C-U Blogfidential

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

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

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Let’s keep the Report on the brief side this week, shall we? Spencer Films of Springfield, led by the multi-hyphenate media producer and personality Julie Staley, announced last week that FIELDS OF GOLD, their acclaimed and well-traveled documentary on the life of Decatur business legend A. E. Staley, is now available to watch on Amazon Prime; the Spencer team, including Tim Lynn and Laura Richter, also just received a Mid-America Emmy Award for their affecting short subject, MUSIC OF HOPE, about the outreach done by University of Illinois-Springfield instructor and violinist Dr. Yona Stamatis to keep alive the memory of those affected by the Holocaust. Happening as well in the Capital City is the 23rd annual Route 66 International Film Festival, which is showing a program of approximately thirty shorts and features between today, Friday, November 1, and tomorrow, Saturday, November 2, at the Hoogland Center for the Arts in the downtown district; the array includes a half-dozen “Made in Illinois” selections, such as Ben Harl’s documentary AFTERLIFE and Thomas Nicol’s drama THE VENUS GAMBIT, and a set of shorts made by youth involved in the local 4-H chapter. And, helping young people find their talents and voices was surely on the mind of professional media veterans Leslie and Richard Frank who, according to a Daily Illini article from September 23, have bestowed a $2.5 million donation upon the College of Media at the University of Illinois in Urbana for major upgrades to Gregory Hall; the work, expected to start next summer, would modernize the basement classrooms and hallways as well as install a multi-purpose media production area that will provide space for “a press conference room, a cinema production studio, and a hybrid teaching classroom” to be utilized by students enrolled in Media’s various majors.

25 YEARS DU C-U | Publishing and Our Screen Scene

We won’t be shy about the significance that today’s Almanac entry holds for us here at the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters – behold the “anniversary collage” made by Ye Ed over on a site we haven’t had a legitimate occasion to highlight for some time – and we might as well point out the less-obvious dual meaning of it. Even though C-U Blogfidential was launched in 2006 and its companion print digest arrived the following year, it was within MICRO-FILM issue 1 where the concept of characterizing the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond under the “C-U Confidential” umbrella was born. Therefore, the overall project of chronicling and lifting up the film culture local to us has technically reached the quarter-century mark of existence along with our original Paper Opteryx endeavor. Since we don’t have the master files handy from the past life of MICRO-FILM – who knew we’d reach a point where CD-ROMs and compatible drives were not needed in the weekly workflow? – we’ll share a snap of the very first page of content to ever brandish that Confidential flair. We need to celebrate this close-to-impossible DIY milestone, we know, and should have figured it out by now. Oh, what will it be, C-U?

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CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

25 Years Ago … Friday, October 29, 1999: After more than a year of development, networking, and production, the first print issue of MICRO-FILM magazine is introduced on opening night of the third annual Freaky Film Festival at the New Art Theater in downtown Champaign, Illinois. [R]

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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Hoogland Center for the Arts, Springfield, IL
23rd Route 66 International Film Festival* (11/1-11/2)

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting (11/1, 7 p.m., Room 1002)

@ Golden Corral, Springfield, IL
Central Illinois Film Commission* meeting (11/7, 7 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
ABSOLUTION, BHOOL BHULAIYAA 3 (in Hindi with English sub), CHASING CHASING AMY (documentary), GODZILLA MINUS ONE* and …MINUS COLOR* (re-release) (in Japanese with English sub), HERE, HITPIG!* (animation), LOST ON A MOUNTAIN IN MAINE*, SINGHAM AGAIN (in Hindi with English sub), BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, CONCLAVE, SMILE 2, TERRIFIER 3, VENOM: THE LAST DANCE, WE LIVE IN TIME, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (11/1 on), THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER advance screening (11/2, 4 & 7 p.m.), AX Cinema Nights presents METROPOLIS (animé) (11/3, 11/6, 4:30 p.m., in Japanese with English sub; 11/4, 7:30 p.m., English dub), ANORA, THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (faith film), ELEVATION, HERETIC, MEANWHILE ON EARTH, MEMOIR OF A SNAIL (animation), SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE (11/7 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
GODZILLA MINUS ONE (re-release) (in Japanese with English sub), HERE, HITPIG! (animation), BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, CONCLAVE, GOODRICH*, JOKER: FOILE À DEUX*, SMILE 2, THE SUBSTANCE, TERRIFIER 3, VENOM: THE LAST DANCE, WE LIVE IN TIME, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (11/1 on), CORALINE (animation) (re-release) (11/1, 12:45 & 6:15 p.m. standard, 3:30 & 9 p.m. 3-D), THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER advance screening (11/2, 4 & 7 p.m.), Brandon Lake and Phil Wickham present “For the One” (worship concert film) (11/2, 3 p.m.), JOHN WICK 10th anniversary (11/3, 4 & 7 p.m.; 11/6, 7 p.m.), TWISTER (11/3, 3 & 7 p.m.; 11/6, 7 p.m.), THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (faith film), HERETIC (11/7 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents FLY ME TO THE MOON (11/1-11/2, 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!

