C-U Blogfidential

We think it goes without saying Elsinore is probably the most prolific C-U group since the Poster Children when it comes to creating or commissioning music videos. Below we embed another example which we somehow missed before now, a dark stop-motion scenario animated by the band’s bass player, Chris Eitel, and set to the title track of their most recent release, the Life Inside an Elephant EP. Presented as fragile and willowy dolls, its characters may be father and daughter or captor and captive, or even both; they seem to harbor secrets and a quiet desperation, with the man keeping the little girl locked in her bedroom for unspoken reasons. A cut-out style black butterfly, integrated as computer animation, implies their (or at least her) freedom to fly can be attained at a price. Even if this isn’t the cheery Wallace & Gromit adventure you might normally seek from miniatures and puppets, watch it anyway. It’s good. Sam Carlson designed the costumes and characters while Eitel’s daughter Zoe assembled the “ransom note” titles.

~ Jason Pankoke

Our unique movie and media Calendar appears every Friday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the discerning tastes of citizens in the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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PLAYING THIS WEEK
2/3/12-2/9/12

@ The Art Theater, Champaign, IL: THE ARTIST (2/3 on), THE BIG LEBOWSKI (2/3, 2/4, 2/9, 10 p.m.), AGNEEPATH (2/4, 10 a.m.; 2/5, 12 p.m.; Bollywood)

@ The Avon Theater, Decatur, IL: YOUNG ADULT (2/3-2/5), THE IRON LADY (2/3-2/8), THE ARTIST, EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE (2/3 on)

@ The Normal Theater, Normal, IL: TERRI (2/2-2/5, 7 p.m.)

@ Milner Library, Illinois State University, Normal, IL: PUERILE VICTORIOUS (2/6, 7 p.m., free)

@ The Lorraine Theatre, Hoopeston, IL: THE WOMAN IN BLACK, THE GREY (2/3 on)

@ The Onarga Theatre, Onarga, IL: THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN (2/3-2/5, 2/8)

@ The Princess Theatre, LeRoy, IL: WE BOUGHT A ZOO (2/3-2/5)

@ That’s Rentertainment, Champaign, IL: DRIVE, IN TIME, OUTRAGE, TEXAS KILLING FIELDS, DREAM HOUSE, THE BIG YEAR, THE THING, THE DOUBLE, THE MILL & THE CROSS, more! (1/31 on)

@ Harvest Moon Twin Drive-In, Gibson City, IL: Closed for the season!

@ Route 66 Twin Drive-In, Springfield, IL: Closed for the season!

@ Centerbrook Drive-In, Martinsville, IN: Closed for the season!

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Locally produced movies and events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Also find out what is “Coming Soon” by hitting the jump below. Go see ‘em, C-U!

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“The Double Life of a Cinéaste”: Long Live … Film?
Our columnist flip-flops his convictions on whether to shoot his upcoming feature with film

by Tyler Tharpe

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“The Double Life of a Cinéaste” follows contributor Tyler Tharpe as he balances the business of running a drive-in theater in the Midwest with the long and arduous process of filmmaking.

For any filmmaker who still embraces film as their shooting medium of choice, the last few years have been a real roller coaster ride, to say the least. Take this article, for instance. When I first started writing it a month ago, I was ready to abandon film altogether … but, more on that later.

As I gear up to make my third feature, PHANTOM COMPANION, later this year, I initially planned to shoot it on 16mm film, which has been my format of choice from the beginning. About a month ago I called Tony Hettinger, the director of photography for my first two features FREAK (1999) and RETURN IN RED (2007), to discuss my plans for shooting in the fall. As always, we talk over format options and, as always, we settle on 16mm stock.

Tony owns a very nice Arriflex SR-I which we used on the prior features. He also has a ton of nice lenses as well as an Arriflex 35BL, the same camera he used to shoot the Sundance hit IN THE COMPANY OF MEN (1997). I’ve always flirted with shooting 35mm. Tony claims to have about an hour and a half of short ends that he would donate to the project if I chose to shoot on 35. That’s always tempting for me, but the exorbitant costs of just developing 35 always put the kibosh on this idea since I finance my own films.

