C-U Blogfidential

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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FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Today, we dive back into the mists of time and remind ourselves what the storytellers behind the cameras were making twenty years ago in Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond! This is according to “The Confidential Teletype” on page 44 of MICRO-FILM issue 7, which we published all the way back in October 2005 and assembled in the heart of the Sesquicentennial Neighborhood. It was a relatively busy time for the local movies and about to lead into a handful of more elaborate endeavors that would show our communities we had the capacity for fostering and accommodating something bigger, which is being borne out belatedly as you’ve been reading in our string of Reports that closed out 2025. Let’s continue…

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Laser-beam light has appeared at the end of the long, dark, nasty tunnel where originates the intense output of Hart D. Fisher (MF 2). The former Champaign underground comix publisher has seen his short film CHANCE MEETING hit DVD through Chanting Monks Studios in Florida as a Flowers on the Razorwire release, while his fabled C-U serial killer feature, THE GARBAGE MAN, will finally gut video stores everywhere this fall thanks to SRS Cinema in New York …

Other horror movies have recently emerged from Champaign-Urbana soil, courtesy of Ed Glaser and Mobled Queen Entertainment. His short subjects, DEAD BY DAWN 2 and NIGHT OF ANUBIS, feature local magician Andy Dallas in contemporary black-and-white salutes to the terror films of yore – Robert Wiene’s THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI in the former, vintage mummy and zombie programmers in the latter. Glaser plans to produce his inaugural feature-length film soon …

And yet another ghoul will eventually walk the prairie cornfields! Coming off a lengthy stint working for Hollywood company David Foster Productions (THE CORE), Homer native Ryan E. Heppe visited east central Illinois in August 2004 with partners Nicholas Bird and Amy Beth Heppe to shoot a teaser for STALKED, an Eighties-style scarecrow slasher that will serve as the first production for Knightime Pictures LLC. They’ll collect some B-roll locally this summer, with full-blown stalking to commence mid-2006 …

WILL-TV Channel 12 editor Eleanore Stasheff has been furiously assembling the latest entry in her cable-access fantasy programs, EIDOLON. Like her numerous prior multi-part adventures, EIDOLON mixes intrigue, romance, snappy one-liners, and confident heroines hoofing it from one cliffhanger to the next. Working with many long-time collaborators (including lead actresses Brittany Whalen and Morgan Thomas) from her days at Champaign’s Parkland College and Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Stasheff intends for EIDOLON to bridge the gap between her no-budget roots and professional narrative work …

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…and see how this all played out. After a lengthy residence in California working in the adult video industry and developing a handful of horror/genre streaming channels, including the flagship original American Horrors, Fisher moved back to the Midwest and is now settled in Wisconsin. THE GARBAGE MAN can be found lurking in the depths of American Horrors itself and was ultimately a no-go at SRS, instead coming out on DVD through an outfit called Indie Pictures. Recently, the American Horrors brand has branched out with an eponymous film festival held annually in Lake Geneva while Fisher expands his online foothold, such as with his recent acquisition of the long-running Roku favorite, B-Movie TV.

Elsewhere, Glaser would level up next with two PRESS START videogame movies and a myriad of cult films and historical projects under a new name, Neon Harbor Entertainment, but has not been openly active in this space as of late. Similarly, Stasheff had filled the Nineties and Aughts before and after EIDOLON with her wizardly goodness under the Sine Fine Films banner, but the cascade of low-budget and high-tempo shorts, features, and miniseries has grown quiet except for the occasional reunion special. And, STALKED stalled after the proof-of-concept short was completed, while Heppe’s personal film output has trickled down as he plies other trades in the entertainment industry as a story analyst and producer at Voyage Media as well as a content creator, voiceover artist, and screenplay instructor.

We’ll peek at cinema history du C-U one more time next week, and feel free to Report your new talking points to friends and neighbors from all over. Knowing our foundation is a vital part of solidifying our scene. Cheers!

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Esquire Lounge, Champaign, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* meeting (1/19, 7 p.m.)

@ Lincoln Square, Urbana, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* presents “48-Hour Film Competition” (1/16, 7 p.m.-1/18, 7 p.m.)

@ Rantoul Business Center, Flyover Film Studios, Rantoul, IL
“The 2026 Filmworkers Expo” (1/17, 12-5 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE, ALL YOU NEED IS KILL (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), THE CHORAL*, HAPPY PATEL: KHATARNAK JASOOS (in Hindi with English sub), NIGHT PATROL*, ANACONDA, AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, GREENLAND 2: MIGRATION, THE HOUSEMAID, MARTY SUPREME, IS THIS THING ON?*, PRIMATE, THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SEARCH FOR SQUAREPANTS (animation), ZOOTOPIA 2 (animation) (1/16 on), MADAGASCAR 20th anniversary* (animation) (1/16-1/22), THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING* (re-release) (1/16-1/21), THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS* (re-release) (1/16-1/20, 1/22), THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING* (re-release) (1/16-1/19, 1/21-1/22), MERCY (1/22 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE, CHARLIE THE WONDERDOG (animation), NIGHT PATROL, NO OTHER CHOICE (in Korean with English sub), SHEEPDOG*, AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, DAVID (faith animation), GREENLAND 2: MIGRATION, HAMNET*, THE HOUSEMAID, I WAS A STRANGER*, IS THIS THING ON?, MARTY SUPREME, PRIMATE, SONG SUNG BLUE, THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SEARCH FOR SQUAREPANTS (animation), ZOOTOPIA 2 (animation) (1/16 on), Indian cinema: NARI NARI NADUMA MURAI (in Telugu with English sub; 1/16-1/21), ANAGANAGA OKA RAJU* (in Telugu with English sub; 1/16-1/21), and MANA SHANKARAVARAPRASAD GURY (in Telugu with English sub; 1/16-1/21), THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING* (re-release) (1/16; 1/19-1/22, 12 p.m.), THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS* (re-release) (1/17; 1/19-1/22, 4 p.m.), THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING* (re-release) (1/18; 1/19-1/22, 8:15 p.m.), MEAN GIRLS (2004) (1/18, 3 & 7 p.m.; 1/21, 7 p.m.), MERCY (1/22 on) *single screenings daily

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
The News-Gazette Film Series presents CITIZEN KANE (1/17, 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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Read the rest of this entry »

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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FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Despite our stated intent from last week that we’re powering down the Report for the short term, that doesn’t mean we won’t pipe up if something strikes our fancy. Therefore, if Ye Ed says we should share old copy from a generation ago that makes sense for CUBlog today, let’s do it! We did miss the boat on marking the 20th anniversary of the last issue of MICRO-FILM, which we released to the world in October 2005 after many labor-intensive hours spent at the former Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters near downtown Champaign, so we’re invoking it here for the next three weeks in that “remember when” sort of way. It will be less about MF 7 and more about the state of our film scene at the time.

While we were briefly tempted to draft a mock Calendar entry that would have read like a Calendar posted that month – an impossibility, since CUBlog went live in February 2006 and, yes, we’re absolutely seeing that anniversary hovering on the horizon – we’re just going to break it down here. The precursor to the Report and its online mutations were the comparable passages in MF and its various offshoots that presented “news ticker” style updates about what was happening with the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond. That paused for a while between the publication of MF 7 and when we resumed sharing “all the news fit to post” on our current platform. Search here on CUBlog and ye shall find.

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The ”C-U Confidential” segment of MF 7 was handled differently from the previous issues. Instead of a series of compact articles about our film culture, we had an out-and-about diary by Mr. JaPan that brought the variety. And, instead of a concluding page with several anecdotal factoids, we had a page full of run-together tidbits that mentioned a lot of who, what, when, etc., in short order. It’s this material we revive for you now, dearest historians. From page 44, “The Confidential Teletype” informed us that…

Former Tolono and Urbana resident Mark Roberts, now a writer and producer of the hit CBS-TV sitcom TWO AND A HALF MEN, returned home this summer to direct the world premiere of his play Welcome to Tolono. The darkly comedic tale of small-town eccentrics gathered in a church basement for AA meetings featured MF contributor Aaron Polk of Urbana and Backyard Cinema co-editor Mike Trippiedi (MF 1) of Champaign in major roles. Word has it that Roberts intends to film Tolono in the near future …

Robin Peters (MF 5, 6) of Monticello marches forth with additional Dreamscape Cinema productions: DISCONNECT, a time-bending murder mystery shot in Summer 2004 that stars Steffany Huckaby, Eddie Jones, Holmes Osborne, Michael Muhney, and Amanda Troop, and ANGST, a just-wrapped comedy with Muhney playing a young actor masquerading as an old man in a retirement home. Peters produced and directed both features in Champaign County …

Recent University of Illinois graduate and Peters associate Chris Folkens followed up his student ghost story TRIAD (MF 6) with the Hi-Def action-thriller TOXIN, which made its debut at New York City’s Tribeca Cinemas in early April. Folkens now works for the Leo Burnett advertising agency in Chicago …

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…and now comes the portion where we see where all this has led. Most of the folks mentioned above are quite active in the arts today and have been mentioned within the last year on CUBlog. Roberts did go on to make WELCOME TO TOLONO “The Movie” and has retired from the network television drag, pouring his creative energies into plays and songwriting as well as printing The Bad Mule Rag, producing a series of award-winning animated shorts, and advocating for animal rights. Polk has been a perennial guest on the locally-recorded Mashley at the Movies podcast and just hinted at an upcoming “1,001 movies to see before I die” essay project. And, Trippiedi is concentrating on his novel writing and recently restored his own first feature, DOGS IN QUICKSAND, for a Blu-ray re-release by Saturn’s Core Audio & Video.

Peters has gone professionally as Robin Christian since then, producing and selling the rights to a handful of subsequent movies like ANGST, retitled as ACT YOUR AGE and distributed in the US by the defunct Vanguard Cinema, and his most recent to be completed, C.O.R.N. II: MIND HARVEST, which can be streamed on services like Tubi. And Folkens, who interned for Peters while living in the C-U, has built a career in Los Angeles as a spot producer for ABC television and indie producer of short subjects with altruistic aims; his debut feature, CATALYST, was released worldwide last winter by the UK-based studio 4Digital Media. Again, search all of these deets on this forum and you will know them to be true.

We’ll peek at more cinema history du C-U next week, and feel free to Report your new talking points to friends and neighbors from all over. Knowing our foundation is a vital part of solidifying our scene. Cheers!

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Champaign Public Library Douglass Branch, Champaign, IL
40 North and Champaign Movie Makers present Pens to Lens* youth screenwriting workshop (1/10, 1 p.m., ages K-12, free)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Society* presents “The Savoy Arthouse” feat. AIN’T NO BACK TO A MERRY-GO-ROUND (documentary) (1/11, 3 p.m.)

@ Rantoul Business Center, Rantoul, IL
Champaign County Film Office presents “So You Want to Be a Film Location?” seminar (1/12, 5 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER, GREENLAND 2: MIGRATION, I WAS A STRANGER, IS THIS THING ON?, PRIMATE, ANACONDA, AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, DAVID* (faith animation), FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2*, THE HOUSEMAID, MARTY SUPREME, SONG SUNG BLUE*, THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SEARCH FOR SQUAREPANTS (animation), WE BURY THE DEAD*, WICKED: FOR GOOD*, ZOOTOPIA 2 (animation) (1/9 on), “Gundam Premiere Night” feat. MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM: IRON-BLOODED ORPHANS feature + short, MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM WING: ENDLESS WALTZ (animé) (1/12-1/13, 7 p.m., English dub; 1/15, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE, ALL YOU NEED IS KILL (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub) (1/15 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
GREENLAND 2: MIGRATION, I WAS A STRANGER, IS THIS THING ON?, PRIMATE, ANACONDA, AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, DAVID (faith animation), FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2*, HAMNET, THE HOUSEMAID, MARTY SUPREME, SONG SUNG BLUE, THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SEARCH FOR SQUAREPANTS (animation), WICKED: FOR GOOD, ZOOTOPIA 2 (animation) (1/9 on), Indian cinema: PARASAKTHI (in Tamil with English sub; 1/9-1/12), THE RAJASAAB (in Telugu with English sub; 1/9-1/10), MANA SHANKARAVARAPRASAD GURY (in Telugu with English sub; 1/11-1/14), and ANAGANAGA OKA RAJU (in Telugu with English sub; 1/13), LABYRINTH 40th anniversary (1/9-1/11, 7 p.m.), The Metropolitan Opera: I Puritani (1/10, 12 p.m., simulcast; 1/14, 1 & 6:30 p.m., simulcast), THE OUTSIDERS (1/11, 3 & 7 p.m.; 1/14, 7 p.m.), “Gundam Premiere Night” feat. MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM: IRON-BLOODED ORPHANS feature + short, MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM WING: ENDLESS WALTZ (animé) (1/12-1/13, 7 p.m., English dub; 1/15, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE (1/15 on) *single screenings daily

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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Read the rest of this entry »

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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FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

‘Tis the season! Therefore, ‘tis the low-ebb portion of our school year activity here at C-U Blogfidential, although this round is different as we finally begin a gradual metamorphosis into a different phase of how we chronicle the C-Universe. For the moment, we’re cutting back on our Report protocol through March at the least, offering one-and-done entries when something really stokes our curiosity, while the Images department will go into hibernation after today unless we have such a sight to show you because it is simply that astounding. What all are we up to at MFHQ Deux? Only one sure way to know – read about it.

