Calendar: February 14-20, 2025

February 15th, 2025

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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PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

1/31: Skip Huston (owner/operator, The Avon Theater 3, Decatur, IL)

 

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

We’re simply not feeling on the up-and-up this Valentine’s Day, dearest readers. As much as living life and giving love should be a goal for all of us on a regular basis, we also can’t ignore that some folks aren’t with us anymore to do just that and many more folks are heartbroken because of it. When a few of our friends and neighbors who were integral to the arts and culture we cover on CUBlog happen to leave this earthly plane in succession, while we also learn belatedly about a few more who have already gone, it’s a bummer of a coincidence and we’ll show our appreciation for them all the same. We did not know at the beginning of 2025 that we’d be running notices of passings for several weeks in a row but, at times, that’s how it works. I can now hear the Head Honcho telling us from afar the show must go on!

Who the hell wanted a break in these aggravated times, anyway? Just as well, we’ve caught a few whiffs of “old business” in the C-U movie scheme returning to haunt us over the last couple of weeks, so we’ll now Report the basics for your entertainment if not more. It will certainly jostle loose a few memories…

First, we found a welcome surprise from The Daily Illini on Monday in the form of a new article that provides an update on the efforts of Joshua Harris, the media preservation coordinator at the University of Illinois Main Library, and others to restore the surviving “sound-on-film” test elements created on campus by the late electrical engineering professor Joseph Tykociner in the 1920s. News to us is the talk about a film project by Jake Metz of the UI IMMERSE program, Eric Kurt of the UI Media Commons, and Harris that would document the process, although it apparently has been stalled due to a lack of funding; the famous-to-us Tykociner footage, thanks to a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation and ace work from professionals both within and outside of UIUC, has been digitized and properly mated with its soundtrack again. In this trailer, you can view crystal clear snippets of it which look and sound much better than the muddy analog dupe presented to the New Art Film Festival audience back in 2012.

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Speaking of older reels, the second installment of the “Picture ReStart” monthly series that is hosted by Chicago Filmmakers in their unique Firehouse Cinema at 1326 W. Hollywood Avenue (coincidence?) in the Windy City will take place this Sunday, February 16, starting at 6 p.m. “ReStart” curator Ben Creech and CF have on tap “Surface Tensions,” a program nicknamed “Seven Films Caught Between the Image and its Depths,” and the set of “mysteriously beautiful” 16-millimeter short subjects directed by Chel White, Gary Beydler, Ines Sommer, Karen Johnson, Lewis Alquist, Sheri Willis, and Willie Boy Walker is as much a celebration of an old guard of independent artists – their works date between 1970 and 1992 – as it is a culmination of the efforts made by the former C-U resident Ron Epple to exhibit films like these on the UIUC campus and distribute them nationwide through his Picture Start label as rental prints and home videos before the internet was available. Be sure to get on the Chicago Filmmakers mailing list so you can receive the detailed e-mail blasts about “ReStart” and their other screenings and classes.

Speaking of online, the adage that “anyone can be a star” is more apropos and wide-ranging in this day and age than ever before but, a hundred years ago or more, one had to go to where the action was. For performers wanting to catch a break in the nascent motion picture business of the early 20th century, that meant leaving home or wherever you were from and stepping foot in or near Los Angeles, California, with a full suitcase and a dream. Such a migration included central Illinois folks, of course.

Our friend Mike Trippiedi, who is an aficionado of the silent era and its actors, recently ruminated on Facebook that actress Ethel Clayton might have been the first from C-U to become a major name in the flickers; she appeared in almost 200 features, serials, and one-reelers between 1909 and 1947. Due to this prompt, Ye Ed remembered he had a copy of Springfield’s Illinois Times from the year 2000 with an article about Neva Gerber, who was born in Argenta, made more than 100 films between 1912 and 1930, and earned recognition for her roles in Westerns and serials. Even a week ago, Y.E. was perusing the catalog of Oldies.com, stuffed to the gills with silent and early sound films, and happened to notice the description for a Robert Wiene production, GENUINE (1920), which notes that its lead, Fern Andra, was a native of Watseka and yet became a prolific actress, writer, and producer in the German cinema.

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Speaking of the stars who rest in peace, one of the colorful stories kept in his back pocket and shared at the drop of a hat by Skip Huston was that of a screen siren named Jacqueline Logan who had been interred at a family plot in Greenwood Cemetery, located only a few blocks south of the Avon Theater in Decatur. At turns a stage actress, spokesmodel, and Ziegfeld Girl in New York before her brief Hollywood career in the 1920s, Logan appeared in 60 films including a few high-profile highlights like A BLIND BARGAIN (1922) with Lon Chaney, Sr., and Cecil B. DeMille’s THE KING OF KINGS (1927). It is probable the fare in which Logan and the other women appeared was booked at the Avon in its earliest years and also pretty certain that a high percentage of those works is lost to time or the deteriorating remnants of their craft.

As we now know, also lost to us in a deflating double blow is Huston himself, who succumbed and passed away on January 31 according to his family, and the Avon, which the family announced would be closed down this week due to mounting financial issues. We feel for them and wonder if they were holding on until the Head Honcho was manning the ticket booth in the sky before making the painful decision on the movie house so its greatest champion didn’t have to bear witness to it. Cheers to the Hustons and Rinchiusos and their staff for keeping the Avon’s doors open for more than 25 years, when it could have become yet another small-town vacant storefront, and providing the Decatur faithful with memories, magic, and more buttered popcorn than one could ever imagine. It is sheer coincidence the Lorraine Theatre of Hoopeston is springing back to life this weekend after a decade-plus of tenuous existence, not unlike the recent revival of the Lincoln Square Theater only a couple of blocks away from the Avon, so we can never rule out a new chapter behind the marquee on Water Street if the right people come along.

 

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

Coming shortly…

 

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting (2/17, 7 p.m., Room 1090)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Festival* and ShortTV present The Oscar Nominated Shorts 2025: Live Action (2/16, 4 p.m.) and Animation (2/16, 6 p.m.)

@ Spurlock Museum of World Cultures, UIUC, Urbana, IL
3rd annual CU International Film Festival* (2/15, 6:30 p.m. red carpet gala, 7:30 p.m. program)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN (music documentary), CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, NE ZHA 2 (animation) (in Mandarin with English sub), PADDINGTON IN PERU, ROB PEACE*, COMPANION*, CHALLENGERS*, DETECTIVE CHINATOWN 1900 (in Mandarin with English sub), DOG MAN (animation), HEART EYES, I’M STILL HERE (in Portuguese with English sub), LOVE HURTS, MUFASA: THE LION KING, ONE OF THEM DAYS* (2/14 on), HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE (re-release, standard and 3-D) (2/14-2/16, 2/20), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (2/17, 7 p.m.), LEGENDS OF THE CONDOR HEROES: THE GALLANTS (in Mandarin with English sub), THE MONKEY (2/20 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, PADDINGTON IN PERU, YOU ME & HER, BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN (music documentary), COMPANION, HEART EYES, LOVE HURTS, DOG MAN (animation), MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, ONE OF THEM DAYS, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, WICKED (2/14 on), CASABLANCA (2/14, 7 p.m.), HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS (re-release) (2/14), HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN (re-release) (2/15), HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE 20th anniversary (re-release) (2/16), TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (2/16, 3 & 7 p.m.; 2/19, 7 p.m.), HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE (re-release, standard and 3-D) (2/20), THE MONKEY (2/20 on)

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG (animation) (2/14-2/15, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

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

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Calendar: February 7-13, 2025

February 7th, 2025

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!