Deciding on 16mm yet again, I called the same lab that processed and transferred to digital the 16mm footage for my previous film seven years ago, asking them to give me a quote for my next project. I figured it couldn’t have gone up that much but the quote I received was pretty high, mainly due to my request for a transfer to High Definition this time. (I had FREAK transferred to Beta SP in 1994. RETURN was transferred to DV-CAM in 2005.) Also, they’ve upgraded equipment since I last used their services. They’re processing and transferring some pretty high-profile jobs, in fact, such as AMC’s Super 16mm production THE WALKING DEAD.

I consider myself a film diehard, but this quote made me wonder if it’s even worthwhile to shoot 16 for PHANTOM. At that moment, I started to look for a different option.

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“C-U Biz-en-scène” appears every Sunday/Monday on C-U Blogfidential to give our readers a succinct snapshot of the cinema activity in and near Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA. Please support the artists and their work, attend screenings and events, and otherwise become active in our esoteric little world!

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MFHQ & YOU:
Spring into Action this Spring, Dearest Readers!

Due to a case of Humble Editor Overload (HEO) worsened by an upper respiratory virus infection (FUBAR), we’ll need to shorten up the Biz once more and save the next installment of our “Stayin’ Alive” scene survey for column number 80(!) later this week. Until then, we foreshadow the time is nigh for MICRO-FILM Country filmmakers – via the Call for Entries for the New Art Film Festival, coming next week – and our valiant advertisers – via the sexy sixth issue of C-U Confidential digest, the rates for which will also be revealed next week – to start pulling through with their annual share of heavy hitting. Mark those down and pass ‘em around, for we need your strength in numbers to help make our efforts a success! Just as well, gossip through your respective grapevines that the second Time Traveling Cinema, sponsored by us and The Psychic Joker, will go down Friday, February 24, starting at 10 p.m.; we’ll announce our next group of vintage flicks shortly! “Join” this Event on Facebook so you will be reminded when it’s show time and then read this Smile Politely article by Rachel Buller about the downtown Champaign sector that our host venue, SoDo Theatre, and other neighboring businesses are transforming into a pro-arts hub of activity. Go Go SoDo!

“COMING SOON” TO CUBLOG

Keep an eye out this week for a brand-new “The Double Life of a Cinéaste” column by Tyler Tharpe on Tuesday or Wednesday, an “Images of the Week” on Friday featuring yet another cool Elsinore music video, and our exclusive events Calendar on Friday as well!

ITEMS OF THE WEEK

With nothing particularly timely on the local front to divulge, we concentrate this week on pointing you, erstwhile producer, towards potential resources for funding and screening your work. Our Chicago area friends should note that Chicago Filmmakers and the Chicago Instructional Technology Foundation will be awarding production grants up to $10,000 for five or more projects through the Chicago Digital Media Production Fund, accepting applications until Monday, March 19. Proposals can be for short or feature-length films addressing “progressive social change in some fashion” that will be completed by April 2013; read and download all the pertinent details from the CF Web site … Entries are being accepted through May 15 for the sixth annual Iowa Independent Film Festival which will take place July 13-15 in Clear Lake, IA. This indie fest is able to draw Hollywood professionals as guests and judges through the connections of IIFF co-founder Tanna Frederick, an actress and current muse of maverick director Henry Jaglom (IRENE IN TIME, QUEEN OF THE LOT) … The cleverly named 15 Minutes of Fame Film Festival is now looking for movies running 15 minutes or less for its fourth annual event on Saturday, May 19, in Palm Bay, FL. While the early-bird deadline for entry is this Tuesday, January 31, the latest submissions can be postmarked no later than Monday, April 23 … Elsewhere, IndieWIRE published a Sundance tie-in interview with Austin, TX, animator Don Hertzfeldt about his new short, IT’S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY. Attendees of the former C-U Freaky Film Festival will remember his early stick-figure efforts LILY AND JIM, BILLY’S BALLOON, and the immortal REJECTED … The acclaimed Japanese visual artist Eiko Ishioka, who won an Academy Award in 1993 for her costume designs in BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA, passed away January 21 at age 73 according to the Associated Press. She attended Roger Ebert’s Film Festival in 2008 and spoke after screenings of MISHIMA and THE CELL, both featuring her work as did THE FALL which played “Ebertfest” the following year …