What we’d like to point out for your enticement today is an upcoming series that will be held a little bit outside of our usual geography. Ye Ed has been noticing ads in his Facebook news feed for a hefty retrospective that will begin next Friday, January 9, in the screening auditorium at the Peoria Riverfront Museum in downtown Peoria. Alfred Hitchcock’s famous “single-shot” experiment in tension, ROPE, will kick off the spring program, “Art of Film” hosted by the Film Society of the Giant Screen Theater, at 6:30 p.m. that evening to be followed by – collective gasp at the sheer magnitude of what we’re about to list – MULHOLLAND DRIVE (Jan. 10), WOMAN IN THE DUNES (Jan. 11), JEANNE DIELMAN, 23 QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES (Jan. 11), THE SERVANT (Jan. 16 & 18), TO DIE FOR (Jan. 23 & 25), THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT (Jan. 30 & Feb. 1), PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE (Feb. 6 & 8), IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (Feb 13 & 15), SUZHOU RIVER (Feb. 20 & 21), TROPICAL MALADY (Feb. 27 & Mar. 1), BEAU TRAVAIL (Mar. 6 & 8), and TASTE OF CHERRY (Mar. 13 & 15). This is big city-level fare, folks. Why is no venue in Champaign-Urbana able to sustain a strength in schedule like this? Certainly, the museum has filled in other dates with famous fare to attract their community-at-large and help pay the bills – PADDINGTON IN PERU, the original Indiana Jones trilogy, the improbable smash hit LILO & STITCH remake – but it sure makes us feel a little sheepish. Baa-aa-aa-aah humbug.

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Some of these titles have played the C-U in the past, of course, whether in first run, revival, or both. We’re just marveling at the absolute strength in numbers of well-regarded films made by world-class filmmakers. Not that we have no unique options closer to home. The Chambana Film Society, which operates on a different wavelength with content unique from what the Peoria Film Society is programming and our own community is the better for it, resumes in 2026 on Sunday, January 11, with the documentary AIN’T NO BACK TO A MERRY-GO-ROUND about a Civil Rights Movement sit-in with a unique spin on fostering better relations. The next and final downstate “Ebertfest” will do what “Ebertfest” does, present thought-provoking and life-affirming films from the past and present. Contemporary “art house” cinema receives a boost in Springfield when the 34th annual Molly Schlich International/Independent Film Series opens on Sunday, January 18, with a French comedy, JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE. Hopefully, the Virginia Theatre in Champaign and Fischer Theatre in Danville both continue to increase their showing of repertory classics; we see the Virginia will play CITIZEN KANE on January 17 and WHAT’S UP, DOC? on February 7 as the latest entries in the News-Gazette Film Series. The Normal Theater in Normal also goes retro this weekend with the evergreen, emerald-green WIZARD OF OZ. Take ‘em in when we get ‘em, folks.

The real answer in the present tense, we suppose, is one needs to be willing to hit the road sometimes to find one’s cinema nirvana if that involves an auditorium, a giant screen, and a willing audience. It all adds up to a positive in the long run and, if you’ve been reading CUBlog for any of the last twenty years, then you know the fare is out there somewhere. If not, today is always a good day to start figuring out how to make it happen by the efforts of yourselves and those in your clubhouse. We should know. Cheers.

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
THE DUTCHMAN, THE PLAGUE*, WE BURY THE DEAD, ANACONDA, AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, DAVID (faith animation), FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2*, THE HOUSEMAID, MARTY SUPREME, SONG SUNG BLUE, THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SEARCH FOR SQUAREPANTS (animation), WICKED: FOR GOOD, ZOOTOPIA 2 (animation) (1/2 on), AMC “Scream Unseen” (mystery movie) (1/5, 7 p.m.), GREENLAND 2: MIGRATION, I WAS A STRANGER, PRIMATE (1/8 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
WE BURY THE DEAD, ANACONDA, AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, DAVID (faith animation), FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2, HAMNET, THE HOUSEMAID, MARTY SUPREME, SONG SUNG BLUE, THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SEARCH FOR SQUAREPANTS (animation), WICKED: FOR GOOD, ZOOTOPIA 2 (animation) (1/2 on), KIDS BOP LIVE: THE CONCERT MOVIE (1/2-1/5), INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM (1/3, 7 p.m.; 1/ 4, 3 & 7 p.m.; 1/7, 7 p.m.), DHURANDHAR (in Hindi with English sub; 1/ 4-1/7), LABYRINTH 40th anniversary (1/8, 7 p.m.), GREENLAND 2: MIGRATION, JANA NAYAGAN (in Tamil with English sub), THE RAJASAAB (in Telugu with English sub), PRIMATE (1/8 on)

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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Read the rest of this entry »

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!

12/30: Jason Pankoke (editor/publisher, C-U Blogfidential + The MICRO-FILM Review, Mendota, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Just like the tinsel draped over the branches of your Xmas tree, catching the light and reflecting all sorts of colors in a unified whole, we present today’s Report in the spirit of shining our own light on the various dimensions of the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond. First and foremost, the growing number of working professionals in our area presumably rejoiced after the announcement a week ago that Illinois governor J. B. Pritzker had signed into law SB 1911, which improves several tenants of the Illinois Film Production Tax Credit Act in the hopes of continuing the upswing of film, television, and commercial business within the state; those who have money and skin in “the biz” can read over the amended bullet points here and crawl through the actual bill here. Of course, one can’t consider all this without also contemplating the fortunes of Flyover Film Studios in Rantoul, which absolutely needs to provide good service to out-of-the-area and out-of-state companies in order to thrive. This can only help them attract more clients, barring an industry-wide depression, and indirectly funnel spending to many other businesses in Champaign County, a win-win that will take time and hard work to manifest.

Projects with local roots keep springing up. Bloody Disgusting revealed a teaser trailer on Monday for THE FAIRFIELD COUNTY FOUR, the found footage werewolf thriller that was directed for Horror Dadz Productions by Joshua Brucker of Watseka; shot on location in Connecticut this past June with a cast of up-and-comers in indie horror and the television hosting legend Joe Bob Briggs; Brucker and his fellow Horror Dadz are seeking distribution for FOUR as they prep for their next collaboration, NIGHT TERROR. And then, Shea Kelly of A Thousand Yard Stare Productions in Decatur posted a virtual Xmas present yesterday – the third season finale of FILMWAR!, in which online and indie film talents compete for an hour to score points, land retro prizes, and lay claim to titles as they navigate Kelly’s trivia games, which range from “anybody’s guess” to “if you know, you know” in difficulty. Follow along with an episode and see how well you do! (We’re also puzzled as to how Kelly escaped his predicament at the end of Episode 19. Conspiracy? Aliens?!?) Episode 20 follows hot on the heels of Kelly’s compelling short, A MAN OF CHARACTER, which won a second-place award at the conclusion of the Big Picture Peoria Film Festival last month and can now be enjoyed on YouTube; set dynamics should not be this potentially volatile.

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We can’t forget the influence that academia has on our culture. WCIA-TV reported last weekend that Kelly Goodwin, who served as the news director of WEIU-TV on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston for a quarter century, is stepping down from her role and retiring. Taking up the position at her alma mater after working as an anchor and producer elsewhere, Goodwin has taught the ins and outs of broadcast journalism to hundreds of students, many of whom went on to relevant and award-winning careers, and was recently inducted into the Silver Circle of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences due to her lengthy career in the field. We also have to acknowledge that academia can have its limits, with apologies to our friends in places of higher knowledge; budget cuts forced upon universities across the United States by the current administration in Washington, D.C., tipped the budgetary scale at the College of Media at Illinois, which could not afford to move forward with a twenty-sixth Roger Ebert’s Film Festival. And yet, earlier this week, “Ebertfest” host and RogerEbert.com publisher Chaz Ebert confirmed with WCIA that, thanks to a vote of confidence from the fans and supporters that she and director Nate Kohn have received since the September 19 announcement, the show will go on for one final time at the Virginia Theatre in Champaign with a smaller program of movies on April 17 and 18 and a Steak ‘n’ Shake farewell on April 19, independent of the UIUC machine. The “thumbs’ up” have spoken!

To close this gift wrap-up for 2025 with a weird glint in our eye, we offer you THE TRAVIS WAYNE HURT CHRISTMAS SPECIAL THE 13TH, once a low-budget, locally-made staple that aired seasonally on Urbana Public Television and now a low-budget, locally-made staple that is shared with the community in public, like it was last weekend at the Channing-Murray Foundation, before making its way to YouTube. Backyard wrestling and fuzzy high-decibel indie rock are common threads in this installment, which has a unique homegrown charm on par with its predecessors and may be an acquired taste if you are not a regular in particular scenes du C-U. Erin Gillis and Travis Wayne Hurt host a podcast segment with their guest, Adani Sanchez, Blye & Shelby provide a “Santa Flow,” an outdoors interlude is collaged by MadHatchet, and “A Very Hunchville Xmas” erupts in song, dance, and a snowy three-way ladder challenge for the belt. “Ding, ding,” rings our jingle bells, and the fun begins when you press play. Pass the Faygo and bring the Hurt!

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scene on the Screen

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In today’s “Images” department, we finally bring you exclusive details and visuals related to yet another short subject filmed in the area, although this one seemed to come from out of left (corn)field! Oakwood native Crystal Lee Hughes, a SAG-AFRA screen performer who lives and works in Los Angeles, will be premiering first looks at a pair of projects during a special program this coming Monday, December 29, at the Fischer Theatre in downtown Danville. The first is called CHILDREN OF THE CORNFIELD and is a proof-of-concept for an eventual full-length version, written by Mitch Yapko from a story by the duo. Second is a preview for a mini-series called HELLTHCARE (stylized as “HELLthcare” to get the point across) about the rampant pitfalls and inequalities faced by Americans when dealing with our health care system and interviews with a few of the physicians and activists who are attempting to affect positive change. Doors and a red-carpet photo op are at 6 p.m., the showing of both films is at 7 p.m., and a reception, raffle, and silent auction to raise funds for the CORNFIELD feature begin at 7:30 p.m. The Fischer will accept donations at the door to contribute to their own financial necessities.

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For CORNFIELD, a crew descended upon Vermilion County the weekend of September 12-14 to shoot on location for this “hometown horror comedy,” co-produced and directed by Hughes, that “delivers eerie Midwest vibes and small-town suspense, with a nostalgic nod to the landscape and people that inspired it,” per an official press release. A large congregation of Hughes’ friends and relatives filled out the cast while the crew included cinematographer and editor Nick Talarico, sound mixer Blake Emerson, local casting director Owen Tiner, first assistant director Salena Jones, gaffer Sofie Verweyen, set photographer Christopher L. Hughes, whose work illustrates this article, and co-producer Yapko. Kickapoo State Park, a local Sport Clips salon, the Fischer itself, and the crops stretching around the Hughes family homestead served as locations. Their teamwork has already been noticed as the short received several awards last month during the LA Live Film Festival at the Regal Cinemas location on Olympic Boulevard in Los Angeles, including “Best Director,” “Best Writer,” and “Best Actor.”

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The events that unfold in CORNFIELD come from the opening act of the feature screenplay in which Zella, played by Hughes as an adult and Molly Wagoner as a teen, returns to the Midwest and feels something amiss with all the things that haven’t changed, yet have: the people, the locations, the ambience, and maybe most alarmingly, the land itself. A sense of cynicism and alienation comes over her, despite the fact she grew up in this environment, and leads to her reading between the lines of corn and witnessing the deviousness afoot. According to an artist’s statement at The Gotham Film & Media Institute, where folks can support the feature by making a tax-deductible contribution, Hughes describes their storytelling approach as “heightened but intimate, unnerving but funny, stylized but deeply human.”

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A preview for HELLTHCARE, not necessarily what will be presented at the Fischer, can be watched at Hughes’ YouTube channel as well as several previous shorts for which the filmmaker wore a stack of hats as producer, director, writer, and actress. They include SOLUS, an expression of a woman’s mental health struggles in a single day of her life, SPACE CASTLE, a wry sci-fi vignette with power dynamics at play, and PHARMACOPEIA, a dark comedy about a would-be actress who tries to sell pharmaceuticals in the meantime. You can read more about her credits and experience at Actors Access and keep up with her endeavors at both Instagram and Facebook. Although the initial plan was for her team to return to the Oakwood area at this time to produce the expanded CHILDREN OF THE CORNFIELD, Hughes has confirmed with CUBlog the new goal is to line up personnel and resources for a spring 2026 filming schedule. You may contact crystalhughes03 [at] gmail [dot] com to inquire how you can help out and click below to enlarge the flier and scan the QR codes to learn more about CORNFIELD and HELLTHCARE.

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CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

25 Years Ago … Thursday, November 2, 2000: With the sights of the sex-curious block “Bitter Swallow” still in mind and the electropop sounds of Salaryman ringing in their ears, both from the night before, a crowd gathers one last time for the “Best of Fest” screening and awards ceremony at the New Art Theatre in downtown Champaign, Illinois, to close the fourth annual Freaky Film (and Music) Festival. Created in 1997 by Grace Giorgio and Eric Fisher, the independent showcase has grown this year to hosting events in several locations over a seven-day schedule and ultimately programming more than seventy features and shorts from around the world to be shown. Titles that have made waves in the non-traditional festival circuit and continue to do so in Champaign include timely documentaries like 30 FRAMES A SECOND: THE W.T.O. IN SEATTLE and BUTTERFLY, personal journeys like RESCULPTING VENUS, offbeat comedies like ROCK OPERA and TERROR FIRMER, reflexive takes on the filmmaking process like THE PENNY MARSHALL PROJECT, underground live wires like DEEP AFRICA and HOT BROADS, and undeniable sensations like REJECTED. An opening meet-and-greet, a Halloween costume party, and concurrent bookings with the likes of Wesley Willis, Evil Beaver, The Waco Brothers, and DJ Lyle the Electrician have also figured into this expanded Freaky Films, which would turn out to be its swan song as an attempt by Fisher to reestablish the program in the Pacific Northwest would not pan out. Many of the open-minded businesses that threw key support behind this homegrown banquet of alternative cinema – Boltini, Mike ‘n Molly’s The Octopus, Boneyard Pottery, The Highdive, the New Art, and national sponsor Insound – have since become defunct as well. C-U Blogfidential editor Jason Pankoke contributed to the cause as he did every year, this time as a juror and a liaison who coordinated Freaky coverage in The Octopus. As reported on 6/7/19, 11/3/20 at CUBlog.

