CUZineShow to kick ass Apr. 17!

At the crossroads of Hustle Street and Bustle Avenue, no rest will be had for the weary at the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters as your humble editor is finding out the hard way. Yet, strangely, Miracle no.1 (C-U Confidential 3, coming next week!) and Miracle no.2 (his taxes) have finally wrapped, so that leaves one final hat trick to go – and he’d certainly love to share it with all of you!

At long last, we announce the line-up of the first-ever C-U Confidential Local Movie Show! We should have been spreading this virally for weeks now – proving in multiple shadings that we seriously need to find regular secretaries and/or staff to make movie magic happen a lot more smoothly here at MFHQ – but we’ll take the “better late than never” tack and simply ask that you reach out to everyone you can to help this little event of ours be the “one that could.”

If you’re not booked, make it a date with us tomorrow, Friday, April 17, from 6 to 10 p.m. at a place we hold near to our hearts, Caffe Paradiso, 801 S. Lincoln Ave., Urbana, IL. Three programs containing 24 locally-made pieces will play across the four-hour frame – hence the official show title, “Local Cinema @ Paradiso” – during which you will congregate with a gaggle of filmmakers, artists, and creatives that might be interested in “doing lunch,” trading head shots for business cards, and scheduling your pitch session! Would you believe that you can take part in this unique happening FOR FREE? Why, yes, you can!

Continue past the jump and we’ll spill the beans like there’s no tomorrow! Of course, it would be really craptacular timing since CUZineShow is tomorrow. Let’s leave that sort of catastrophic coincidence for the Hollywood scribes and carry on, MacDuff

Here is our schedule!

6:00 p.m. program

A CERTAIN POINT OF VIEW* (tr)
Premonition Pictures, Chicago, IL
Directed by Derek Klein
Several college students find their lives entwining in strange and unpredictable ways.

DISCONNECT (tr)
Dreamscape Cinema, Champaign, IL
Directed by Robin Christian
A young woman feeling guilt over her mother’s death finds that a childhood toy will reach back to the past.

HOOPESTON* (tr)
Synydyne, New York, NY
Directed by Thomas Bender
A farming community in north central Illinois faces economic hardships and entrepreneurial Wiccan neighbors.

INTERROGATION (ss)
Illini Film & Video, Urbana, IL
2007, 4 min
Directed by Anne Shivers
A police officer questions a suspect with an unusually limited (but prescient) vocabulary.

ONE FINE DAY! Episode 2.6* (ss)
Premonition Pictures, Chicago, IL
2008, 37 min
Directed by Derek Klein
The collegiate lives of several students culminate with intrigue, resolutions, and a dance.

Making of ONE FINE DAY!
and A CERTAIN POINT OF VIEW
(pd)
With Derek Klein, Elisha Reichert,
Betsy Trevarthen, and Prashanth Venkatumanujam

7:30 p.m. program

TOXIN* (tr)
Mystic Films, Chicago, IL
Directed by Chris Folkens
An unwary undergraduate must tangle with a rogue military veteran to prevent calamity in the United States.

LATE AFTERNOON OF THE LIVING DEAD* (tr)
Ten Wing Films, Bloomington-Normal, IL
Directed by Jason Huls
A deadly outbreak turns the masses into undead and the minority into walking dead meat.

ACT YOUR AGE (tr)
Dreamscape Cinema, Champaign, IL
Directed by Robin Christian
A struggling theater actor attempts to learn about the elderly by admitting himself into a retirement home.

PRESS START* (tr)
Dark Maze Studios, Champaign, IL
Directed by Ed Glaser
Three archetypal videogame heroes aim to stop the plans of Count Nefarious Vile.

FREE ROBOT (ss)
Illini Film & Video, Urbana, IL
2007, 2 min
Directed by Chris Lukeman
A bow-tied sci-fi mechanical ripped right out of Fifties pulp fiction proves too irresistible for a curious pedestrian.

GREEN STREET BAR* (mv)
Blue Bassoon Pictures, Chicago, IL
2007, 4 min
Directed by Alaric Rocha
Smoky rooms and neon hues illuminate the lives of wandering souls to the title song by Lynn O’Brien.

ALMOST NUMBER ONE* (ss)
R.A.Z. Films, Villa Grove, IL
2009, 4 min
Directed by Bob Zimmerman
An aspiring musician attempts to capture the tune on the tip of his tongue.