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Our unique movie and media Calendar appears every Friday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the discerning tastes of citizens in the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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PLAYING THIS WEEK
1/27/12-2/2/12

@ The Art Theater, Champaign, IL: THE ARTIST (1/27 on), WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? (1/27, 10 p.m.; 1/28, 11 a.m. & 10 p.m.; 2/2, 10 p.m.), 3 Superstars in Berlin (1/29, 1 p.m.; 1/31, 4 p.m.; opera)

@ SoDo Theatre, Champaign, IL: The Psychic Joker and C-U Confidential present “The Psychic Joker’s Time Traveling Circus” feat. THE YESTERDAY MACHINE, THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (1928), and HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1/27, 10 p.m., $5)

@ Krannert Art Museum, UIUC, Champaign, IL: VALLEY GIRL (2/2, 5:30 p.m., free)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL: HAPPY FEET TWO (1/31, 2/2, 7 p.m.)

@ The Avon Theater, Decatur, IL: THE ARTIST, EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE, THE IRON LADY (1/27 on)

@ The Normal Theater, Normal, IL: REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR (1/26, 7 p.m., w/filmmaker + car exhibition; 1/27, 7 p.m., w/filmmaker), SENNA (1/28-1/29, 7 p.m.), THE OTHER F WORD (1/31, 2/1, 7 p.m.), TERRI (2/2 on, 7 p.m.)

@ The Lorraine Theatre, Hoopeston, IL: THE GREY, UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING (1/27 on)

@ The Onarga Theatre, Onarga, IL: WAR HORSE (1/27-1/29, 2/1)

@ The Princess Theatre, LeRoy, IL: WAR HORSE (1/27-1/29)

@ That’s Rentertainment, Champaign, IL: REAL STEEL, HELL AND BACK AGAIN, 50/50, RESTLESS, THE WHISTLEBLOWER, SHUT UP LITTLE MAN!, WINGS, GODZILLA (Criterion), more! (1/24 on)

@ Norris University Center, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL: B-Fest (1/27-1/28)

@ Harvest Moon Twin Drive-In, Gibson City, IL: Closed for the season!

@ Route 66 Twin Drive-In, Springfield, IL: Closed for the season!

@ Centerbrook Drive-In, Martinsville, IN: Closed for the season!

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Locally produced movies and events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Also find out what is “Coming Soon” by hitting the jump below. Go see ‘em, C-U!

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Our lovely Chicago columnist, Michelle Kaffko, has been pulling major double duty while on CUBlog sabbatical, drumming up clients for her photography business as well as playing Match Queen between the American public and REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR, a feature length sequel to director Chris Paine’s well-received original, WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? Released on DVD this past Tuesday by Docurama Films, REVENGE has already traveled well during a full year’s worth of nationwide play dates booked by specialty distributor Area23a and the company behind the film, WestMidWest Productions LLC. Their theatrical lap continues later tonight, Thursday, January 26, with a 7 p.m. show at the Normal Theater, 209 North St., Normal, IL.

Kaffko is credited on REVENGE as “Producer of Marketing and Distribution,” an unusual title she’ll gladly add to her résumé. “Distributing an independent film all on your own and without big studio backing is a labor of love and a lot of work, but so rewarding,” she tells CUBlog about her first movie publicity gig. “It’s a lot like throwing a big birthday party. Lots of planning, promoting, inviting, then one huge party that happens so fast your head spins.” Apart from REVENGE, this particular “EVening of EVs” will entail a post-film Q & A session with executive producer Stefano Durdic and Normal mayor Chris Koos as well as an EV exhibition in the neighboring Marriott Hotel & Conference Center from 5:30 to 9:45 p.m. The documentary will also run 7 p.m. Friday at the Normal, with Durdic in attendance.

Following KILLED, which traced early advances in Electric Vehicle (EV) feasibility and chronicled a squelched attempt in southern California to offer the American public EVs as a transportation option, REVENGE looks at the modern resurgence of EV research and development through the insider eyes of General Motors executive Bob Lutz, a former naysayer who reversed course and championed the Volt, Tesla Motors president Elon Musk, a Silicon Valley billionaire who dared to sink money into an EV upstart, Nissan head Carlos Ghosn, another previous skeptic who turns over a leaf by pushing the company’s mass market LEAF car, and Greg “Gadget” Abbott, a backyard tinkerer determined to turn his Porsche Speedster into a custom EV. Hollywood actor Tim Robbins narrates.