2/8: Robin Christian (producer/director, C.O.R.N. II: MIND HARVEST, Dreamscape Cinema, Champaign, IL)
2/12: Gela Rediger (producer/designer, Camp Nostalgic Studios, Champaign-Urbana, IL)
2/13: Steven Bentz (director, The Virginia Theatre, Champaign Park District, Champaign, IL)

 

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

1/28: Kay Bohannon Holley, 71 (actress, WELCOME TO TOLONO, Me Me Productions, Los Angeles, CA)

 

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

We suppose a fresh Report on timely filmy things wouldn’t hurt anyone this week, but we swear that we’re keeping this one short. And by that, we mean shorts! First, it sounds like a few entrants as well as past projects were screened by Champaign Movie Makers at the Phoenix Savoy 16 this past Tuesday, February 4, to mark the conclusion of another 48-hour filmmaking contest; the winner for this outing is a gooey lark titled THE BLUE OOZE BROTHERS from Andrew Nygard and company, which can be viewed right here at YouTube. Also on the ‘tube is a teaser for AN AFFAIR AT THE END OF TIME, the first “official” short subject from Earth-217 Studios, which features local talent Myles Valentine and Katherine Bokenkamp in the lead roles; producer Phillip Hazen and director/writer Chase Todd are submitting the piece to film festivals as we write. And then, we’d love to tell you that free tickets are still available via the CU International Film Festival website for their February 15 event at the UI Spurlock Center of World Cultures, but, not so fast; skip to this page instead, since all the tickets have apparently been claimed, and add yourself to the wait list by February 12 in case any seating opens up. Good luck!

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Back in Savoy, the Chambana Film Festival invites you to cavort about the Savoy 16 en route to the auditorium where they will be presenting all of this year’s Academy Award-nominated short subjects over the next three weekends with the following schedule: “Live Action” category on Sunday, February 16, 4 p.m., followed by the “Animation” category at 6 p.m.; “Documentary” category on Sunday, February 23, 4 p.m.; and, an “Animation” reprise on Sunday, March 2, 4 p.m., which should conclude before the televised Oscar ceremony gets underway. You can also feel free to hit the Savoy 16 on Saturday, February 22, 6 p.m., when, as was probably expected, the folks behind the locally-made documentary THE EVOLUTION OF THE BARBER will host an encore after all the tickets to their first screening were snapped up in advance through specific channels – hint, Beard Culture Barbershop & Gallery of Urbana, hint – as with the CU International fest in the last week. Pens to Lens is still accepting student-crafted screenplays for short films through Friday, February 28, to be reviewed and possibly produced by local film pros. And, Scott Murphy of Neon Street Productions in Danville shared with CMM on Facebook that his film, SHUTEYE, was completed and finally released to YouTube as of January 16; the 22-minute mystery, shot at locations in Vermilion and Douglas counties, stars Aereol Murphy, Pamela Adam, and Makiah Payne.

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We’ll tack on a mention of the following project that was recently introduced on CMM FB since the indie features are what we really like to see taking root in Champaign-Urbana. Despite the deadline of January 31 to apply for both crew positions as stated in the following graphic – you can click it to enlarge – and in this online notice at Backstage for acting positions, we encourage you to contact the producers of DARK SOUL RIVER by writing darksoulriverfilm [at] gmail [dot] com to show interest in case they still need help in certain departments. There is not much that is freely available about this film at the moment; writer-director Vijay M. Rajan, who is a recent transplant from California to central Illinois based on what we have found online, talks about the cross-cultural concept behind his psychological thriller in the materials he has posted on a fiscal sponsorship platform called Filmmakers Collab. He has at least ten narrative films under his belt, as noted on the Internet Movie Database, and also directed for the stage, produced industrial and online content, and taught courses and seminars at colleges and community organizations as well as through his own virtual studio, The Hive SJ. Rajan is clearly an enterprising fellow and that’s pretty key in getting any substantial movie off the ground, especially in our neck of the cornfields, so feel free to welcome him aboard to the C-U and also tell him CUBlog sent you if you decide to check in!

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

In the course of digging up this’s and that’s for today’s Report that we didn’t know a week ago we’d be writing, we came across evidence that the first of two sequels to Dreamscape Cinema’s horror yarn C.O.R.N. is finally being primed for release. Below we share with you the one-sheet design that is now on the Internet Movie Database page for C.O.R.N.II: MIND HARVEST and, if you hit this link, you can watch the trailer for it over at the Vimeo account of Playa Media Group. The series is a “taxidermists of death in the cornfields” concept and in this outing, per the description available at the official Dreamscape website, “The C.O.R.N. people want to perform taxidermy on 13-year-old Summer after she took down their leader, her father known as the ‘Doctor.’ Summer soon realizes her scarred face will prevent her from ever blending in. She befriends Maggie, a criminal psychologist, who becomes her replacement mother. But when Maggie decides to bring the law after the C.O.R.N. cult, she might have guaranteed her and Summer will become C.O.R.N.’s next stuffed art display.” Clearly, a dark sense of humor nourishes this variety of C.O.R.N., which, by the way, stands for “Collective Order of Recreational Necrophilanthropists.”

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Maggie is played by Jessica Morris, a busy character actress with lots of television and genre work to her credit, while Summer Olshefski and veteran heavy Robert Donovan (who appears briefly in SHUTEYE, talked about in the Report) return from the first adventure as Summer and the Doctor, respectively. Keep an eye out for MIND HARVEST and its follow-up, KISS OF DEATH, to soon sprout among the rows of entertainment viewing options out there along with the original C.O.R.N., which has been available to watch on Tubi and other services since 2021. We also wish a happy birthday to C.O.R.N. series creator and Dreamscape founder Robin Christian, who we presume will be cranking some Beatles music to eleven for the occasion at his home in Monticello this weekend. Upcoming projects for Christian and his Champaign-based studio include a long-in-the-works pair of music culture movies: JOY TO THE WORLD, a period comedy, and THE PRINCE OF MATHEW STREET, a biographical portrait of an early Fab Four manager, Sam Leach. Dreamscape releases that debuted in between parts one and two of C.O.R.N. include A FARGO CHRISTMAS STORY, the feel-good drama starring the late Ed Asner that is available for free on YouTube, and BELOW, a shark thriller that recently premiered on Amazon Prime.

 

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Danville Public Library, Danville, IL
Danville Library Foundation and DPL present “Filmmaking 101” seminar with Demetrius Witherspoon of DV Entertainment Pictures (2/8, 12:30-1:30 p.m., free, Howard Rutan Meeting Room)

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting: “Speed Dating” (2/10, 7 p.m., Room 1090)

@ University YMCA, UIUC, Urbana, IL
UI Global Relations, etc., present “Uman Tok: Tailoring Hope, Renewing Futures” discussion and trailer screening of documentary made by students at the University of Illinois-Urbana, Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone, and the University of Birmingham, UK (2/13, 6-7:30 p.m., free, Latzer Hall)

 

