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.

~~~~~

MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

7/9: Ben Harroun (co-owner, Harvest Moon Twin Drive-in, Gibson City, IL)
7/15: Jill Van Voorst (owner, LIX, Savoy, IL)

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

7/3: Nora Garcia Harroun, 35 (staff, Harvest Moon Twin Drive-in, Gibson City, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Theater-relevant news is what we have for this week’s Report and, given how the Calendar begins, we’ll address first what matters most. The operators of the Harvest Moon Twin Drive-in in Gibson City may be working on autopilot for the short term as they mourn the loss of Nora Harroun, wife of co-owner Ben Harroun, who passed away on July 3 due to complications from open heart surgery at the very young age of 35. A constant presence on the theater grounds, Nora will surely be missed by many; devoted husband Ben is organizing a Celebration of Life in her memory at the Harvest Moon on Sunday, July 27, which will be free to attend and involve slideshow memories and a showing of her all-time favorite movie, the 2005 rendition of PRIDE & PREJUDICE with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen. One day earlier on Saturday, July 26, starting at 12 p.m., a separate celebration will take place at the VFW Post #10302 in Springfield for the late Joyce I. Williams, who died on June 20 at age 82; she was retired from working for the Illinois State Police and married to Dean Williams, the veteran stills photographer and founder of the Central Illinois Film Commission. Joyce’s services were conducted last week. We offer our condolences to both families and their respective communities in this time. Please take good care of each other.

~~~~~

~~~~~

Now, we’re going to course-correct our presumptions a bit about how programmers at both the Virginia Theatre in Champaign and Fischer Theatre in Danville may be catering to the movie-going public in the future. We did not know until listing the Virginia’s revival of THE SANDLOT last week that it would be staged as more of a community event and not just a straight-up screening; the indoor sports training facility D-BAT Champaign cosponsored the 1993 kid flick and set up a “batting practice” activity on Park Avenue to go along with onsite diversions involving baseball cards, a hot dog stand, and the like. A similar indoor-outdoor conceit is arranged for August 9 when a farmers market sponsored by the Central Illinois Young Farmers Coalition will complement a showing of THE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM, a documentary presented by Illinois Public Media. And just two days ago, the News-Gazette broke news of “FischerFest,” a first-year film showcase that will debut on August 16-17 with five classic film showings to honor the late Hollywood actor Gene Hackman, who grew up in part in Danville, and a closing discussion session to be hosted by the critics Chuck Koplinski and Pamela Powell. Together with Pens to Lens, which returns to the Virginia on August 16 and is regaining its strength as a family friendly, red-carpet spectacle, the renewed focus on both fronts is certainly favoring a “go big with a broad appeal” approach.

~~~~~

~~~~~

If you want to see a movie just to see a movie (and maybe be crafty in minimizing how much advertising and on-screen flotsam you have to sit through before the movie actually begins), the regular array of venues as seen weekly on the Calendar is there to serve you. An announcement along these lines did break in the spring and it involves a dormant location that was purchased with plans to reopen it. Luckily, WGLT radio covered the transaction back in May. A multiplex formerly known as the Ovation Cinema Grill by New Vision Theatres, tucked away on Detroit Drive in the southwestern corner of Bloomington and adjacent to the Central Illinois Regional Airport, will soon become the Golden Ticket Cinemas Ale House Bloomington. A Facebook account dedicated to this location was created in May as well and promises it is ”coming soon” with special perks like bottomless popcorn and a “self-pour beer wall” along with a total remodel of the space, but there have been no updates posted ever since. Hopefully, their status changes soon. Once the Golden Ticket is up and running, we’ll have four exhibition brands to choose from between B-N, C-U, and Decatur including Phoenix Theatres, Marcus Theatres, and the three AMC branches. Still, keep an eye on the Fischer and Virginia schedules to see if film frequency improves at either venue, venture out to the Harvest Moon for first-run flicks, fresh air, and friends while the weather allows, and pay visits to the Normal Theater and other single-screen, small-town delights.

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

~~~~~

In this space, we were going to start a series on local cinematic ephemera and the items first up on the photography block, originally to be timed with the start of the drive-in season, were to be copies of April Wright’s three theater documentaries. Today, we instead bring up GOING ATTRACTIONS and BACK TO THE DRIVE-IN due to their connections with the Harvest Moon Twin Drive-in and in honor of the late Nora Harroun. Ye Ed decided this was a proper week to revisit GOING ATTRACTIONS, which made reference to the Harvest Moon in passing and had its first proper theatrical engagement at the Gibson City ozoner back in 2013, and finally take in BACK TO THE DRIVE-IN, which instead has a “night in the life” approach in showing the operations and talking about the concerns of the Harvest Moon and ten other venues across America. We’re pointing out the latter for the obvious reason in that Nora appears both alongside family and coworkers as well as solo in conversation with Wright; although Ye Ed had the DVDs on hand, available directly from the filmmaker, you can also visit with Nora via the film on Tubi. Each drive-in is featured in four or five segments throughout and the first two appearances of Nora and the Harvest Moon begin at the 21:45 and 46-minute marks. (We encourage you to watch the entire thing, of course.) For the sake of the Harvest Moon faithful, BACK TO THE DRIVE-IN now serves as both a timely look at their community fixture and a time capsule that preserves a sliver of Nora’s life. We do hope everyone will take a night to offer your respects and enjoy the Harvest Moon in person at some point between now and the end of the current season, especially if you miss the July 27 memorial. Peace.

~~~~~

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
ABRAHAM’S BOYS: A DRACULA STORY, SKILLHOUSE, SUPERMAN, 28 YEARS LATER, ELIO (animation), F1 THE MOVIE, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH, ME3AN 2.0 (7/11 on), EDDINGTON, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (7/17 on)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
SKILLHOUSE, SOVERIGN, SUPERMAN, 28 YEARS LATER, ELIO (animation), F1 THE MOVIE, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH, LILO & STITCH, ME3AN 2.0, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME (7/11 on), THE MUPPET MOVIE (7/12, 2:15 & 7 p.m.; 7/13, 3 & 7 p.m.; 7/16, 7 p.m.)

@ The Canopy Club, Urbana, IL
The Dispensary presents ‘Reefer Madness the Musical’ (7/11, 7 p.m.; 7/12, 2 & 7 p.m.; 7/13, 2 p.m.) Information + Tickets

@ Main Quad, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents “Summer Films on the Quad” feat. THE LEGEND OF OCHI (7/17, 9 p.m., free)

@ Prairie Farm/Centennial Park, Champaign, IL
Champaign Park District presents “Moo-vie Nights at Prairie Farm” feat. BABE (7/11, 8 p.m., free)

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!

7/7: Keenan Dailey (director/producer, BRIM, Visage Entertainment, Champaign-Urbana, IL/Atlanta, GA)
7/9: Jessie Seitz (special effects make-up, SURVIVOR GIRLS, Half Fool Motion Pictures, Birmingham, AL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Many moons ago, I was having a drink in downtown Normal at The Coffeehouse & Deli with a graduate of Illinois State University named Peter James Zielinski. He had formed a troupe called Dependent Films with his friend Christopher Denham, who attended the University of Illinois at the same time he was at ISU, to make their own digital video projects apart from class. When I asked him about the name, given the separate-from-Hollywood mystique that had been built up around the concept of “independent film” through the Nineties, Zielinski told me, and I’m paraphrasing his point a quarter of a century later, that almost no film is independently created because it takes a team to make it happen. The logic stands to reason, even if we consider a handful of friends with a camera and a pocket change budget getting together on a random weekend; they all have a part to play in the common effort to tell their story. When working on a larger scale with more at stake, production groups from the amateur to the A-list rely on their own devices as well as assistance from outside their ranks, and that often includes financial help.

The only Dependent Film that I remember seeing is the one I included in the first independent film show I organized in Champaign-Urbana, hosted at the spot formerly known as The Highdive (now The Venue CU) and featured during the springtime event formerly known as The Octopus Gallery Walk (now the Boneyard Arts Festival), a spoof of the SURVIVOR reality television show called S.U.R.V.I.V.O.R. I’m hard pressed to recall what the acronym stood for, but I think a dance-off on the beach figured into the silliness and its “contestants” were all, tra la, dependent on one other in the outcome. Despite the current status of MFHQ Deux as an outlier in our film culture du C-U, I still take to heart the truism posed by Zielinski, who went on to become a photographer and retouch artist for Getty Images and Paramount Television, and on behalf of Denham, who became a playwright in New York City as well as an actor in features like OPPENHEIMER and BEING THE RICARDOS. Every profession that we’ve mentioned just now is dependent on collaboration and skill between peers to make the creativity click and artistry soar.

~~~~~

~~~~~

On this Independence Day, we’ll suggest to our dearest philanthropists a handful of options where their money might go to good use in the service of local creators and groups who depend on peripheral support. This can include a pledge, with or without perks, towards the post-production campaign of Horror Dadz Productions’ THE FAIRFIELD COUNTY FOUR, directed by Josh Bruckner of Watseka. or Acrostar Productions’ PERFECT SOUL, directed by the Chicagoan S. J. Hermann and staged incognito in the Princeton area with more filming to go. (Apparently, their “late innings” crowdfunding push is not yet live; watch this space for an announcement.) This can also be a donation towards the initial production budget of Swede Films’ BIG MUDDY, for which an Indiegogo campaign will be launched shortly. This can even involve a gift to one or more nonprofit entities that bring quality culture and unique experience to our communities such as the Virginia Theatre, an outlet of the Champaign Park District, and the Pens to Lens screenwriting competition, a program of the 40 North 88 West arts council in Champaign County. Look closely and listen carefully to what is happening around us for opportunities to chip in, friends and neighbors, and remember the value you add does not necessarily have to add up to a dollar amount.

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

In recent weeks, we’ve shared updates about Acrostar Productions’ current run of fantasy/horror pictures – PERFECT SOUL, RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES, NIGHT OF THE DEAD SORORITY BABES – including in the last three Images of the Week entries, so, what else can we share about the Chicagoland micro-studio? Filming has been taking place for new episodes of their web series, SPLINTERED LOVE, in which the company’s actress and make-up effects artist Beth Metcalf stars as “Cupidity,” a spinner of dark relationship stories with TALES FROM THE CRYPT-style endings of moral comeuppance. The second season finale, “Leap of Faith,” is about to go into production and will feature Leonard Peterson III, Joanne Ferbrache, and Steve Morris in a story of lost loves and prices paid; the previous outings of SPLINTERED LOVE, many with familiar Acro-stars in their casts, can be viewed up on YouTube.