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Society* presents “The Savoy Arthouse” feat. “Short Docs” program (12/28, 3 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
ANACONDA, GEZHI TOWN* (in Mandarin with English sub), MARTY SUPREME, SONG SUNG BLUE, AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, DAVID (faith animation), FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2, HAMNET*, THE HOUSEMAID, THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SEARCH FOR SQUAREPANTS (animation), WICKED: FOR GOOD, ZOOTOPIA 2 (animation) (12/26 on), STRANGER THINGS 5: THE FINALE (concluding Netflix episode) (12/31-1/1) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
ANACONDA, CHAMPION (in Telugu with English sub), MARTY SUPREME, SONG SUNG BLUE, AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, DAVID (faith animation), FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2, HAMNET, THE HOUSEMAID, THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SEARCH FOR SQUAREPANTS (animation), WICKED: FOR GOOD, ZOOTOPIA 2 (animation) (12/26 on), SHAMBHALA (in Telugu with English sub) (12/28, 10 a.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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Read the rest of this entry »

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!

12/21: Max Libman (founder/host, CU International Film Festival, Urbana, IL)
12/21: Linda McElroy (volunteer, Route 66 International Film Festival, Springfield, IL)
12/24: Owen Anderson (actor/stunt coordinator, WEREWOLF CEMETERY, Brainsmart Productions, Portland, OR)
12/25: Shea Kelly (writer/director, A MAN OF CHARACTER, A Thousand Yard Stare Productions, Decatur, IL)
12/27: Bill Turner (actor/set guru, WEREWOLF CEMETERY, Brainsmart Productions, Portland, OR)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

This week’s Report brings you a set of three wise updates about when and how you can see indies created by local makers. First, Kimberly Conner from Predestined Arts & Entertainment finished up a five-city tour of nightly premieres for her latest feature, LIPSTICK, after which she announced it was available to stream; filmed in Los Angeles, apparently a long-standing goal for the filmmaker, the crime thriller starring Camille Winbush (THE BERNIE MAC SHOW) can be viewed on Amazon Prime with presumably more options to come. Conner is also hosting a seminar called “How to Make a Movie in Fifty Bite Size Steps” that will be offered on Saturday, January 3, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and you can register for the two-hour Zoom session by visiting this PayPal link. THE L.A.F. KIDS, an orphanage children-versus-mobsters caper that was filmed across central Illinois by the folks at Northend Empire LLC, is now available through Prime as well as on YouTube; director Nate L. Morris’ “lost-and-found kids” adventure was seemingly lost for a full year after its public debut at the Fischer Theatre in Danville, but it’s now clear the L.A.F. were merely AWOL until a they found a new home. To close, seemingly moments after Fathom Events and Simeon Faith dropped a forty-second teaser for their gangland drama MOSES THE BLACK, filmed in Chicago and the Rantoul-Champaign region, they came right back with a pulsing three-minute trailer for the release, which will hit theaters nationwide for a minimum one-week run beginning on Friday, January 30. The story juxtaposes an attempt to go straight by Malik, played by Omar Epps, with the life of St. Moses the Black, an Egyptian monk living in the fourth century A.D. who had given up a life of thievery along the River Nile.

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scene on the Screen

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Continuing on our run of “shorts reports,” we turn to check in with our friends at Acrostar Productions. They are deep in post-production for PERFECT SOUL, the commune vs. supernatural yarn they filmed over 2025, and also deep in pre-production on THE LEGEND OF TINKER HELL, which will star Beth Metcalf in the title role as the thorn in an average family’s side, but that has not stopped the company from exercising those creative muscles on set. In the space of the last six weeks, they have premiered on their YouTube channel not one, not two, but three new projects that all hinge on dark twists of fate.

Starting with the most prominent, “Leap of Faith” is a giant-sized episode of their series SPLINTERED LOVE and also serves as its finale; Metcalf’s Cupidity, a buxom sprite with a curt Elvira tongue, narrates as always and foreshadows a love going wrong between a couple, played by Joanna Ferbrache and Steve Morris, who meet at a local dive bar and a young man in a liquor store, played by Leonard Peterson III, who later figures into the scheme. Apart from closing that Acro-chapter, the team has also turned a pair of founder Steve Hermann’s stories into stand-alone pieces. The first, THE LAST STOP, sees a runaway named Kasey (Julia Nurenberg) browse an antique store and share a conversation with the warmhearted owner, Mr. Hansen (Michael Steen), who promises comfort but not of a kind she yearns for. And in ROOM 176, a self-assured trick named Lala (Jaylee Hein) and a perennial john (Hermann) get into a discussion about following different paths in their lives that throws them both for a devastating loop. That’s all we’re at liberty to disclose so as to avoid spoilers. Go check them out at the respective links.

Hermann directed THE LAST STOP and Ann Myrna directed ROOM 176 and the concluding SPLINTERED LOVE, which features an appearance by Chicago-based actress and producer Katharin “Ladie K” Mraz (YOU’RE OUT!). As per the Acrostar acumen, all of the above were filmed in central Illinois, SPLINTERED LOVE and ROOM 176 in Gibson City and THE LAST STOP in Farmer City. And as usual, we’ll do our best to keep up with everything on their plate including the features and the imminent return of their early web series, BLOOD SISTERS, for which they just filmed a teaser.

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CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

15 Years Ago … Friday, August 13, 2010: After several years’ worth of production dating back to 2005 and the premieres of three previous installments, WEREWOLF CEMETERY Episode IV receives a hero’s welcome and caps off an extremely hairy undertaking by the friends behind BrainSmart Productions. Ultimately filmed at dozens of locations in Champaign and Vermilion counties and starring a who’s-who of amiable neighbors drafted from the local service industries, University of Illinois college scene, and townie hangouts like Mike ‘n Molly’s, a close-knit drinking establishment that is tucked away on Market Street in downtown Champaign, CEMETERY sees the brewing fight between the rural gravediggers whose numbers are decimated, newly risen furbags led by the power-hungry Thane, and the befuddled denizens of Amnesia Falls coming to a head. Brought to life through blood, sweat, beers, and duct tape by Jason Butler, Mark Peaslee, Bob Henne, and other moonlighting technicians with a colorful cast led by Steve Ucherek, Ann Fitzgerald, Bill Turner, Lacie Ucherek, Scott Kimble, Dr. Erik Martin, Owen M. Anderson, Henne, and Butler, the most elaborate go-round to date wows a late-night crowd at Mike n’ Molly’s. C-U Blogfidential editor Jason Pankoke made his BrainSmart debut in this project, appearing several times throughout the two-hour duration in various disguises, and took set photographs on a handful of occasions. Episode IV is reprised on Sunday, August 15, with a bonus attraction – ONE ROACH FOR SEAMUS, a monochrome short finished by its creator, Karl Bauer, nearly twenty years after he and high school friends had first set up a camcorder and pressed “record.” Other than to burn the occasional copies for fundraising groups in Champaign-Urbana from his adopted home of Portland, Oregon, CEMETERY director Butler has never released the series in full on any medium and only dangles a few entrails on YouTube in the form of trailers and bloopers. As reported on 8/13/10, 5/26/16 at CUBlog.

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Channing-Murray Foundation, Urbana, IL
THE TRAVIS WAYNE HURT CHRISTMAS SPECIAL THE 13TH (12/21, doors 7:30 p.m., specials 8 p.m.)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Society* presents “The Savoy Arthouse” feat. LOCKE w/guest Sanford Hess (12/21, 3 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, DAVID (faith animation), HAMNET, THE HOUSEMAID, THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SEARCH FOR SQUAREPANTS (animation), FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2, SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT*, WICKED: FOR GOOD, ZOOTOPIA 2 (animation) (12/19 on), ELLA MCCAY* (12/19-12/23), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (12/22, 7 p.m.), ANACONDA, MARTY SUPREME, SONG SUNG BLUE (12/24 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, DAVID (faith animation), HAMNET, THE HOUSEMAID, THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SEARCH FOR SQUAREPANTS (animation), ELLA MCCAY*, ETERNITY*, FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2, JUJUTSU KAISEN: EXECUTION* (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT*, WICKED: FOR GOOD, ZOOTOPIA 2 (animation) (12/19 on), Indian cinema: BHA BHA BA* (in Malayalam with English sub; 12/19) and DHURANDHAR (in Hindi with English sub; 12/19-12/23), HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS 25th anniversary (re-release) (12/19-12/23, 10:15 a.m.), The Royal Ballet: The Nutcracker (12/21, 3 p.m.; 12/22, 7 p.m.; recorded), IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (12/21, 11:45 a.m., 3, 7 & 10 p.m.; 12/24, 12:15, 3 & 7 p.m.), ANACONDA, MARTY SUPREME, SONG SUNG BLUE (12/24 on) *single screenings daily

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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Read the rest of this entry »

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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FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Want some more interesting news, C-U? That’s why we Report directly to you! First up, the crew at Camp Nostalgic Studios has just completed the latest seasons of their YouTube shows, totaling five episodes each of SATURDAY MORNING, in which co-hosts Dave Rediger and Mercedes DeSilva have grappled with the absence of departed host Alex Duquette in between local-color segments and offbeat hijinks, and LATE NIGHT URGE, in which stand-up comedienne Ariel Julie lets us in on the most intimate aspects of living single in the big city of Chicago. All the 2025 shows and assorted specials can be viewed right now and the storytellers are on break until they purportedly “shake things up” in 2026. What will that entail?

Also quite productive is the stage and television veteran, Mark Roberts, who continues to publish original writings, songs, and films under the Bad Mule, Inc., banner; most recently, he compiled the third issue of The Bad Mule Rag, a print and online compendium of illustrated stories in rhyme, and a companion live album recorded at Chicago’s Chopin Theater with performances by Lindsey Noel Whiting and himself. Bad Mule has also been serving as an incubator for original short subjects based on the rascally rhymes and you will find more than thirty of them, covering an astonishing range of animation and puppetry styles while being created by talents from near and far, on their YouTube channel; recent favorites in the award-winning cavalcade, which are produced by Lisa Cisneros and Tolono native Roberts, include GOOFBALL AND GWEN, directed by Maddie Helland, and EXHAUSTED AND SORE, directed by CJ Buckner.

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A further Champaign County-to-Chicago connection will be had when the non-profit Chicago Filmmakers presents the concluding monthly installment of “Picture ReStart,” a presentation of 16-millimeter shorts from the archived holdings of the Picture Start catalog, originally housed in and rented out via the Champaign offices of the late University of Illinois alumnus Ron Epple. Theme for this month’s show, which will take place on Saturday, December 20, 6 p.m., at the group’s Firehouse Cinema on Hollywood Avenue in the Windy City, is “Bringing It All Back Home: Seven Films Asking Intimate Questions of Self & Society,” which aims to collectively tackle “deep questions about why we are the way we are” as seen in this preview on Vimeo; artists represented in the show, made up of long-unseen prints that were selected and prepared by series curator Ben Creech, include Bill Turner, Ruth Peyser, Byron Grush, Kathleen Laughlin, Dirk de Bruyn, the prolific documentarian Tony Buba, and the legendary director Gus Van Sant.

To top off a Report filled with shorts, we’d like to share the last of the locally-made pieces that were introduced concurrently and coincidentally during the weekend of October 16-19 in the C-U. It is HarsH Pro’s music video for “All I’m Sayin” by Sweetmelk, a deceptively simple blast of raw emotion that captures vocalist and guitarist Kenna Mae and drummer Ori Sergel performing under the moonlight as well as a bold light, implicitly reflecting on personal desire. Producer Matt Harsh has also been busy with his trademark projection installations, such as a holiday display that is scheduled to be thrown on the buildings of Main Street, Race Street, and Crane Alley in downtown Urbana the night of Saturday, December 20, in collaboration with Urbana Arts and Culture, Gallery Art Bar, and Immersion Festival.

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scene on the Screen

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Speaking of Gallery Art Bar, we certainly need to bring up a screening initiative that is being led by the retired Parkland College instructor and founder of the Electric Pictures design firm, Paul Young. In concert with several other perennials in the Champaign-Urbana scene with a vested interest in such a thing – Geoff Merritt of Parasol Records, Kim Robeson of Robeson’s Inc., Chuck Koplinski of Reel Talk with Chuck & Pam, Electric business partner and life partner Bonnie Burgund – Young is starting the “Film Fanatic Movie Nights” as a rallying point for a new appreciation group, stylized as the Film-Fanatic.Club. Per their website where one can keep tabs on events and sign up to become a member or patron, the goal is “[t]o curate themed movie nights, director spotlights, and special screenings that emphasize the shared cinematic experience with films that come alive on the big screen and inspire lively post-screening conversations over drinks. Each screening is treated as an event, complete with introductions, discussions, bonus short subjects, and extras.”