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
HEART EYES, I’M STILL HERE (in Portuguese with English sub), LOVE HURTS, COMPANION, CREATION OF THE GODS II: DEMON FORCE (in Mandarin with English sub), DETECTIVE CHINATOWN 1900 (in Mandarin with English sub), DOG MAN (animation), THE FIRE INSIDE*, FLIGHT RISK, THE FORGE* (faith film), MUFASA: THE LION KING, ONE OF THEM DAYS, WICKED*, WOLF MAN* (2/7 on), KRAVEN THE HUNTER (2/8, 1 p.m.), PADDINGTON IN PERU preview (2/8, 1 p.m.), AX Cinema Nights presents COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE (animé) (2/9, 4:30 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), ATTACK ON TITAN: THE LAST ATTACK (animé) (2/10-2/12, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub; 2/10, 8 p.m., 2/11-2/12, 3 p.m., English dub), MEMOIR OF A SNAIL event with filmmaker Q&A (animation) (2/11, 7 p.m.), BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN (music documentary), CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, NE ZHA 2 (animation) (in Mandarin with English sub), HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE (re-release, standard and 3-D), PADDINGTON IN PERU (2/13 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN (music documentary, IMAX), HEART EYES, LOVE HURTS, THE BRUTALIST, COMPANION, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, DOG MAN (animation), MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NOSFERATU*, ONE OF THEM DAYS, PRESENCE, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, VALIANT ONE, WICKED (2/7 on), PARASITE (re-release) (2/7-2/8, 9:45 p.m.; 2/10-2:12, 9 p.m.; IMAX). UFC 312: Dricus du Plessis vs. Sean Strickland, more (mixed martial arts) (2/8, 9 p.m., simulcast), CASABLANCA (2/9, 3 & 7 p.m.; 2/12, 7 p.m.), CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE (re-release, standard and 3-D), PADDINGTON IN PERU (2/13 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents CONCLAVE (2/7-2/8, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

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

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Calendar: Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2025

January 31st, 2025

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!

1/30: Eric Watkins (composer/engineer, Studio E, Decatur, IL)
1/31: Paul Scrabo (video technician, NBC Studios, New York, NY, retired)

 

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

1/19: David Gilmore, 84 (professor/chair, Cinema and Television, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, retired)

 

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

After we posted last week’s Calendar, Ye Ed called an audible and today’s Report will be a mishmash of topics that we want to talk about before our Report hiatus. Some of the subject matter might even have to do with the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond! This will be the most flavorful crock pot of verbiage we’ve cooked up in a while … that said, gentle friends, let’s broaden our minds. Lawrence?

Show business is good business to go with first. The Entomology Graduate Students Association at the University of Illinois announced the details for the next Insect Fear Film Festival late yesterday, Thursday, January 30, and the star attractions will be tarantulas, professional Hollywood “bug wrangler” Steven Kutcher, and a showing of the 1990 thriller-comedy ARACHNOPHOBIA with Jeff Daniels and John Goodman; per the tradition long established by EGSA and entomology department head Dr. May Berenbaum, the 42nd IFFF will bug us on Saturday, February 22, at Foellinger Auditorium starting at 5 p.m. with educational and art activities for the whole family before the films begin at 7 p.m. One event that will not happen is the INSIDIOUS-branded “live experience” we previously told you about. The page on the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts website that had been promoting the show set for next Friday, February 7, is now removed. Word is that customers seeing the show in other cities over the last few weeks have been very critical about its misleading marketing and overall quality, feeling ripped off by the experience and cost; this news segment aired on WXYZ-TV in Detroit goes over the gripes. And, Confidential agent C-Day tipped us about the Heart Theater of Effingham, designated as a historic landmark in 2023, being donated by its owner Amy Van Bergen to a new non-profit group, The Heart Theatre, Inc., which is tasked with renovating and reopening the space for community use in the future.

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Movie business is good business to chat up as well. Building on our mention last week of the extras casting that will be hosted in the afternoon tomorrow, Saturday, February 1, at Parkland College by Bokeh Background, we caught this News-Gazette interview with the firm’s founder, Sarah Cayce, in which she describes what applicants can expect from the process; a handful of folks who live in east central Illinois provide anecdotes about their on-set experiences after they were selected by Bokeh to participate in local production. CUBlog was also sent a very special link by Normal resident and indie filmmaker Paul A. Brooks (HUNTING FOR THE HAG) who recently picked up the Saturn’s Core Audio & Video release of the low-budget C-U movie DOGS IN QUICKSAND. His patient and generous unboxing video of the package can be viewed here on his YouTube channel while, along the bottom of the product page at Vinegar Syndrome, you will find brief opinions from some of the customers who’ve given DOGS a chance since its re-release; the late Nineties dark comedy from Mike Trippiedi and friends is practically a blind buy for them all. Back over to Bloomington, we could not help but notice on a recent Facebook post the performing arts program at Illinois State University is now apparently called the “School of Theatre, Dance, and Film.” Ho-ho! One look at their spring semester calendar, however, and one would be hard-pressed to know cinema was a facet of their curriculum other than as live event bling. We’ll have to look into it…

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Tangential business is good business from which to consider the “what if” possibilities. Sal Nudo of Smile Politely recently interviewed the C-U native Sarah Lariviere, who currently lives in Los Angeles and decided to move from social work to professional writing in her career; Riot Act, published last summer by Alfred A. Knopf/Penguin Random House, is her current book and a fictional tale about theater kids in Champaign growing up in 1991 and going up against an autocratic regime that rules the land. Gee, think we might have reasons to check it out and look into its lessons? A copy now resides at MFHQ Deux, thanks to the team at Prairie Fox Books of Ottawa, and we plan to read it before the sequel novel arrives next year and wanton compromise trickles down to this American life. (Yes, the thought is obvious – could Riot Act make for a good RIOT ACT movie that’d reach millions?) We’ve also neglected to mention that Champaign Movie Makers’ Andrew Stengele is think-tanking with your humble editor to identify all the C-U-leaning film productions that we can in the hopes of entrusting legitimate copies of them with one or more applicable places in Champaign County, such as local libraries and historical groups; contact Andrew via CMM on Facebook if you’d like to learn more or offer your materials for the cause. And, to cap the Report in both an archival and rebellious manner, we’ve seen this evergreen scene making the social media rounds and encourage all our brothers and sisters to wield their Blues wisely. Hit it!

Now that we’ve stuffed the last few Reports to the seams with plenty of interesting and entertaining prompts for you, dearest reader-citizens, to use to your hearts’ content, we will come back next week with a Special Report of the MICRO-FILM persuasion and then take leave for a couple of months to spend time working hard on other areas of our Confidential world. Make sure you keep visiting CUBlog for our weekly Calendars and a few bonus articles that we’re crafting. They will sober us up a bit. Onward…

 

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting: “Directing Workshop” (2/3, 7 p.m., Room 1090)

@ Lincoln Square, Urbana, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* 48 Hour Film Competition (1/31, 7 p.m., to 2/2, 7 p.m.)

@ Market Place Shopping Center, Champaign, IL
Quad Con presents Champaign Comic & Toy Show (2/1-2/2, free, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Victoria’s Secret wings)

@ Parkland College, Champaign, IL
Bokeh Background* casting call (2/1, 12-4:30 p.m., Parkland Theater)

@ Peoria Camera Shop, Peoria, IL
“Cash 4 Cameras Event” (2/6-2/7, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX
Beard Culture Barbershop & Gallery presents THE EVOLUTION OF THE BARBER* premiere screening (2/1, 6 p.m.)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Festival* screening series feat. The IRLMovieClub Screening: THE THINKING GAME (documentary) (2/2, 4 p.m.)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX
Champaign Movie Makers* 48 Hour Film Competition screening (2/4, 7 p.m., free)

@ Route 66 Motorhead’s Bar and Grill, Springfield, IL
Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Illinois and Spencer Films* present FIELDS OF GOLD* fundraiser (6:p.m. cocktails, 6:30 p.m. dinner, 7:30 p.m. film)

@ Top Cat’s Chill & Grill, Springfield, IL
Central Illinois Film Commission* meeting (2/6, 7 p.m.)