~~~~~

~~~~~

Acrostar producers S. J. Hermann and Ann Myrna, when the former is not writing fiction and screenplays and the latter auditioning for and acting in indie productions from other creative teams, are busy cutting together footage for PERFECT SOUL and fulfilling their distribution commitments with BayView Entertainment. SORORITY BABES is now streaming online and available in print thanks to this arrangement, which we discussed in last week’s Calendar, and CORN ZOMBIES 2 is expected to follow in the coming months. Previously introduced to online platforms by BayView were ATTACK OF THE CORN ZOMBIES, the Sixties-set origin story of the groovy and starchy undead, and THEY CAME BACK FROM SOMEWHERE, a charming retro sci-fi sequel to the studio’s first full-length venture, IT CAME FROM SOMEWHERE. This movie has inspired today’s key visual, given the holiday at hand and its permanent association with the UFO invasion epic INDEPENDENCE DAY, a smash hit back in 1996.

~~~~~

~~~~~

When watching CAME BACK for the first time earlier this year, Ye Ed couldn’t help but notice a funny anomaly in an early scene where thrift shop owner Miss Withers (Michele Hefner) encounters the lovelorn alien warrior Luma (Jake Yanko), returned to Earth and seeking his human soul mate Patty (Magdalena Conway). Behind Withers on the wall, one can clearly see the structure closest in nature to a UFO in all of downstate Illinois – the State Farm Center on the University of Illinois campus – and the movie never takes advantage of it for a clever aside or joke! “Aaaaaauuuugh,” blurted Charlie Brown. In time, he realized it would have been a distraction in the storytelling and possibly called undue attention to an anachronism; SOMEWHERE 1 and 2 ostensibly take place in the 1950s while the sports and concert arena, originally called Assembly Hall, did not open until the spring of 1963. We decided to muzzle our inner Art Bell and refrain from manufacturing a conspiracy out of it, since we’re simply happy to see it … hovering there.

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Champaign Public Library, Champaign, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* presents “Crash Course: Lenses” (7/7, 7 p.m., Robeson Pavilion Room C)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH, MALICE (in Mandarin with English sub), 28 YEARS LATER, BALLERINA, ELIO (animation), F1 THE MOVIE, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, LILO & STITCH, ME3AN 2.0, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING (7/4 on), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (7/7, 7 p.m.), ABRAHAM’S BOYS: A DRACULA STORY, SKILLHOUSE, SUPERMAN (7/10 on)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH, 28 YEARS LATER, ELIO (animation), F1 THE MOVIE, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, LILO & STITCH, MATERIALISTS, ME3AN 2.0, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, SINNERS (7/4 on), THIS IS SPINAL TAP 41st anniversary (7/5, 4 p.m.; 7/6, 4 & 7 p.m.; 7/7, 7 p.m.), DIRTY DANCING (7/6, 3 & 7 p.m.; 7/9, 7 p.m.), SUPERMAN sneak preview (7/8, 7 p.m., IMAX), SKILLHOUSE, SUPERMAN (7/10 on)

@ Main Quad, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents “Summer Films on the Quad” feat. THE WOMAN IN THE YARD (7/10, 9 p.m., free)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
The News-Gazette Film Series and D-BAT Champaign present THE SANDLOT special event (7/5, 12 p.m. Park Avenue outdoor activities, 2 p.m. screening)

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!

6/27: Eric Spudic (owner, Spudic’s Movie Empire, Los Angeles, CA)
6/27: Joe Sherlock (writer/director, THE HAUNTING OF HEATHER BLACK, Skullface Astronaut, Corvallis, OR)
6/30: Drea Aarons (fine artist, Drea Aarons Art, Champaign, IL)
7/1: Michael Juvinall (editor, Horror Patch website, Channahon, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Let’s talk movie viewing in this Report, dearest readers. The Pens to Lens program, devoted to guiding the youth in our community to explore and learn the craft of screen storytelling, has announced that tickets to their upcoming gala screening on Saturday, August 16, are now available for purchase at the Virginia Theatre website and box office. Believe it or not, this brings the sum total film bookings on Park Street in 2025 to … five: “Ebertfest” and DROP in April, JAWS in May, THE SANDLOT a week from now on Saturday, July 5, and P2L, with no other presentations in the ballpark listed as of this writing. Yes, we remember the venue was closed from January to mid-April for upkeep and, whew, at least they haven’t completely cut out the screen entertainment like the Fischer Theatre of Danville so, hrm, we know you know how to politely inquire and demonstrate renewed interest. Sadly, this also implies the “Arthouse Experience” promotion is likely over after a three-year run. We’ll have to wait and see how the Virginia handles its screen offerings to come as they’re clearly stressing live performances and events for now.

~~~~~

~~~~~

In serious need of patronage and funding is the Chicago Underground Film Festival, one of the many arts organizations nationwide to have its National Endowment for the Arts funding cancelled in supremely knee-jerk fashion earlier this year; passes for the longest-running showcase of its kind in the United States, scheduled to hold court September 17-21 at the ACX Harper Theater-Hyde Park, can be bought through their website for a reasonable $50 while donations can also be made to help their ongoing mission. We’re voting hard for the Windy City and beyond to support the continued efforts of CUFF director Bryan Wendorf and his crew in the face of an administration that is hell-bent on making life as uncomfortable as possible for American artists and creatives – and, well, all of us – who choose not to embrace their blinding white brand of “patriotism.” Keep making, saying, doing, and being you, friends.

~~~~~

~~~~~

Recently opening a call for entries is the Screaming Mad Film Festival, a welcome sideshow of the annual Dark History and Horror Con that will haunt the Orpheum Champaign on November 8-9, and the submission window is live through October 10; be aware there is an early bird deadline of Thursday, July 31, so you might want to visit their FilmFreeway account and find out what the perks are for turning in your work sooner rather than later. And finally, we didn’t preview or get to attend the Kevin Smith-Jason Mewes show at the Virginia this past Wednesday like a fair amount of our former neighbors did as evidenced on the socials, but it was nice to see these Indiewood favorites stop in the C-U for their tour; we also really appreciated Smith’s post-show nod to the late Roger Ebert while he sat out front with the popular bronze likeness, sculpted by the artist Rick Harney and installed in 2014. Good feels, man.

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

Ye Ed has apparently decreed that Acrostar Productions, LLC, will figure into a month’s worth of “Images” entries, and that is A-OK with us. Today’s gallery also serves as a belated follow-up to a Report we filed in late April where we went over several movies about to be released on physical media and elsewhere that happened to sport a Confidential pedigree. Since then, the whole bunch has been made available and what we didn’t manage to spit out fast enough was that, while skimming the online sites at the time to confirm details about those titles, we found several more videos to tell you about. Gotta catch ‘em all!

~~~~~

~~~~~

Let’s begin with the witchy horror-comedy, NIGHT OF THE DEAD SORORITY BABES, which the Acrostar team produced on the shores of Lake Decatur down in Macon County prior to launching both PERFECT SOUL and RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES. Stacked with a gaggle of scream queens and a frisky sense of humor, BABES was released as a BD-R on March 25 by BayView Entertainment after the label had already found streaming homes for the ladies and their deadly pledging. Included on the disc is a few minutes’ worth of behind-the-scenes smart phone footage and that’s it for special features.

~~~~~

~~~~~

UNTITLED FOOTAGE, the full-length sequel to the “Illinois Valley Murder Tapes” portion of Horror Dadz Productions’ duology, SPLIT SCREEN, has also been assigned to haunt BD-R as of April 29. Joshua Brucker’s follow-up was filmed in the Watseka area like the original and involves the sister of one of the original characters who attempts to learn what really happened with the Claw Hammer Killer and unwittingly walks right into danger. 105ive Films handled the release of FOOTAGE as they did another Horror Dadz adventure, THE WOODMEN, and the intense flick can also be watched on a brand-new service devoted to first-person genre films and shows, Found TV. Brucker announced on social media that his group’s latest found-footage horror, THE FAIRFIELD COUNTY FOUR, has wrapped on the East Coast as of this week; a werewolf tangles with mere mortals as well as Joe Bob Briggs in the Connecticut woods!

~~~~~

~~~~~

We have reason to bring up LGBTQ+ themed indies as well. Specialist label Wolfe Video, which used to count the C-U produced “dance family” comedy LEADING LADIES among its roster, seems to be winding down its in-house wares in favor of streaming if one looks carefully at their website. However, they have been re-releasing through merchants some of their titles in the DVD-R format such as the 2010 lesbian drama BLOOMINGTON; originally filmed on location in Bloomington, Indiana, the trade headlines about its production at the time kept throwing off Ye Ed since it wasn’t in reference to Bloomington, Illinois. The feature, directed by the veteran television editor Fernanda Cardoso, is a story of student-professor romance in a sleepy Midwest college town with Sarah Stouffer and Alison McAtee in the leads.