In other words, to throw the C-U a sophisticated movie party on the regular. Yes, please! To that lofty end, Young has chosen a doozy of an underappreciated modern film to launch the Movie Nights – THE FALL, an opulent fantasia shot over several years and around the world by Tarsem Singh (THE CELL) about a laid-up stuntman, played by Lee Pace, who befriends in the hospital a young girl, played by Catinca Untaru, and spins tales of high adventure to help keep both of their spirits alive.

Released to little fanfare almost twenty years ago and hard to see and appreciate since, THE FALL has recently undergone a 4K restoration shepherded by Singh and was picked up for representation in North America by the high-end streaming platform MUBI, which has not resulted in either a substantial theatrical re-release or a physical release; on an average day in 2025, those who would like to experience THE FALL can find several avenues to stream it or could seek out a UHD/Blu-ray import from an Australian label, Umbrella Entertainment, which luckily is region free. MUBI has been scheduling one-off appearances of THE FALL at prestigious film festivals in our part of the world and, as we now know, offering it for rental. This is why the Movie Club’s booking is special, for we might not otherwise see it publicly here in the C-U.

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There is the distinct impression that Young has been building towards this for some time. As a chef who hosts cooking classes and full-course tastings through the Urbana Park District, it makes sense to have Movie Nights at a venue like Gallery where he’ll have the freedom to incorporate treats and drink specials that relate to what’s up on the screen. And, as a film buff whose diverse taste could not help but shine through in the pages of The Octopus (née The Optimist), the alternative weekly he founded and published in Champaign-Urbana for several years beginning in 1995, he is sure to embrace a wide range of selections for sharing with an audience and keeping it engaging. Unique parings here can be endless.

Gallery Art Bar, from its very name to its prime location in the heart of downtown Urbana, seems like an inspired home base for the club even if select shows are staged elsewhere. We hope this debut presentation of THE FALL, which will be co-hosted by our friend Nat Dykeman of the Chambana Film Society, is successful and the start of a reliable showcase that can easily commingle with Chambana and the CU International Film Festival while replenishing the cinema void to be left once Roger Ebert’s Film Festival bows out for good. Go enjoy and lend your voice to this communal venture, dearest viewers.

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CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

110 years ago … December 1915: The Macmillan Company of New York publishes what cinema historians will eventually consider the first English-language book to seriously appreciate the aesthetics of film, The Art of the Moving Picture, written by the Springfield, Illinois-raised poet and essayist Vachel Lindsay. Rarely appearing in bibliographies of his work is a follow-up entitled The Progress and Poetry of the Movies, released well after the untimely passing of Lindsay (1879-1931) and hard to find today. Conversely, both the 1915 and 1922 editions of Moving Picture can easily be accessed as electronic or print, including a 2000 reissue from Random House that is guest edited by filmmaker Martin Scorsese and features an introduction by the late Stanley Kaufmann, film reviewer at The New Republic for more than a half century. [R] Project Gutenberg eBook

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Esquire Lounge, Champaign, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* meeting (12/15, 7 p.m.)

@ Gallery Art Bar, Urbana, IL
Film Fanatic Movie Nights* presents THE FALL (12/18, 6:30 & 9:30 p.m.)

@ Martens Center, Champaign Park District, Champaign, IL
Pens to Lens* Student Screenwriting Workshop (12/16, 6 p.m. registration required)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Society* presents “The Savoy Arthouse” feat. SONG SUNG BLUE (2008) (documentary) (12/14, 3 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
DUST BUNNY, ELLA McCAY, HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS* 25th anniversary (re-release), NOT WITHOUT HOPE, SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT, DHURANDHAR* (in Hindi with English sub), ETERNITY, FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2, JUJUTSU KAISEN: EXECUTION (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), KILL BILL: THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR* (re-release), NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON’T,WICKED: FOR GOOD, ZOOTOPIA 2 (animation) (12/12 on), DAVID sneak preview (12/14, 2 p.m.), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (12/15, 7 p.m.), AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, DAVID (faith animation), HAMNET, THE HOUSEMAID, THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SEARCH FOR SQUAREPANTS (animation) (12/18 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
ELLA McCAY, HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS 25th anniversary (re-release), SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT, ETERNITY, FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2, JUJUTSU KAISEN: EXECUTION (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON’T, NUREMBERG, RENTAL FAMILY, THE RUNNING MAN*, WICKED: FOR GOOD, ZOOTOPIA 2 (animation) (12/12 on), Indian cinema: KIS KISKO PAYAAR KAROON 2* (in Hindi with English sub; 12/12-12/16), MOWGLI (in Telugu with English sub; 12/12-12/16), PADAYAPPA* (in Tamil with English sub; 12/12-12/16), AKHANDA 2: THAANDAVAM* (in Telugu with English sub; 12/12-12/16), and DHURANDHAR (in Hindi with English sub; 12/12-12/16), The Metropolitan Opera: Andrea Chénier (12/13, 12 p.m., simulcast; 12/17, 12 & 5:30 p.m., recorded), DICK VAN DYKE: 100TH CELEBRATION (documentary) (12/13-12/14, 4 & 7 p.m.), THE SHINING (12/13, 4 & 9:30 p.m., 12/14, 6:30 & 9:45 p.m.; IMAX), ROLLING STONES: AT THE MAX (concert film) (12/13, 7:15 p.m., 12/14, 4:15 p.m.; IMAX), CHRISTINA AGUILERA: CHRISTMAS IN PARIS (concert special) (12/14, 7 p.m.), DAVID sneak preview (12/14, 2 p.m.), THE CASE FOR MIRACLES (religious docudrama) (12/15-12/18, 7:30 p.m.), AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, DAVID (faith animation), THE HOUSEMAID, THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SEARCH FOR SQUAREPANTS (animation) (12/18 on) *single screenings daily

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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Read the rest of this entry »

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!

12/6: Andy Due (producer/performer, Rubber Chicken Films/RL3 Productions, Charleston, IL)
12/8: Britten Traughber (photographer, Britten Traughber Photography, Tucson, AZ)
12/10: Sidney Taiko (editor/publisher, Storm Cellar, San Diego, CA)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

As promised, CUBlog has been marching through all the relevant movie-centric topics of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond that are fit to post, so this week we might as well give in to Ye Ed’s instincts, inspired by last week’s oddball “Images” investigation, and file a Report that is all about the thrilling and chilling going on in our scene. So much of the original output engineered by our creators and producers has fallen under that catch-all category, in fact, that we could publish a horror mag entirely dedicated to it (…don’t tempt us…) but, for the moment, it’s best if we keep the scary score right here!

To start, our friends Chase & Shep (Chase Todd and Aaron Sheppard) plan to celebrate their fifth anniversary of 217 grooviness this Sunday, December 7, with a livestream that will launch on Facebook starting at 7 p.m. Join them to revel in all things C&S including their music and comedy/horror shorts, as well as Todd and Phil Hazen’s more recent films and podcasts, which includes a surprise out of left field that made its internet debut on Friday, October 16, at Found TV, a haven for fans of found-footage entertainment we have cited a couple of times previously in our coverage. THE WITCH HOUSE is a short made by Ontario filmmaker and animator Ron Chevarie (OSMOSIS JONES, SPACE JAM), who plays a relic hunter setting out to locate “El Libro de Los Muertos,” the cursed book from “Camp Chasenshep” that has wreaked havoc in several C&S movie joints to date. You can watch THE WITCH HOUSE right here with a free or paid account, while Chevarie’s other first-person excursions into the supernatural and paranormal, produced under his Haunted Lodge Productions label with his wife Jan, include a feature called THE WHO INCIDENT, also at Found TV, and a new hour-long excursion, ALIEN BTS, which went live at the “Stash – Sci-Fi Cinema” channel on YouTube last week on Thursday, November 27, as well as on Found. Apparently, several guests from the found footage/phenomena indie film scene make appearances in ALIEN BTS, so be sure to watch it all the way through with eyes wide open. Don’t blink!

And then, if you’re like us and believe that every day has the potential to bring a little Halloween cheer even though it’s now December with a healthy covering of snow on the ground, you won’t mind that we’re finally getting around to sharing our next ghoulish ditty. Episode 29 of THE ANDY DUE SHOW went live with its deadpan undead humor the same day as did THE WITCH HOUSE, October 16, and finds our friend in humorous non sequitur and malapropism, Andy Due of Rubber Chicken Films, up to his trademark wit with a love letter to the ghoulden days of horror. Slashers of the Eighties, Frankenstein’s monster, Vincent Price, and more receive a loving send-up and his lab assistants include the witchy Zoe Due, the vampy Kaity Bequette, the electrifying Austin Beaty, and the head-turning Gela and Dave Rediger from Camp Nostalgic Studios. Fright of frights, a solo upload of the Frankenstein sequence set to the classic novelty single “The Monster Mash” performed by Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers – the in-episode version features an original take, recorded by Due, of the 1962 hit – has amassed more than twenty-seven thousand views! You can watch the full episode and much more on YouTube.

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Now, we’ll stitch together a few short notes. Southern Illinois resident Jed Brian, producer of the indie slasher UNLISTED OWNER, shared on Facebook two weeks ago his “one million views” plaque from YouTube, which he earned due to his writing and acting work in a myriad of horror film shorts posted to the channel of southern California filmmaker Alex Magaña, ACMofficial. And Decatur area resident Jessie Seitz, the make-up effects artist and director, shared on Facebook that her long-gestating documentary on women in her creature-crafting field, MONSTER GIRLS, will have its world premiere tonight, December 5, as part of the “Late Shift at the Grindhouse” program at the FilmScene theater in the Chauncey building of downtown Iowa City, Iowa. And Springfield area resident Ash Hamilton, editor of Horror-fix.com and the filmmaker behind HOLES IN THE SKY and FINAL DAYS, has begun production on his next found-footage feature called MANGLED: THE SHELBYVILLE TORTURE TAPES, a true crime docudrama that posits a notorious serial killer is still at large. And Monticello resident Robert Christian, through his Champaign-based company Dreamscape Cinema, has finally released the middle chapter of his “evil taxidermist” trilogy, C.O.R.N. II: MIND HARVEST; featuring genre vet Jessica Morris and the returning Robert Donovan, his follow-up is being represented by Playa Media Group and can now be viewed on Tubi with its predecessor. Christian attended the American Film Market in the Century City neighborhood of Los Angeles last month to hobnob and solicit support and sales for future projects.

To close on an exciting yet bummer note, we were going to hype the improbable home video release by American Genre Film Archive of THE MOVIE ORGY, once thought untenable due to it being made up of several hours’ worth of unlicensed clips. But, never say never? The Blu-ray edition was revealed this past Monday, December 1, on the Vinegar Syndrome website and the legendary mash-up, created by future Hollywood filmmakers Joe Dante and Jon Davison, has already sold out. Toured to college campuses through the early Seventies and rarely seen since, THE MOVIE ORGY had one of its very first public play dates at the University of Illinois in May of 1971. You can read more about it in a prior Report and, hopefully, the folks at AGFA and VinSyn will consider a second run to give more folks a chance to get it.

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scene on the Screen

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Relative to our Report in the arena of stranger things, we’ve been meaning to share a few thoughts on a home video release that your humble editor had no clue about until he caught sight of it recently at the Deep Discount website. LOVE, BLOOD, & AZTEC DEMONS is an anthology of the only remaining fragments from the unique genre features made by the Mexican-born director, Juan F. Moctezuma II, and the connoisseur of this obscure talent just happens to be our long-time friend, Alaric S. Rocha. He has put a lot of effort over the last decade-and-a-half into hunting down what he can and assembled his findings in the full-length documentary, WHERE IS JUAN MOCTEZUMA?, completed at long last by his company, Blue Bassoon Pictures. It received a world premiere presentation on Sunday, August 24, as part of the FrightFest London festival with himself and producer Rana-Joy Glickman in attendance, while everyone at CUBlog has been doing their best to avoid spoilers until we can see the findings for ourselves.

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Until then, we have the LOVE, BLOOD precursor issued as a bare-bones DVD-R by Leomark Studios in September of last year. Ye Ed ordered it, of course, because he really wanted to get a sense of Rocha’s exhaustive research. (For the DVD adverse, it is also available to stream on several ad-supported services.) Our neighbors in Champaign-Urbana who joined us for the New Art Film Festival during its run at the Art Theater may have seen the preliminary restorations of Moctezuma’s work that we chose to feed your curiosity – namely, the segments of UNA MUJER SIN PRECIO (A PRICELESS WOMAN) from 1961 and LAS FIERAS (THE BEASTS) from 1969 that were included in the sixth NAFF in 2015. Rocha appears onscreen as our guide and lends context to these clips as well as other existent material from the filmography – TIEMPO DE MORIR (TIME TO DIE) from 1959, DEMONOID from 1971, and the sole American effort, 1000 PATHS OF DEATH from 1977. We’re given insight as to why the film elements are in tatters and how the main thrust of this maligned artist’s efforts was really directed at wooing the love of his life, actress Lisa de la Luna, and spurning naysayers, including the luchador star El Escorpión. It’s a wild tale that is fleshed out in the documentary proper, from what little we can tell.

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Taking in the slim volume of evidence presented here by Rocha, it’s clear there is something charming and a touch romantic baked into the hokey exploitation trappings of what was accomplished by Moctezuma, who moved north after DEMONOID and parlayed his experience into roles on the sets of comparable B-level fare in the United States prior to filming 1000 PATHS. With limited means back in Mexico, he employed science fiction conceits in stage-bound sagas to explore lost loves, be it time travel in TIEMPO DE MORIR or robotic reincarnation in UNA MUJER, and more supernatural shocks in grainy hand-held melodramas, either to reflect on political strife in LAS FIERAS or the trespass of contemporary ignorance on ancient cultures in DEMONOID. Moctezuma seemed to be swinging for the fences with 1000 PATHS, interjecting an “El Topo” or “Man with No Name” type wanderer into a lush, yet frozen, tundra haunted by marauders and half-living zombies; what Western audiences were to make of such an unorthodox riff on the “future wasteland” adventure, a Hollywood staple in that moment with the likes of THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR, DAMNATION ALLEY, and A BOY AND HIS DOG, is baffling to consider.