 

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
COMPANION, CREATION OF THE GODS II: DEMON FORCE (in Mandarin with English sub), DETECTIVE CHINATOWN 1900 (in Mandarin with English sub), DOG MAN (animation), LUTHER: NEVER TOO MUCH* (music documentary), VALIANT ONE, BRAVE THE DARK* (faith film), THE BRUTALIST, FLIGHT RISK, MOANA 2* (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NICKEL BOYS*, NOSFERATU*, ONE OF THEM DAYS, PIECE BY PIECE* (animation), PRESENCE*, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3*, WICKED*, WOLF MAN* (1/31 on), GREEN AND GOLD (2/2, 4:30 p.m.), AX Cinema Nights presents COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE (animé) (2/5-2/6, 7:30 p.m.), HEART EYES, I’M STILL HERE (in Portuguese with English sub), LOVE HURTS (2/6 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
COMPANION, DOG MAN (animation), GREEN AND GOLD, VALIANT ONE, BABYGIRL*, BRAVE THE DARK* (faith film), THE BRUTALIST, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, FLIGHT RISK, MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NOSFERATU, ONE OF THEM DAYS, PRESENCE, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, WICKED, WOLF MAN* (1/31 on), DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA* (1/31, 2/3-2/6), The Metropolitan Opera: Aida (2/1, 1 p.m., recorded), GONE WITH THE WIND (2/2, 3 & 7 p.m.; 2/5, 7 p.m.), HELLRAISER (2/5-2/6, 7 p.m.) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents VENOM: THE LAST DANCE (1/31-2/1, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

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

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Calendar: January 24-30, 2025

January 24th, 2025

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!

1/26: Mike Watt (publisher/editor, The Movie Stories by William Richert, Happy Cloud Media LLC, Venetia, PA)

 

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

11/7/24: Connie Hosier, 73 (host, CRITIC’S CHOICE, WILL-TV 12, Urbana, IL/“Connie’s Hot Flashes on Movies,” WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign, IL, retired)

 

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

We get to hold our own horses here at MFHQ Deux for we have yet another mound of local film news to dole out in this week’s Report and, well, what we had intended to Report on can wait for one more week. Buckle up as we gallop all across east central Illinois in order to update you on all the movie happenings!

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On Saturday, February 1, from 12 to 4:30 p.m., Bokeh Background will be hosting a casting call for screen extras at the theater of Parkland College in Champaign; this seems to be a general “who’s interested?” session that is not geared to a specific upcoming production in the area, and you can read the Bokeh webpage about the needs and expectations for talent who may decide to attend. On the next Saturday, February 8, the Danville Public Library and Danville Library Foundation will present visiting filmmaker Demetrius Witherspoon and his “Filmmaking 101” workshop for creative folks “13 and up” to learn the ins and outs of making their own movies; the speaker’s Indianapolis-based label, DV Entertainment Pictures, produces science-fiction comics, novels, and web shorts rooted in the “Submerge Universe” and an earlier example of the latter, SUBMERGE: ECHO 51, can be viewed at Tubi. On the Thursday after that, February 13, the Lorraine Theatre in Hoopeston is primed to resume the showing of first-run features with CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, because nothing says “Valentine’s Day” like a violent Marvel Studios movie starring a CGI cinnamon red-hot villain; in all seriousness, the staff and volunteers who’ve devoted several years’ worth of sweat equity in order to shape up the palace for a grand rebirth deserve a hearty round of applause. We hope that Opening Day is a big ol’ smash!

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Rewind back to February 1, when the videographer Pancho Moore and his lifelong friend Ausharra Knox, owner and head stylist at Beard Culture Barbershop & Gallery in Urbana’s Lincoln Square, will premiere their debut documentary, THE EVOLUTION OF THE BARBER, at the Phoenix Savoy 16. As of this posting, the 6 p.m. screening is just about sold out, according to Moore on Facebook, so watch the local media for future dates and ticket availability as well as enjoy this inspiring feature story by Jill Pyrz of the News-Gazette on Knox’s personal evolution that led to his success as a Black businessman in the C-U. On that same busy day, folks in Springfield will be attending a fundraiser at the Route 66 Motorhead’s Bar and Grill, Museum and Entertainment Complex, that benefits the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Illinois and the Staley Museum of Decatur. A $60 entry fee will entitle you to a prime rib dinner buffet, cocktail bar, red-carpet photo op, and exclusive screening of FIELDS OF GOLD, the documentary about the Soy Capital entrepreneur A. E Staley, courtesy of co-sponsor and producer Spencer Films. Finally, the next week on Thursday, February 6, will be the first meeting of 2025 for the Central Illinois Film Commission at a new location, Top Cat’s Chill & Grill in the Capital City; members and newbies alike can gather starting at 7 p.m. to order up and then hunker down with the evening’s updates and special topics. Got all that?

Sorry to spin your heads on the plethora of unique opportunities in the area, dearest readers, but film action is what we like to see! We’ll be addressing a few last items in regards to regional production in an article separate from the Calendar, so please watch CUBlog for that in the next few days.

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

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I miss taking my time with print media to enjoy it, and I don’t really mean in the nose-to-the-grindstone way as with C-U Confidential or MICRO-FILM. There’s nothing like grabbing a magazine or paperback or digest or hardcover and finding a comfortable enough place to sit down or recline with it. I have plenty of choices here in the house on the edge of an American small town, between Ma JaPan’s library that waits patiently on the shelves and my own library slowly making its way here and a nominal amount of material that I’ve bought in the last few years. I’ve spent way more time doing my part in making publications as a professional than I have partaking in publications that I simply have a personal interest to peruse. That reality kind of saddens me. I don’t even have a designated corner set up for the pleasure. Hrm.

Movie magazines, monster magazines, specialty magazines, comic books, and the occasional history, science, literature, and art periodicals have been my jam since I was a young lad, many of which have fallen by the wayside given the fickle state of publishing. I learned at the end of the summer that one of my readin’ and collectin’ mainstays from the Eighties and Nineties, the “yesteryear” media title Filmfax, was being cancelled after nearly 40 years in print by its founder and editor, Michael Stein of Evanston. That’s an amazing run for any niche publication, let alone one sticking it out so far into the 21st century, but given this particular market, the oversaturation of similar internet content, and Stein’s age of eighty years, it’s of little surprise that he would bow out. I always liked picking it up as a flashback-heavy alternative to the headier Cinefantastique, techier Cinefex, and more fan-friendly Starlog and Fangoria.

On one of my recent trips to Champaign-Urbana, I found the last gasp Filmfax for sale on the shelves of Barnes & Noble. While the 165th issue is right in line with the vintage territory Stein and company know well, the tell-tale signs are present – a reduced 68-page count, next to no advertising, a lack of regular departments like the letter column – and it could have gone out on a much lesser note. I’m using this denouement as an example of periodical decay because it also marks the end of a small group of movie magazines originating in Illinois that I grew up devouring. Others included Stein’s predecessor to Filmfax, Fantastic Films, and a sister title, Outré, as well as the aforementioned Cinefantastique, which has been gone for two decades, and Scary Monsters, which is still issued quarterly by its Arizona-based owners who bought the property from creator Dennis Druktenis, formerly of Highwood, about ten years ago.

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I know that I can always check out other and similar avenues in print and electronic form. The death of close-to-home familiars after all these years is simply a big bummer. The same can be said for all the local publications I used to read on the regular, whether or not they still are active. Upstairs, I have a box of old print issues from various downstate sources, mostly found in the C-U, which reminds me of the more tactile times when we learned and experienced off the computer, tablets, and phones, sharing our findings directly with our friends and acquaintances. It includes myriad copies and tear sheets from the News-Gazette, Pantagraph, Daily Illini, Daily Vidette, public ‘I’, CU Cityview, The Paper, and of course, The Octopus, a 2000 issue of which featured the photograph at the head of this segment. It was taken by yours truly in the upper level of Jane Addams Book Shop with one of their workers, Kara, when I served as the alternative weekly’s production manager. Cultural fun times in the C-U, those days were.