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Read the rest of this entry »

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

6/30: Drea Aarons (disk jockey, WPCD 88.7 FM, Parkland College, Champaign, IL)
7/1: Michael Juvinall (editor, Horror Patch website, Channahon, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The Report is on hiatus until August or September. Thank you for your readership, CUvians and Agents!

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

We introduced you to the Chambana Film Festival in the spring, and Nat Dykeman’s program returns to the Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX this Sunday, June 30, 4 p.m., with a compilation called “funny strange & funny haha: Comedic Short Films” that culls from his behind-the-scenes viewing and curating for the suburban Lake County Film Festival. Dykeman has also added some local flavor to the mix, such as a new short from Thomas Nicol of Champaign Movie Makers that is called THE VENUS GAMBIT, and will announce his upcoming screenings at the end of the 90-minute show. You can follow CFF on Facebook and sign up for the monthly newsletter. In the meantime, here’s a cinematic banana. You’re welcome.

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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Festival* presents “funny strange & funny haha: Comedic Short Films” (6/30, 4 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE: EPISODE NAGI (animé) (in Japanese w/English sub), DADDIO, HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA – CHAPTER 1, A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE, BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE, THE BIKERIDERS, THE EXORCISM, INSIDE OUT 2 (animation), KALKI 2898 AD (in Telugu w/English sub) (6/28 on), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (7/1, 7 p.m.), MAXXXINE preview (7/3, 7 p.m.), DESPICABLE ME 4 (animation), KILL (in Hindi with English sub), SOUND OF HOPE: THE STORY OF POSSUM TROT (faith film) (7/3 on)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA – CHAPTER 1, A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE, BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE, THE BIKERIDERS, THE EXORCISM, THE FALL GUY, FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA, THE GARFIELD MOVIE (animation), IF, INSIDE OUT 2 (animation), KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (6/28 on), SOMETHING TO STAND FOR with Mike Rowe (documentary) (daily, 7 p.m.), UFC 303: Alex Pereira vs. Jiří Procházka, more (mixed martial arts) (6/29, 9 p.m., simulcast), JAWS (6/29-6/30, 3 & 7 p.m.; 7/3, 7 p.m.), summer family films: THE CAT IN THE HAT (2003) (7/2-7/4, 10 a.m.), DESPICABLE ME 4 (animation), KINDS OF KINDNESS, SOUND OF HOPE: THE STORY OF POSSUM TROT (faith film) (7/3 on)

@ Main Quad, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
No movie this week!

@ 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!

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Read the rest of this entry »

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Just in time to warm the cockles of everyone’s hearts, the Krampusnacht Freaky Film Festival (KNFFF) will delight our inner misfits and counter the standard Xmas pageantry when it overtakes SoDo Theatre, 111 S. Walnut St., Champaign, IL, for its debut on Saturday, December 7, starting at 7 p.m. A set of 24 shorts culled from more than 200 international entries sent to festival director Thomas Nicol will play the show, named after the annual event in European folklore when the devilish Krampus emerges late on December 5 to punish the naughty children who are not in line to receive good tidings the following morning from St. Nicholas. That said, the shorts to be projected on the screen with care at KNFFF are not necessarily yuletide horrors, as is apparent from the illustrated descriptions on their website, and three of them hail from C-U filmmakers Andrew Nygard, Clint Andrae, and Jeff Kacmarynski.

“I’d advise folks to plan on getting [to SoDo] a bit early,” suggests Nicol in a brief discussion with C-U Blogfidential. “This isn’t a red carpet event, but there will be some fun, thematically appropriate photo [opportunities] when the doors open at 6:30 p.m.” Given the best-known depiction of the Krampus in contemporary cultures – ironically, the throwback “Krampus run” staged in several countries where packs of creatures roam city streets that are lined with families – Nicol’s comments may or may not hint at its physical presence at the KNFFF. “While the event is deeply inspired by the spirit of Freeky Creek [Short Film Festival, a former local event involving costumed actors and puppets] it is going to be its own unique entity and have a distinct framing device for the films.” Are you grimacing with joy, kiddies?

