Foxtail ’25 films shoot for stars
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Let’s be the collective herald who reminds our community that, while Roger Ebert’s Film Festival is a singular force in our annual cultural calendar, there is much cinema life to be had otherwise that is sparked by the people of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond. The “beyond” is where we look today for a good example that is running concurrently with ‘Ebertfest’– one wonders why it had to be the case – as the student-leaning Foxtail Film Festival returns to the Normal Theater of downtown Normal for their third annual show. It is an instructional affair offering the young people who are attending Illinois State University and other schools a concise way to learn about the production process as well as view the work made by themselves and their peers on the big screen with their families and the public. Overseen by festival director Andrew Ventimiglia, ISU professor in mass media studies, and organized by ISU underclassmen, Foxtail is a partnership between the ISU School of Communication, ISU School of Theatre, Dance, and Film, and ISU Wonsook Kim School of Art with additional sponsorship from Before Brand, WGLT-FM, and the Normal. Beginning tonight, Thursday, April 24, and continuing through the end of Saturday, April 26, Foxtail is the alternate film choice you didn’t know you had this week.
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We’d like to highlight a few qualities that make the 2025 Foxtail a unique event for the area. As they did last year with the documentarian Danielle Beverly (QATAR STARS), organizers are welcoming a visiting filmmaker to Normal in the Chile-based writer and director Christopher Murray; his recent period piece BRUJERÍA (SORCERY) plays tonight and stars Valentina Véliz Caileo as an indigenous girl whose farmer father is killed by a German settler foreman and turns to the elder Mateo (Daniel Antivilo) and supernatural practices to enact justice. Murray will host a workshop on Friday afternoon and discuss approaches to weaving history into storytelling, while representatives from Rantoul’s Flyover Film Studios will introduce attendees to their soundstage craft on Saturday afternoon. The evenings of Friday and Saturday will be devoted to film blocks, the first comprised of works made by ISU students and alumni, the second made up of submissions from high school and non-ISU college students. Although the Foxtail approach is designed to speak to the up-and-comers who might pursue production for their livelihoods, it can also scratch the itch for anyone who wants to tell stories through a camera lens or already does so.
More information about the Foxtail Film Festival can be read about at their website and updates can be followed on their Facebook account. The Normal Theater, 209 North St., Normal, Illinois, which first opened in November 1937, is managed by Benjamin Young and operated by the Town of Normal.
~ Jason Pankoke
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2025 Foxtail Film Festival schedule
@ The Normal Theater, Normal, IL
Thursday, April 24
6:00 p.m. BRUJERÍA (SORCERY) (2023, 101 min.) screening and discussion with filmmaker Christopher Murray
9:00 p.m. Reception at Medici, 120 North St., Normal
Friday, April 25
3:00 p.m. Workshop with Christopher Murray on “historical methods in narrative filmmaking”
7:00 p.m. Regional screening of Illinois State University film work and discussion with attending filmmakers; selections include:
THE DATE WAS TONIGHT by Braden Kralis
GHOST OF FRATS PAST by Tommy Conway, Benn Eddy, Zach Hotchkiss, and Sheldon Bartmann
LOVE YOU. BYE. by Dan White
HIRCUS HOMOS by Henry Horton
THE WEIGHT OF WORDS by Thomas Palatinus
TIES THAT BIND by Tessa Renken
OFF-SCRIPT by Kian Kelly
A LOOK AT THE EX-GUITARIST OF MIDWESTERN ROCK BAND ‘LEFT OF PASSAGE’ by Jack Sinks
Saturday, April 26
3:00 p.m. Workshop with Flyover Film Studios of Rantoul about their business and internship opportunities
7:00 p.m. Competitive screening of high school and college/university films, plus discussion with attending filmmakers and awards ceremony
Publicity still from BRUJERÍA is courtesy Pimienta Films (Mexico). | Other artwork is courtesy the Foxtail Film Festival.
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