A resident of Champaign who easily understands my “print pain” is Jason Croft, the radio producer and announcer who works for Illinois Public Media at the University of Illinois. Mirroring to a point my horde of monster and cinema magazines is the collection of golden-age comics and hot-rod, Tiki, and men’s magazines and digests amassed by “Java” and storied in his “Dirty Old Man Cave.” Whereas I did not directly reflect my early reading interests in the self-publishing that I’ve done over the last twenty-five years, Java went all in to launch Bachelor Pad Magazine, his ode to the saucy print lit of the Fifties and Sixties that is based on a prior website where he expressed his love for all things mid-century modern. BPM just released their 70th issue and a Nylon Nightcap spin-off, found for sale along with many other editions at this website, and I do my small part in proofreading the goodies. Yes, there are words too.

Here’s to Java and all the indie publishers with eclectic taste and an acute awareness of the joy it still brings to some when you put ink to paper and periodically drop something kewl into our hot little hands.

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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Analog Wine Library, Urbana, IL
PERMANENT RESIDENCE* short film premiere (1/25, 6 p.m., free)

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting (1/27, 7 p.m., Room 1002)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Festival* screening series feat. AFTER THE FALL: TWO GENERATIONS OF THE VIETNAM CONFLICT (documentary) (1/26, 4 p.m.)

@ Spurlock Museum of World Cultures, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Flatlands Dance Film Festival* Short Film Competition 2025 (1/24, 7 p.m., free)


NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
BRAVE THE DARK (faith film), THE BRUTALIST, FLIGHT RISK, NICKEL BOYS, PRESENCE, SKY FORCE* (in Hindi with English sub), DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA, MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NOSFERATU, ONE OF THEM DAYS, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, WICKED, WOLF MAN (1/24 on), BETWEEN BORDERS (1/26, 5:30 p.m.), AMC “Scream Unseen” (mystery movie) (1/27, 7 p.m.), DETECTIVE CHINATOWN 1900 (in Mandarin with English sub) (1/28-1/30, 7:30 p.m.), COMPANION, CREATION OF THE GODS II: DEMON FORCE (in Mandarin with English sub), DOG MAN (animation), VALIANT ONE (1/30 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
BRAVE THE DARK (faith film), THE BRUTALIST, FLIGHT RISK, HARD TRUTHS, PRESENCE, BABYGIRL, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA, MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NOSFERATU, ONE OF THEM DAYS, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, WICKED, THE WILD ROBOT (animation), WOLF MAN (1/24 on), INTERSTELLAR* (re-release; IMAX) (1/24-1/30, 4:15 p.m.), THE LAST SHOWGIRL* (1/24-1/26), The Metropolitan Opera: Aida (1/25, 11:30 a.m., simulcast; 1/29, 1 & 6:30 p.m., recorded), THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1/25, 2, 4:30 & 7 p.m.; 1/26, 3 & 7 p.m.; 1/29, 7 p.m.), BETWEEN BORDERS (1/26-1/28, 4 & 7 p.m.), DOG MAN (animation) (1/30 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents SMILE 2 (1/24-1/25, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

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

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Read the rest of this entry »

Who really asked for ‘Hell 2upée’?

January 22nd, 2025

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So, we are doing this again. Eight years ago, one could only conjure the worst-case scenarios in one’s mind about what was going to happen and, gadzooks, did the ensuing 45th presidency work overtime to meet our low expectations. Very little policy was passed to help the American people, a pandemic response was fumbled badly, a revolving door of staff was established on the Hill, relations with key international bodies soured, and the appearances of chumming with bad actor leaders felt a bit gross coming from the alleged leader of the free world. Pardon our slip … it all felt gross.

And yet, “Americans have spoken” as of November 5 of last year and we’re apparently just fine with putting the putz and his baggage back into power. Just like in 2020, factual records prove the 47th president was duly chosen in the general election to take office and uphold the constitution. As opposed to how things panned out between 2017 and 2021, we should expect the same 47th president to do his damnedest to bowl over government and the rule of law as we know it, telegraphing his intentions as he has for many months in advance and starting right in with the damage as of Monday night. (Don’t act surprised at this point, unless you’ve been willingly tuning out the rhetoric.) If his smarmy and aggravated demeanor, clearly deteriorating as it has been year after year, as well as his incompetent leadership skills, which were on full display for four years straight except for on occasions favoring himself like when he managed to incite a mob to attack the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, are deadening us almost to a tee, the live wires he is nominating for cabinet positions will surely jolt us back awake.

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Are we really willing as a nation to roll with the sucker punches that he, his appointees, and über-rich fanboy Elon Musk will attempt to land on us left and right between “Day One” and January 20, 2029? Time to punch back – yes, this means you, centrist Democrats, moderate-to-center Republicans, reasonable independents and Libertarians, and those who honestly believe in a fair, balanced, and welcoming democracy – with all the smarts, tools, and legal means at our disposal if the continued promise of the United States of America and all its complexities, contradictions, and flaws are worth navigating and fighting for. Pay attention to the research and reporting that is not connected to what No. 47 overtly favors. Find your place in the organizations and movements working to buffer their strongarm tactics, dispel their bombardment of mixed signals and disinformation, and halt potentially criminal action. Protect the needs of yourself and yours while being mindful in the lives of your neighboring citizens and helpful with the functionality of your communities. The cretin-in-chief is bound to inflict chaos as a would-be and self-described “peacemaker” and “unifier” as invoked in his inauguration … Stump speech? Boast? Dog whistle? Bullshit? Yes, all that and more.

Unlike in 2017, when we were compelled to write about national politics on CUBlog for the first time, we don’t have any clever allusions to make between this development and our bread-and-butter entertainment interests, nor the funny off-ramps and asides to try and help dull the confusion, fear, disappointment, or anger of our dearest readers but for a moment. The implications of having Donald J. Trump, Jr., and his acolytes in our faces and treading on our very existence for even longer – it’s not like his influence ever really let up during the tenure of our 46th president and his vice-president, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, did it? – is a gut wrench that will be hard to tough out. We must, though. Our country depends on it. Don’t hesitate to be proactive out there and do some good where it can help.

C-U Blogfidential will return to its regularly scheduled embrace of the movies, movie makers, and movie scene of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond with our next post. Thank you.

~ Jason Pankoke, Editor and Publisher

Calendar: January 17-23, 2025

January 17th, 2025

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!

1/16: Zoe Southlynn-Savage (special events manager, Champaign Park District, Champaign, IL)
1/18: Michelle Kaffko Ebner (owner, Organic Headshots, Chicago, IL)
1/19: Mark Roberts (creator, Bad Mule Rag & The Lonely Banjo, Bad Mule Inc., Red Hook, NY)

 

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

3/2023: Robert Carringer, 81 (English and cinema studies professor, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, retired)

 

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Well, that erupted quickly! We’re apparently not done with dumping links on our dearest readers via the Report for we’ll now explore the film events coming our way shortly in Champaign-Urbana and beyond!

There’s a fair amount to see on local screens but it helps to know where to look for the smaller-scale and more interesting fare. Essentially a biannual event at this point, timed as it is by the Department of Dance at the University of Illinois as a “welcome back” gesture to the campus ecosystem at the beginning of each semester, the Flatlands Dance Film Festival returns with a short film program for some artistic wintertime viewing; the show will be held in Knight Auditorium at the Spurlock Museum of World Cultures next Friday, January 24, starting at 7 p.m. If you return to the same venue in three weeks, you can also attend the third CU International Film Festival on Saturday, February 15, to enjoy a selection of quality shorts from all over the world; you need to commit and go prepared, however, as you have a window between February 1 and February 12 to reserve your free ticket online and claim it on site once the doors open at 6:30 p.m. that evening. After a red-carpet walk, master of ceremonies Max Libman will host the screening at 7:30 p.m. and expound on how their films aim to “entertain, educate, and elevate.”

