Calendar: Mar. 31-Apr. 6, 2023
Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.
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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!
4/2: Will “the Thrill” Viharo (movie columnist, Bachelor Pad Magazine, Champaign, IL)
4/4: Kamelya Alexan (filmmaker, CHANGING THE DISCIPLE, Chicago, IL)
4/4: Sara Benson (adjunct assistant professor, School of Information Sciences, UIUC, Champaign, IL)
FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said
I’m putting this one together posthaste and MFHQ Remote-ly because the power has yet to be restored at MFHQ Deux after last night’s storm. Therefore, as the corporate mermaid emblem is my witness, I’m keeping it short and sweet as we talk student opportunity. Undergraduate organizers of the UIUC Film Festival, a classroom-based lab event that is sponsored by the Media and Cinema Studies department at the UI College of Media, finally announced a Call for Entries window on Weds., Mar. 22, that closes very soon on Fri., Apr 7; get your submissions in using the form at this webpage. The same weekend this event takes place at the UI’s Spurlock Museum on Fri., Apr. 28, the Foxtail Film Festival will make its debut at the Normal Theater in downtown Normal from Apr. 27 to 30; the programs comprised of work made by college and high school students have been vetted by Illinois State University collegiates enrolled in “Film Festival Management and Curation” through the ISU School of Communication and selected by faculty from various disciplines. Details about Foxtail will eventually be posted to this website. Last for today is simply an observation from a distance that Illini Film & Video, the long-standing UI movie-making club that would celebrate its 25th anniversary during the 2024-5 academic year, has a nearly stagnant public presence that is a bit concerning; witness their not-really-active website, Facebook page, and YouTube channel, as well as an Instagram account that is probably on a private setting. To us, IFV has a special place in campus film and a lively IFV is a healthy IFV. Don’t let it flicker away, young friends.
CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History
55 Years Ago … Tuesday, April 2, 1968: The Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C., hosts the world premiere of MGM’s “ultimate trip,” 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, after nearly three years in production. Moviegoers in the house are left stunned by the film, borne of a collaboration between meticulous director Stanley Kubrick and renowned science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, due to its groundbreaking visual effects, canny use of classical music, and radical avoidance of “sci-fi” and Hollywood narrative cliché. Based on Clarke’s 1950 novella “The Sentinel,” 2001 depicts mankind’s encounters with glassy monoliths planted in myriad corners of our galaxy; astronauts played by Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood journey to one such site on the starship Discovery and must contend not only with the implications of alien intelligence but also rebellion by the onboard computer, HAL 9000, enigmatically voiced by Douglas Rain. In one of several soon-to-be-iconic sequences, David Bowman (Dullea) lowers himself into HAL’s machinery to shut down its memory bank. As the computer verbally regresses to its earliest interactions with humans, it restates one of its first sentences before going dead: “Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am the HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. Lab in Urbana, Illinois, on the twelfth of January, 1992.” Although many have presumed this dialogue is a nod to the long history of computer technology innovation at the University of Illinois, Clarke himself clarified in a 1992 interview for the Chicago Tribune that he cited Urbana as a tribute to a former math professor of his, George C. McVittie, who was head of the UIUC astronomy department at the time of production. In the best-selling novelization, written by Clarke and an uncredited Kubrick parallel to the film’s development, HAL instead notes January 1997 as its activation date. UIUC would play upon this by scheduling the “Cyberfest” campus symposium in March 1997, complete with a 2001 screening emceed by Roger Ebert at the Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign. [R]
NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area
@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
BHOLAA (in Hindi), DASARA (in Telugu or Hindi), DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES, HIS ONLY SON (faith film), ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA, COCAINE BEAR, CREED III, JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4, SCREAM VI, SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS (3/31 on), THE JOURNEY: A MUSIC SPECIAL FROM ANDREA BOCELLI (4/2-4/4, 4/6), ONE TRUE LOVES (4/5, 7 p.m.), AIR, THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (animation) (4/5 on)
@ Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents “Spring 2023 Weekend Films” feat. BABYLON; (3/31-4/1, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)
@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES, HIS ONLY SON (faith film), A THOUSAND AND ONE, CREED III, JESUS REVOLUTION, JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4, PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH, SCREAM VI, SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS (3/31 on), 65, ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA, COCAINE BEAR (3/31-4/4), The Metropolitan Opera: Falstaff (4/1, 11:50 a.m., simulcast; 4/5, 1 & 6:30 p.m. recorded), THE JOURNEY: A MUSIC SPECIAL FROM ANDREA BOCELLI (4/2 on), THE LAND BEFORE TIME (animation) (4/2, 3, 5 & 7 p.m.; 4/5, 5:15 & 7 p.m.), AIR, THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (animation) (4/5 on)
@ Redbox, Champaign-Urbana, IL
BATMAN: THE DOOM THAT CAME TO GOTHAM, MISSING, PLANE, more! (3/28 on) Online rentals
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
No movies this week!
Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!
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NOW PLAYING | The Cities Beyond
@ The Avon Theater, Decatur, IL
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES, THE LOST KING (3/31-4/2)
@ The Fischer Theatre, Danville, IL
No movies this week!
@ The Harvest Moon Twin Drive-in, Gibson City, IL
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES (Screen 1), JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 (Screen 2) (3/31-4/1)
@ The Little Lorraine, Hoopeston, IL
Private parties and “Family Movie Packs” this week.
@ The Normal Theater, Normal, IL
The 22nd Annual ANIMATION SHOW OF SHOWS (3/31-4/2), SMOKING CAUSES COUGHING! (3/31), PAINT (4/6)
@ The Onarga Theatre, Onarga, IL
JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 (3/31-4/2)
@ The Princess Theatre, Leroy, IL
CHAMPIONS (3/31-4/2)
NOW PLAYING | Midwest
@ Chicago Filmmakers, Chicago, IL
33rd Onion City Experimental Film Festival (through 4/2)
@ Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, IL
Midwest Film Festival presents “Emerging Filmmakers Night” (4/3, 6:30 p.m. reception, 7:30 p.m. films)
For detailed and curated listings of Chicago-area film presentations and related events, please visit the fine folks at Cine-File and subscribe to their definitive “Cine-List” weekly blast.
COMING SOON | Area-wide Events
4/13-4/20
25th annual Wisconsin Film Festival, Madison, WI
4/19-4/22
23nd Roger Ebert’s Film Festival*
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
4/27-4/30
Foxtail Film Festival (student films)*
@ Normal Theater, Normal, IL
4/28
UIUC Film Festival (student films)*
@ Spurlock Museum, UIUC, Urbana, IL
5/6
DESPERATE SOULS* world premiere
@ The Princess Theater, LeRoy, IL, 4 p.m.
COMMUNITY & CAMPUS SERIES | Champaign-Urbana area
“The Arthouse Experience Film Series” curated by Sanford Hess and sponsored by Illinois Public Media
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL, 7 p.m.
4/26: LET THE RIGHT ONE IN; 5/31: THE TWO POPES; 6/14: MULHOLLAND DRIVE; 7/12: BARAKA
Illini Radio Group presents “Rewind 92.5 Movie Series”/“Mix 94.5 Throwback Thursdays”*
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL, 7 p.m.
4/27: GHOSTBUSTERS (1984); 5/18: BEETLEJUICE; 6/29: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK; 7/27: TOP GUN
Illini Union Board presents “Spring 2023 Weekend Films”
@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL, 7 p.m. Fri. & Sat, free w/i-card
4/7-4/8: PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH; 4/14-4/15: KNOCK AT THE CABIN; 4/21-4/22: ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA; 4/28-4/29: COCAINE BEAR
The News-Gazette Film Series
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL, 1 & 7 p.m.
4/29: FANTASIA; 5/20: TOPPER; 6/17: ENTER THE DRAGON; 7/15: I LOVE LUCY: THE MOVIE
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Compiled by Jason Pankoke.
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“Calendar du C-U”
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