~~~~~

~~~~~

And, made available as a DVD-R just two weeks ago by Freestyle Digital Media is the feature SPARK, directed by Nicholas Giuricich and starring the talented Theo Germaine as Aaron, who must navigate a recurring time loop and transforming relationships with an intimately close friend, Dani (Vico Ortiz), and a desirable fling who becomes something more, Trevor (Danell Leyva). Germane talked about their performance in this film and in another challenging work, DESIRE LINES, along with efforts by the separate productions to portray nonbinary and transmasculine characters with a compelling focus, in early 2024 via the online magazine Xtra. Formerly a resident of the C-U and a welcome participant in our arts scene, Germaine has received a good amount of critical notice since making the segue from stage to screen in projects like the Peacock thriller THEY/THEM and television series like THE POLITICIAN on Netflix and WORK IN PROGRESS on Apple TV. We certainly wish them continued success and a full recovery in their health.

CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

40 Years Ago … Saturday, June 1, 1985: Geoff Merritt opens the Campustown media rental store, That’s Rentertainment, in Johnstown Center, at first stressing a large library of music LPs and CDs before changing course to concentrate on home video. The comprehensive offerings on their shelves, inviting and helpful “Rentarians” behind the front counter, customer-friendly memberships and “Renter Blocks,” a willingness to quickly incorporate the progression of products from VHS to DVD to LaserDisc to Blu-ray, and a personal touch scattered throughout in the form of decorative ephemera, hand-drawn section markers, and more would endear the shop to movie lovers far and wide. After bouncing around the building for their first decade, Rentertainment ultimately settled on the location at 512 E. John Street in Champaign. A second location would open in 1998 next to Caffe Paradiso in Urbana and only last a few years. Facebook [R] [Rev. 6/29/25]

10 Years Ago … Monday, June 1, 2015: Owner and local small business advocate Geoff Merritt announces that his Campustown staple, That’s Rentertainment, will immediately start selling off its inventory in anticipation of closing down. Thousands of home videos and miscellany would be adopted by loyal customers and community members, hundreds more titles would be integrated into the holdings of the University of Illinois Library system, and the remaining thousands would migrate over to the “rec room” of Merritt’s other location, hidden on Griggs Street in downtown Urbana, which houses the Parasol Label Group and the Itty Bitty Bike Shop. Their flagship location at the corner of John and Sixth streets in Champaign eventually had its front door locked for good at the end of Sunday, August 16.

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
F1 THE MOVIE, HOT MILK*, ME3AN 2.0, 28 YEARS LATER, BRIDE HARD*, ELIO (animation), BALLERINA, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, LILO & STITCH, MATERIALISTS, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING (6/27 on), JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH (7/2 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
F1 THE MOVIE, ME3AN 2.0, 28 YEARS LATER, BRIDE HARD*, ELIO (animation), BALLERINA, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, LILO & STITCH, MATERIALISTS, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, SINNERS (6/27 on), UFC 317: Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Oliviera, more (mixed martial arts) (6/28, 9 p.m., simulcast), GHOSTBUSTERS (1984) (6/28, 2 & 7:30 p.m.; 6/29, 3 & 7 p.m.; 7/2, 7 p.m.), JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH (7/2 on) *single screenings daily

@ Main Quad, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents “Summer Films on the Quad” feat. THE PATRIOT (7/3, 9 p.m., free)

@ Prairie Farm/Centennial Park, Champaign, IL
Champaign Park District presents “Moo-vie Nights at Prairie Farm” feat. OPEN SEASON; (6/27, 8 p.m., free)

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.

~~~~~

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Filing early on this week’s Report since Ye Ed is attending a wedding, so wethinks another textbook edition will fit the bill just fine. To start, Amy Penne of Smile Politely has once again delivered in the quest to document the current state of our film culture du C-U; her recent article discusses a significant aspect of the groundwork that Shatterglass Films, Flyover Film Studios, and their partners, such as Parkland College in this instance, have been laying for a sustainable production hub here in Champaign County, and that is a program to train a workforce of local residents to competently handle the necessary below-the-line jobs on a set or at the soundstage being developed up in Rantoul. Next, we caught a social media pitch by Ben Harl of Silver Compass Studios in Decatur for casting a proof-of-concept reel his team will be filming this summer for THE DARK ONES, a horror-in-a-cabin-in-the-woods story that can’t help but suggest Lovecraftian overtones; follow this dedicated Facebook account to get future announcements about casting and more. And, yes, we noticed, but the concept art is temporary in both cases according to the respective filmmakers on their own socials and will be replaced with appropriate visuals in due time…

~~~~~

~~~~~

Then, we also caught fleeting glimpses on social media related to the surprise indie DARK SOUL RIVER, filmed in the late spring at Flyover and elsewhere, and decided to investigate; this Instagram account is promoting Vijay M. Rajan’s serial killer chamber piece, introducing us to the primary cast members and several behind-the-camera talents, while this Internet Movie Database entry has a selection of behind-the-scenes photographs that may be our dearest readers’ first look at movie sets constructed in the Flyover facilities, formerly one of the Octave Chanute Air Force Base hangars. To close, Mr. JaPan had a nice chat at the location shoot of Acrostar Productions’ PERFECT SOUL with Michele Hefner, a resident of Peoria and dedicated stage mother for her actress daughter Delilah “Dee” Hefner, who is putting on a producer’s hat for an upcoming episodic saga called PEORIA JOAN; the all-ages melding of Dora and Indiana Jones will star the younger Hefner as “Joni,” also known as “Peoria Joan,” who goes on a quest to keep the ruthless contractor “Victor Crane,” played by veteran Illinois stage actor Dave Krostal, from destroying the valuable history and secrets ingrained in Peoria River country. Some casting has been revealed on Facebook and additional roles need to be filled as detailed on this website. Go, Joan!

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

In today’s outing, inspired by Ye Ed’s set visit and brief participation in the filming of PERFECT SOUL this past week, we’ll share yet another example of promotional artwork for a project in the early goings, although S. J. Hermann’s adaptation of his own novel is clearly much further along than either THE DARK ONES or John Isberg and Swede Films’ BIG MUDDY. Debuted on Facebook at the Acrostar Productions fan group back in April, the devilishly eerie creation is by the artist Erik W. Wilson and based on a picture of lead actress Chloe Lutz taken by the movie’s director of photography, Ashley Hefner. (And, yes, you noticed; the Hefners are all related and very active in downstate filmmaking!) Immediately below, you will find an exclusive behind-the-scenes peek at Lutz in costume as “Nikki Strange,” makeup effects artist Beth Metcalf, and Hefner snapped by yours truly in between takes of a pivotal sermon sequence. We’ll soon share more images with you in service of articles recounting the making of PERFECT SOUL this year – the production has a second round of filming scheduled at their rural Illinois location in the fall – and RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES, which is on the cusp of commercial release through BayView Entertainment after its filming last year in Champaign County. Hopefully, it will be an interesting read about the life cycles of low-budget independent film creation as seen through the Acrostar lens, and we thank their producer Ann Myrna for being generous in accommodating us to experience what they do.

~~~~~

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
28 YEARS LATER, BRIDE HARD, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN 20th anniversary (re-release), ELIO (animation), SITAARE ZAMEEN PAR* (in Hindi with English sub), BALLERINA, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES*, LILO & STITCH, MATERIALISTS, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING (6/20 on), Studio Ghibli Fest: THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY (animé) (6/22, 4 & 7 p.m., 6/24, 7 p.m., English sub; 6/23, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (6/23, 7 p.m.), F1 THE MOVIE sneak preview (6/25, 7 p.m.), F1 THE MOVIE, ME3AN 2.0 (6/26 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
28 YEARS LATER, BRIDE HARD, ELIO (animation), BALLERINA, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, THE LIFE OF CHUCK, LILO & STITCH, MATERIALISTS, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING. THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, SINNERS, THUNDERBOLTS* (6/20 on), Studio Ghibli Fest: THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY (animé) (6/22, 4 & 7 p.m., 6/24, 7 p.m., English sub; 6/23, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), TOP GUN (6/22, 3 & 7 p.m.; 6/25, 7 p.m.), “‘Critical Role’ Live” (role-playing game competition) (6/25, 7 p.m., simulcast from Sydney, Australia), F1 THE MOVIE (6/26 on)

@ Main Quad, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents “Summer Films on the Quad” feat. A MINECRAFT MOVIE (6/26, 9 p.m., free)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
J-GEE & T Presents present “Jay & Silent Bob Aural Sects Tour” starring Kevin Smith & Jay Mewes (6/25, 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!

~~~~~

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!

6/18: Perry C. Morris (vice president, board of trustees, Champaign County Historical Museum, Champaign, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Just some quick hits for this Report because Mr. JaPan is running on fumes and nervous anticipation. (We’ll explain the happier aspects of that in a future filing.) First, Champaign Movie Makers is meeting on Monday, June 16, 7 p.m., at their home away from home and film sets, the Esquire Lounge in downtown Champaign, where you’ll be guaranteed to hear all about Pens to Lens movies in the works. Second, our friend Bob Zimmerman of R.A.Z. Films has been on the scene this last week videotaping the practice sessions and sightseeing of the returning members of REO Speedwagon, just like seemingly every other media outlet in the C-U, leading up to the band’s charity concert at the UI State Farm Center tomorrow night, Saturday, June 14; we’ll eventually learn what REO and R.A.Z.’s plans for the footage will be. Third, the Illinois Film Office has announced the annual Shortcuts short film competition for Illinois-based students and young people age 22 and under with a submission deadline of August 31. Unlike in the past where the end goal for entrants was to be selected and possibly awarded at a Shortcuts screening, the current iteration is promising the overall Shortcuts winner will play (and a few other Shortcuts films might play) at an event scheduled for November in Rockford that is called 815HORTS and is casting its own net for content worldwide; you can read more about that at the website of what we take is the promotions and marketing firm behind 815HORTS, Plus Seven Company. Fourth and finally, Acrostar Productions has announced the horror-adventure they filmed covertly in the Champaign County outskirts the summer of last year, RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES, is completed and the assets delivered to their distributor, BayView Entertainment, which will soon offer the film on streaming sites and BD-R media. Corntastic!