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We also have upcoming events that require some confirmation as well as collaboration. Andrew Stengele of Champaign Movie Makers shared on Facebook a call for entries, launched by the Rantoul Theatre Group for a brand-new event called the Rantoul Film Festival, which will close after February 28 and has a nominal $5 entry fee; a date for the showing at the Rantoul Business Center has yet to be announced and the money raised, including donations, will be split to help fund the theater as well as local domestic violence agencies. Also approaching quickly is CMM’s own 48-hour filmmaking contest, for which teams can gather the weekend of January 31-February 2 and make their short subjects from start to finish within the time frame, reflecting prompts that will be handed out at the Lincoln Square mall of downtown Urbana on the 31st; get some friends on board and register very soon to have some fun! Creators du C-U should also plan ahead to participate in this year’s Pens to Lens productions; the area’s youth who are enrolled in grades K-12 or are in the comparable age bracket can submit their original screenplays by Friday, February 28, and the participation guidelines for their parents and teachers are available at this website. The gala premiere of the films is set for August at the Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign.

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Oh, what else to we have to see? The Chambana Film Festival will emerge from the holiday break with a string of screenings at the Phoenix Savoy 16 in Savoy beginning in a week on Sunday, January 26, 4 p.m. with the self-descriptive documentary, AFTER THE FALL: TWO GENERATIONS OF THE VIETNAM CONFLICT; the schedule continues a week later on February 2 with THE THINKING GAME, a documentary about the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI), and three consecutive Sunday presentations of the 2024 Oscar-nominated short films starting on February 16 and finishing the afternoon before the Academy Awards presentation on March 2. Following in the footsteps of Thomas Nicol’s THE VENUS GAMBIT, which we mentioned in last week’s Report, is the premiere and meet-casual at Urbana’s Analog Wine Bar on Saturday, January 25, 6 p.m., for a new short subject called PERMANENT RESIDENCE; made in town with assistance from Nicol, Chambana’s Nat Dykeman, GAMBIT actor Matthew Green, and artist Matt K, the piece by writer-director Bi An is an immigration story that is apparently told not in the typical manner. Get on your feet and get thee involved in our film culture!

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And to close, primarily as a follow-up to other points in last week’s Report, who else do we have to hear from and read? C-U resident and avid movie fan Chike Coleman, a co-host of the REEL REVIEWS show on Urbana Public Television with Sanford Hess, has apparently taken a breather from the cable access airwaves as well as writing for his website, The Wheelchair Watcher, over the last year; we hope he is doing well and that more is in store. The pause button has also been hit for the last year on Family Home Theater, the forum overseen by James Plath of the English department at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington; he’d like to transfer ownership to someone interested in keeping the site going and will field queries about it, as is stated on the sister Facebook page. Not slowing down one iota is Brad Jones, known to his fan base as The Cinema Snob, who moved from Springfield to Chicagoland with his wife Laura and the Stoned Gremlin Productions hustle in order to have access to all the theatrical flicks and novelty snacks he can handle; now the proud dad of an infant son, the Snob can still muster a few informative and snarky videos per week on YouTube in an effort that is undoubtedly “Lloyd Approved.”

These activity suggestions should keep everyone busy in our immediate future while we bow out of Report-ing for a couple of months after next week’s post. The Calendar itself will be compiled as usual, so be sure to send over any relevant dates for us to add by writing cuconfidential [at] gmail [dot] com!

 

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

Anyone for another quick and lively entry this week? Acrostar Productions is promoting the imminent commercial release of their movies through BayView Entertainment and, at last, we have confirmation that among the wave of titles to be introduced on multiple streaming platforms next week are ATTACK OF THE CORN ZOMBIES and NIGHT OF THE DEAD SORORITY BABES. We also have learned THEY CAME BACK FROM SOMEWHERE will join them in the near future. So, when you go looking for your fix of good-natured, genre-friendly flicks done the Acrostar way, watch for graphics like the ones you see below; fans of the Chicagoland indie studio should be familiar with the promo cards for CORN ZOMBIES and SORORITY BABES, although it looks like THEY CAME BACK received a new coat of digital paint for the occasion. BayView-branded trailers for all three are available at this YouTube account and a fresh new teaser for RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES, which will also be handled by the New Jersey-based firm, was just introduced on Facebook. The current round of filming activity for Acro-head S. j. Herman, producer Ann Myrna, and their loyal players and partners includes the feature PERFECT SOUL and a second batch of SPLINTERED LOVE episodes, the latter of which are being filmed as we write and the former slated for production in the spring. Do keep abreast of Acro-business by joining their online group and pitching in when you can, especially for when they gather in central Illinois to make their movies!

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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Esquire Lounge, Champaign, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* meeting (1/20, 7 p.m.)

 

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
AUTUMN AND THE BLACK JAGUAR, ONE OF THEM DAYS, THE ROOM NEXT DOOR, WOLF MAN, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, CONCLAVE*, DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA, FROM GROUND ZERO: STORIES FROM GAZA* (documentary; in Arabic with English sub), THE LAST SHOWGIRL*, MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NOSFERATU, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, WICKED, THE WILD ROBOT* (animation) (1/17 on), BRAVE THE DARK, THE BRUTALIST, FLIGHT RISK, PRESENCE (1/23 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
INTERSTELLAR* (re-release; IMAX), ONE OF THEM DAYS, THE ROOM NEXT DOOR, SING SING, WOLF MAN, BABYGIRL, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA, THE LAST SHOWGIRL, MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NOSFERATU, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, WICKED, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (1/17 on), BETTER MAN* (1/17-1/18, 1/20-1/23), INTERSTELLAR (standard) (1/19, 3 & 7 p.m.; 1/20, 1/22, 7 p.m.), THE GOONIES 40th anniversary (1/19, 4 & 7 p.m.; 1/20, 7 p.m.), MARKED MEN: RULE & SHAW (1/22-1/23, 7 p.m.), *single screenings daily

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

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Read the rest of this entry »

Calendar: January 10-16, 2025

January 10th, 2025

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!

1/12: Damian Duffy (co-adapter, Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, Abrams ComicArts, New York, NY)

 

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

12/24: Barbara Evans, 72 (actor, BUCKY McSNEAD, Shut Up and Do It Productions, Champaign, IL)

 

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

The New Year is as good as time as any for a link dump in our Report to share what our online media friends and neighbors are thinking and doing, so, by all means wander a little closer and click away!

Some folks want to foster the funny via their videos. Camp Nostalgic Studios posted a big conclusion to their production season last month, first with the last episode of SATURDAY MORNING for 2024 wherein hosts Alex Duquette and Dave Rediger attempt to make it to the end credits with the heat turned off in order to save money; they remember the reason for a different season and share an on-the-street update from Vadim Nuebeck (looks familiar…) as he searches for an elusive toy doll with a certain je ne sais quoi that is flying off the shelves. Across the creek at Rubber Chicken Films, versatile impressionist Andy Due (looks familiar…) finished the year with Episode 27 of THE ANY DUE SHOW and his patented take on Golden Age and retro Brit humour, this time involving an Irish pastor’s service, a pair of strangers at a park bench, and a surf rock band eulogizing their jalopy. A-hem. (Let’s not forget The Andy Due Book, a print expansion of the programme that is now available on Amazon.) And floating back down to Camp Nostalgic, we have the finale of LATE NIGHT URGE in which host Ariel Julie (looks loverly…) ruminates about Jewish holidays and the seeming lack of sexy in the belief’s public-facing patina.

