 12 & 7 p.m.), GOD’S NOT DEAD: IN GOD WE TRUST (faith film) (9/13, 5 p.m.), DAN DA DAN: FIRST ENCOUNTER Episodes 1-3 (animé) (9/13, 7 p.m.; 9/14-9/15, 4 & 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), JUNG KOOK: I AM STILL (concert documentary) (9/18-9/19, 7:30 p.m., in Korean with English sub), NEVER LET GO, THE SUBSTANCE, TRANSFORMERS ONE (animation), WHIPLASH (re-release) (9/19 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
AM I RACIST? (op-ed/documentary), GOD’S NOT DEAD: IN GOD WE TRUST* (faith film), THE KILLER’S GAME, SPEAK NO EVIL, ALIEN: ROMULUS, BEETLEJUICE, BLINK TWICE*, CORALINE (animation) (re-release), DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, DESPICABLE ME 4 (animation), THE FORGE (faith film), INSIDE OUT 2* (animation), IT ENDS WITH US, REAGAN (9/13 on), THE FRONT ROOM* (9/13, 9:30 p.m.; 9/14, 9:45 p.m.), PBC “Fight Night”: Canelo Alvarez vs. Edgar Berlanga, more (boxing) (9/14, 7 p.m., simulcast), UFC 306: Sean O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili, more (mixed martial arts) (9/14, 7 p.m., simulcast), THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING (9/14-9/15, 9/18, 3 & 7 p.m.), BLAZING SADDLES 50th anniversary (9/15, 4 & 7 p.m.; 9/18, 7 p.m.), THE MATRIX 25th anniversary (9/19, 7 p.m.), TRANSFORMERS ONE (animation) (9/19 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE (9/13-9/14, 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 »