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

What, we never shared the supremely moody poster for RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES with you? Let’s remedy that right now! Co-directed by Mia Katz, who has contributed to several Acrostar sets in various capacities and acted in the predecessor now available to view on Tubi and elsewhere, ATTACK OF THE CORN ZOMBIES, and S. J. Hermann, the Acrostar founder and horror-crime novelist whose writings have formed the basis for most of the company’s films to date, RETURN is set in the Seventies and follows an all-new cast of characters as they navigate the heartland of America invaded by the corn-fed undead. In a previous Calendar, we shared some early stills from the various scenes filmed by the cast and crew of RETURN when they were working in east central Illinois last September. Your humble editor, who visited the set during that active time, is about to do it again as less a wallflower and more a direct participant on Acrostar’s newest feature, PERFECT SOUL, which began production this week and continues for at least one more week on location before a hiatus. He’ll tell you how it went in due time.

~~~~~

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Esquire Lounge, Champaign, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* meeting (6/16, 7 p.m.)

@ Illini Union Ballroom, UIUC, Urbana, IL
The African Kinship Reunion (TAKiR) present BOUND: AFRICANS VS. AFRICAN-AMERICANS documentary screening w/filmmaker Peres Owino (6/14, 5 p.m., free w/reservation) Tickets

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, MATERIALISTS, THE UNHOLY TRINITY, BALLERINA, BRING HER BACK, DAN DA DAN: EVIL EYE (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, KARATE KID: LEGENDS, LILO & STITCH, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME (6/13 on), DOGMA 25th anniversary (re-release) (6/13-6/15), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (6/16, 7 p.m.), SINNERS (6/19, 7 p.m.), 28 YEARS LATER, ELIO (animation) (6/19 on)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, THE LIFE OF CHUCK, MATERIALISTS, THE UNHOLY THREE, BALLERINA, BRING HER BACK, DANGEROUS ANIMALS*, FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, FRIENDSHIP*, KARATE KID: LEGENDS, THE LAST RODEO*, LILO & STITCH, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, THE RITUAL*, SINNERS, THUNDERBOLTS* (6/13 on), RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (6/14, 2:30 p.m.; 6/15, 3 & 7 p.m.; 6/18, 7 p.m.), FINDING FAITH (faith film) (6/16-6/17, 7 p.m.), “‘Critical Role’ Live” (role-playing game competition) (6/19, 7 p.m., simulcast from Sydney, Australia), 28 YEARS LATER, ELIO (animation) (6/19 on) *single screenings daily except for THUNDERBOLTS*

@ Main Quad, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents “Summer Films on the Quad” feat. SNOW WHITE (6/19, 9 p.m., free)

@ Prairie Farm/Centennial Park, Champaign, IL
Champaign Park District presents “Moo-vie Nights at Prairie Farm” feat. CHICKEN LITTLE (6/13, 8 p.m., free)

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!

6/10: Allen Richards (publisher, B-Independent.com, VA)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Now that we’re back in this space, Ye Ed tells us that we should Report. So, Report we shall. First up is the obvious one – there’s a new feature film that is currently on location in Piatt and Ford counties, as many of you have probably seen by now on social media and through the local press. CHILI FINGER is described as a dark comedy in previous articles by The Hollywood Reporter and Reel Chicago and is directed by Edd Benda and Stephen Helstad of Beyond the Porch, LLC, in Los Angeles, who are teaming with the LA post-production house Gold Tree Studios on the picture. Written by Helstad, the story is about a woman played by Judy Greer who claims to find a human finger in her order at a fast-food restaurant and attempts to cash in on it; John Goodman, Sean Astin, and Bryan Cranston also have roles in the film, the rights for which will be sold internationally at the American Film Market and so on once it’s finished. There is no word that we’ve found about how long the production will be in the area or if they might hit the C-U, but the residents and city leaders of Monticello and Paxton are clearly loving the limelight so far.

~~~~~

~~~~~

While it will be some time before CHILI FINGER can be seen, we have mere days to wait before we can start watching the television series REVIVAL, a pet project of prolific indie producer Aaron B. Koontz and our own Luke Boyce of Shatterglass Films and Flyover Film Studios, on SyFy. Adapted from the acclaimed series by writer Tim Seely, artist Mike Norton, and publisher Image Comics, the Canada-lensed show will debut next Thursday, June 12, at 9 p.m. CST on the cable channel and each episode will be available to stream on Peacock one week after its debut. The show follows a rural Wisconsin police officer played by Melanie Scrofano, star of SyFy’s previous hit WYNONNA EARP, as she witnesses the phenomena of the recently deceased coming back to life including her sister. Executive producers and showrunners Boyce and Koontz talked with Tara Bennett of SyFy Wire about switching gears from an independently mounted, feature-length treatment to serialized storytelling for the NBC sister network and briefly brought up REVEALER, the religion-and-end-times thriller that Shatterglass and The Line Film Co. made covertly in the C-U during a low ebb in pursuing this project. REVIVAL also stars David James Elliott, Romy Weltman, and Stephen Ogg along with Chicago native Phil Brooks, famously known as CM Punk.

~~~~~

~~~~~

Finally, John Isberg of Swede Films in Champaign announced during our hiatus that, despite all signs leading many to believe that FINAL SUMMER PART II was on deck, his next production will actually be a horror-comedy called BIG MUDDY and take its inspiration from the regional legends of sasquatch-type creatures. Isberg and team are gearing up for a late summer shoot this year and will launch an Indiegogo campaign on July 3, right after they venture to southern Illinois and partake in the annual Big Muddy Monster Fest of Murphrysboro on Saturday, June 21. According to the Internet Movie Database, Isberg has already cast a good group of Midwest indie horror regulars for BIG MUDDY such as FINAL SUMMER actors Myles Valentine, Seth Boyer, and Bishop Stevens, ATTACK OF THE CORN ZOMBIES and GRINNERS standout Magdalena Conway, STRANGER THINGS veteran and UIUC professor Aaron Muñoz, BLACK MOLD’s Andrew Bailes, and Nathan Brandon Gaik, the towering talent from Bloomington-Normal who will portray “Big Muddy” akin to his turn as the title fiend in Paul A. Brooks’ HUNTING FOR THE HAG, albeit with a more mellow vibe. Also set to appear are Ari Lehman from the original FRIDAY THE 13TH and Oliver Robbins from the original POLTERGEIST. Look for more “Big” news when we get it in…

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

Well, that was inspiring to see. Your humble editor escaped the house on the edge of an American small town for a spell and attended the first Savoy Lumière at the Savoy 16 + IMAX over the weekend. I only was able to sit in for three shows, but I saw good things and said hello to a few familiar faces. It will be of great interest to see how this endeavor matures and the C-U responds over time. An admirably devoted Daily Illini student writer, Anna Williams, went as well and filed multiple reports on all days of the event starting with this one. Amy Penne has also had the Lumière pulse and shared this notice at Smile Politely on the Audience Award winners tallied up after the screening of SALLY. Below are a few pictures I took on Saturday, May 31, before and during the last show of the day, THE OTHER PEOPLE, a very low-key spooker about a family who gets more than they bargained for in their new home. Seated at the check-in table is Thomas Nicol, who has coordinated with the Savoy 16 in the past on behalf of his sadly departed Krampusnacht Freeky Film Festival, and sitting up front with festival director Nat Dykeman in Theater 8 is the festival guest Chad McClarnon who directed, co-wrote, and co-produced THE OTHER PEOPLE for his company, Best Part Productions of Nashville, Tennessee. We’re still going to look at a few aspects of the Lumière and cinema-going in the C-U over the next few weeks before moving on, so stay tuned.

~~~~~

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Fire Doll Studio, Champaign, IL
UI Flatlands Dance Film Festival and Krannert Art Museum present “Good House Keep Film Screening” feat. Laura Chiaramonte (6/11, 6:30 p.m., free)

@ Gallery Art Bar, Urbana, IL
UI Flatlands Dance Film Festival presents “Experimental Dance Film Performance and Talkback” feat Laura Chiaramonte, Matt Harsh, and Tessa Olson (6/10, 7 p.m., free)

@ Illini Union Ballroom, UIUC, Urbana, IL
The African Kinship Reunion (TAKiR) present BOUND: AFRICANS VS. AFRICAN-AMERICANS documentary screening w/filmmaker Peres Owino (6/14, 5 p.m., free w/reservation) Tickets

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
BALLERINA, DAN DA DAN: EVIL EYE (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), DANGEROUS ANIMALS, THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, THE RITUAL, BRING HER BACK, FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, FRIENDSHIP, KARATE KID: LEGENDS, LILO & STITCH, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, SINNERS*, THUNDERBOLTS** (6/6 on), DOGMA 25th anniversary (re-release) (6/6-6/8), ESCAPE FROM THE 21ST CENTURY (6/9, 8 p.m., in Mandarin with English sub), HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (6/11 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
BALLERINA, DANGEROUS ANIMALS, THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, THE RITUAL, BRING HER BACK, FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, FRIENDSHIP, JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE*, KARATE KID: LEGENDS, THE LAST RODEO, LILO & STITCH, A MINECRAFT MOVIE*, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, SINNERS, THUNDERBOLTS* (6/6 on), UFC 316: Merab Dvalishvili vs. Sean O’Malley, more (mixed martial arts) (6/7, 9 p.m., simulcast), TWILIGHT (6/8, 3 & 7 p.m.; 6/11, 7 p.m.), THE AMERICAN MIRACLE: OUR NATION IS NO ACCIDENT (faith docudrama) (6/9-6/11, 7 p.m.), HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (6/11 on) *single screenings daily

@ Main Quad, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents “Summer Films on the Quad” feat. PADDINGTON IN PERU (6/12, 9 p.m., free)

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!

5/31: Joshua Brucker (filmmaker, THE FAIRFIELD COUNTY FOUR, Horror Dadz Productions, Watseka, IL)
6/1: William Pace (faculty associate of digital media production, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ)
6/1: Bill Yauch (producer/cinematographer, AMBER ROSE, Shut Up and Do It Productions, Champaign, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Why not lift our Report embargo a couple of weeks early to allow for a full-on Savoy Lumière takeover? “Glad to oblige!” shouts Ye Ed from across the MFHQ office. Since we’ve been late in getting our festival coverage filed for your planning needs, dearest readers, we’re going to point you to a few other media sources where publicity for the event have already appeared. First, Smile Politely’s Amy Penne gives the Lumière a giant vote of confidence in her preview and interview with organizer Nat Dykeman and, if you don’t already realize the movies and local movie mavens hit a sweet spot for her, it is made very clear in this article. Also adding to the visibility of Lumière is this nice overview provided by Sam Rink at the IPM Newsroom in which he talks with Dykeman as well as Keenan Dailey and Trude Namara of BRIM (Thursday, May 29, 6 p.m.) and Chase Todd of AN AFFAIR AT THE END OF TIME (Sunday, June 1, 3:15 p.m.). WCIS-TV, the ABC affiliate in Springfield, ran this notice and it reads like a press release sent over by the Village of Savoy, which signed on as the first major sponsor of Lumière, as it directly quotes village president John Brown and trustee Larry Kanfer ahead of our man Dykeman. (In fact, it is a press release; we had to look on the Savoy municipal website to find a link to a PDF of it as it was not readily appearing in Google searches.) We know through the grapevine that at least a couple of radio segments were had at places like WEFT-FM and the Lumière is being name-checked by organizations who always have one eye on community activity that can translate into economic gains, such as the Champaign County Film Office and Experience Champaign-Urbana. All in all, a passable first-time showing for the C-U at large to afford the Lumière their time and attention in advance. They’ll get the hang of it…

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

~~~~~

Why not push back our archives photo series yet one more week to allow for a full-on Savoy Lumière takeover? “Sounds just dandy!” yells Ye Ed from across the MFHQ commissary. We’re taking the simple route with this department and dressing up the Calendar with one-sheet art for features playing this weekend at the Savoy 16 + IMAX as a part of Lumière: FREE LEONARD PELTIER (Saturday, May 31, 1:30 p.m.), NEVER NOT YOURS (Sunday, June 1, 5:30 p.m.), and INBETWEENING (Sunday, June 1, 7:30 p.m.). Let’s also mention the two animated films pictured here that will appear in the all-ages show, QUELM SALVA directly above and BIRD DRONE at the top (Saturday, May 31, 11 a.m.) Visit the festival subsite up at Chambana Film Society for more details about these and all the other films scheduled throughout the weekend. Please enjoy yourselves, take your friends, and share the good times online!

