C-U Film Leader: 11.23.2012
The C-U Film Leader
November 23, 2012
Featuring: Dreamscape Cinema, Nina Paley & more!
The C-U Film Leader normally appears Thursdays on C-U Blogfidential to point our readers towards interesting cinema activity relevant to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, and the surrounding area. Please support the artists and their work, attend screenings and events, and otherwise become active in our wondrous little world!
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Happy post-Thanksgiving, dearest readers! We hope you are enjoying time with family and friends but can steal away a moment from the dinner table, televised football, and Black Friday consumerism to skim through this week’s C-U Film Leader, our new “beta mode” column. We plan to drum(stick) up at least one more helping next Thursday, November 29, so feel free to send feedback via cuconfidential [at] gmail [dot] com or unload your thoughts in the Comments field below. Cheers!
4 :: DREAMSCAPE CINEMA LAUNCHES KICKSTARTER
CAMPAIGN FOR HAUNTED LAKE PICTURE
It’s been a while since Monticello/Champaign producer Robin Christian has alerted us about projects under development at his Dreamscape Cinema studio, but it seems he intends to combine elements from a recent box-office smash and his own previous production in the story for his next film. While seeking distribution for the family fantasy MY DOG THE SPACE TRAVELER, the main location of which is a lake in the countryside, Christian is taking a stab at Kickstarter fundraising for the horror tale PARANORMAL LAKE, the main location of which is most likely a similar lake saddled with PARANORMAL ACTIVITY style mayhem. You can read over the plot crunch and pledge levels on this page; Dreamscape looks to amass a $25,000 budget by Friday, December 21, with shooting to presumably take place in 2013.
3 :: ANIMATION FAVE NINA PALEY RETURNS TO URBANA,
RELEASES BRAND-NEW SHORT
Remember those Heartland Magnetic Powers [TM] we mentioned last week in CULead? Come to find out, they’ve struck again as alternative cartoonist and animator Nina Paley has returned to her native Urbana for a spell after wowing the world with colorful tour-de-force SITA SINGS THE BLUES. News-Gazette writer Melissa Merli discussed with Paley the motivations behind her move in a “Studio Visit” piece run last month, also delving into her macabre Jewish-themed short THIS LAND IS MINE which is a sample scene from the proposed feature SEDER-MASOCHISM. You can review many of her early visual concepts, animation tests, and thought processes on her Web site as well as donate to the project; however, turn away if you can’t handle the lack of Disney sentimentality or DreamWorks superficiality.
2 :: DESPITE EXHIBITION INDUSTRY GLOOM,
NORMAL THEATER TURNS 75 YEARS OLD
Last week, we hemmed about the future of downstate Illinois movie theaters and hawed about their fellow bijous now belonging to the ages. Had we realized it earlier than the last minute, we would have added a positive exclamation point to our commentary as the Normal Theater celebrated its 75th anniversary last Saturday, November 17, with a showing of seasonal perennial THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (1940), according to Dan Craft of the Pantagraph. Returned to its former Art Deco glory by the Town of Normal in the early Nineties, the Normal projects a creative mix of appealing-to-all-quarters fare up on its screen as described by Chuck Koplinski in a News-Gazette “Cinema-Scoping” entry posted today. Why not deliver a personalized “Happy Birthday” to 209 North St. in downtown Normal when you can!
:::: BEEP! ::::
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That’s it for this week, gang. The Leader has spoken!
If you have relevant news, opportunities, dates, or promotions that you would like included in CULead, please forward the who, what, where, when, and how much to cuconfidential [at] gmail [dot] com.
Compiled by Jason Pankoke
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“The C-U Film Leader” no.82 © 2012 Jason Pankoke/C-U Blogfidential.