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Other folks have opinions on the movies. Our man Colin Gabriel Price goes over his primary picks for the best releases of 2024 in the most recent episode of Priceless B Movies and, to no one’s surprise, it’s ladled liberally with horror. Over at Mashley at the Movies, Matt and Ashley dropped a couple of episodes for Xmas-time where they discuss the Bob Dylan picture A COMPLETE UNKNOWN with fellow C-U podcaster Elizabeth Hess and NOSFERATU with local writer Aaron Polk. A few steps in the other direction, Chase Todd of Chase & Shep fame has a new talker through their Earth-217 shingle that is called Phil & Chase Watch Everything with co-host Phillip Hazen and, in their newest recording, Shep and Bel join them to discuss more than twenty cinematic “slays” for the holidays. And, although their time at WCIA-TV is complete, professional critics Chuck Koplinski and Pam Powell continue their work as Reel Talk with Chuck and Pam through their own podcast, where they took on THE FIRE INSIDE, BABYGIRL, and more just before 2025 chimed in, and still appear together or solo in various outlets like CBS Channel 58 in Milwaukee, The Daily Journal of Kankakee, and The Illinois Times of Springfield.

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Even more folks are making the movies. Thomas Nicol went behind the camera for his first short in a few years, THE VENUS GAMBIT, in which a date goes charmingly between a duo played by Mindy Smith and Matthew Green as they enjoy a chess game; filmed and premiered at the Analog Wine Library in downtown Urbana, the piece has appeared in a handful of regional festivals. Also returning to filmic business are The Andrews (Andrew Stengele and Andrew Nygard), who made a quickie short named SANTA DOESN’T EXIST on behalf of Champaign Movie Makers and for the newest iteration of the annual cable-access tradition du C-U, THE TRAVIS WAYNE HURT CHRISTMAS SPECIAL. Their ditty is pure wryness, a Nygard specialty, and depicts the tragedy encountered by a young girl (Logan Tarr) who can’t sleep on Christmas Eve; the witty that surrounds it is merely AWOL at the moment, for Hurt elected to premiere the sketch comedy at the Channing-Murray Foundation last month instead of on Urbana Public Television where all the prior specials reside. Behind the scenes, local filmmaker John Isberg (FINAL SUMMER) concluded the first season of his talk-shop podcast, Shudder to Think, with Episode 13 where he was joined by a fellow horror storyteller from Britain, Jonathan Straiton (JOHNNY Z).

Finally, certain individuals want to discuss the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond for the record and on the regular like … oof. That doesn’t exist in C-U recorded media, does it? No radio show, no podcast, no livestream, no vlogcast, no cable access show to cover the cinema creation and culture of our own making? Oh, don’t do that. Stop looking in your humble editor’s direction from a long distance. He can only do so much from here in the Illinois Valley, other than offering up good ideas.

That said, freely return the favor if we forgot to include any similar and relevant outlets for arts and entertainment discourse in the C-U area by writing cuconfidential [at] gmail [dot] com with a tip. Thanks!

 

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

We needed an easy one this week, folks, and a lo-fi photo gallery from THE TRAVIS WAYNE HURT CHRISTMAS SPECIAL is it. All the shows to date that were aired by UPTV 6 are available on YouTube, with the latest one (apart from the brand-new one we talked about above) being THE TRAVIS WAYNE HURT CHRISTMAS SPECIAL VS. THE NOG MONSTER from 2023. You can find out who’s in which ones at a glance on the Internet Movie Database and learn about the making of most episodes with this podcast series hosted by Erin Gillis and TWH. As our dearest readers should know by now, movies are not just for careers, resumes, or artistic statements. These folks want to get weird and that’s just ducky with us.

If a few pictures of friendly and game townies (and animated friends) paint a thousand words…

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Happy National Peculiar People Day, C-U! Stay reliably offbeat!

 

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA, FROM GROUND ZERO: STORIES FROM GAZA (documentary; in Arabic with English sub), GAME CHANGER (in Telugu with English sub), THE LAST SHOWGIRL, OCTOPUS WITH BROKEN ARMS (in Mandarin with English sub), A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, THE DAMNED, THE FIRE INSIDE*, HOMESTEAD (faith film), KRAVEN THE HUNTER*, MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NOSFERATU, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, WICKED (1/10 on), AX Cinema Nights: PAPRIKA 15th anniversary (animé) (1/12, 4:30 p.m., in Japanese with English sub; 1/8, 7:30 p.m., English dub), PETER PAN’S NEVERLAND NIGHTMARE (1/14-1/15, 7:30 p.m.), ONE OF THEM DAYS THE ROOM NEXT DOOR, WOLF MAN (1/16 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
BETTER MAN, DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA, THE LAST SHOWGIRL, BABYGIRL, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, THE FIRE INSIDE, HOMESTEAD (faith film), MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NOSFERATU, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, WICKED (1/10 on), INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (1/12, 3 & 7 p.m.; 1/15, 7 p.m.), WOLF MAN (1/16 on)

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

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Read the rest of this entry »

Calendar: January 3-9, 2025

January 3rd, 2025

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!

1/7: Steve Christopher (actor, WOLVES IN THE WOODS, Redvolver Studios, Chicago, IL)
1/8: Michael Stone (co-founder, Illini Film & Video RSO, UIUC, Urbana, IL)

 

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Has anybody gone to the movies this holiday season? Of course you have; the trades won’t stop talking about how much money was raked in during 2024, another so-called rebound year for the industry. You pretty much know what the dozen-ish releases are that occupy the multiplexes right now – hint: they’re listed below – and if one or more of them fit the bill for you and yours, enjoy. We at CUBlog like to take the offbeat or local path and, well, it’s a mixed bag of customer service right now to start off the year.

After the conclusion of the annual “Mannheim Steamroller Christmas with Chip Davis” concert at the Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign on December 29, the venue closed for business with the general public (save for advance ticket sales) in order to embark on another round of improvements at the facility; talking with the News-Gazette before the break, executive director Steven Bentz promised the new security features and fly system control upgrades would be in place for when the Virginia launches its 2025 schedule with Roger Ebert’s Film Festival on April 23. Elsewhere, the newspaper reported that incoming ownership of the Village Mall in Danville was in talks to lease space to a few sorely-needed tenants that might include a theatrical exhibitor, taking the place of the AMC location that ceased operations two years ago with no fanfare or explanation. We’ve also noticed plenty of updates on the final preparations at the restored Lorraine Theatre in Hoopeston, including the installation of a brand-new Dolby Atmos sound system and projection equipment, via Facebook; commenters from the Save the Lorraine Foundation are hinting that movies will return to the venue in “early 2025” for the first time in more than a decade.

And finally, after a week off that follows month-long Halloween and Christmas movie marathons, the Normal Theater in Normal resumes their programming today, Friday, January 3, with the new Paul Schrader film OH, CANADA, a meditation on aging and art-making with Richard Gere and Uma Thurman; it will begin a stretch of traditional, welcome, and first-run “art house” fare that neither the Virginia’s “experience” nor the five-years-closed Art Theater can honestly provide to the C-U. However, you know what to do to ensure that movies continue to play everywhere from the Normal to the Avon Theatre in Decatur, the Onarga Theater in Onarga, and all cinema-going points in between. Attend. It’s that simple.