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Since the earliest MICRO-FILM days, you’ve read about our efforts to establish a “micro-cinema” presence here in Champaign-Urbana, jumping between venues with various levels of success. We’re happy to announce that we can put our wanderlust days behind us, thanks to new event partners and an unlikely home fully equipped for all our cinema-projecting needs!

Starting this Friday, January 27, at 10 p.m., C-U Confidential and magic/sideshow mavens, Psychic Joker Entertainment, will present a monthly late-night movie showcase at SoDo Theatre, 114 S. Neil St., in Champaign’s “south downtown” area. Initial double- and triple-features will be assembled from material in the public domain and billed as “Psychic Joker’s Time Traveling Cinema,” playing on our mutual interest in full motion ephemera and lasting until 2 a.m. Cover will be $5 while goodies and drinks (sans alcohol, for now) will be made available to you, dearest viewers, for a mere $1 an item.

We launch the Time Traveling Cinema with THE YESTERDAY MACHINE (1963), about a former Nazi scientist who constructs a time machine and plots a return to World War II in order to change history! We then zip back farther to the late Silent Era with a haunting short adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe story, THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (1928), and finally conclude with HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959) starring an actor synonymous with later Poe films, the great Vincent Price, and directed by a Hollywood showman famous for his promotional gimmicks, William Castle!

Please come support our maiden voyage at SoDo, even if you must be fashionably late! (HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL should start at approximately 12:30 a.m.) Depending on attendance levels and reactions in the early goings, we may vary future line-ups to include theme nights, “guest curator” nights, local film nights akin to the New Art Film Festival, and exclusive screenings of current indie and underground films from across the United States in the esoteric MICRO-FILM vein. Only time and your patronage will tell!

~ Jason Pankoke

At the Champaign Movie Makers meeting last Tuesday, January 17, director Thomas Nicol announced that on-line activities for the organization would be migrating from their Yahoo! Groups forum to a dedicated Ning network page, allowing for Facebook style commenting, discussion forums similar to traditional Bulletin Boards, and internal blogging a la MySpace. Members may contact anyone within the network and post notices about their own projects for some or all to see. If interested in joining CMM Ning, you should send a request to champaignmoviemakers [at] gmail [dot] com. The Yahoo! Group will be phased out within the next few weeks, added Nicol.

On the same day, outgoing Central Illinois Film Commission president Cameron Counts unveiled a Facebook Page for the Springfield group, which you can check out and “Like” right here.

~ Jason Pankoke

“C-U Biz-en-scène” usually appears every Thursday/Friday on C-U Blogfidential to give our readers a succinct snapshot of the cinema activity in and near Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA. Please support the artists and their work, attend screenings and events, and otherwise become active in our esoteric little world!

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MFHQ & YOU:
Gonna Wash that SOPA Right Outta Our Hair?

Can you say “media-making maelström,” dearest readers?

On Thursday morning, the Eastman-Kodak Company put long-held rumors to rest as they filed for bankruptcy protection. Reuters outlines the storied history and slow erosion of Kodak’s empire, partly due to the Rochester, NY, firm holding fast to its traditional still and motion picture business and not capitalizing on the digital photography revolution it pioneered, while Kodak has gone live with a Web site explaining their reorganization plans. But wait, there’s more, given that experts in archiving – including the University of Illinois’ Graduate School of Library Information and Science – have gone on record to say film stock is the most stable storage solution if cared for properly.

A day earlier on Wednesday, Variety posted an announcement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences regarding the release of The Digital Dilemma 2, a 136-page report warning the producers and distributors of independent films and documentaries that digital production cannot be archived and retrieved securely for the long term using technology available to them. The Academy offers this and the original 2007 report, focusing on asset preservation for the industry at large, as free downloads with an e-mail log-in. So, if indies can barely scratch out the budget to make movies, then barely scratch out the budget to promote said movies, then barely make any money on said movies from self- or contracted distribution, they’re ultimately screwed farther down the line unless manufacturers introduce affordable and infallible gear that has yet to exist. What?

