C-U Blogfidential

Select movie listings for October 18-24, 2024 in Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond! Don’t forget to peruse this week’s Field Report! Did you take a peek at the Images of the week? And, have you memorized the Confidential Almanac for today?

The monster invasion of the Midwest never stops and indie groups like Acrostar Films, Moonlight Films, and Cheevies Film Productions are more than happy to keep ’em coming. How have they scared us lately?

For our first article since July – we know, scary, right? – we suggest that you take a look at a new horror media streaming site called Scareplex, founded in downstate Illinois by and for indies.

Here’s a CUBlog sequel you didn’t see coming! Whether you read or appreciated the original, our revised link-list of Tubi fare illustrating the histories of Ebertfest and Confidential will thrill you.

To many, THE MAN WHO SAVES THE WORLD might as well have come from outer space. To cult film connoisseurs like Big Bosphorus Media, it instead holds a place in their movie-loving hearts.

Joseph Tykociner’s fabled sound-on-film apparatus did not find favor in its time. Lenny Lipton provides an appreciation in his new book, ‘The Cinema in Flux,’ from Springer.

As an aside to a tangent, we vicariously saunter about Mother Murphy’s of Normal, IL, thanks to another student project born at Illinois State University, ANYTHING BUT NORMAL. Take a trip with us!

In the first part of our limited series on independently-produced dramatic television in central Illinois, we peek at the progress being made by PEORIA creator Michael Mcgruder and his personnel.

What is reasonable give-and-take when a city is attempting to improve its central hub? The student project MAKING A MURAL illustrates the issue with an artistic conundrum in Normal, Illinois.

Singing words of wisdom, the numerous folks behind a new audio/video rendition of “Let it Be” want their Champaign-Urbana neighbors to feel better about our future and invest in the care of others.

University of Illinois students a generation apart do their on-camera best to convince viewers that campus spirits drift among us. Their existence somewhat haunts your humble editor to this day.

Two decades have passed since Mike Trippiedi cut loose the slasher spoof BUCKY McSNEAD on Champaign-Urbana. How will the rest of Illinois fare when THE TRUE TALE OF OLE SPLITFOOT is finally told?

The unused Lincoln Square Theatre in downtown Decatur, Illinois, is showing signs of disrepair on its exterior. Residents and officials may be at a tipping point in deciding the fate of the venue.

We see that many indie and not-indie film festivals are exploring online streaming. The New Art Film Festival isn’t primed to do that right now but they still have such sights to show you on YouTube!

The Workshop Films Collective, a newer group devoted to developing technical skills and honing storytelling concepts, is led by John Isberg and gathers weekly at Shatterglass Studios in Champaign, IL.