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It is probably moot to compare the wide range in Moctezuma’s precious few features and the previous films of Rocha himself, who had also explored storytelling and genre in several modest efforts before peering into this rabbit hole. A producer, director, writer, and visualist in his own right, Rocha hails from Mount Carroll and Decatur, Illinois, studied music theory and composition at Lawrence University in Wisconsin, attended film school at DePaul University in Chicago, and worked for a spell in Champaign at the former Prairie Production Group. From there, he’s been a filmmaking and film history instructor at DePaul, the Los Angeles Film School, Tecnológico Monterrey in Mexico, and now Ithaca College in New York. His shorts, several of them made or photographed in our area, include a violent dark comedy (MERRY CHRISTMAS!), a dreamlike chain gang drama shot with black-and-white 8mm stock (WINTER), a sexy noir involving tango dancers (DEADLY EMBRACE), a romantic comedy hinging on a sticky situation (PICKING A WINNER), a moody fantasy involving a spirit (OREAD), and a tense Pandora’s box unlocked by a gifted musician (THE TONE OF EMMA ZAHN’S VIOLA). Are there parallels in ambition here? Possibly. Is it coincidence, irony, or fate that Rocha’s first feature film is about a fellow creator whose own feature films are veritable specters? Decide for yourselves, dearest armchair investigators.

As we await our opportunity to learn what answers might ultimately satisfy the question, WHERE IS JUAN MOCTEZUMA?, we simply hope that Team Rocha has done justice in preserving the legacy of Juan F. Moctezuma II* for modern-day cineastes, scholars, and exploitation-savvy audiences. The best bets on getting started with this topic are to watch LOVE, BLOOD, & AZTEC DEMONS and check out the JUAN MOCTEZUMA trailer. You can also look through his profile at Internet Movie Database as well as this older fan website that is loaded with juicy hot takes on his career. If more comes to light, we’ll be sure to share it with the class on CUBlog. Bully to Blue Bassoon Pictures for even piecing together this much.

LOVE, BLOOD, & AZTEC DEMONS: THE LOST FILMS OF JUAN F. MOCTEZUMA II is written, produced, and directed by Alairc S. Rocha. Development producer is Stephanie Salvy. It features Rocha and stars, via archive materials, Juan Roberto, Lisandra Tena, and Miguel Núñez (TIEMPO DE MORIR), Alec Torres, Carlos Rogelio Diaz, Ben David Garza, Núñez, Tena, and El Escorpión (UNA MUJER SIN PRECIO), Gabriela Mayorga and Dagoberto Zolio Soto (LAS FIERAS), Antonio Monroi, Jorge Karlóz, Elisa Dei, Adrian Rodriguez, Mayorga, and Tena (DEMONOID), Javier Lopez, Alexandria McKinley, Peyton Cherry, and Tanner Huff (1000 PATHS OF DEATH). 2024, color/black & white, 74 minutes, English and Spanish with subtitles.

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*If you noticed the asterisk and hunted down this footnote, then we’ll preface it by saying that we pride ourselves at CUBlog in doing our best to get the details right and use good judgment in characterizing what we write about. It is rare that we play along covertly with how any film group or studio wishes to promote their own work, but we’ve made a brief exception here with WHERE IS JUAN MOCTEZUMA?

This is primarily to honor Rocha’s commitment to the bit in embellishing upon a Moctezuma hagiography that [SPOILER] is of his own creation, What the filmmaker and his collaborators, many of them students from his teaching assignments, have established on a lean budget and over more than ten years is admirable: clever and era-specific details in the film excerpts, hilarious faux anecdotes on the circa 2007 fan site, slightly suspect IMDb credits added to the profiles of legitimate productions, a mock-up page in the 1976 LOGAN’S RUN issue of Cinefantastique magazine with Moctezuma coverage, and much more. Overall, it’s an elaborate construct that is also an appreciation for the rich history of Mexican cinema and folklore, which Rocha is now openly admitting in interviews, and we tip our hat to the world they’ve built. An extra bow goes to Lisandra Tena (FEAR THE WALKING DEAD), who appears as the reluctant love interest “Lisa de la Luna” in various guises throughout the project, for sticking it out as well. [END SPOILER]

CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

55 Years Ago … November 1970: Location filming commences in the Champaign and Vermilion counties of east central Illinois on BAD CHARLESTON CHARLIE, an independent action-comedy feature derived from the exploits of Prohibition-era gangster and dubious local legend Charlie Birger (1881-1928). Bad Charleston Charlie Associates and Studio 9 Productions are partnering on this motion picture, having set up a central office in Champaign and received investment funds from local businesses, while the main architect of the operation is producer, co-writer, and star Ross Hagen, who recently appeared in the television show DAKTARI and the theatrical Elvis Presley vehicle SPEEDWAY. Industry professionals that Hagen is welcoming from Los Angeles include director Ivan Nagy, cinematographer Michael Neyman, assistant directors Eric Lidberg and A.J. Lorea, and performers Kelly Thordsen, Hoke Howell, Dal Jenkins, Carmen Zapata, and John Carradine. Community members and University of Illinois students are also playing roles on both sides of the camera, according to articles in the November 7 and 11 editions of the Daily Illini, in scenes being photographed at Kickapoo State Park near Danville, the tiny town of Fairmount located between Danville and Champaign, and coal mining country in southern Illinois to depict Birger’s exploits before his turn to crime. Interior segments will be completed on sound stages once the visitors return to California. Word is that CHARLESTON takes a lighthearted approach to the Birger saga, making him out as a bumbling Al Capone idolizer instead of a Robin Hood type with a mean streak as he is described in scholarship; the screen story retains his real-life row with the Ku Klux Klan while it downplays his scuffles with the law and omits his clashes against the rival Shelton brothers gang that involved airplane bombings and assassinations. It is unclear what distributor will release CHARLESTON in the near future or what is next for Studio 9, which local participants Martin D. Wright and Charlie Lo Bue formed with the help of Hagen and Lidberg based on the latter’s experience as partners in a Hollywood entertainment company, Triforum, Inc. [R]

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Flyover Film Studios, Rantoul, IL
“Swappin’ Around the Christmas Tree” event (12/6, 12-6 p.m.) Information

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Society* presents “The Savoy Arthouse” feat. HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS (12/7, 3 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
100 NIGHTS OF HERO*, DHURANDHAR (in Hindi with English sub), FACKHAM HALL*, FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2, JUJUTSU KAISEN: EXECUTION (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), KILL BILL: THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR (re-release), SENTIMENTAL VALUE (in Norwegian and English), ETERNITY, NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON’T,WICKED: FOR GOOD, ZOOTOPIA 2 (animation) (12/5 on), ELLA MCCAY (12/11 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
DHURANDHAR (in Hindi with English sub), FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2, JUJUTSU KAISEN: EXECUTION (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG (filmed stage musical), ETERNITY, NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON’T, NUREMBERG, RENTAL FAMILY, THE RUNNING MAN, WICKED: FOR GOOD, ZOOTOPIA 2 (animation) (12/5 on), The Metropolitan Opera: The Magic Flute (12/6, 1 p.m., recorded), UFC 323: Merab Dvalishvili vs. Petr Yan, more (mixed martial arts) (12/6, 9 p.m., simulcast), ELF (12/6, 4 & 6:30 p.m.; 12/7, 3 & 7 p.m.; 12/10, 7 p.m.), “Andre Rieu: Merry Christmas” (concert film) (12/7, 3 p.m.; 12/10, 7 p.m.), WEDDING CRASHERS (12/11, 4 & 7 p.m.)

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents CAUGHT STEALING (12/5-12/6, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
The News-Gazette Film Series presents IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (12/6, 1 & 7 p.m.), “Holiday in Whoville” annual event feat. HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS (1966) (12/7, 12 p.m. doors, cartoon at 1, 2, 3, and 4 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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Read the rest of this entry »

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!

11/22: Chase Todd (producer/actor, CHASE AND SHEP SUE KEVIN SMITH, Earth-217 Studios, Villa Grove/Savoy, IL)
11/28: Robert Patrick Stern (cinematographer, GOLDEN MEADOW, PWM Films, Chicago, IL)
11/28: Ryan Mitchelle (editor, A ROYAL CHRISTMAS TAIL, Hybrid LLC, Woodland Hills, CA)
12/3: Bryan Wendorf (programmer/artistic director, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Chicago, IL)
12/3: Greg Woods (publisher, The Eclectic Screening Room, Toronto, Canada)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

We trust that you were able to enjoy the holiday with the right people and, now, it’s time for the rest of the weekend. Some of us have to go back to work. Some of us have a shit-ton to do that doesn’t involve leisure. Some of us just want to sneak to a movie house for a spell between all the other things…

Instead of going through and analyzing the Calendar listings – it’s Disney and WICKED and a Chambana Film Society show on Sunday afternoon and the annual Normal Theater seasonal marathon and newer Christmas perennials, we just figured out, instead of a Robert Redford tribute today at the Fischer Theatre – we’ll be catching up on the news impacting our area venues. First, a former AMC Showcase location in Mattoon that closed down earlier this year has been revived by the VIP Cinemas chain as reported last month by WAND-TV; you can head over today if you live in the area as they are up and running with the current first-run crowdpleasers. That said, VIP customers should watch their local schedules for once-a-day showings of fare that is put out by smaller distributors, such as the heist-and-gangsters action flick WILDCAT with Kate Beckinsale, Charles Dance, and Alice Krige that is opening today at Mattoon.

Also in October, the volunteers who are working on a restoration and fundraising plan to reopen the Heart Theatre in downtown Effingham put in a little extra love to create a charming Heart float for the city’s annual Halloween parade; you can see the result, complete with Beauty and the Beast, on Facebook.

Now with the Harvest Moon Twin Drive-in back open in Gibson City for their annual “Hot Chocolate & Holiday Movies” schedule, it’s a good time to bring up a recent article about the precarious position of their industry. Run by Smile Politely in early October as the Harvest Moon’s regular season was winding down and written by Max Pociask, it is not the usual feel-good piece on the miracle of an operating drive-in within a reasonable driving distance from Champaign-Urbana. This one lauds the overall communal experience in terms of spending a night at the Harvest Moon while punching the gut a bit with a reality check – at risk is the health of many an American small town and business, including the remaining hardtops, due to the consolidation of agricultural production by corporations and the continual shafting of the needs of rural farmers whose livelihood affects everyone and everything around them.

On a more positive note, the Golden Ticket Cinemas chain has arrived in Illinois and set up shop in a former multiplex building on the east side of Bloomington, opening their “Ale House” concept to the public on Friday, October 17. An article by WGLT lists the amenities that would be available to customers including bottomless popcorn and a “self-pour beer wall;” movie fare is the expected as you can see below in the Calendar, although they do manage to get Netflix releases such as KNIVES OUT 3 and JAY KELLY unlike our other exhibitors, so the personal luxury (and upcharge?) is the main distinction here.

Back to the Fischer for a moment, we’re glad to see the movies make a comeback in their scheduling even if the Redford fête did not pan out. Recently, they’ve hosted the teen-produced film CROSSMARK, made plans to celebrate the one hundredth birthday of Dick Van Dyke with a program next weekend, and agreed to another indie screening at the end of 2025 that we’ll talk about on CUBlog in a couple of weeks. Don’t just attend our venues for kicks, dearest viewers, make good use of them like the Fischer. Cheers.

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scene on the Screen

Had your fill yet? Apparently, neither have we at MFHQ Deux. Talking turkey about weird movies with our dinner guest, Confidential agent Don of the D/L, we landed on the topic of a new Dracula love triangle feature from France that was directed by Luc Besson (THE FIFTH ELEMENT) and also the new Romania-lensed farce based on the legend of Vlad the Impaler from director Radu Jude. Then, Ye Ed remembered that a Killer Tomatoes sequel was set in France. (Indeed, we’re still not sure how it transpired in that head of his.) So, he found a clip online to prove its existence to Don, which turned out to be the opening scene in KILLER TOMATOES EAT FRANCE! from the vintage of 1992, and said clip happens to cut off after this aerial shot of our villains, including the great John Astin, getting away in…

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Are. You. Kidding. And yet, does it not make perfect sense in the nonsensical scheme of a Killer Tomato movie? Miraculously, EAT FRANCE was the fourth (but still the last) release in an improbable franchise (although a brand-new fifth entry is sprouting as we speak) and, sure enough, “Garcia’s Pizza in a Pan” is listed in a thank-you block during the end credits crawl. We’d love to know how this came about, even if it was just the producers of the movie buying the rights to stock footage that Garcia’s owners Ralph Senn and Joe Ream previously had shot for them to promote their business. It’s too bad the chain has been consolidated to a single store in west Champaign off of Mattis Avenue, but it’s apparently the scale that Senn and Ream want to work with after more than fifty years of being “The Flying Tomato Brothers.”

