Calendar: April 28-May 4, 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!
4/28: John Isberg (writer/director, FINAL SUMMER, Front 76 Films, Urbana, IL)
4/29: Sophie McMahan Berkley (artist, Sophie McMahan, Urbana, IL)
5/4: Andrew J. Rausch (contributor, The Stephen King Catalog: 2023 Annual, Overlook Connection Press, Hiram, GA)
FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said
Well, shut us down! Posting twice a week instead of once for a whopping two weeks in a row can tire out our bandwidth as well as your humble editor, apparently, so that’s our explanation if you don’t get to see this Calendar on CUBlog until Monday, May 1. Hopefully, you’ve read the details in our previous post about the student-centric film events on tap – Foxtail Film Festival (4/27-4/29), UIUC Film Festival (4/28), and MACS Student Showcase (5/6) – as well as followed their respective links to proper sources for full details and schedules. We’ll use Facebook to remind our dearest social media surfers about them and utilize this Report to account for the analogous events that aren’t returning to the area this spring.
Based on very recent Google searches, we have not been able to find departmental announcements, events listings, or local press about a handful of shows. Last year, we wrote about both the Images in Motion Film Festival and Dance Film Festival, featuring works made by undergraduates enrolled at Millikin University in Decatur, and it seems neither have been planned for this year although a separate program, Millikin First Films, will take place at their Kirkland Fine Arts Center tomorrow, Saturday, April 29, at 6 p.m. to share freshman-level class assignments. We also have failed to find any evidence the Guerilla Film Festival, a presentation of pieces created by students from Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, is returning for its third year. As for Illini Film & Video and other media RSOs at the University of Illinois doing their own end-of-semester screenings on campus, your guesses are as good as ours if they’re afoot. Hopefully, the young makers-in-the-making will take advantage of the summer break to refresh their storytelling ambitions and return to school in the fall with bold ideas and verve!
Finally, for the currently enrolled who love their colleges or alumni who feel the nostalgia whenever their alma mater is invoked, we share with you links to the three episodes so far of THE COLLEGE TOUR hosted and co-produced by Alex Boylan (THE AMAZING RACE) that have featured academic institutions from downstate: Illinois Wesleyan University (episode 7.2), Illinois State University (episode 6.1), and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (episode 1.5). (We’ll laugh, we’ll cry, we’ll quietly hum school spirit and fight songs all day long after watching them.) Ye Ed did run into a cringe spot, alas. “Eye-wooo,” Alex? Who said? I’ve never called Wesleyan by acronym in that way. “I-W-U” always, fellow Titans. It rates as nails-to-chalkboard worthy just like, oh, “Uptown Normal.” Augh. That said, THE COLLEGE TOUR is a slickly-produced series with striking videography and positive vibes, so we should salute Boylan and his team for how they’re highlighting the value of an education at state and smaller liberal colleges. IWU posted an article about how their episode came together, which you can read here.
CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History
20 Years Ago … Friday, May 2, 2003: TRIAD, the first University of Illinois student film of scope to emerge in the Illini Film & Video era, receives its premiere this evening at the Armory Building’s lecture space, Armory 101. Conceived by LAS candidate and musician Chris Folkens from a screenplay by Katharine Broihan, Ray Perry, and himself, the narrative featurette concerns a trio of undergraduate friends played by Evan Dollard, Hayley Maree Jannesen, and Adam Pasen who unwittingly learn more than they desire about a ghostly curse involving three academic buildings at their school. Slickly imagined in the style of visual Hollywood filmmakers like Michael Mann and Michael Bay on a shoestring budget, TRIAD is also scheduled for a reprise tomorrow, Saturday, May 3, during the end-of-semester IFV festival. Folkens is even planning to release prepackaged DVD editions and stock them on the shelves of Campustown merchants like T.I.S. College Bookstore and That’s Rentertainment. Before graduation and a move to Chicago to join the famed Leo Burnett advertising agency, the director-producer would follow TRIAD with the more assured bioweapon thriller TOXIN, also created in Champaign-Urbana. Both he and Dollard made subsequent inroads into the entertainment industry, the former as a promotional video producer for the ABC-TV network in Los Angeles and the latter as a winning contestant on the AMERICAN GLADIATORS revival and frequent competitor on AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR. [R]
LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers
@ Spurlock Museum of World Cultures, UIUC, Urbana, IL
College of Media at Illinois presents UIUC Film Festival* (student films) (4/28, 7 p.m., free)
NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area
@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
ARE YOU THERE, GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET., BEAU IS AFRAID, BIG GEORGE FOREMAN: THE MIRACULOUS STORY, BORN TO FLY (in Mandarin w/English sub), POLITE SOCIETY, PONNIYIN SELVAN: PART 2 (in Tamil), SISU, AIR, CHEVALIER*, THE COVENANT, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES, EVIL DEAD RISE, JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4, THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (animation), SUZUME* (animé; in Japanese w/English sub or English dub) (4/28 on), Studio Ghibli Fest: Spirited Away: Live on Stage (animé adaptation; in Japanese w/English sub) (Feat. Mone Kamishiraishi: 5/2, 7 p.m., recorded), GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3, LOVE AGAIN (5/4 on) *single shows daily
@ Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents “Spring 2023 Weekend Films” feat. COCAINE BEAR (4/28-4/29, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)
@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
ARE YOU THERE, GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET., BIG GEORGE FOREMAN: THE MIRACULOUS STORY, AIR, BEAU IS AFRAID, THE COVENANT, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES, EVIL DEAD RISE, JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4, RENFIELD, THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (animation), SUZUME (animé; in Japanese w/English sub or English dub) (4/28 on), The Metropolitan Opera: Champion (4/29, 11:55 a.m., simulcast; 5/3, 1 & 6:30 p.m., recorded), RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (4/30, 4 & 7 p.m.; 5/3, 7 p.m.), A FATHER’S HEART (religious documentary) (5/1, 7 p.m.), GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 (5/4 on)
@ Redbox, Champaign-Urbana, IL
AMBUSH, FEAR, JESUS REVOLUTION, JUSTICE LEAGUE X RWBY: SUPER HEROES AND HUNTSMEN – PART ONE, more! (4/25 on) Online rentals
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
The News-Gazette Film Series presents FANTASIA (4/29, 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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NOW PLAYING | The Cities Beyond
@ The Avon Theater, Decatur, IL
AIR, THE COVENANT, THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (animation) (4/27-4/30)
@ The Fischer Theatre, Danville, IL
THE WHALE (4/28, 7 p.m.)
@ The Harvest Moon Twin Drive-in, Gibson City, IL
THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (animation) (Screen 1), EVIL DEAD RISE (Screen 2) (4/28-4/30), Harvest Moon’s 3rd Annual Spring Fling Craft and Vendor Show (4/29, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., free admission)
@ The Little Lorraine, Hoopeston, IL
RETURN OF THE JEDI (5/4, 6:30 p.m.), private parties and “Family Movie Packs” this week.
@ The Normal Theater, Normal, IL
Illinois State University School of Communications presents the Foxtail Film Festival*: Kickoff night with filmmakers Doug Spilatro and Griffin Hammond (4/27, 7 p.m.), ISU student filmmakers night (4/28, 7 p.m.), DIY independent filmmaking workshop w/Griffin Hammond (4/29, 3 p.m.), and high school & college competition night (4/29, 7 p.m.), DARK STAR (5/4)
@ The Onarga Theatre, Onarga, IL
ARE YOU THERE, GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET. (4/28-4/30)
@ The Princess Theatre, Leroy, IL
JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 (4/28-4/30)
@ The Route 66 Drive-in Theater, Springfield, IL
THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (animation), AIR (Screen 1), EVIL DEAD RISE, THE POPE’S EXORCIST (Screen 2) (4/28-4/29)
NOW PLAYING | Midwest
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
5/6
MACS Student Showcase* (UIUC student media classwork)
@ Spurlock Museum, UIUC, Urbana, IL, 7 p.m., free
5/12
HUNTING FOR THE HAG* downstate premiere
@ The Normal Theater, Normal, IL, 7 p.m.
NEW! 5/15
Champaign Movie Makers* “Open Projector Night”
@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL, 7 p.m.
POSTPONED TO: 8/19
DESPERATE SOULS* downstate premiere
@ The Princess Theater, LeRoy, IL, time TBD
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.
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.
5/18: BEETLEJUICE; 6/29: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK; 7/27: TOP GUN
The News-Gazette Film Series
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL, 1 & 7 p.m.
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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