~~~~~

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Society presents the 2025 Savoy Lumière* film festival (5/29-6/2) Information

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
BRING HER BACK, KARATE KID: LEGENDS, TORNADO, FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, FRIENDSHIP, THE LAST RODEO, LILO & STITCH, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, SINNERS, THUNDERBOLTS* (5/30 on), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (6/2, 7 p.m.), DANGEROUS ANIMALS sneak preview (6/3, 7 p.m.), BALLERINA sneak preview (6/4, 7 p.m.), BALLERINA, DAN DA DAN: EVIL EYE (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), DOGMA 25th anniversary (re-release), THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME (6/5 on)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
BRING HER BACK, JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE, KARATE KID: LEGENDS, THE ACCOUNTANT 2*, FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, FRIENDSHIP, THE LAST RODEO, LILO & STITCH, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, SINNERS, THUNDERBOLTS* (5/30 on), The Metropolitan Opera: Il Barbiere di Siviglia (5/31, 12 p.m., simulcast; 6/4, 1 & 6:30 p.m., recorded), GREASE (6/1, 3 & 7 p.m.; 6/4, 7 p.m.), BALLERINA (6/5 on) *single screenings daily (except for THUNDERBOLTS*)

@ Main Quad, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents “Summer Films on the Quad” feat. THE UNBREAKABLE BOY (6/5, 9 p.m., free)

@ Prairie Farm/Centennial Park, Champaign, IL
Champaign Park District presents “Moo-vie Nights at Prairie Farm” feat. A BUG’S LIFE (5/30, 8 p.m., free)

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!

5/26: Lana Hinshaw-Klann (photojournalist, WBBM Channel 2 (CBS), Chicago, IL)
5/29: Amy Penne (arts editor, Smile Politely, Champaign-Urbana, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The Report is on hiatus until June. Thank you for your readership, CUvians and Agents! You should pay attention to Smile Politely, The Daily Illini, Champaign Movie Makers, and Chambana Film Festival for breaking news and updates in our scene. CUBlog will also keep in step with our friends and share to Facebook when we come across things you would like. Keep reading!

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Society presents the 2025 Savoy Lumière* film festival (5/29-6/2) Information

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
FRIENDSHIP, THE LAST RODEO, LILO & STITCH, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, THE ACCOUNTANT 2*, FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, HURRY UP TOMORROW, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SINNERS, THUNDERBOLTS* (5/23 on), BRING HER BACK, KARATE KID: LEGENDS (5/29 on) *single screenings daily (except for THUNDERBOLTS*)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
THE LAST RODEO, LILO & STITCH, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, THE ACCOUNTANT 2, FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, HURRY UP TOMORROW*, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SINNERS, THUNDERBOLTS* (5/23 on), BLAZING SADDLES (5/25, 3 & 7 p.m.; 5/28, 7 p.m.), KARATE KID: LEGENDS (5/29 on) *single screenings daily (except for THUNDERBOLTS*)

NEW! @ Main Quad, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents “Summer Films on the Quad” feat. ONE OF THEM DAYS (5/29, 9 p.m., free)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
The News-Gazette Film Series presents JAWS (5/25, 2 p.m.; 5/26, 7 p.m.)

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!

5/17: Nat Dykeman (founder, Chambana Film Society/The Savoy Lumierè, Sidney, IL)
5/21: Katherine Bokenkamp (actress, AN AFFAIR AT THE END OF TIME, Earth-217 Studios, Fairmount, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The Report is on hiatus until June. Thank you for your readership, CUvians and Agents! You should pay attention to Smile Politely, The Daily Illini, Champaign Movie Makers, and Chambana Film Festival for breaking news and updates in our scene. CUBlog will also keep in step with our friends and share to Facebook when we come across things you would like. Keep reading!

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing My Old Scene on Your Screen

~~~~~

Yes, it’s a bit of a ruse. We still need one more week before we begin our archive show-and-tell. Sorry. We were torn between writing one or two bonus CUBlog posts this week and didn’t finish any of it, so the Calendar got the short end of the stick. Therefore, as a from-the-hip aside to keep everyone guessing what we have in store, let’s give you another preview starring the closest thing we have to a literal stick figure. This handmade Fighting Guy with (cocktail!) sword was entrusted to Ye Ed many moons ago by our friend and former Urbana resident, John May. We will come back around to them later in the photo sequence and, if you don’t already know why we’re including them, you will soon find out. It’s high time to weekend, don’t you think? Soak it in and be good out there, dearest adventurers and cultural archaeologists du C-U!

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

JIMMY IN SAIGON* U.S. streaming release: Tuesday, 5/13, nationwide via Dark Star Pictures, Los Angeles, CA/Peter McDowell Productions, Los Angeles, CA

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
23 (IRAVAI MOODU) (in Telugu with English sub), FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, HURRY UP TOMORROW, THE RUSE, THE ACCOUNTANT 2, CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD, FIGHT OR FLIGHT, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SHADOW FORCE, SINNERS, THUNDERBOLTS*, UNTIL DAWN (5/16 on), Studio Ghibli Fest: KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE (animé) (5/17, 4 p.m., 5/18, 4 & 7 p.m., 5/21, 7 p.m., English dub; 5/19-5/20, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), AMC “Scream Unseen” (mystery movie) (5/19, 7 p.m.), FRIENDSHIP, THE LAST RODEO, LILO & STITCH, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING (5/22 on)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, HURRY UP TOMORROW, THE RUSE, THE ACCOUNTANT 2, CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD, FIGHT OR FLIGHT*, JULIET & ROMEO*, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SHADOW FORCE, SINNERS, THUNDERBOLTS*, UNTIL DAWN, WARFARE (5/16 on), Studio Ghibli Fest: KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE (animé) (5/17, 2 p.m., 5/18, 4 & 7 p.m., 5/21, 7 p.m., English dub; 5/19-5/20, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), The Metropolitan Opera: Salome (5/17, 12 p.m., simulcast; 5/21, 1 & 6:30 p.m., recorded), LABYRINTH (5/18, 3 & 7 p.m.; 5/21, 7 p.m.), LILO & STITCH, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING (5/22 on) *single screenings daily (except for THUNDERBOLTS*)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
No movies this week!

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!

5/13: Casey Wayne Hupp (actor, RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES, Acrostar Productions LLC, Chicago, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The Report is on hiatus until June. Thank you for your readership, CUvians and Agents! You should pay attention to Smile Politely, The Daily Illini, Champaign Movie Makers, and Chambana Film Festival for breaking news and updates in our scene. CUBlog will also keep in step with our friends and share to Facebook when we come across things you would like. Keep reading!

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing My Old Scene on Your Screen

~~~~~

We suppose this gets the point across, yes?

The setup is not professional grade but it’ll do and is better than, say, placing valuable items from the MFHQ Deux archive on the stove top for a photo op. Lighting will be tweaked and arrangements varied as we take the shots in order to show you the stuffs and tell you a few tales beginning next week in the Calendar. These videos are just stand-ins to test it out. When in Walmart country, make Walmart due…

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Champaign County History Museum, Champaign, IL
“Downtown Champaign Historic Theater Tour” (5/10, 1-2:30 p.m.) Register

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD, FIGHT OR FLIGHT, JULIET & ROMEO, SHADOW FORCE, #SINGLE (in Telugu with English sub), THE ACCOUNTANT 2, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SINNERS, SNOW WHITE, THE SURFER, THUNDERBOLTS*, UNTIL DAWN (5/9 on), SHOW ME YOUR GLORY (religious documentary) (5/13-5/15, 7 p.m.), Blumhouse 15th anniversary “Halfway to Halloween” feat. MA (5/14, 7 & 9 p.m.), HURRY UP TOMORROW sneak preview (5/14, 6 & 6:30 p.m.), KINGDOM OF HEAVEN “director’s cut” (5/14, 6 p.m.), FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, HURRY UP TOMORROW (5/15 on)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD, FIGHT OR FLIGHT, JULIET & ROMEO, SHADOW FORCE, THE ACCOUNTANT 2, THE AMATEUR, THE KING OF KINGS (faith animation), A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SINNERS, SNOW WHITE*, THUNDERBOLTS*, WARFARE (5/9 on), UNTIL DAWN (5/9-5/12), THE SURFER* (5/9, 5/12-5/13), UFC 315: Belal Muhammed vs. Jack Della Maddalena, more (mixed martial arts) (5/10, 9 p.m., simulcast), THE WIZARD OF OZ (5/10-5/11, 2, 4:30 & 7 p.m.; 5/14, 7 p.m.), SHOW ME YOUR GLORY (religious documentary) (5/13-5/15, 7 p.m.), HURRY UP TOMORROW sneak preview (5/14, 6 & 6:30 p.m.), HURRY UP TOMORROW (5/15 on) *single screenings daily (except for THUNDERBOLTS*)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
No movies this week!

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!

5/4: Andrew J. Rausch (author, Generation Tarantino: The Last Wave of Young Turks in Hollywood, Bloomsbury Publishing, New York, NY)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The Report is on hiatus until June. Thank you for your readership, CUvians and Agents! You should pay attention to Smile Politely, The Daily Illini, Champaign Movie Makers, and Chambana Film Festival for breaking news and updates in our scene. CUBlog will also keep in step with our friends and share to Facebook when we come across things you would like. Keep reading!

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing My Old Scene on Your Screen

~~~~~

Sigh. Since we’re spending extra time away from our makeshift still life studio here at MFHQ Deux to write even more about the current movie events du C-U and to bring you a follow-up report on relevant home video releases, we have to postpone the start of our gallery series of local film goodies yet again. However, in the spirit of the beloved Detective Columbo, this gives us an opportunity to address just one more thing that we’ve thought about in recent days before we get started. Mrs. Columbo would approve.

As you’ve seen, we’ve gathered physical evidence of the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond that we intend to use as a storytelling vehicle in the coming weeks. Practically all of this material was brought directly to MFHQ Deux from the original MFHQ or acquired in the few years that your humble editor has been living here full time. However, as he digs deeper in the hallowed halls of Momkoke Manor, remnants of his movie life once shared with the late Ma JaPan have begun to reappear.