CELESTE ABOVE* (ss)
Johnny Robinson, Rochester, NY
2009, 16 min
Directed by Johnny Robinson
A boarder examines his life and happiness through several encounters with his cultured landlady.

PRELUDE (ss)
Essence Films, Urbana, IL
2008, 32 min
Directed by Luke Boyce
A struggling writer and traveling clairvoyant meet and converse in the back of a café … but is it fate?

9:00 p.m. program

NEAR MISS* (ss)
Blue Bassoon Pictures, Chicago, IL
2007, 16 min
Directed by Alaric Rocha
An airplane passenger’s mind wanders as he eyes a dreamy young Briton from across the way.

SUGAR (ss)
Essence Films, Urbana, IL
2007, 7 min
Directed by Alex Beh
Wishful thinking becomes elaborate fantasy in the frisky mind of a young waiter.

ROBOGIRL Series 1* (tr)
Dark Maze Studios, Champaign, IL
Directed by Ed Glaser
A warrior cyborg named Huntress goes back in time to 20th century America to stop an alien takeover.

WEREWOLF CEMETERY (tr)
Brainsmart Productions, Portland, OR
Directed by Jason Butler
War between the gravediggers of Ditchtown and the revived werewolves threatens to engulf Amnesia Falls.

DISPOSABLE* (tr)
Dreamscape Cinema, Champaign, IL
Directed by Robin Christian
Foster-home deaths force a young woman to stay one step ahead of criminal elements.

PRETTY LITTLE DEAD GIRLS* (tr)
Ten Wing Films, Bloomington-Normal, IL
Directed by Paul A. Brooks
A group of friends realize that their cabin in the woods is besieged by an unknown predator.

RAMPAGE* (tr)
Dark Maze Studios, Champaign, IL
Directed by Cetin Inanc
English Language Version produced by Ed Glaser
Turkish copycat of RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II comes to the U.S. of A. via Champaign-Urbana!

WAITING FOR GODOT (tr)
Brainsmart Productions, Portland, OR
Directed by Jason Butler
Could this really be the action-packed feature film based on the notorious play we’ve all been waiting for?

PRESS START: BIO HAPHAZARD* (ss)
Dark Maze Studios, Champaign, IL
2009, 6 min
Directed by Ed Glaser
Our heroes return to investigate a basement brimming with resident evil!

THE TRANSIENT (ss)
Illini Film & Video, Urbana, IL
2009, 25 min
Directed by Chris Lukeman
Vampire Abraham Lincoln resurfaces in the modern day … unless the homeless vigilante superhero has his way!

Key: Music Video (mv), Panel Discussion (pd), Short Subject (ss), Trailer (tr). Items noted with an asterisk (*) are public premieres in C-U. Selections and screening order are subject to change. We may also sneak in one or two final surprises – but you’ll have to make the scene to find out what they are!

We’ve programed this first edition of CUZineShow in an attempt to give you as in-depth a look at our area’s creative media output as possible in the relatively tight time frame. We hope that you will enjoy the work, anticipate watching the films only teased at, and be encouraged to participate in the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond in any way possible! Since you are reading this here on C-U Blogfidential, contact information to practically all the featured artists are a couple of clicks and/or a site search away!

We’d like to thank the filmmakers and production companies listed above who said “yes” to our invitations to dance. We also thank Caffe Paradiso’s owners, Keum Ran Yun and Jin Yun, for allowing us to stage CUZineShow under their roof, as well as ace employee Josh D’Oyley and the Paradiso staff for accomodating us. Let’s also give a big up to the crew behind the seventh annual Boneyard Arts Festival and 40 North/88 West arts council of Champaign County for (literally) putting us on the map with all the other great art exhibits and events happening throughout our cities and towns this weekend. Finally, titanic huzzahs to Luke Boyce and Shatterglass Studios for helping us get our projection and sound gear in gear as well as Mr. Brian Robertson for reasurring that allowing our Freaky flag to fly at this juncture is a very good thing.

Think you’ve seen it all when it comes to indigenous cinema? You’ll be one big step closer after you’ve taken in the thrills, chills, and spills (of coffee, preferably in a coffee mug!) at the first-ever C-U Confidential local movie show tomorrow night! BE THERE!

~ Jason Pankoke

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