Also on Thursday, the United States Supreme Court upheld a 1994 ruling that complies with the Berne Convention treaty of 1886, restoring copyright to “millions” of works imported to America from other countries and removing them from public domain status. In effect, this bars any entity – including academic and community-based – from using said works in part or whole unless they offer compensation to overseas rights holders. The Wall Street Journal’s analysis implies the gesture is a “good faith” grab to ensure American works are, in theory, treated with the same fidelity across the world, while the New York Times touches on different views of copyright and “the dissemination of existing and future works.” This may force distributors relying on non-American PD material to purge their catalogues simply because they can’t afford the fees or the fuss.

Of course, the most publicized media issue last week involved bills that might have given government the power to disable Internet access for sites allegedly posting or selling media properties illegally. TED speaker Clay Shirky of New York University provides a succinct explanation on why media industries wanted the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Senate’s Project IP Act (PIPA) to pass and dampen how American citizens share and create, Fair Use Act or no. Lead SOPA sponsor Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican and House Judiciary Committee chairman, withdrew it from the table on Friday while the Senate postponed PIPA voting the same day, due to an exodus of political support after Wednesday’s on-line blackout protest led by Wikipedia. The user-generated encyclopedia explains the history leading up to these anti-piracy proposals, first intended to cut off resources for foreign Web sites hosting U.S. created content illegally but apparently drafted with language vague enough they could also be applied domestically. Yahoo! News ruminates about the future and asks, “Is SOPA dead?” The aforementioned Shirky provides the probable answer in the TED video:

“If we defeat these, as I hope we do, more is coming.” Joy.

What exactly does this mean for our friends and neighbors who engage in media production and dissemination here in Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond? First, they had better not rely on the Kodak brand to be around forever, which simply pains us to type. Second, they had better purchase the most stable server or RAID drive they can afford so their grandchildren, let alone the world, can see their present work in the future. Third, they had better be wary of vintage material unquestionably produced outside the United States during most of the 20th century, even when used in “derivative works” or to illustrate critique and social commentary. Fourth, they had better file away proof of ownership for any material they post on-line. Certainly, this super-simplifies the latter situation – we’re really not going to know how broadly a SOPA/PIPA style tandem can be applied unless it is acted upon – but for those who honestly believe “making a movie” starts and ends with pointing a camera and recording … well, it gets complicated once you show it outside the family living room. Always does, always will.

As for C-U Blogfidential and MICRO-FILM, we’re uncertain what ramifications could be in store for us. Taking music and videos out of the equation, since we have yet to actually make any ourselves, we feel relatively secure about what we’ve incorporated in our reporting. Practically everything visual has been obtained from proper sources or self-created, the only text material we have reproduced has been press releases and a handful of book and newspaper excerpts with permission – that is key – while every streaming video appearing here or on our YouTube channel has been accessed from, once again, proper sources with a couple of potential exceptions we’ll remove to keep the peace if we’re asked nicely.

What happens if Johnny Law unceremoniously takes down a site, the owners of which are otherwise playing by the book, because one or two movie clips appearing on that site are deemed illegal? The site loses traffic, the owners lose revenue if they sport advertising or sell merchandise, the editors lose momentum in their writing and posting, and the whole enterprise possibly loses credibility even if they are proven innocent or have their functionality restored after the offending videos are removed, probably all on the owners’ dime. Most people with Web presence who don’t operate as a formal business are very vulnerable to petty corporate persecution that could wipe them out financially, if not off the map.

Like our economy and culture can stand for any more of that to occur.

Onward, comrades!

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We’re not really sure how to set up the following, recorded at the Station Theatre in Urbana during a performance in November 1996, other than to exercise a little bit of that good old-fashioned hyperbole as used by the promotional hucksters whose exploitation films inspired what you are about to witness…

WATCH as locked-in ladies dance to an imprisoned beat!

SEE a concrete hell snuff out the faintest rays of hope!

FEEL the frigid stare of femmes too icy and ferocious!

HEAR a siren song describing the fate of these “Caged Vixens!”

Now, CLICK HERE and read our Mike Trippiedi interview posted earlier this week, dearest voyeurs, explaining the origins of the above video featuring inmates Heather M. Barrows, Maggie McAvoy, Sue Trippiedi, Angela Tyler, Traci Nally, Mina F. Willis, Mindy Manolakes, and Janice Rothbaum with their disembodied conscience, Kay Holley!