~~~~~

~~~~~

There are pieces in plain sight, like the tenth anniversary “Ebertfest” magnet on the refrigerator door that was formerly on display in the same location at MFHQ. There are other pieces tucked away for safe keeping, such as the memorial issue of the Chicago Sun-Times that marked the passing of Roger Ebert in 2013. And, there are the inadvertent discoveries as in the interview tape and CDs jammed in the back of the filing cabinet drawer that Ye Ed was cleaning; how they managed to not fall out while being moved from the covert MFHQ Annex in C-U to the house on the edge of an American small town, who knows?

~~~~~

~~~~~

It always pays to keep your eyes open as well as your ears, nose, mind, and heart. “You never know,” as Ma used to say, and that truism can apply across the board in our lives from sunup to sundown. It does feel sometimes like the pieces of the film culture puzzle pertaining to us are simply not a priority in the cultural space of Champaign-Urbana. Therefore, now is the time to start to put it all together. Onward.

~~~~~

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Parkland Theatre, Parkland College, Champaign, IL
Compass Casting “photo open call” (5/3, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.)

@ Spurlock Museum of World Cultures, UIUC, Urbana, IL
UIUC College of Media presents MACS Illinois Student Film Festival* (5/2, doors 6 p.m., event 7 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
THE DUMPLING QUEEN (in Mandarin with English sub), RAID 2 (in Hindi with English sub), ROSARIO, THE SURFER, THUNDERBOLTS*, THE ACCOUNTANT 2, THE AMATEUR, THE KING OF KINGS (faith animation), THE LEGEND OF OCHI*, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SINNERS, UNTIL DAWN (5/2 on), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (5/5, 7 p.m.), Blumhouse 15th anniversary “Halfway to Halloween” feat. ANNABELLE (5/7, 7 & 9 p.m.), CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD sneak preview (5/7, 6:30 p.m.), CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD, FIGHT OR FLIGHT, JULIET & ROMEO, SHADOW FORCE (5/8 on) *single screenings daily (except for THUNDERBOLTS*)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
THE SURFER, THUNDERBOLTS*, THE ACCOUNTANT 2, THE AMATEUR, CHEECH & CHONG’S LAST MOVIE* (documentary), THE KING OF KINGS (faith animation), THE LEGEND OF OCHI*, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SINNERS, UNTIL DAWN, WARFARE, THE WOMAN IN THE YARD (5/2 on), ON SWIFT HORSES* (5/2, 5/4-5/8), MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL 50th anniversary (5/4, 5/7, 4 & 7 p.m.), SCREAM (1996) (5/4, 3 & 7 p.m.; 5/7, 7 p.m.) *single screenings daily (except for THUNDERBOLTS*)

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD (5/2-5/3, 7 p.m., free w/i-card), 5/4: STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS (5/4, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
No movies this week!

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!

4/25: Marty McKee (writer, Johnny LaRue’s Crane Shot, Champaign-Urbana, IL)
4/28: John Isberg (cinematographer/co-producer, HAUNTED HOUSE OF PANCAKES, Haunted House of Pancakes LLC, Fort Thomas, KY)
4/29: Sophie McMahan Berkley (artist, Sophie McMahan, Urbana, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The Report is on hiatus until May. Thank you for your readership, CUvians and Agents! You should pay attention to Smile Politely, The Daily Illini, Champaign Movie Makers, and Chambana Film Festival for breaking news and updates in our scene. CUBlog will also keep in step with our friends and share to Facebook when we come across things you would like. Keep reading!

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing My Old Scene on Your Screen

~~~~~

Since we’ve been spending extra time writing about the special-event slate in Champaign-Urbana and elsewhere for this week and next, we’ll need to play it modest for one more Calendar and sneak you a few peeks at the artifacts, collectibles, and tchotchkes we have on hand to share. Above and below, you will see most of the goodies sitting about in MFHQ Deux, awaiting their fifteen minutes (or, more likely, fifteen seconds) of CUBlog fame. If we can keep up with the photography and anecdotes, this series will run weekly into the summer; some will be an image and a paragraph, while others will take a few of both to explain how they reflect or represent part of the whole that is our film culture. You might pick out a few distinct things in our first candid, while the second hints that dear Dora Hall, whose recording we found at a local music storehouse a few weeks ago, will be along for the ride and not solely because her LP is a TV soundtrack. Squint closely and Google precisely if you want to guess in advance the significance of the spiral booklet with “Richard Greenberg” on its cover. For reasons, the Freaky Film Festival entry is the first one we’re setting up even though it will not be the first one we’ll run. And, the one-of-a-kind boards in the Barnes & Noble tote are not a purchase from that chain, but lucky discoveries at a seminal bookshop du C-U that Ye Ed adopted some twenty-five years ago. These mysteries and more will soon unfold!

~~~~~

CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

20 Years Ago … Friday, April 22, 2005: Chris Folkens, an ambitious University of Illinois senior in LAS-Speech Communication and member of Illini Film & Video, premiered his second narrative featurette TOXIN during two shows at Armory 101 inside the Armory Building concurrent with that year’s Roger Ebert’s Film Festival. Rumored to be in attendance was Hollywood producer Roy Lee (THE RING, THE GRUDGE), otherwise visiting campus to speak at the East Asian Languages and Cultures department. Folkens’ action-drama starred then-UI students Aaron Golden (FALLING OVERNIGHT) and Karla Strum (TERRI, LITTLE ACCIDENTS) along with genre film veteran Robert Nolan Clark (RHINELAND). [R]

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Decatur, IL
“Special movie and memorabilia sale” in memory of Skip Huston and the Avon Theatre* (4/26, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., click here for more information and location)

@ Gregory Hall, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* presents “48 Hours” film challenge (4/25, 7 p.m.-4/27, 7 p.m., Room 215)

@ Lincoln Hall, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting w/“48 Hours” film challenge screening (4/28, 7 p.m., Room 1090)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Society* screening series presents SLICE OF LIFE (documentary) w/shorts (4/27, 4 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
THE ACCOUNTANT 2, THE LEGEND OF OCHI, ON SWIFT HORSES, THE SHROUDS, STAR WARS: EPISODE III – REVENGE OF THE SITH (re-release), UNTIL DAWN, THE AMATEUR, THE BALLAD OF WALLIS ISLAND*, DROP*, THE KING OF KINGS (faith animation), A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SINNERS, THE WEDDING BANQUET (4/25 on), ROADMAP TO REALITY: CARLO ACUTIS AND THE DIGITAL AGE (religious documentary) (4/27, 4 p.m.; 4/28-4/29, 7 p.m.), Blumhouse 15th anniversary “Halfway to Halloween” feat. M3GAN (4/30, 7 & 9 p.m.), THE SURFER sneak preview w/Nicolas Cage livestream interview (4/30, 7 p.m.), THE SURFER, RAID 2 (in Hindi with English sub) (5/1 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
THE ACCOUNTANT 2, CHEECH & CHONG’S LAST MOVIE (documentary), THE LEGEND OF OCHI, ON SWIFT HORSES, STAR WARS: EPISODE III – REVENGE OF THE SITH (re-release), UNTIL DAWN, THE AMATEUR, DROP*, THE KING OF KINGS (faith animation), A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SINNERS, SNEAKS* (animation), WARFARE, THE WEDDING BANQUET* (4/25 on), THE WOMAN IN THE YARD*, A WORKING MAN* (4/25-4/26), MICKEY 17* (4/25-4/26, 4/28-4/29, 5/1), The Metropolitan Opera: Le Nozze di Figaro (4/26, 12 p.m., simulcast; 4/30, 1 & 6:30 p.m., recorded), HAPPY GILMORE (4/27, 3 & 7 p.m.; 4/30, 7 p.m.), ROADMAP TO REALITY: CARLO ACUTIS AND THE DIGITAL AGE (religious documentary) (4/27-5/1), THUNDERBOLTS* (5/1 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (4/25-4/26, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
The College of Media at Illinois presents the 25th Roger Ebert’s Film Festival* (through 4/26) Schedule

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!

4/13: Damon Foster (filmmaker, OF MUMMIES AND MARTIANS, Damon A. Foster, Sacramento, CA)

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

3/19: John Russell, 91 (manager, The Rialto Theatre, Champaign, IL, retired)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The Report is on hiatus until May. Thank you for your readership, CUvians and Agents! You should pay attention to Smile Politely, The Daily Illini, Champaign Movie Makers, and Chambana Film Festival for breaking news and updates in our scene. CUBlog will also keep in step with our friends and share to Facebook when we come across things you would like. Keep reading!

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing My Old Scene on Your Screen

~~~~~

Despite our promise last week that we would begin a show and tell this week featuring some of the recently acquired movie ephemera of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond that we’ve given a home at MFHQ Deux up north in the Illinois Valley, Ye Ed decided that we could stand one more off ramp for context. The coincidence we shared in the previous Images, wherein the same Ye Ed singled out a Dora Hall LP at the Horizons Music Warehouse of Mendota largely because he had recently learned about Hall’s connection with the former Solo Cup plant of Urbana, is not out of the ordinary. Physical evidence of our film culture has never been abundant in the wild and, if we can make the connection and justify the price, it might just come back to HQ with us for safe keeping, enjoyment, and editorial inspiration.

We had piped up a few years ago about starting a series where our dearest readers could vicariously check out some of the cool collectibles and artifacts in our care while we talked about how we got them, why we had them, and where in the C-U cinema history they belonged. This was in part because we’ve always been disappointed that we never turned MFHQ, situated a couple of blocks away from the lovely West Side Park beside downtown Champaign, into a destination hangout for our friends and Confidential agents so we could visit in the comfortable space where all our ideas incubated and magic occurred. The illustrated anecdotes that will appear, starting in next week’s Calendar, are in the same spirit as before.

~~~~~

~~~~~

Even with all the floor space we have at Momkoke Manor, establishing MFHQ Deux as more than a nebulous concept has not been high on Ye Ed’s to-do list as he continues to hash out the remnants of his parents’ lives and stabilize his own. Therefore, the items are being staged in a nondescript manner, similar to how we pictured the vintage Park Theatre handout featuring the actress Priscilla Lane in a previous post. This is in absolute contrast to the colorful and relatively organized backdrop that would have been the original Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters, which we’re giving you a rare peek at today. Above and below are pictures of Ye Ed’s hovel, where many years’ worth of MICRO-FILM, C-U Confidential, and New Art Film Festival activity took place and much of the tangible proof that informed our scene coverage was stored in all the boxes, shelves, filing cabinets, and closet space we could spare throughout Apt. 3D.