Nicol, a software professional who has figured in a number of Champaign-Urbana film efforts including Pens to Lens and the SUPERZUZAA internet series, admits he is testing the frozen waters with KNFFF. “As a first-year fest, I’m not starting too ambitiously with the extra show elements. My goal for this inaugural event is to establish a solid foundation.” Although he is downplaying what may still look ambitious to attendees, Nicol typically has a good sense for how to achieve quality with modest means. “The foundation of a great film festival is made of two things: good movies and an engaged audience,” he states. “We have the first part; this collection of shorts is full of gems, most of which have never screened in Illinois before. The second part is up to the community. Let’s make this a night to remember!”

One way that audience members can fulfill the goal other than enjoying the “creepy, darkly funny, and macabre” offerings of KNFFF is to vote for awards while on the scene including “Naughty” and “Nice” nods as well as “Best of the Fest.” According to the website, several films have already been nominated for technical citations – “Best Direction,” “Best Acting,” and so on – with their winners to be announced alongside the rest at the show. Admission is $8 per ticket if purchased in advance through FilmFreeway or $10 at the SoDo door. We have confidence that Krampus and company will provide everyone a good time at the Krampusnacht Freaky Film Festival. We’re also interested to see how this one flourishes in parallel with the other regional genre festivals that have emerged to haunt the later months in our year.

~ Jason Pankoke

p.s. We now want a collectible t-shirt with a Krampus head exclaiming “Knfff!” in the spirit of the legendary horror host of Cleveland, Ghoulardi (Ernie Anderson).

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Read the rest of this entry »

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We hope you have enjoyed the sudden outburst of headline shares over at our Facebook account, dearest readers, because there is no way we could otherwise keep up with the news arising from the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond! Ach! Today, we’d like to narrow the focus and sort out a few notes about specialized movie exhibition in our immediate area.

In other corners than our own, the Dead in Decatur International Film Festival brought a menagerie of indie horror to downtown Decatur’s Madden Arts Center this past Friday and Saturday, November 1–2, while the next Route 66 Film Festival is ready to introduce a new program of wide-ranging cinema from around the world to the Route 66 Hotel & Conference Center of Springfield on an upcoming Friday and Saturday, November 22–23. Looking to the near future, festival passes went on sale for Roger Ebert’s Film Festival last week Friday, November 1, at the box office of the Virginia Theatre in Champaign; a cool $150 gives bearers plenty of access during the 22nd iteration of “Ebertfest” that will take place April 15-18 at the Virginia. Also, the first-time Krampusnacht Freeky Film Festival will bear gifts of mayhem and mirth for the brave souls who attend their show on the evening of Saturday, December 7, at SoDo Theatre in downtown Champaign; expect a tactile screening environment that reaches well beyond the screen in the spirit of the former Freeky Creek Short Film Festival, per producer Thomas Nicol.

Thank goodness we have this and much more to look forward to in the coming months as we now address the cultural elephant (and caught-in-the-trap mouse) in the room. WCIA-TV of Champaign offered an update during yesterday’s newscast about the ongoing discontent over the sudden closure of the Art Theater last Thursday, October 31, which reveals little more than what we already know. Art building owner David Kraft has expressed that he wants possession of the space and all physical assets so he can attempt to attract a new tenant, while the Art Film Foundation refrains from commenting publicly or in detail. Practically lost in all this hubbub is the poor New Art Film Festival that your humble editor had been working on and should have hosted at the Art this Sunday, November 10. He received no advance notice from the Art board of directors about the aborted NAFF booking due to the closure and, frankly, has seen next to no outward support from the people of Champaign-Urbana about the 10th annual edition or its future. “That will be taken into account,” he says in between coffee sips.

We’ll provide you with advance notice on what will become of the NAFF before University of Illinois final exams and the holiday stretch manage to commandeer everyone’s attention span. Until then, Ye Ed may finally offer a few of his own thoughts on the current Art debacle right here if he feels up to it. He will be visiting the C-U tonight through Saturday to scout alternate locations for the NAFF and look after personal business while checking in on Ma JaPan from afar as she continues her physical rehabilitation. You might just run into him at tomorrow’s 7 p.m. screening of Yasujiro Ozu’s classic meditation on generational difference and aging, TOKYO STORY (1953), at Armory 101. Timely scheduling, this.