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Here is an article with vintage photographs from 2021 when the News-Gazette interviewed the partners and University of Illinois alumni about their long history as restaurateurs, and a more recent YouTube vignette with Senn where he describes how they make their trademark pizza slices. Many of us will always have memories of stopping at a Garcia’s, in particular the labyrinthine wonder that resided in the shadow of Watterson Towers near the Illinois State University campus in Normal and the similar location that used to be on Green Street in Campustown, as well as looking up while out and about during a weekend in the C-U to see the Garcia’s balloon quietly pass overhead. It was always a treat and we knew exactly who it was advertising. Hopefully, they will hold the Killer Tomatoes on our next order…

p.s. The Garcia’s balloon appears for a few brief shots in the movie, while a jovial Astin and his rubber ghoulies are snacking on a pizza pie that is clearly not from our beloved Brothers. We found an online rip and skimmed through it to be sure; seems that KILLER TOMATOES EAT FRANCE! and its predecessor, KILLER TOMATOES STRIKE BACK!, have not made an official jump to streaming even if you can enjoy a bushel of clips on the official “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” channel. Dang it, a Gutbuster and a movie does sound good on this Tomato Red Friday … but which movie should we pick? Decisions, decisions!

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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Society* presents “The Savoy Arthouse” feat. THE LADDER w/filmmaker Q&A (11/30, 3 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
ETERNITY, TERE ISHK MEIN* (in Hindi with English sub), ZOOTOPIA 2 (animation), NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON’T, PREDATOR: BADLANDS, RENTAL FAMILY, THE RUNNING MAN, SISU: ROAD TO REVENGE, WICKED: FOR GOOD (11/28 on), ), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (12/1, 7 p.m.), FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2, JUJUTSU KAISEN: EXECUTION (animé) (12/4 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
ETERNITY, ZOOTOPIA 2 (animation), NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON’T, NUREMBERG, PREDATOR: BADLANDS, REGRETTING YOU, RENTAL FAMILY, THE RUNNING MAN, SISU: ROAD TO REVENGE, WICKED: FOR GOOD (11/28 on), Indian cinema: REVOLVER RITA (in Tamil with English sub; 11/28, 2 p.m.), TERE ISHK MEIN (in Hindi with English sub; 11/28-11/29), and ANDHRA KING TALUKA (in Telugu with English sub; 11/28-12/3), “WWE Survivor Series: WarGames” (11/29, 6 p.m., simulcast), ANOTHER SWEET CHRISTMAS (faith film) (11/30, 4 p.m.; 12/1, 7 p.m.), THE HOLIDAY (11/30, 3 & 7 p.m.; 12/3, 7 p.m.), The Metropolitan Opera: Arabella (12/3, 12 & 5:30 p.m., recorded), WEDDING CRASHERS (12/4, 4 & 7 p.m.), AKHANDA 2: THAANDAVAM (in Telugu with English sub), FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2 (12/4 on)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
Mix 94.5 and Rewind 92.5 present ELF (11/29, 1 & 7:30 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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Read the rest of this entry »

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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FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Before you pass the dishes and offer your thanks next week, should you participate in festivities with your family members or at a friendsgiving, we’re bringing over a few topical treats from MFHQ Deux to share with our dearest gobblers who can’t get enough of the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cites beyond!

For our lede in today’s Report, we’re high-fiving from afar the stewards of Flyover Film Studios in Rantoul, ever-growing with their accomplishments and influence in the area. Always up to the task of breaking local media-maker news, Amy Penne of Smile Politely shared a concise history of how Flyover came together as pretext to their latest milestone, being awarded “Business of the Year” last week by the Rantoul Area Chamber of Commerce. Who knows what their activity up north on the grounds of the former Octave Chanute Air Force Base has actually translated to numerically in terms of business for themselves, tax revenue for Rantoul and the county, a spending influx at other local businesses by their own staff and visiting clients, and freelance and full-time jobs created to aid the production of movies, television, and commercials at the facility and on location nearby, but hopefully it adds up to sustainability and growth in the years to come. Flyover clearly is encouraging the development of a trained work force based here as well as a connection between folks who offer services and resources that lend themselves to production, so we need to watch for those overtures; to wit, they are hosting an instructional session this Saturday, November 22, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. where participants will get a taste of what roles in different departments can entail, and they also have a combination holiday gathering, swap meet, and live auction event on tap for Saturday, December 6, from 12 to 6 p.m. Go inquire, and with good cheer!

Can we relate “the Flyover effect” to various recent goings-on in the movie world du C-U? Maybe! The most obvious is in cases like the independent feature MOSES THE BLACK, filmed partly in Chicagoland and partly in Rantoul and adjacent municipalities, which is currently in post-production after wrapping in late September at Flyover. Surprisingly, the trade website Deadline reported on Wednesday that Fathom Entertainment has already negotiated theatrical rights for the piece, an urban gang drama with religious and repentance leanings that stars Omar Epps, Wiz Khalifa, and Chukwudi Iwuji and is directed by Yelena Popovic (MAN OF GOD), and will release it to its network of partner theaters in North America on Friday, January 30. It’s possible to get it shaped up in time, we suppose. Unlike with all the candids floating about the socials earlier this year, taken by area townsfolk with the cast and locations of the John Goodman fast-food satire CHILI FINGER, very little has appeared to give us a covert look at MOSES.

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Clues on the development of projects can also be gleaned from those on the inside who elect to share their doings with the outside world in the moment. Our friend Niccole Powers, who now applies her stage-honed art and costume design talents to the film sets at Flyover and elsewhere, shared a few behind-the-scenes photos from a show called OPEN ME UP. A slate shows the director is Andrew Laudone, the Chicago-based owner of Consumer Grade Film Company and a creator of distinctly designed long-form shorts that have played in festivals such as the dark high-society farce CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY and the science fiction-tinged dramas DEEP LEARNING and SWEET DREAMING. It looks like Powers may have been on a pick-up shoot in October, for we see that frequent C-U film collaborator Kevin Lau had previously reported from the set via Facebook back in July. The result should be interesting, as always.

And, for one more trimming in our banquet of regional film flavor, we turn to our friend John Isberg of Swede Films who is using an apparent low tide in the schedules for his features BIG MUDDY and FINAL SUMMER 2 to revise and finish a different project. Isberg has recently been sharing some cool vintage photographs on Facebook and Instagram from indie rock shows and venues of Champaign-Urbana’s past and asking for more contributions like them to put towards his scene documentary, WHERE IT BEGINS: 1977-2000, which we first mentioned on CUBlog almost a full decade ago. Considering the art of succinctly telling an expansive story of stories in a feature film run time and doing it as an independent creator unlike, say, a well-funded Ken Burns, we have to understand the labor-of-love aspect in Isberg’s endeavor and applaud that he’s still committed to the cause while making bread elsewhere and taking care of his family and friends. He just finished working on the crew of MOSES THE BLACK, for instance, so let’s encourage him to roll past the finish line of WHERE IT BEGINS and help along where we can, including the lending of precious ephemera and memories to a C-U music epic writ large. We should also acknowledge that Isberg’s foresight helped point the path forward for Flyover, in particular this blue-hued music video for the Night Dreamer song “The Taste” staged in a vacant Octave Chanute hanger. Fin.

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scene on the Screen

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Our previous “Images of the Week” touched on a pair of locally-made narrative shorts, MARA and THE FAWN, which took slippery routes around a traditional structure and utilized cinematic technique to envelop their respective protagonists with an unknowable dread. The focus today will send us in a rather different direction. GOLDEN MEADOW, a new music video for the performer Jill Greenlee, is full of warmth, spitfire, and cautious wonder as it cushions the viewer in a loving amber embrace. Matched with an original song by Greenlee that was derived from a story she used to read to her children at bedtime, including daughter Leila who is her co-star here, GOLDEN MEADOW was conceived by “The Sarahs” – filmmaker/casting director Sarah Cayce and producer/Flyover Film Studios co-founder Sarah Sharp – and received the splashiest debut of all the locally-tied film projects that were set free on October 17-19.

Seemingly filmed just yesterday (well, September) on lush private property in Champaign County, the concept put into words is straightforward and doesn’t do justice to something we’re meant to feel in our hearts and bones. Greenlee alternately plays her piano in the middle of a meadow and goes exploring on foot with Leila as the song builds to a powerful crescendo, enabled by an equally lush background arrangement put together by Greenlee’s studio engineer, Eric “Dubz” Gross, in its rapturous pledge of protection and understanding. Illuminated by a hazy sun, the Golden Meadow is a nurturing safe space that gives and dares not forget. A project of Cayce’s Chicago-based company, PWM Films, GOLDEN MEADOW is simply lovely with a clear vision to showcase its central “rockstar,” as the director refers to Greenlee. Short videos posted to YouTube take us through the process of developing and executing this piece, funded by avid fans of the charismatic musician who is a regular presence on the stages of C-U.

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According to The Sarahs, making a music video that showcased Greenlee came to mind after they saw her perform “Golden Meadow” solo at a gig, quieting the house with its sheer might. Coming full circle, GOLDEN MEADOW was given a nice launch by the duo, starting with a private premiere in downtown Champaign at Kayla Brown’s boutique candle store, Fire Doll Studio, on Wednesday, October 15, and followed by big-screen showings before the main features at the Harvest Moon Twin Drive-in of Gibson City the next two nights and its concurrent debut on YouTube, where it has resonated and received more than two thousand views as of this writing. Greenlee is offering the song on Bandcamp and apparently has more new recorded music on the way. We’d like to think a future collaboration between these women and their team is a given, so be sure to follow Greenlee’s Instagram and Facebook for developments.

GOLDEN MEADOW is directed by Sarah Cayce, produced by Sarah Sharp, and photographed by Robert Patrick Stern, while Chris “Scuba” Parker served as underwater camera operator. Bekah Douglas was production coordinator and costume design flourished under Halley Claudio. Brian Nowak handled the editing. Francis Claudio was first assistant camera and Kal Kociss was second assistant camera. Connor Vyce, Rick Wojnar, and Gavin Schroeder filled the roles of gaffer, key grip, and grip, respectively. It stars Leila and Jill Greenlee. 2025, color, 5 minutes.

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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting & game night (11/21, 4:30 p.m., Room 1002)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Society* presents “The Found Footage Festival – Volume 11” (11/21, 7 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
120 BAHADUR* (in Hindi with English sub), RENTAL FAMILY, SISU: ROAD TO REVENGE, WICKED: FOR GOOD, BUGONIA*, CHAINSAW MAN THE MOVIE: REZE ARC (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), KEEPER*, NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON’T, PREDATOR: BADLANDS, REGRETTING YOU, THE RUNNING MAN (11/21 on), ETERNITY, ZOOTOPIA 2 (animation) (11/25 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
RENTAL FAMILY, SISU: ROAD TO REVENGE, WICKED: FOR GOOD, BLACK PHONE 2, BUGONIA, CHAINSAW MAN THE MOVIE: REZE ARC (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), KEEPER, NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON’T, NUREMBERG, PREDATOR: BADLANDS, REGRETTING YOU, THE RUNNING MAN, SARAH’S OIL* (faith film) (11/21 on), Indian cinema: 120 BAHADUR* (in Hindi with English sub; 11/21-11/25), PREMANTE* (in Telugu with English sub; 11/21), RAJU WEDS RAMBAI* (in Telugu with English sub; 11/21), MASTIII 4* (in Hindi with English sub; 11/21-11/25), EKO* (in Malayalam with English sub; 11/22-11/25), and MIDDLE CLASS* (in Tamil with English sub; 11/22, 11/24-11/25), WICKED/WICKED: FOR GOOD double feature (11/21-11/22, 11 a.m.), The Metropolitan Opera: Arabella (11/22, 12 p.m., simulcast), THE POLAR EXPRESS (animation) (11/23, 3 & 7 p.m.; 11/26, 7 p.m.), ETERNITY, ZOOTOPIA 2 (animation) (11/25 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents HIM (11/21-11/22, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

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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Read the rest of this entry »

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!

11/14: Ross Snyder (co-owner, Saturn’s Core Audio & Video, Bloomingdale, NJ)
11/15: Brian Hagy (filmmaker, THE KING’S CHALLENGE, Pens to Lens 2025, Champaign-Urbana, IL)
11/16: Kymberly Harris (founder/producer, Firsthand Films, Los Angeles, CA)
11/17: Eric Stanze (director/co-writer/executive producer, ANXIETY, Wicked Pixel Cinema, St. Louis, MO)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

That felt good last week, right? Shaking off a little dust and extending those muscles a bit? Let’s see how much reps we have for you this week, including a handful of tidbits that can be shared in advance of the respective happenings and not after the fact. Still need to keep our coverage compact and to the point so we can touch a bunch of bases by the time that glittery ball drops on New Year’s Eve. Also, we’ve decided to theme our Images department for the duration with, for the lack of a better moniker, shorts stories. It’s the vibe – short, shorter, and shortest in our long-distance dedication to the cinema du C-U.

To that end, our self-made short subjects take over the Report! Cribbing pages from the “arcane pop culture gathering” manual followed by the recent Dark History & Horror Con is a new event, Mr. Willy’s Dark Arts & Oddities Con, which is scheduled for this weekend on the Northern Illinois University campus in DeKalb. They have couched an Indie Horror Film Festival in their programing on Sunday, November 16, and the selections include AN AFFAIR AT THE END OF TIME, starring Myles Valentine and Katherine Bokenkamp and produced in Champaign County by Chase Todd and Phillip Hazen. And, on the evening of Thursday, November 20, yet another brand-new short will be unveiled and toasted at Analog Wine Bar in downtown Urbana; this time, QUIET TONIGHT involves a pair played by Kimmy Schofield and Mathew Green who take pains to not upset whomever occupies the next room in a tense drama co-written by Green with director Thomas Nicol. The presentation is at 7 p.m. and, certainly, the doors will be open earlier for those who want to sup a little vino in advance of taking in a little QUIET, which was discussed last week by Amy Penne at Smile Politely. The latter will be submitted to festivals after Analog, per Penne in the article, and AFFAIR had its public debut at the Savoy Lumierè back in the spring.