~~~~~

~~~~~

Those snaps were taken in December 2020, not long after we had to agree to let go of 3D and move out of the world-famous “Building” in the Sesquicentennial Neighborhood. Sadly, MFHQ looked like this on January 20, 2021, the day before our twenty-five-year tenure on Prairie Street came to an end:

~~~~~

~~~~~

Ye Ed decided that his last act in MFHQ would be to photograph and then remove all the decorations, fearing that some of them would be destroyed in the process. (He was right.) Here are good examples:

~~~~~

~~~~~

The above picture shows a pair of bulletin board posters for Sam Ambler and Gab Reisman’s Film Dependency Film Festival at the Urbana IMC, circa 2003, featuring characteristic artwork by the late great Dave King. The picture below shows a handful of pieces that have CUBlog or MF relevance including a one-sheet for the DeKalb-filmed indie comedy LOVE 101 that its co-writer/director, Adrian Fulle, gave to your humble editor during a promotional stop in the C-U at the end of March 2000, as was just recalled in a Confidential Almanac entry. All of these survived and are currently stored at the covert MFHQ Annex in Champaign, along with other material directly related to the C-U filmography, where they are not convenient for us to access right now. That’s why we’ll be sharing with you what we have on hand in the coming weeks.

~~~~~

~~~~~

Through very tired eyes after approximately eight weeks straight of clearing out 3D, constantly driving back and forth between Champaign and Mendota, attempting to put in hours at his employment, being conscious about his every move outside of “Building” due to pandemic restrictions, fretting from a distance about the health and well-being of Momkoke and Carlkoke, and wrapping his head around the attempted insurrection of the United States government in the middle of it all, Ye Ed took these archival images of MFHQ’s last breaths between 3 and 3:30 a.m. At around 4:45 a.m. on January 21, he turned in the keys and then drove a car bursting with belongings for two-and-a-half hours straight and on no sleep.

Any which way you can, join us next week for the first entry of our “Confidential Picture Show.” Thanks!

CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

15 Years Ago … April 15-20, 2010: Inspired by the warm reception given to his Boneyard Arts Festival “movie show” at Urbana’s Caffe Paradiso the previous spring, Jason Pankoke of C-U Confidential takes up a cross-town opportunity to build a more substantial showcase for independent cinema. He and Art Theater owner Sanford Hess collaborate to launch the first New Art Film Festival to offer Champaign-Urbana a unique program, drawing from both locally-made content and the work of producers from Chicago and several Midwest states. A free “non-taxing” reel, mixing trailers and film shorts in a similar vein to the Paradiso event, kicks off the NAFF on Thursday, April 15, after which the full potential of its concept is demonstrated to audiences. Blocks include various pieces from University of Illinois alumni and students, a selection of adventures from Dark Maze Studios of Champaign, the C-U debut of the documentary HOOPESTON, and features made by Pankoke’s contacts through the defunct MICRO-FILM journal such as EXISTO, RETURN IN RED, and DEADWOOD PARK. Screenings are paced across six days, the first three concurrent with Boneyard Arts and a closing “best of” presentation taking place on Tuesday, April 20, the night before Roger Ebert’s Film Festival commences. While an overall success, the NAFF would be modified to eliminate ticket sales, concentrate on selections from the state of Illinois, and consolidate to a single-day affair, becoming a signature Art event for the next decade that provided media storytellers who live downstate with a public space to convene. As reported on 4/14/10, 4/16/10 at CUBlog. [R]

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Lincoln Square, Urbana, IL
The IDEA Store presents “Camera and Sewing Machine Sale” (4/11-4/13)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
THE AMATEUR, THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER Part 3 (faith film), DROP, JAAT (in Hindi with English sub), THE KING OF KINGS (faith animation), WARFARE, DEATH OF A UNICORN, HELL OF A SUMMER, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, SNOW WHITE, THE WOMAN IN THE YARD, A WORKING MAN (4/11 on), AX Cinema Nights presents VAMPIRE HUNTER D 40th anniversary (animé) (4/13, 4 p.m., in Japanese with English sub; 4/10, 7 p.m., English dub), KAIJU NO. 8: MISSION RECON (animé) (4/13, 2 p.m., 4/16, 7 p.m., English dub; 4/14, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (4/14, 7 p.m.), THE ACCOUNTANT 2 sneak preview (4/15, 7 p.m.), THE BALLAD OF WALLIS ISLAND, COLORFUL STAGE! THE MOVIE: A MIKU WHO CAN’T SING (animé), SINNERS (4/17 on)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
THE AMATEUR, THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER Part 3 (faith film) and Part 2* (faith film), DROP, THE KING OF KINGS (faith animation), WARFARE, THE FRIEND, HELL OF A SUMMER, MICKEY 17, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, PRINCESS MONONOKE (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub; re-release), SNOW WHITE, THE WOMAN IN THE YARD, A WORKING MAN (4/11 on), THE GOONIES (4/12, 7 p.m.; 4/13, 3 & 7 p.m.; 4/16, 7 p.m.), UFC 314: Alexander Volkanovski vs. Diego Lopes, more (mixed martial arts) (4/12, 9 p.m., simulcast), SINNERS (4/17 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents WALL-E (animation) (4/11-4/12, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
No movies this week!

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!

4/2: Pamela Powell (cohost and reviewer, “Reel Talk with Chuck and Pam,” Champaign-Chicago, IL/Racine, WI)
4/10: Kristen Johns (videographer, “Champaign Underground” YouTube channel, Champaign-Urbana, IL)

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

3/27: Robert W. McChesney, 72 (author, Rich Media, Poor Democracy, The New Press, New York, NY/host, “Media Matters,” WILL-AM 580, UIUC, Urbana, IL/professor emeritus, Department of Communication, UIUC, Urbana, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The Report is on hiatus until May. Thank you for your readership, CUvians and Agents! You should pay attention to Smile Politely, The Daily Illini, Champaign Movie Makers, and Chambana Film Festival for breaking news and updates in our scene. CUBlog will also keep in step with our friends and share to Facebook when we come across things you would like. Keep reading!

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing My New Scene on Your Screen

~~~~~

Last week, we told you about the pleasure I had in discovering the hidden wonder of the Horizons Music warehouse, doing business in the same small Illinois town where I relocated the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters a few years ago. (Has it already been a few years?) The merchandise at this place will appeal greatly to those dearest listeners who are vinyl inclined, undeterred by obscure and overseas labels, and willing to dig. For those less endeared to the thrill of the hunt, names and faces of many well-known artists from across the expanse of twentieth century studio recording will leap out at you from all corners of the five thousand square foot floor. Since this is a movie blog, we are going to focus on the obvious today and show you a little of what might lie in wait for you that is in our wheelhouse. Read on!

~~~~~

~~~~~

Much of the CD catalog at Horizons is tucked away in slim cardboard containers stacked on the shelves that line the outer walls. A smattering of random selections can be found on the tables in between the LPs, like this off-brand collection. Who knows how “original” the recordings on this might be.

~~~~~

~~~~~

Videos are scarce here. They’re certainly not the bread and butter of a merchant like Horizons. Next to a wooden box filled with Beatles import LPs is this stack. Tempting, but these $5 DVDs are in the PAL format.

~~~~~

~~~~~

Barely ten minutes before I made my way back to the front office of Horizons to pay for my small bounty and say thank you for allowing me to get my fill looking around the warehouse, I noticed these cartons. Stored along the inner wall, they’re filled with VHS. I’ll attempt to squeeze back there during my next visit.

~~~~~

~~~~~

While I saw very few movie soundtrack CDs – one of them happened to be for the 1994 remake of LASSIE, one of the last films to play the Urbana Cinemas (Princess Theatre) in downtown Urbana before it closed down at Thanksgiving time that year – there was a decent selection of LPs on that front. I did not go in to take notes or photograph every single thing of interest I that I found, so you should visit the Horizons website to search the catalog for what might be music to your ears. Below are a few of the covers that stuck out to me including one for a film that is currently in the Criterion Collection. (Hint: it’s not JAWS 3, THE LONELY LADY, or HIGH ANXIETY.) VISIONS OF EIGHT is an anthology film about the 1972 Olympics with segments directed by the likes of Milos Forman, Kon Ichikawa, and Arthur Penn.

~~~~~

~~~~~

Since the drive-in season is now upon us, with the Harvest Moon Twin Drive-in of Gibson City and Route 66 Drive-in of Springfield opening back up this weekend, let’s share an LP that I found away from the soundtracks. It’s exactly as advertised, filled with vintage radio songs by artists we all know: Buddy Holly, Connie Francis, Fats Domino, Richie Valens, Pat Boone, Chuck Berry, the Everly Brothers, and so on. Marked at $35 by Horizon, the price may seem a bit steep but it’s three platters and brand new in shrink wrap; some beautiful dreamers are trying to sell this for between $100 and $350 elsewhere. Shop smart!

~~~~~

~~~~~

We’ll end our gallery with the nice surprise that I came upon late in my visit. Although I posed the covers a bit so they were easier to see, the following is depicted as I found it – standing by itself above the rows of soundtrack LPs, leaning against the back of something from the opposite side of the table. I had just been telling Confidential agent Drea, who is rediscovering her musical side through various doings at Parkland College, about the late Dora Hall; she was the wife of Solo Cup founder Leo Hulseman, who bankrolled her second wind in life as an entertainer through a series of LPs. 45s, television specials, and VHS tapes. This album checks two of those marks and was issued in 1972 by the Cozy Record Company of Chicago, one of several labels founded with the express purpose of introducing Hall to the world.