~ Jason Pankoke

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Although we have at least two days in the next week that are guaranteed to creep us out in Champaign-Urbana and nationwide, let’s concentrate on the first one first and worry about the midterm elections when we get to them. (However, if the thought of braving the presumably testy crowds at the polls on Tuesday, November 6, makes your skin crawl, you can vote early between now and then at select locations.) Since today is Wednesday, October 31, we’re obviously late in providing you with a primer on the shape of screams to come, but that does not mean we’ve run out of time to haunt your souls with The Shape and other ghastly goodies! Embedded below are a handful of relevant videos to amuse you whether or not you hit the Twin Cities tonight for the big Halloween season finale. First is a modern trailer for the theatrical re-release of HALLOWEEN, which will play the Art Theater this evening at 10 p.m. and give fans a convenient point of comparison between John Carpenter’s slasher classic and what former Roger Ebert’s Film Festival guest David Gordon Green and his collaborators achieved with their “alternate timeline” sequel. Despite the recurring (if fictional) setting of Haddonfield, Illinois, we believe a Michael Myers rampage has yet to be filmed in the Land of Lincoln; location photography for the 1978 original took place in southern California. Speaking of our 16th president, the next teaser is for Chris and Anne Lukeman’s endearingly silly THE TRANSIENT, a locally-made horror/buddy movie that introduced the world to one Vampire Abraham Lincoln. Starring Dave Ruthenberg, Blake Stubbs, Michael Krebs, and Vanessa Prokuski, the convention circuit favorite began its undead life 10 years ago this past August when it premiered on the University of Illinois campus. Then, we have a vintage preview for an opus that supposedly takes place across the farm country that surrounds UIUC and the C-U despite its unmistakable Californian mountain ranges, BEGINNING OF THE END, in which Peter Graves and Peggie Castle join the United States Army in warding off a horde of locusts enlarged by radiated crops. (Yay to super-science and Midwest agriculture!) This sci-fi B-film from 1957 is surprisingly hard to find on home video or video-on-demand. Finally, we have the new short subject IRREPARABLE, directed by frequent partners Thomas Nicol and Andrew Gleason and featuring Cara Maurizi and Eric Beckley as parents grieving the loss of their infant child who inadvertently discover a way to reclaim fragments of their joy with unspeakable consequence. This C-U production has played several festivals and is eliciting a good amount of response from viewers about its gut-wrenching effectiveness. Happy Halloween!

~ Jason Pankoke

p.s. Fellow former “Ebertfest” guest John Sayles lends his thoughts on BEGINNING OF THE END to an episode of “Trailers from Hell,” a fan-favorite series co-founded by his New World Pictures cohort, Joe Dante.

p.s.2 Ebertfest 21 passes go on sale tomorrow, Thursday, November 1, at the Virginia Theatre. This has been a public service announcement du C-U.

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Halloween from CineLife Video Showcase on Vimeo.

Irreparable from Thomas Nicol on Vimeo.

We can think of no better way to kick off our week than by waxing nostalgic about today’s free-to-attend event at the Art Theater, 126 W. Church St., Champaign, which commemorates the first decade of the Champaign Movie Makers networking group. Beginning at 7:30 p.m. and lasting until around 10 p.m., the collage of film shorts, trailers, and Webisodes put together by CMM organizer Thomas Nicol will sample work by group members dating all the way back to the summer of 2008, when founder Johnny Robinson began inviting like minds into his Urbana residence so they could discuss movie storytelling as well as conduct hands-on demonstrations of technique for one another. Interest escalated quickly enough that CMM bounced around town for a host to accommodate their space and projection needs, eventually settling on the Champaign Public Library. While similar attempts have been made over the years in Champaign-Urbana, CMM turned out to be the one situated for the long haul.

Very few projects engineered by members can be rightly labeled “CMM productions” – the monthly gathering is meant to foster interaction and advice instead of serving as a de facto production meeting – although working relationships come out of the group regularly. (Their largest collective success to date has been as a driving force behind the annual Pens to Lens Screenwriting Competition + Gala.) Having sporadically sat in with them from the beginning, we can attest to the fact that CMM is a vital component of what we do in the film culture of C-U and, more importantly, it fits the community that it serves. One might have been tempted at any point to artificially grow CMM into a commercial entity or align it more closely with other professional organizations in an effort to “legitimize” its core purpose in the public eye; Nicol and company have elected to maintain a reasonable scope and tailor CMM to what its participants want from it. Moreover, filmmaking novices and newly-arrived neighbors will find it an accessible hub through which they can learn what’s what in our scene. We wish Champaign Movie Makers the best in its next 10 years and trust the citizens of our fair Twin Cities will turn out tonight in a show of support for their efforts!

~ Jason Pankoke

p.s. We’re avoiding spoilers about what will play since Nicol has not posted the schedule publicly. (You should go in with an open mind and sense of adventure, anyway.) That said, we have skimmed over the itinerary and it reminds us greatly of our original C-U Confidential movie show at Urbana’s Caffe Paradiso in early 2009. Some of the earliest pieces you will see tonight even appeared in that program when they were relatively new. Cue the local movie déjà vu, folks!

