Students bring life to film at UIUC
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Two months ago, while compiling our post on area programs and projects that are designed for young people, we realized a follow-up for a slightly older crowd might be in order. Since they’re now at the Urbana campus en masse and settled into their routines as students at the University of Illinois (UIUC), we can proceed with suggestions! However, a lot has already transpired that would have made for good examples of the happenings they should look forward to while enrolled here – Deke Weaver’s Unreliable Bestiary performance “Tiger,” the Roger and Chaz Ebert Symposium on diversifying the work force in media, Illinois Public Media’s sneak preview of their television special ILLINOIS COUNTRY, and on – so we’ll instead point out the weekly constants on campus, serving as anchor points for getting involved in film from the production, appreciation, and critical perspectives.
Every Monday night at 7 p.m., the durable Illini Film & Video meets in Room 1022 of Lincoln Hall on the Main Quad. Formed roughly 20 years ago by engineering undergraduates Michael Stone and Andrew McAllister, IFV brings together students from all backgrounds and capabilities to try out the filmmaking process on both club and personal projects. The IFV boards of the past few years have reinstated a fast tempo and process-oriented approach to their weekly meetings, ensuring that members get their feet wet with tutorials, challenges, and fundraising when not pitching ideas or recruiting for shoots. Professionals may drop by or Skype in to talk with the club about their specialties, while some IFV alumni will apply their developing media skills in various fields after graduation. You can view their details on the IFV website, skim Facebook announcements for opportunities, and watch the resulting videos on YouTube.
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Two other groups meet on Friday evenings. The second-year RSO called C-U Cinefile gathers at 4 p.m. in Room 219 of Gregory Hall to plan activities that will explore film through screenings, discussions, and the making of video essays and narrative shorts. You can see examples of their efforts on YouTube, including a timely round of slasher film reviews, and camaraderie on Facebook. For those students who want to make a night out of it after a long week of classes, the third-year RSO named For Art’s Sake has booked an international film classic almost every Friday this semester at 7 p.m. in the lecture hall of the Armory Building, Room 101, which satisfy thematic groupings as decided by graduate student Carson Wang and friends. Tomorrow’s feature is a well-known example of “fifth generation” Chinese filmmaking, the Peking-set period epic FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE (1993) directed by Chen Kaige and starring Gong Li, to be followed next Friday, October 25, by IN THE HEAT OF THE SUN (1994). You can click the graphic below to enlarge and read their remaining schedule.
As far as students finding their own ways through cinema discourse, these are the key groups we could easily confirm as being active. It is unclear if two other groups that had visibility on campus recently, Photon Pictures and the Chinese Independent Film Society, still operate; messages sent to them via Facebook by C-U Blogfidential have gone unanswered. The same goes for iMACS, created by students to engage their peers in the Media and Cinema Studies (MACS) program, which buzz magazine covered on p.4 of their March 4, 2016 edition. It otherwise has no internet presence. MACS-based Illinifest, a student film festival that is a final project for those enrolled in the MACS 464 “film festivals” course, should return in 2020 while the MACS and journalism tracks under the College of Media are two of the few at UIUC to offer instruction on production roles. The pickings in that realm, as they say, are slim.
Still, if it takes a village of an ever-shifting student body to bring opportunities in film to themselves, then so be it. They can join the ranks of For Art’s Sake, C-U Cinefile, and Illini Film & Video to find their way in established clubs or launch their own initiative if what they’d like to do isn’t happening presently. They might haunt the UIUC RSO listings under the “creative-media-performing arts” category to seek out new groups interested in film and media. They should skim the school calendar to find out about low profile departmental screenings and speaking engagements. Certainly, they must make an effort to participate in larger programs on campus, like Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, or specialized events in the community, like Champaign Movie Makers, to broaden their range of experiences. Time spent at university can be filled with eye-opening wonder, even if one has to look a bit carefully to spark one’s interests.
~ Jason Pankoke
p.s. No, no, Parkland College peeps, we didn’t forget about you. Write us with your tips and complaints.
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