C-U Blogfidential

Out on the streets, constructive reading can be hard to come by. Luckily, Champaign-Urbana, we have a solution for you this holiday weekend! We also pay respects to our editor’s late uncle, a Navy veteran.

It is rare for us to offer a rational lampoon on the politics of our day, but, here it is! We go top-heavy with humor as WILLIAM SHATNER LENT ME HIS HAIRPIECE jogs past memories and jib-jabs a presidential transition of power.

From the “Images of the Week” Dept.: Two titans of cinematography, gone. Three footnotes in Champaign-Urbana film history, remembered. Four rare archival photos, presented in full FLESH AND BLOOD.

In the premiere of our “Flicker of the Week” Dept.: British superstar David Bowie left five decades’ worth of artistic output here on planet Earth, including two curious fantasy films playing local theaters this weekend.

We had a good thing going, you and we, but the forces of media upheaval, consumer complacency, and altogether reasonable life changes have pried us apart as feared. Don’t you cry, TR. We’ll always have Chambana.

The sixth annual New Art Film Festival is … not accepting entries just yet. Read on, MacNAFFs…

From the “Images of the Week” Dept.: Investigative reporting by The Pantagraph in Bloomington focuses on helping the mentally ill more effectively in the video, SHORTCHANGED.

New informants bring their perspectives to the table in highlighting “Ebertfest” 2014. In the second filing, Brian Paris navigates the crest of emotion that greeted LIFE ITSELF.

New informants bring their perspectives to the table in highlighting “Ebertfest” 2014. In the first filing, editor Jason Pankoke elects for dependency even as an independent.

Bensenville, IL, resident Joe Lester, a make-up artist with The ImageWorks FX of Chicago, has passed away at age 44.

In this edition of C-U Blogfidential’s all-purpose column, “The C-U Film Leader,” we talk about THE GARDEN OF CHLOE auditions, the passing of Gary Gardner, on-line Pens to Lens videos, the Avon Theatre’s new little sister, and film contests galore!

We wish the best of success for every media-making business out there, but sometimes certain good things must end. The Movie Fan of Normal and Prairie Production Group of Champaign, for instance, both quit doing business at the end of April.

Your editor made a movie once. The tragedy is not what happened on screen, but the fact it never made it to any screen at all.

In the second helping of our brain-food-for-thought regarding the survival of local movie theaters, we conjure the ghosts of brick-and-mortar cinemas past complete with a visual ode to downtown Champaign’s former Rialto Theater.