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When in doubt, dearest readers, let your gut instincts be your guide! Case in point is our decision to continue forth with the New Art Film Festival in 2017 as opposed to giving it a rest as we had planned to announce. Who are we to deprive you the showcase of local and regional independent cinema you’ve come to expect from our humble editor and his merry band of collaborators when there is no particular reason to postpone? Ignore the lateness of our annual launch, then, and let’s summon the particulars you want to know! Sunday, October 29, 2017, is our eighth consecutive show date at the Art Theater, 126 W. Church St., Champaign, IL, and we must gather up some damn fine films created by you to fill the spread. NAFF Call for Entries began yesterday, Tuesday, August 15, and will last through Friday, September 15, with a target date of Sunday, October 1, to announce our picks to flicker on the Art’s silver screen. As before, we will not charge entry fees and, as with last year, we encourage producers to submit via newartfilmfestivalcu [at] gmail [dot] com for the sake of ease even though we’ll still look at physical screeners; you can review all the hard details in the official announcement over on the NAFF Web site. The primary change in the process this year is that we will only accept films that run 30 minutes or less. This is to help limit total viewing time for Mr. JaPan given his more-away-than-home lifestyle as of late, along with providing the flexibility to fit as many titles as we can into the ever-shortening block we’re allotted by the Art. That said, we do hope to bookend the selections with a couple of special features to illustrate milestones in Champaign-Urbana film culture history that led us down the path to NAFF nirvana. We promise they will be interesting add-ons of the likes you will not see at any other C-U cinema event! Stay tuned for the details to develop, friends, and best of luck to those who direct their work to our attention. Below you will find NAFF 2016 photographs by University of Illinois student Di Ye; look to the NAFF Facebook for the remainder of her shots to go on display shortly.

~ Jason Pankoke

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Attempting to regroup as their challenging pursuit resumes, the partners in crime are forced to acknowledge the odds might be stacked against them in ways more mysterious than either one anticipated. Can they trust each other to enact a more effective plan before it’s too late?

We invite you to pair the exciting new issue of C-U Confidential – vintage 2015, bottled 2017 – with your favorite libation or other pick-you-up as the summer sets in! Keep a private (or public) eye on our Facebook page for reports from Confidential Agents as they disseminate our literature beginning on or after this Friday, May 12, for your FREE investigative pleasure!

Deep in the recesses of a local watering hole, our gallant gumshoe Eric Sizemore and resourceful informant Drea Abbas trade verbal notes only to find they have fumbled the ball and relinquished a lead most vital to their efforts. CUZine does its best to not leave you in the lurch like our discouraged duo, revealing everything it can about the cinema arts in Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond! With the script selection and production process in full swing for 2017, Ye Ed visits with several adult participants to reflect on last year’s Pens to Lens Screenwriting Competition + Gala as well as hint at what is in store for this student-centered program during the warmer months. He also double dips with anecdotes about the place of That’s Rentertainment in our lives and why its closure changes how the citizens du C-U might consume and communicate about the movies. Moving from future fears to the past tense, Springfield poet and performer Vachel Lindsay defined the kind of movie writing we consume and use to communicate with to this day in his landmark 1915 book, The Art of the Moving Picture; we share excerpts from it and ponder Lindsay’s place in the contemporary consciousness. Mr. JaPan then encourages our populace to actively reach outside their viewing comfort zone to discover films and film-going experiences both unique and challenging, while Jenny Southlynn conveys thoughts on Lindsay and fellow brilliant mind David Foster Wallace. Related summations of area activity fill out issue 9, of course!

Having now returned to our annual release pattern for C-U Confidential, even though we missed out on Roger Ebert’s Film Festival by necessity due to your humble editor’s family needs, we look forward to pushing our frequency to twice-a-year beginning this fall. Frankly, the current installment was a big pain to complete and get funded, but we’re suitably relieved to break on through to the other side with something tangible as a treat for loyal readers in our 10th anniversary year. Please shake the hands of our friends at Bachelor Pad Magazine, Barham Benefit Group, Cellar Dweller Films, Champaign Movie Makers, Cinema Gallery, C-U Adventures in Time and Space, Dreamscape Cinema, Elliott Counseling Group, Go Retro!, Harvest Moon Twin Drive-In, Heirship Records, Hobnobben Film Festival, Pens to Lens/C-U Film Society, Premier Print Group, R.A.Z. Films, Vachel Lindsay Association, and WEFT 90.1 FM for providing us with the advertising coverage necessary to kick out this issue. In addition, we ask you to raise a glass – martini or not, shaken or stirred – to the handful of generous and anonymous donors whose contributions helped us fulfill our budget goals. We thank you all, with honors!