During the coincidental “shorts release weekend” that was October 16-19, Shea Kelly of Thousand Yard Stare Productions in Decatur posted to YouTube a private teaser for their newest short, A MAN OF CHARACTER, made in conjunction with Trone Photo Works, Shark Fins, and Lamplighter Productions. Partly in black-and-white and partly in color, it’s a psychological thriller of sorts that stars Nathan Scott and Greg Trumbold. We won’t describe it any further, but you can sneak a peek if you want to have a clearer idea of what’s in store or go in blind by attending the Big Picture Peoria Film Festival this Saturday, November 22, where CHARACTER will close the event at the end of the 6 p.m. block. Follow this link to view all the selections of Big Picture, which runs November 20-22 at the Giant Screen Theater of the Peoria Riverfront Museum, and click here to see older Thousand Stare creations on YouTube.

Finally, we’ll bring up the Chambana Film Society even though their signature fall/winter event, the return of the Found Footage Festival to our community on Friday, November 21, 7 p.m., at the Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, is probably sold out as of this writing. (It’s not a shorts program, per se, but a good-natured ribbing of segments of vintage and lost media by its hosts, so that still fits here, yes?) We do have the awareness, if not yet a corresponding schedule, from Chambana mastermind Nat Dykeman that a weekly itinerary is planned out from now until the spring. We also know that Dykeman is always looking for short subjects to play in front of features or compile for their own event, such as the documentary grouping that is scheduled for Sunday, December 28, at the Savoy. Watch their website for dates, details, and more!

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scene on the Screen

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Last week, we took a brief look at a new short subject, THE FAWN, produced by the Chicago suburban label Ten Wing Media and filmed on location in the rural woodlands of Pontiac with some help from downstate collaborators. The mystical horror piece is being submitted to festivals as we speak. Further along in its initial lifespan is MARA, the latest genre short by the folks at Silver Compass Studios in Decatur, which has been bedazzled with laurels, public screenings, and awards during the last few months and was given a YouTube live stream debut on Friday, October 17. You can watch it right here.

Silver Compass owner Ben Harl and his team filmed MARA locally in the fall of 2024. It is a moody exercise in revelation, heavy with shadows and bathed in cathode ray greens, depicting what happens across several days when Jake, played by Peoria-based actor Seth Boyer, is given an edict by the psychiatrist Dr. Howell, performed by C-U stage talent Mindy Smith, to wean himself off medicines he has been taking since his release from institutionalization. Jake suffers confusion and memory blackouts at the outset, leading to the shocking realization that an imaginary love named Mara, embodied by the actress and musician Katherine Bokenkamp, has returned. And yet, Howell seems to be taking her patient’s distress a little too much in stride for Jake’s liking. Is the young man starting to suffer another mental break, or is Mara more than a figment who has her fingers clenched tight around his reality?

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MARA is nicely made and demonstrates how Harl is on sure footing as a narrative storyteller after producing a series of provocative shorts over the last decade. Overall, the visual aesthetic of the film complements its pacing and performances – steady, not flashy, building towards a conclusion that seems to be a sad inevitability for Jake. Recently, local audiences have discovered MARA at both the Dark History & Horror Con and the Route 66 International Film Festival, while Silver Compass has their hands full with developing a Lovecraft-inspired feature titled THE DARK ONES. Follow along with their adventures in film on Facebook or Instagram and check out their prior productions on YouTube.

MARA is directed and edited by Ben Harl and produced by Laura Richter. Justin Taylor shot and color-corrected the film, while Genna Roth was first assistant camera. Editing was done by Tim Lynn. Music was scored and performed by Eric Watkins and Ceci Ellis. Thomas Nicol handled sound, Heather Harlow provided make-up and hair, and Dayton Emery was the gaffer and grip. Leanne Unland and Arwen Baker were the production assistants, while Unland also arranged for the catering. In addition to Seth Boyer, Mindy Smith, and Katherine Bokenkamp, it stars Lesley Harl and Rick Jensen. 2025, color, 18 minutes.

A quick aside, Boyer appears in a second Halloween-time online release with Myles Valentine, THE MIDNIGHT MAN, premiered by director Kal Kociss through his Coaches Film Company channel on YouTube back on Thursday, October 30. Two would-be thieves enter an elderly man’s garage late one night in the hopes of stealing valuable goods and, wouldn’t you know it, a local legend interferes…

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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Analog Wine Bar, Urbana, IL
QUIET TONIGHT* short film screening (11/20, 7 p.m.)

@ Esquire Lounge, Champaign, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* meeting (11/17, 7 p.m.)

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting & tour of Illinois Public Media (11/14, 4:30 p.m., Room 1002)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Society* presents “The Found Footage Festival – Volume 11” (11/21, 7 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
THE CARPENER’S SON*, KEEPER, KING IVORY*, MUZZLE: CITY OF WOLVES*, NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON’T, THE RUNNING MAN, WICKED (re-release), BLACK PHONE 2, BUGONIA, CHAINSAW MAN THE MOVIE: REZE ARC (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), DIE MY LOVE*, NUREMBERG*, PREDATOR: BADLANDS, REGRETTING YOU, SARAH’S OIL (faith film) (11/14 on), Studio Ghibli Fest: THE BOY AND THE HERON (animé) (11/15, 4 p.m., 11/16, 4 & 7 p.m., 11/19, 7 p.m., English dub; 11/17-11/18, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (11/17, 7 p.m.), WICKED: FOR GOOD sneak preview (11/19, 6, 6:30 & 9:15 p.m.), WICKED/WICKED: FOR GOOD double feature (11/20, 11 a.m.), RENTAL FAMILY, SISU: ROAD TO REVENGE, WICKED: FOR GOOD (11/20 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
DE DE PYAAR DE 2 (in Hindi with English sub), KEEPER, KING IVORY*, NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON’T, THE RUNNING MAN, TRAP HOUSE*, BLACK PHONE 2, BUGONIA, CHAINSAW MAN THE MOVIE: REZE ARC (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), CHRISTY*, NUREMBERG, PREDATOR: BADLANDS, REGRETTING YOU, ROOFMAN, SARAH’S OIL (faith film), SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE, STITCH HEAD* (animation) (11/14 on), GRAND PRIX OF EUROPE* (animation) (11/14-11/15, 11 a.m.), Studio Ghibli Fest: THE BOY AND THE HERON (animé) (11/15, 3 p.m., 11/16, 3 & 7 p.m., 11/19, 7 p.m., English dub; 11/17-11/18, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), UFC 322: Jack Della Maddalena vs. Islam Makhachev, more (mixed martial arts) (11/15, 9 p.m., simulcast), THE SOUND OF MUSIC 60th anniversary (11/16, 3 & 7 p.m.; 11/19, 7 p.m.), WICKED: FOR GOOD sneak preview (11/19, 6 p.m.), WICKED/WICKED: FOR GOOD double feature (11/20, 11 a.m. & 5 p.m.), WICKED: FOR GOOD (11/20 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE (11/14-11/15, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

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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Read the rest of this entry »