~ Jason Pankoke

Our unique movie and media Calendar appears every Friday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the discerning tastes of citizens in the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

~~~~~

PLAYING THIS WEEK
1/20/12-1/26/12

@ The Art Theater, Champaign, IL: TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY (1/20 on), YOUNG ADULT (1/20, 1/21, 1/26, 10:30 p.m., 2-D), Cendrillon (1/22, 1 p.m.; 1/24, 4 p.m.; opera)

@ Room C118, Parkland College, Champaign, IL: Graphic designer/video producer Vanessa Burgett (1/25, 12-1 p.m., talk + discussion)

@ The Avon Theater, Decatur, IL: EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE, TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY, THE IRON LADY (1/20 on)

@ The Normal Theater, Normal, IL: MELANCHOLIA (1/19-1/22, 7 p.m.), MISS REPRESENTATION (1/24, 7 p.m., free, w/discussion), REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR (1/26, 7 p.m., w/filmmakers + car exhibition)

@ The Lorraine Theatre, Hoopeston, IL: UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING (1/20 on)

@ The Onarga Theatre, Onarga, IL: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL (1/20-1/22, 1/25)

@ The Princess Theatre, LeRoy, IL: ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: CHIPWRECKED (1/20-1/22)

@ That’s Rentertainment, Champaign, IL: THE IDES OF MARCH, ABDUCTION, MYSTERIES OF LISBON, COURAGEOUS, DIRTY GIRL, TOAST, BELLE DE JOUR (Criterion), more! (1/17 on)

@ Harvest Moon Twin Drive-In, Gibson City, IL: Closed for the season!

@ Route 66 Twin Drive-In, Springfield, IL: Closed for the season!

@ Centerbrook Drive-In, Martinsville, IN: Closed for the season!

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Locally produced movies and events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Also find out what is “Coming Soon” by hitting the jump below. Go see ‘em, C-U!

Read the rest of this entry »

Uncaging Trippiedi, Round 1
A lost interview with Mike Trippiedi on Caged Vixens
and movie-making

by Jason Pankoke

Sometimes the best of intentions do not pan out. A case in point is last spring’s C-U Confidential issue, in which we had to compromise the amount of coverage we could give to several key projects. One production that fell victim to our last-minute consolidation, AMBER ROSE, is the return to feature filmmaking by our long-time supporter Mike Trippiedi. Unfortunately, this is not the first time we’ve failed to award him more expansive props than we ultimately could muster.

We’re lucky to have kept up the archives here at the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters since they’ll help us remedy past transgressions. Not only did Trippiedi participate in one of the inaugural interviews conducted for MICRO-FILM in 1999, but he also agreed to the very first interview we ever arranged with a filmmaker, let alone one who shared the same county residency and telephone prefix. Taking place almost three years before MF came to fruition, this milestone discussion was offered to other pop culture periodicals but never accepted for publication. As of now, it’s their loss!

In the immediate wake of his current successes – the dramatic feature AMBER ROSE, now traversing the festival circuit, and Way Off Broadway, which enjoyed its world premiere in November at Urbana’s Station Theatre – the 1997 interview offers a coincidental parallel as the Trippiedi projects of the time were Caged Vixens, a B-movie style jaunt staged during the Station’s 25th anniversary season and the writer/director’s first produced play, and DOGS IN QUICKSAND, a dark comedy film that doubled as his first feature-length effort.

We credit Caged Vixens for drawing your humble editor’s attention to the Champaign native’s output, for I attended the closing night performance on November 23, 1996, on a whim. Trippiedi and I met a few weeks later over hot coffee and within inches of a microcassette recorder at the Cinema Café in downtown Urbana – where Carolyn Baxley’s Cinema Gallery now resides – to analyze his endearing ode to cult cinema, debate the state of Hollywood, and contemplate living the life of an independent filmmaker in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.

For that very last reason, if nothing else, we present to you one of the most significant interviews we’ve ever conducted. Fifteen years later is a better time than never to share a little something “EXTRA” … yes?

Read on, “Moms” MacDuff…

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