~ Jason Pankoke

We recently told you about Illini Film & Video and the Chinese Independent Film Society for the students, man, but what is there for Champaign-Urbana community members who want to dally in video making? You should never discount the connecting power of Champaign Movie Makers, media-minded citizens! The networking opportunity hosted by CMM once a month provides an easygoing introduction to the film scene du C-U as many key creators regularly attend to discuss what they’re doing, where they’re going, and how you might be able to help! Conversely, everyone will receive a moment to introduce themselves and pitch projects before the heart of the evening gets underway with a presentation, workshop, hands-on demonstration, or screening. CMM is set to meet at the WILL-TV studios in Campbell Hall for Public Telecommunication, UIUC, 300 N. Goodwin Ave., Urbana, beginning at 7 p.m. tonight, Tuesday, September 15; you can access the building up to the start time from the Clark St. entrance. This outing, CMM will be led by organizer Thomas Nicol in a self-reflexive discussion, “CMM Review,” to pour over different aspects of the group’s functions and outreach.

Contact Nicol at ChampaignMovieMakers [at] gmail [dot] com for further details, frequent their Facebook page or join their Facebook group for announcements, and be sure to visit their YouTube channel loaded with film work created by CMM members. View it and then do it!

~ Jason Pankoke

Confidential practitioners! This week is a very good week for us to let our newest “Image of the Week” do the talking on behalf of our film and video brethren. (Don’t worry, your humble editor will throw down pontifications aplenty beginning next week in regards to C-U Confdential #8 and #9, the New Art Film Festival, and other choice topics.) WILL-TV at the University of Illinois has just released a new artist profile series called ART: BEHIND THE SCENES, produced by Tim Meyers with photography and editing assistance from Issac Musgrave, which is now available on YouTube and set to appear on the PBS affiliate. Running approximately three minutes each, the slickly-produced vignettes introduce viewers to individuals who create significant work as Champaign County residents. Three of these first eight are devoted to very familiar faces: Nina Paley, the alternative cartoonist and SITA SINGS THE BLUES filmmaker, Thomas Nicol, the stop-motion animator and Champaign Movie Makers director, and Deke Weaver, a UIUC associate professor in the School of Art and Design and the performance artist behind the “Unreliable Bestiary” multimedia experiences.

Season One of ART/BTS, also including musicians Ryan Groff and T.R.U.T.H., fiber artist Ann Coddington Rast, painter Langston Allston, and tattoo artist Ainslie Heilich, was produced by WILL/Illinois Public Media in partnership with 40 North 88 West and is partially supported by an Illinois Arts Council grant. This project seems to be a successor to the “Artists at Work Video Series” made last year by 40 North’s programs and events coordinator, Amanda Baker.

~ Jason Pankoke

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Oh, the time, how it flies … away in a big hurry, especially at the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters! We’ve been editing and writing so constantly these past few months – including a good handful of articles and columns we have in store for you by year’s end – the halfway point on the calendar between the last and next New Art Film Festival managed to sneak up on us this week. To mark the occasion, we’re sharing a partial photo set the awesome and talented Dora Valkanova shot for us during the fifth annual NAFF at the Art Theater Co-op way back on April 13. Feel free to hover your cursor over these images to learn who is who, even though it spoils nothing to flat-out tell Luke Boyce, Andrew Gleason, Griffin Hammond, Brett Hays, Chris and Anne Lukeman, Tim Meyers, Thomas Nicol, Oliver Peng, Matt Shivers, Christopher Sotelo, Andrew Stengele, Jonathan Ward, and the indomitable Z they are present and accounted for! Also, this might be the first time C-U Blogfidential has revealed what the interior of our beloved Art looks like; the group portrait above uses that all-important silver screen as a backdrop while the lobby picture below clearly shows the celebrity mural commissioned by previous owner Greg Boardman. (His successor, Sanford Hess, is standing outside.) In the remainder you can spot various related artifacts: a streetscape featuring the Art’s unmistakable marquee, the corner of a promotional poster for The Art Theater: Playing Movies for 100 Years, and the NAFF ’14 one-sheet drawn up by the ThirdSide agency. Did we ever mention we absolutely dig having the Art within walking distance of MFHQ? No? Shame on us, then.

Look for these and other good-to-great snaps to finally reach our Facebook page next week. We’ll also gift you a second dose of the Art on CUBlog in November, depicting its exterior at various stops on the Champaign-Urbana timeline of the past two decades. Finally, as far as our next go-round tripping the light NAFFtastic … guess we only have six months left to get on that one, don’t we?