Next week, we’ll begin our survey of local film artifacts stored with love here at MFHQ Deux and, at some point, it will involve both Dora Hall and Urbana. To what effect, keep checking in with CUBlog to find out!

~~~~~

CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

15 Years Ago … February 5-7, 2010: Seeking to establish a vehicle for video screenings that welcomes a variety of personal and political perspectives, the Independent Media Center in downtown Urbana presents the second annual IMC Film Festival. A modest program features more than 25 pieces, serving as a “celebration of the art of cinematography” per AmeriCorps hire and outreach advisor Nicole Pion, and is rich with interactive portions to engage audience members. Activists, students, and producers from the immediate community are behind many of the movie selections while live attractions include a deejay and projection set by DJ Belly and Matt HarsH, post-film discussions led by the Gesundheit! Institute and the People’s Potluck, and an orchestral performance synched up to the silent German classic, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, of an original score composed and conducted by University of Illinois graduate student Vin Calianno. Organizers and rotating hosts of the event are Pion, Katy Vizdal, Laura Fuhrman, Brian Dolinar, and Jason Pankoke, the latter taking the reins at the first New Art Film Festival a scant two months later. Dolinar and friends would bring back the IMC Film Festival for a third and final bow in September 2011. As reported on 1/13/10, 2/1/10, 9/14/11 at CUBlog. [R]

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER Part 2 (faith film) and Part 1* (faith film), THE FRIEND, HELL OF A SUMMER, THE LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, DEATH OF A UNICORN, MICKEY 17, THE PENGUIN LESSONS, SNOW WHITE, THE WOMAN IN THE YARD, A WORKING MAN (4/4 on), THE AMATEUR sneak preview (4/5, 6 p.m.), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (4/7, 7 p.m.), DROP sneak preview (4/9, 6 p.m.), AX Cinema Nights presents VAMPIRE HUNTER D 40th anniversary (animé) (4/9, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub; 4/10, 7 p.m., English dub), THE AMATEUR, THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER Part 3 (faith film), DROP, JAAT (in Hindi with English sub), THE KING OF KINGS (faith animation), WARFARE (4/10 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER Part 2 (faith film) and Part 1 (faith film), THE FRIEND, HELL OF A SUMMER, A MINECRAFT MOVIE, BLACK BAG*, CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, DEATH OF A UNICORN, DOG MAN (animation), MICKEY 17, PADDINGTON IN PERU, PRINCESS MONONOKE (animé) (re-release), SNOW WHITE, THE WOMAN IN THE YARD, A WORKING MAN (4/4 on), THE NOTEBOOK (4/6, 3 & 7 p.m.; 4/9, 7 p.m.), THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER Part 3 (faith film) (4/10 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents NOSFERATU (4/4-4/5, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

BACK OPEN! @ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
DROP sneak preview (4/7, 7 p.m., free)

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!

4/2: Will “the Thrill” Viharo (author, One-Way Ticket to Thrillville, Thrillville Press, Seatle, WA)
4/4: Kamelya Alexan (filmmaker, I’M ONLY BLIND, Alexan Productions, Chicago, IL)

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

3/12: Caroline “Lady Red “ Princehouse, 78 (host, “Blues House Party,” WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign, IL, retired)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The Report is on hiatus until May. Thank you for your readership, CUvians and Agents! You should pay attention to Smile Politely, The Daily Illini, Champaign Movie Makers, and Chambana Film Festival for breaking news and updates in our scene. CUBlog will also keep in step with our friends and share to Facebook when we come across things you would like. Keep reading!

IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing My New Scene on Your Screen

~~~~~

Psych! Debbie Harry done up by H. R. Giger is not what you were expecting, maybe? Oh, please, let me explain… One month ago, I received a package at the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters and opened it post-haste, thinking it was something that I had ordered. Inside were a few packs of neon circle stickers that folks like to use to add prices on garage sale items. Even though I’ve been considering how to start unloading a lot of the excess that is still housed here at Momkoke Manor, they definitely weren’t mine. The delivery label listed a Spanish name and local address so I searched for them online and, lo and behold, the sticker stash was intended for a business located across town. I vaguely knew about it but never had the incentive to seek it out in person. Until now. “No time like the present,” I thought.

During my lunch break the next day, I drove to an unadorned building nestled between a few residential side streets and the freight train tracks that descend here from Chicago. After double checking on my phone to make sure they were open for customers, I found the proper entrance and walked inside. An older couple and a younger woman were sitting and talking in a side room, which I took to be the office, and I introduced myself before handing over the wayward package. (I had emailed them in advance so they at least knew their order made it to town.) After some chit-chat, the grateful gentleman and owner, Ron Sinkuler, led me back to the heart of the space and flicked on the overhead lights. Five thousand square feet of concrete, tables, and shelving, bearing more than one million music and video products, opened up before our eyes. I was stunned. And now, panning from left to right, you can be stunned, too:

~~~~~

~~~~~

According to Sinkuler, Horizons Music has been in business for fifty years, starting up in suburban Brookfield and then moving to its current location about half way through its existence. Per my estimation, they would have set up shop in Mendota three or four years after Ma and Pa JaPan settled here at the house on the edge of an American small town. I only knew about them previously because I found mention of them while idling on my laptop late one night and scrolling slowly through a localized Google map to see what businesses and resources were located here. Given the parent and stepparent care that I was tasked with at the time, hitting up Horizons for a casual look-see wasn’t much of a priority.

Back then, I had considered writing a series about the relatively few signs of movie life to be found in a place like the Starved Rock region, compared to what I’ve borne witness to in Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond over the long haul, and I’m not sure this little corner of the Illinois Valley would have justified an entry. At present, I know plenty of friends who’ll probably be willing to spend an afternoon browsing at a merchant like Horizons, especially if skimming their website will simply not suffice. While talking with Sinkuler about his business, music commerce, and la Vida Mendota, it was clear he has retirement on the mind and asked me at one point if I ever had considered moving to Nashville; his son was set to pick him up the next day to make a Music City pilgrimage for the weekend and look around for living possibilities.

~~~~~

~~~~~

So, who knows how much longer Horizons Music will continue if the family moves on. Moreso, what happens to all that material? You might want to plot among yourselves to visit them in the coming months and see it with your own eyes. Hopefully, you’d find a few goodies to take back home. A word of caution on their stock – indie rock, rap, electronic, and so on from after the year 2000 will be in very short supply. (“How can I carry music I don’t know?” said the owner to me in blunt honesty.) Big band, doo-wop, gospel, lounge, jazz, blues, soul, R&B, salsa, Latin, reggae, old-school hip-hop, classic rock, Top 40 and AM radio, country, bluegrass, show tunes, soundtracks, and so forth are present, accounted for, and on sale … cash preferred. In a show of trust, he left me alone to browse in the back for probably an hour and a half. I sure as heck didn’t blow the opportunity by taking pictures the entire time. I also sure as heck barely scratched the surface.

What did I pick up? Just a few things. I partly went outside my normal wheelhouse for variety, given how little music I purchase these days. I left with compilation CDs of Cab Calloway, Mel Tormé, and Squeeze, all of them issued by overseas labels, a late Nineties revival album from Canned Heat, Blues Band, that still had a Borders price tag on it, and the late Eighties album Revolution Now from Captain Sensible (“Wot”) that was issued in the US by Griffin Music of – huh! – Carol Stream. The lone LP in the batch, I’ll tell you about in next week’s Calendar where I’ll also share a few more snaps of a cinematic persuasion based on items I managed to find at Horizons. It’s been refreshing to encounter something neat in the consumer media milieu that is an improbable hop, skip, and jump away from MFHQ Deux here in good ol’ Mendota.

~~~~~

CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

25 Years Ago … Friday, March 31, 2000: The independent feature LOVE 101 opens at the Goodrich Quality Theaters multiplex in Savoy, Illinois. Filmed on location at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb during the fall semester of 1997 by the Los Angeles-based company Poya Pictures, LOVE 101 is playing 12 consecutive one-week runs in 12 cities in the hopes of attracting an avid younger audience that will be receptive to its non-Hollywood depiction of college life and relationships. Chicago stage talents Michael Muhney, Mary Kay Cook, and Jon Collins lead the cast as students who find themselves in an awkward love triangle amidst the bustle of academia, a scenario loosely based on the personal experiences of writer and director Adrian Fulle. In support of the Savoy booking, he and LOVE 101 actor Will Carpenter visited nearby Champaign-Urbana earlier this week in a rented Chevrolet RV so they could promote the movie to media outlets and the public, handing out greetings and posters as they went. The “Love Tour” wraps once the duo finishes their trek across several hundred miles and five states. Fulle and his Poya partner David J. Miller, who met while enrolled in the film program at Columbia College in Chicago, will then attempt to find distributors in the theatrical and home video markets for their labor of love. RETURN TO ME, the MGM romantic drama that is directed by Chicago comedienne Bonnie Hunt and stars David Duchovny and Minnie Driver, opens at Savoy the day after the final showing of LOVE 101 on Thursday, April 6, a rare case of Illinois-made productions appearing back-to-back in a local cinema. [R]

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Festival* presents ROOM SIX + three short subjects w/filmmakers (3/30, 4 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
AUDREY’S CHILDREN, THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER Part 1 (faith film), DEATH OF A UNICORN, L2: EMPURAAN (in Telugu or Malayalam with English sub), THE PENGUIN LESSONS, SIKANDAR* (in Hindi with English sub), THE WOMAN IN THE YARD, A WORKING MAN, THE ALTO KNIGHTS, BLACK BAG*, CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES MOVIE (animation), MICKEY 17*, THE MONKEY, NOVOCAINE, ONE OF THEM DAYS “Laugh-Along” edition, SNOW WHITE (3/28 on), THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER Part 2 (faith film), HELL OF A SUMMER, A MINECRAFT MOVIE (4/3 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER Part 1 (faith film), DEATH OF A UNICORN, PRINCESS MONONOKE (animé) (re-release, IMAX), SIKANDAR* (in Hindi with English sub), THE WOMAN IN THE YARD, A WORKING MAN, THE ALTO KNIGHTS, BLACK BAG, CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES MOVIE (animation), DOG MAN (animation), LOCKED, MAGAZINE DREAMS*, MICKEY 17, THE MONKEY, NOVOCAINE, PADDINGTON IN PERU, SNOW WHITE (3/28 on), THE MUMMY 25th anniversary (3/29, 7 p.m.; 3/30, 3 & 7 p.m.; 4/2, 7 p.m.), THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER Part 2 (faith film), A MINECRAFT MOVIE (4/3 on) *single screenings daily

@ Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Center for World Cultures, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies* presents “Japanese Paper Print Project: Film and Live Music Event” (3/28, 7 p.m.), “Videographic Criticism Talk: Tracing Media Histories Through Videographic Criticism” (3/31, 5:30 p.m.)

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents PITCH PERFECT (3/28-3/29, 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!

~~~~~

Read the rest of this entry »