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.

~~~~~

MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

11/5: Nora McKirdie (actress, THE FAWN, Ten Wing Media, Chicago, IL)
11/10: Andrew Stengele (filmmaker, MISSING, Pens to Lens 2025, Champaign-Urbana, IL)
11/10: Andrew Nygard (filmmaker, THE MAN IN THE MOON, Pens to Lens 2025, Champaign-Urbana, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Dang. Well. Drop the Report-ing ball for a month, and the tidbits and headlines pile up in regards to the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond. Luckily, we’ve been saving notes and article links to much of what has been announced, revealed, and staged as of late that is relevant, so all we can do right now is pick away at sharing our film culture news with our dearest readers in the language of CUBlog as best and abbreviated as we can over the next month or so. When we hit the late December holiday skids, we do plan to pause on the highlights for January and February because … because.

So, to ramp up on catching up, we’ll start with items connected to people, places, and happenings already present in today’s Calendar, which will appear weekly through the winter in a spartan format. The birthday week of The Andrews – local storyteller and photographer Andrew Nygard and Champaign Movie Makers and Tabletop Central steward Andrew Stengele – always brings thoughts of the mirth and gentle mayhem of Pens to Lens, the screenplay workshop and short film clinic that they and other local creatives have brought back to prominence in the C-U. Recently, the newest batch of films based on the ideas and words of our local youth and premiered at the Virginia Theatre in August were uploaded to YouTube in this playlist, and Stengele just announced the program is already accepting submissions for 2026.

And, in special event news, we’re about as stacked as we can get in our neck of the now-shorn cornfields. Hit the links below for more information about the Route 66 International Film Festival, the Champaign Urbana International Film Festival, and the Screaming Mad Film Festival of the Dark History & Horror Con, all of which happen to coincide this year. University of Illinois students are also at it with their self-contained 48-hour competition over the weekend, resulting in a semi-private campus showing on Monday, November 10. It could be a good thing the ramped-back-up Chambana Film Society is on a short hiatus in this moment, for we wouldn’t want our heads to explode (or get too big) about all this cultural cinema coagulating at the same time! Chaz Ebert even announced today via the News-Gazette that “Ebertfest” may get a one-time reprieve in 2026 if the interest and funding is there. Never say…

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scene on the Screen

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Maybe the most unique thing to transpire while we were looking but not journaling was the consecutive debuts of a half-dozen locally-connected films during the weekend of October 16-19 that involved old friends like Matt HarsH and Shea Kelly and newer friends like Jill Greenlee and Chase & Shep. We’ll begin recounting the eruption of media goodness in the next Calendar but, for today, we’re giving the floor to yet another short subject, in the works for the last year-plus, that has finally received its private and public unveiling – THE FAWN, a folk/rustic horror piece from Ten Wing Media and creator Jason Huls.

Filmed in the fall of 2024 on private property near Pontiac, THE FAWN involves a young woman played by Chicago actress Nora McKirdie who wanders an eerie burnt-orange forest and encounters strange objects and forces that hint at something way beyond human comprehension. Plot is nascent and the viewer can rationalize what they will from the combination of discreet special effects, uncanny color palettes, odd camera framing, and a creative sound track that set an unnerving tone. Erin Huls, who collaborates with her husband on the Ten Wings films and podcasts, appears on-screen as a hooded purveyor of decidedly dark arts; intercut with the woman’s trek, her ceremony influences what is brewing even though the characters never share a scene. The earthly Fawn is fated to be caught in cosmic headlights.

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A modest effort compared to past film outings, THE FAWN still prances in the realm of its director’s interests of high fantasy, dark horror, and the Lovecraftian unexplainable, which he has also expressed through short story writing that has appeared in several anthologies and online publications. Those interested can learn about Huls’ work at his Substack account where he has also talked about this film and the preceding production from Ten Wing, THAT DAMNED YELLOW RAINCOAT. THE FAWN was premiered for subscribers to his Substack the week of October 20 and will have its first festival screening this Sunday, November 9, in the Screaming Mad Film Festival sideline of the Dark History & Horror Con to be held at the Orpheum Champaign. Enjoy it in the 2:30 p.m. block and then watch for future dates, when the short can be seen at other festivals or online, by visiting Huls’ social media accounts.

THE FAWN is directed, edited, and written by Jason Huls, who also rendered the visual effects. Huls produced with Paul A. Brooks. The cinematography was handled by Paul G. Lyzun, and Ryan Aldrich contributed the sound design, music score, and voice work. Along with Nora McKirdie, who also acted in Brooks’ feature HUNTING FOR THE HAG, and Erin Huls, THE FAWN stars Chris Hutson, the gruff and reluctant hero of the studio’s original adventure from twenty (!) years ago, LATE AFTERNOON OF THE LIVING DEAD. 2025, color, 9 minutes.

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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Hoogland Center for the Arts, Springfield, IL
24th Route 66 International Film Festival* (11/7-118) Information

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* 48 Hour challenge (11/7, 4:30 p.m., Room 1002)

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* ‘48 Hours Award Ceremony and Film Screening’ (11/10, 7 p.m., Room 1002)

@ The Orpheum Theatre, Champaign, IL
Dark History & Horror Con* 2025 feat. Screaming Mad Film Festival* (11/8-11/9) Information

@ Spurlock Museum of World Cultures, UIUC, Urbana, IL
4th Champaign Urbana International Film Festival* (11/8, 6:30 p.m. doors, 7:30 p.m. show) Information

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
CHRISTY, DIE MY LOVE, GRAND PRIX OF EUROPE* (animation), NUREMBERG, PREDATOR: BADLANDS, SARAH’S OIL (faith film), BACK TO THE FUTURE 40th anniversary (re-release), BLACK PHONE 2, BUGONIA, CHAINSAW MAN THE MOVIE: REZE ARC (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), REGRETTING YOU, SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE*, TRON: ARES (11/7 on), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (11/10, 7 p.m.), KEEPER, NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON’T, THE RUNNING MAN (11/13 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
THE CHRISTMAS RING (faith film), CHRISTY, GRAND PRIX OF EUROPE* (animation), NUREMBERG, PREDATOR: BADLANDS, SARAH’S OIL (faith film), ANNIVERSARY*, BLACK PHONE 2, BUGONIA, CHAINSAW MAN THE MOVIE: REZE ARC (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), REGRETTING YOU, ROOFMAN, STITCH HEAD (animation), SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE, TRON: ARES, VIOLENT ENDS* (11/7 on), Indian cinema: THE GIRLFRIEND (in Telugu with English sub; 11/7-11/12), THE GREAT PRE-WEDDING SHOW* (in Telugu with English sub; 11/7-11/9), and JADATHARA* (in Telugu with English sub; 11/7-11/12), The Metropolitan Opera: La Bohème (11/8, 12 p.m., simulcast; 11/12, 12 & 5:30 p.m., recorded), HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS (11/9, 3 & 7 p.m.; 11/12, 7 p.m.), VIRGIN PUNK: CLOCKWORK GIRL (animé) (11/11, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub; 11/13, 7 p.m., English dub), THE RUNNING MAN (11/13 on) *single screenings daily

@ Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Center for World Cultures, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies* presents HEREDITARY screening (11/13, 7 p.m., free)

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents FREAKIER FRIDAY (11/7-11/8, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

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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Read the rest of this entry »

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!

10/29: Julie Staley (producer/director, FIELDS OF GOLD, Spencer Films, Springfield, IL)
11/1: Amy Lynn Best (co-owner, Happy Cloud Media, LLC, Pittsburgh, PA)
11/3: Wes Melton (actor, PERFECT SOUL, Acrostar Productions, Chicago, IL)

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ The Fischer Theatre, Danville, IL
CROSSMARK* feature film premiere w/director Zack Bolden (11/3, 6 p.m. doors, 6:30 p.m. red carpet walk, 7 p.m. film, 8:20 p.m. after party)

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting (10/31, 4:30 p.m., Room 1002)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Society* presents “The Savoy Arthouse” feat. WEEKEND AT THE END OF THE WORLD (11/2, 3 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
ANNIVERSARY, BACK TO THE FUTURE 40th anniversary (re-release), BUGONIA, STITCH HEAD (animation), VINCENT MUST DIE/HALLOW ROAD double feature*, VIOLENT ENDS*, BLACK PHONE 2, CHAINSAW MAN THE MOVIE: REZE ARC (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), GOOD FORTUNE, REGRETTING YOU, SHELBY OAKS*, SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE, TRON: ARES (10/31 on), KPOP DEMON HUNTERS (animation) (“sing-a-long” re-release) (10/31-11/2), DIE MY LOVE preview with simulcast Q&A feat. Jennifer Lawrence (11/6, 7 p.m.), CHRISTY, DIE MY LOVE, NUREMBERG, PREDATOR: BADLANDS, SARAH’S OIL (faith film) (11/6 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
ANNIVERSARY, BACK TO THE FUTURE 40th anniversary (re-release), BUGONIA, MASS JATHARA (in Telugu with English sub), SINNERS (IMAX re-release), STITCH HEAD (animation), VIOLENT ENDS*, BLACK PHONE 2, CHAINSAW MAN THE MOVIE: REZE ARC (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), THE CONJURING: LAST RITES*, GOOD FORTUNE, REGRETTING YOU, ROOFMAN*, SHELBY OAKS, SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE, TRON: ARES (10/31 on), KPOP DEMON HUNTERS (animation) (“sing-a-long” re-release) (10/31-11/2), Indian cinema: BAHUBALI THE EPIC* (in Telugu with English sub; 11/1-11/2), IKK KUDI* (in Punjabi with English sub; 11/2-11/3), and THE TAJ STORY* (in Hindi with English sub; 11/1-11/2), HALLOWEEN (1978) (10/31, 4:30, 7 & 9:30 p.m.), THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE (10/31, 1, 4 & 7 p.m.),THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 1 (11/1, 1, 4 & 7 p.m.), THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 1 (11/2, 1, 4 & 7 p.m.), ORACLES OF GOD: THE STORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT (religious docudrama) (11/2, 4 & 7 p.m.; 11/3, 11/5, 7 p.m.), THE CHRISTMAS RING (faith film), PREDATOR: BADLANDS (11/6 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents THE CONJURING: LAST RITES (10/31-11/1, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
Illinois Public Media presents COCO (animation) (11/1, 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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Read the rest of this entry »

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!

10/25: Becca Whitaker (staff cartoonist, Bachelor Pad Magazine, Champaign, IL)
10/26: Joseph F. Alexandre (filmmaker, BACK HOME YEARS AGO: THE REAL ‘CASINO’, JFA Films, Los Angeles, CA)

CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

20 Years Ago … Week of Monday, October 24, 2005: Opteryx Press of Champaign begins shipping and store placement of MICRO-FILM 7, the imprint’s flagship journal. Articles cover the Lars von Trier “challenge” documentary THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS, the Ron Santo biographical film THIS OLD CUB, current productions from Haxan Films (THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT), regional indies such as FIVE YEARS and QUALITY OF LIFE, the passing of Sarah Jacobson (MARY JANE’S NOT A VIRGIN ANYMORE), and more. This 64-page issue is the last print edition of MF to date. [R]

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Brookens Auditorium, University of Illinois, Springfield, IL
LIPSTICK* downstate Illinois premiere w/filmmaker Kimberly D. Conner (10/25, 7 p.m.)

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting (10/25, 4:30 p.m., Room 1002)

@ The Lincoln Square Theater, Decatur, IL
TRICK AND TREATS* limited run (10/24, 10/29, 10/30, 7 p.m.)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Society* presents “The Savoy Arthouse” feat. STRANGE JOURNEY: THE STORY OF ROCKY HORROR (10/26, 3 p.m., documentary)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
BLUE MOON, CHAINSAW MAN THE MOVIE: REZE ARC (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), DREAM EATER*, REGRETTING YOU, SHELBY OAKS, SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE, AFTER THE HUNT, BLACK PHONE 2, THE CONJURING: LAST RITES*, GOOD FORTUNE, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER*, ROOFMAN, SOUL ON FIRE (faith film), TRON: ARES, TRUTH & TREASON (10/24 on), THAMMA* (in Hindi with English sub) (10/24-10/26), PARANORMAN (animation) (10/25-10/26, 4:15 & 7 p.m., 10/27-10/28, 7 p.m.; 3-D), STITCH HEAD sneak preview (animation) (10/26, 2 p.m.), NUREMBERG sneak preview w/Russel Crowe livestream Q&A (10/27, 6:30 p.m.), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (10/27, 7 p.m.), ANNIVERSARY, STITCH HEAD (animation) (10/29 on), VINCENT MUST DIE/HALLOW ROAD double feature (10/30, 7 p.m.), BACK TO THE FUTURE 40th anniversary (10/30 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
CHAINSAW MAN THE MOVIE: REZE ARC (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), EK DEEWANE KI DEEWANIYAT (in Hindi with English sub), REGRETTING YOU, SHELBY OAKS, SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE, THAMMA* (in Hindi with English sub), BLACK PHONE 2, THE CONJURING: LAST RITES, DEMON SLAYER: INFINITY CASTLE (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), GABBY’S DOLLHOUSE: THE MOVIE, GOOD FORTUNE, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, ROOFMAN, TRON: ARES, TRUTH & TREASON (10/24 on), PARANORMAN (animation) (10/25-10/28; 2-D & 3-D), STITCH HEAD sneak preview (animation) (10/26, 2 p.m.), HALLOWEEN (1978) (10/26, 3 & 7 p.m.; 10/29, 7 p.m.), TWILIGHT (10/29, 1, 4 & 7 p.m.), ANNIVERSARY, STITCH HEAD (animation) (10/29 on), THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON (10/30, 1, 4 & 7 p.m.), TRIUMPH OVER EVIL: BATTLE OF THE EXORCISTS (religious docudrama) (10/30, 7 p.m.)

@ Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Center for World Cultures, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Fall lecture by UC Santa Cruz professor Yiman Wang on the career of Anna May Wong (10/24, 2 p.m., free)

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (10/24-10/25, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
Mix 94.5 and Rewind 92.5 present THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW 50th anniversary with shadow cast (10/25, 7 p.m., sold out)

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

~~~~~

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

~~~~~

MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

10/16: Chaz Ebert (founder, Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies, College of Media, UIUC, Champaign, IL)
10/18: Mike Everleth (publisher, Underground Film Journal, Los Angeles, CA)
10/20: Lana Wildman (volunteer, Route 66 International Film Festival, Springfield, IL)

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Esquire Lounge, Champaign, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* meeting (10/20, 7 p.m.)

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting (10/18, 4:30 p.m., Room 1002)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Society* presents “The Savoy Arthouse” feat. PERFECT DAYS selected by Sanford Hess (10/19, 3 p.m., documentary)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
AFTER THE HUNT, BLACK PHONE 2, EXORCISM CHRONICLES: THE BEGINNING* (animation), GOOD FORTUNE, GROW, TRUTH & TREASON, THE CONJURING: LAST RITES, GABBY’S DOLLHOUSE: THE MOVIE, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, ROOFMAN, SOUL ON FIRE (faith film), TRON: ARES (10/17 on), Studio Ghibli Fest: SPIRITED AWAY (animé) (10/18, 4 p.m., 10/19, 4 & 7 p.m., English dub; 10/20-10/21, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), AMC “Scream Unseen” (mystery movie) (10/20, 7 p.m.), THAMMA (in Hindi with English sub) (10/21-10/22, 7:30 p.m.), THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (animation) (10/22, 6 p.m., 3-D), BLUE MOON, CHAINSAW MAN THE MOVIE: REZE ARC (animé), REGRETTING YOU, SHELBY OAKS, SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE (10/23 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
BLACK PHONE 2, GOOD FORTUNE, GROW, SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE*, TRUTH & TREASON, THE CONJURING: LAST RITES, DEMON SLAYER: INFINITY CASTLE (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), GABBY’S DOLLHOUSE: THE MOVIE, GOOD BOY, KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN*, THE LONG WALK, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, ROOFMAN, TRON: ARES (10/17 on), Indian cinema: BISON: KAALAMAADAN* (10/17-10/18, in Tamil with English sub), DUDE (10/17-10/20, in Tamil or Telugu with English sub), K-RAMP* (10/17-10/19, in Telugu with English sub), TELUSU KADI* (10/17-10/20, in Telugu with English sub),and MITHRA MANDALI (10/18-10/19, in Telugu with English sub), The Metropolitan Opera: La Sonnambula (10/18, 12 p.m., simulcast; 10/22, 12 & 5:30 p.m., recorded), Studio Ghibli Fest: SPIRITED AWAY (animé) (10/18, 2 p.m., 10/19, 4 & 7 p.m., 10/22, 7 p.m., English dub; 10/20-10/21, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (2004) (10/19, 3 & 7 p.m.; 10/22, 7 p.m.), OFF SCHOOL PROPERTY (religious documentary) (10/23, 7 p.m.), REGRETTING YOU, SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE (10/23 on) *single screenings daily

@ Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Center for World Cultures, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies* presents screening of PICCADILLY starring Anna May Wong (10/23, 7 p.m., free)

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents THE BAD GUYS 2 (animation) (10/17-10/18, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

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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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!

10/12: Christopher Folkens (producer/director, CATALYST, 4Digital Media, Gerrards Cross, UK)
10/13: Alaric Rocha (producer, LOVE, BLOOD & AZTEC DEMONS, Leomark Studios, Los Angeles, CA)

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting (10/10, 4:30 p.m., Room 1002)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Society* presents “The Savoy Arthouse” feat. 25 CATS FROM QATAR (10/12, 3 p.m., documentary) and MY OMAHA presented by the IRL Movie Club (10/12, 5:30 p.m., documentary)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, ROOFMAN, SOUL ON FIRE (faith film), TRON: ARES, ANEMONE, THE CONJURING: LAST RITES, DEMON SLAYER: INFINITY CASTLE (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), GABBY’S DOLLHOUSE: THE MOVIE, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, PERFECT BLUE* (animé re-release) (in Japanese with English sub), THE SMASHING MACHINE, THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 2* (10/10 on), THE DARK CRYSTAL (8/12, 4 & 7 p.m.; 8/13, 7 p.m.), 100 METERS (animé) (10/12, 4 p.m., 10/14, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub; 10/13, 7 p.m., English dub), BATTLE ROYALE 25th anniversary (in Japanese with English sub) (10/12-10/15, 7:30 p.m.), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (10/13, 7 p.m.), AFTER THE HUNT sneak preview (10/15, 7 p.m.), WISDOM OF HAPPINESS sneak preview w/Richard Gere livestream (14th Dalai Lama documentary) (10/16, 6 p.m.), BLACK PHONE 2, GOOD FORTUNE (10/16 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, ROOFMAN, TRON: ARES, ANEMONE*, THE CONJURING: LAST RITES, DEMON SLAYER: INFINITY CASTLE (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE, ELEANOR THE GREAT, GABBY’S DOLLHOUSE: THE MOVIE, GOOD BOY, HIM, KANTARA: A LEGEND – CHAPTER 1 (in Kannada or Telugu with English sub), THE LONG WALK, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, THE SMASHING MACHINE (10/10 on), CORPSE BRIDE 20th anniversary (animation) (10/11, 3 & 7 p.m.; 10/12, 3, 5 & 7 p.m.; 10/15, 7 p.m., “WWE Crown Jewel – Perth” (entertainment wrestling) (10/11, 2 p.m., simulcast), THE DARK CRYSTAL (8/12, 4 & 7 p.m.; 8/13, 7 p.m.), TRICK ‘R TREAT (10/14, 10/16, 7 & 9:15 p.m.), “‘Critical Role’ Live” (role-playing game competition) (10/15, 6 p.m., simulcast from New York, NY), THE FAMILY MCMULLEN (10/15, 4 & 7 p.m.), BLACK PHONE 2 (10/16 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents THE NAKED GUN (10/10-10/11, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

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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Read the rest of this entry »