~ Jason Pankoke

p.s. Nothing should be stopping you from visiting the Art during the absence of NAFF. Go see KILL THE MESSENGER and/or THE EXORCIST, beginning at 5 p.m. tonight!

~~~~~

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It’s only prudent we inform our dearest readers that the entire Pens to Lens 2014 short film roster has been uploaded for Internet viewing to the official Web site complete with the thrills, chills, and random lumps in the throat you might remember from their unveiling August 9 at the Virginia Theatre. Each of the two shows attracted several hundred children and adults who enjoyed the second P2L batch, developed from student-written scripts by a small army of volunteer filmmakers and friends entrenched in Champaign-Urbana; they hopefully left with a collective sense of community accomplishment as well as personal inspiration to tell stories the cinematic way!

If you melt at the sight of smiling kids dressed to the nines and having a grand old time, visit this Flickr account filled with P2L gala photography by Anna Zorn. Up top is her red carpet portrait of returning P2L team William Kephart (left) and Joe Taylor (right) who brought to life the adventure tale DOUBLE-O KEVIN submitted by Champaign sixth grader David Cerezo (center). We’ve embedded KEVIN below as today’s P2L representative along with three of the many movie posters provided by graphic designers from the Champaign-Urbana Design Organization (CUDO) including THE RUNNER by Michael Thomas, WATCH OUT FOR BUTTERFLIES by Matt Wiley, and MY IMAGINATION BECAME A NINJA AND IT’S FOLLOWING ME by Briana Elsik.

Think the all-ages imagination train ends here for the year? No, sir or ma’am! As with the post-P2L months of 2013, we can probably expect the program and its participants to receive play in the C-U and beyond. One instance will take place Tuesday, October 14, when P2L and organizer Thomas Nicol will receive the 2014 “Advocate ACE” award during the 10th annual ACE Awards presentation at the Canopy Club in Urbana. Presented by 40 North 88 West, the Champaign County arts council, these citations honor individuals or groups breathing invaluable life into the artistic culture of our cities and towns; others who will be awarded that night include painter Jason Patterson (“Artist ACE”), philanthropist and event organizer Eric Robeson (“Volunteer ACE”), the supply store Art Coop (“Business ACE”), educator Nathaniel Banks (“Teacher ACE”), UIUC masters candidate Megan Diddie (“Student ACE”), and blues musician Gerald “Candy” Foster (“Lifetime ACE”). Congratulations to all! More details about the event and the candidate voting process can be found at this page.

All graphics and videos on this post are courtesy Pens to Lens/Champaign-Urbana Film Society.

~ Jason Pankoke

No, Thomas Nicol is not cradling his Advocate ACE in advance of the ceremony, silly people. He is displaying another inhuman co-star fashioned for the aforementioned WATCH OUT FOR BUTTERFLIES, “Bob” the koalaoctopus. Since both koalas and octopi figure into your humble editor’s past, we were morally obligated to include him. Gerf.

Yesterday, we published the core program for the second annual gala of the Pens to Lens (P2L) program developed by the Champaign-Urbana Film Society (CUFS) as a method through which to teach the children of Champaign County how to tell their stories as screenplays. The ultimate reward for some participants, of course, is to see their ideas translated into short-form cinema such as the 22 pieces that will be unveiled midday tomorrow, Saturday, August 9, at the Virginia Theatre, 203 W. Park Ave., Champaign. The P2L Web site neatly addresses the goals and scope of the program, with additions relating to the new batch sure to appear shortly. One concrete peek we can offer you is this teaser trailer during which a gaggle of colorfully myriad fragments flash before your eyeballs in 90 seconds flat:

Those who want to learn more about the P2L experience can hear from one of its organizers later tonight during “Pecha Kucha Night, Vol. 16” at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, UIUC, 500 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana. This entertaining presentation format, introduced in Japan and sponsored locally by the Champaign-Urbana Design Organization (CUDO), features community members who volunteer to speak knowledgeably about topics that excite them. The challenge (or, gimmick) is they are allowed 20 seconds each for 20 total image slides to get their point across visually to the audience. With the direct involvement of CUDO in the P2L movie poster designs, it is no surprise that Thomas Nicol will appear at Pecha Kucha to discuss the value and growth of P2L less than 24 hours before show time.

“I directed one short, ZACK AND THE MOUNTAIN MAN, and co-directed two others, MR. SNUGGLES [with Andrew Gleason and Anna Zorn] and WATCH OUT FOR BUTTERFLIES [with Joe Taylor]. They each had something different about them that really spoke to me and my co-creators,” CUBlog learns via e-mail from Nicol, who recently married the lovely Becky Griesheimer and also devotes time in various behind-the-scenes capacities to P2L, CUFS, and Champaign Movie Makers. “We’re super excited about how much the program has expanded this year … Students submitted even more scripts [that were] even better than the already wonderful work turned in last year, more filmmakers took on shorts, more designers took on posters, and everyone really upped their game to make this event fantastic.”

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Pimpbots breaking in their boogie shoes, because Friday! You’re welcome:

Since that pretty much spoke for itself, we probably should deliver a witticism or two to justify the inclusion of Bruce and Stumpy in today’s “Images of the Week” entry besides their sheer lo-fi awesomeness…

As of yesterday, Thursday, March 20, the kooky creatives behind Kill Vampire Lincoln Productions of Champaign have finally completed the on-line release of their “transistorpunk” opus, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE 1970s, as a seven-part Web series plus bonus larks such as the above. Anne and Chris Lukeman of Kill Vampire Lincoln have expressed interest in continuing the adventures of Spring Heeled Jack (Jonathan Harden), Susan (Maggie Gottlieb), Sam (Thomas Nicol), and Janet (Stephanie Swearingen) but no word yet on who else would return, including the Man on Roof (Peter Davis) hiding atop The Disco Pit or ill-fated Bud (Matt Fear) who transformed from restaurant manager to robo-lobotomized henchman. We’d gather anything cybernetic and Seventies-appropriate would be fair game to reemerge and pester our heroes unless the next timeline traverses the Eighties and all that concept implies. Be sure to visit their YouTube channel to watch the full episodes or this Web site for further details.

We’d like to point out the major music cuts featured in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE 1970s are original pieces composed by local musicians. Those of you who’ve already played the robot video probably realized after about the first two seconds their “King Kong” song is not your parents’ “King Kong Song” as performed by ABBA in the real-life Seventies. Michael “Guido” Esteves and Andy Moreillon wrote the tune, with the latter providing vocals and backed by Estevez, James Jones, Joe Funderburk, and Rory Grennan. On the other hand, we also share the series trailer featuring an exciting instrumental theme by composer Eric Watkins of Decatur.

~ Jason Pankoke

p.s. Don’t let the early IOW fool you. We have two more stories regarding Saturday film culture in Champaign-Urbana before we’re wrapped for the week!

A good snowy Saturday to you, central Illinois cinema fans! If being outside today isn’t your bag, maybe it’s a good opportunity to hit some links here on the Interwebs and support your local filmmakers with purchases before year’s end!

As of yesterday, Friday, December 13, the made-in-Danville feature drama HOUSE OF THADDEUS is available on DVD-R from Roselawn Productions, with a Blu-ray edition on the way. HOUSE director Mike Boedicker tells C-U Blogfidential the disc will cost $10 but did not mention a price for the Blu; both should be available through the project’s Web site shortly. We believe it contains only the 106-minute film, which played a release party at Danville’s Kathryn Randolph Theatre last night. You can get your first look at the cover art below featuring one of the “eyes” of the title domicile. Spooky!

The comparable DVD-R for Hot Diggity Productions’ SCARY NORMAL was introduced last Tuesday, December 10, at the Art Theater Co-op in Champaign. NORMAL directrix Jennifer Bechtel revealed disc specs to CUBlog including the 96-minute feature, trailer, blooper reel, and a super-secret URL at which viewers can access additional goodies such as storyboards, pre-production videos, and a commentary track with Bechtel, executive producer Dan Bechtel, and lead actors Laura Welle and April Cleveland. You can purchase it for $15.99 through their Web store or stream the movie via Vimeo on Demand for $1/one day or $8.99/purchase that, we’re guessing, allows you to download and watch whenever you want. You’ve already received a complementary peek at the front cover, above!

We’d also like to mention two more indigenous indies released to a physical format we might have failed to point out. One is the Springfield-made family drama feature JUMP IN directed by Kimberly Conner for Predestined Arts & Entertainment; a $14.99 DVD-R release arrived in September that seems to be movie-only. Further back in June, Thomas Nicol of QuantumCat Animation in Champaign delivered a dystopian DVD-R of his short HEARTSHOT. For $12 you land the 33-minute film, two trailers, two featurettes covering visual effects and creature design, a commentary by cast and crew, a second commentary by source story author Mike Byers, and the bonus short A BEAR IN THE WOODS.

Be sure to read Kelly White’s interview with Nicol about his C-U animation domination in the free quarterly magazine Community Concierge dated “winter 13/14,” available at many of the same public spaces you might find C-U Confidential.

~ Jason Pankoke