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

Many moons ago in that fateful month of January 2017, when the health of our beloved Ma JaPan started to falter and our lives changed forever, I wrote a handful of posts about personal concerns as well as thoughts on different kinds of writings I might try to liven up CUBlog. None of it went past the “let’s pose an idea and see if it sticks” phase but, given the last few weeks’ worth of Calendar featurettes in which we’ve talked about various ways that our cinema culture has manifested, I’d like to finally try out one of them. The intent was to share relevant artifacts or merchandise that we hadn’t used for editorial before.

To pair with the theatrical theme of today’s Report, I have just the thing to share with you. Although I don’t do it nearly as much as I used to, one of my “kill a little time before bed” activities has been to search on eBay with various terms, many of them directly tied to the film culture du C-U, and see what I could possibly turn up. A smattering of items has been welcomed into the MFHQ holdings over the years because of this – some things for the novelty, some things for their potential use as graphics or information to support Confidential reporting, and some things that I did not know existed before finding their listings. The following piece belongs in the middle category. I’d searched for Art Theater ephemera before and had almost always found nothing. One day, I decided to try “Park Theatre” and I discovered…

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Simple and nice, this handout from October 1939 advertises a week’s worth of movie showings at 126 W. Church Street during the Alger Brothers’ ownership of the Park. Since the main features were released by multiple studios – UNION PACIFIC and THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES from Paramount Pictures, CHARLIE CHAN IN RENO from 20th Century Fox, and BLACKWELL’S ISLAND and HELL’S KITCHEN from First National/Warner Bros. – the paper was probably made up by the Algers and not pre-printed by a studio for local management to stamp their venue name on. It reminds me of the four-page movie guides that were being issued by Tom Angelica for the New Art Theatre when I first moved to Champaign in 1993 (again, that year…) often with reprints of Roger Ebert’s reviews from the Chicago Sun-Times.

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The young actress on the back of the herald, who was being promoted by Warner Bros. at the time, is Priscilla Lane. She appeared in approximately 30 pictures between 1937 and 1948 and was a member of a popular singing group with her three older sisters. Some of them starred together in a series of movies, the first of which was FOUR DAUGHTERS in 1938, and her other notable Hollywood credits included ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, THE ROARING TWENTIES, and Hitchcock’s SABOTEUR. She rests at Arlington National Cemetery with her husband, Joseph A. Howard, who served in the Army Air Corps.

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Just because a piece is old and possibly rare doesn’t mean it will be treated kindly by all hands. After I read an e-mail prompt that told me the package had been delivered, I went out to my mailbox and found the envelope shoved inside as you see it in my photograph. This surely is not the seller’s fault – fairly rigid cardboard had been secured with tape around the Park paper and “Do Not Bend” was clearly marked on the outside – or necessarily the Post Office’s mistake, apart from the decision of the delivery person to not get out of their vehicle and leave it at the back door of MFHQ Deux on that brisk April afternoon. Hrm. The damage was minimal; it’s invisible to the camera lens, but there is a light vertical crease on the left side of poor Priscilla that is consistent with the temporary bend. I stifled a complaint, despite the archivist inside of me having a fit, but that doesn’t mean you should do so when acquiring those collectibles or antiques that mean something to you. As we also can see, the herald still “works” fine and is serving its purpose.

After the next two Calendars, we plan on taking a recess from the Reports for a couple of months. During the “down time,” I will be livening up the “Imagery” department with a series of new photos and old tales to share, based on some of the other items I have picked up recently. Please stick with us if that may interest you, especially as a primer on what to look for in the wild that is related to the movies du C-U.

I’ll leave you with a bonus eBay find that I passed on. It would have been so cool to own if I’d had an appropriate way to display it and if it hadn’t been priced at more than one hundred dollars. Listed by a seller in 2017 and dating from the national rollout by RKO Radio Pictures in 1933, the following is a promotional herald for the original KING KONG when it played the Virginia Theatre. Yes, it sold, and no, I have nary a clue as to who picked up the prize. My consolation was to be heads-up and download the high-resolution images posted to eBay so that future me could use them when the occasion would present itself like, oh, right now. Enjoy.

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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Springfield Art Association campus, Springfield, IL
SAA presents the 31st annual Molly Schlich Independent | International Film Series “Film Preview Party” feat. film trailers, documentary SOIL & SOUL: FARMING IN THE SANAGMON RIVER VALLEY* (1/8, 7 p.m.)

 

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
THE DAMNED, HONEY MONEY PHONY (in Mandarin with English sub), BABYGIRL, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, THE FIRE INSIDE, GLADIATOR II, HOMESTEAD (faith film), KRAVEN THE HUNTER, MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NOSFERATU, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, WICKED (1/3 on), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (1/6, 7 p.m.), THE LAST SHOWGIRL preview with livestream (1/7, 7 p.m.), AX Cinema Nights: PAPRIKA 15th anniversary (animé) (1/7, 7:30 p.m., in Japanese with English sub; 1/8, 7:30 p.m., English dub), BETTER MAN, DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA, THE LAST SHOWGIRL (1/9 on)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
BABYGIRL, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, THE FIRE INSIDE, GLADIATOR II, HOMESTEAD (faith film), KRAVEN THE HUNTER*, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM* (animation), MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NOSFERATU, RED ONE, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, WICKED (1/3 on), CLUE (1/5, 3 & 7 p.m.; 1/8, 7 p.m.) *single screenings daily

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
Closed until April 2025.

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 »

Calendar: Dec. 27, ’24-Jan. 2, ’25

December 27th, 2024

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

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

12/27: Matthew Gladney (co-host, Mashley at the Movies podcast, Champaign-Urbana, IL)
12/30: Paul Benson (gaffer, F’D: TALES FROM THE END TIMES, Horror-Fix Films, Springfield, IL)
12/30: Jason Pankoke (editor/publisher, C-U Blogfidential + The MICRO-FILM Review, Mendota, IL)

 

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

12/22: Jim Hambrick, 70 (founder/curator, Super Museum, Metropolis, IL)

 

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Seems the conference room consensus at MFHQ Deux is we’re allowed to file a short Report because we deserve a break this week. To that end, in remembrance of the holiday road that was traveled annually for many years by Ye Ed to visit his much-missed Ma and Pa JaPan, we present a few items related to Bloomington-Normal, his rest stop of choice in between Champaign-Urbana and Mendota.

The news room at WGLT radio, the NPR affiliate station housed on the Illinois State University campus, reported earlier this month that a new program, MCLEAN COUNTY: THE EARLY YEARS, would premiere on Thursday, December 5, by the producing PBS station, WTVP-TV of Peoria; written and hosted by H. Wayne Wilson, the show covers a centuries-spanning history of the fertile land that would become prime farming country and the largest county by square mile in Illinois, including all the pains of maturation that it entailed. The next air date on WTVP is scheduled for Saturday, January 18, at 11 p.m.

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Elsewhere, Entertainment Weekly elected to zero in on comments made by the actor-writer-director Jesse Eisenberg to GQ about his performance opposite Jason Segel in THE END OF THE TOUR, which he calls “one of the most creatively inspiring experiences” of his career; the 2015 movie fictionalizes an encounter between Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky and the Infinite Jest novelist David Foster Wallace, who was an instructor in English at ISU when the real-life meeting took place between the two in 1996.

Last week, the writer, film producer, and B-N native Jason Huls revealed that his recent cosmic horror short subject, THAT DAMNED YELLOW RAINCOAT, had been picked up for inclusion in the anthology series BLOODY BITES on Screambox TV and the episode will premiere tonight, Friday, December 27, at 7 p.m. CST and repeat at 10:30 p.m. on the linear stream that is available in various cable packages and on this website. The story is about a suburban couple (Meg Elliott, Christopher Meister) whose marriage is clearly on the outs, but what isn’t clear is why a young woman (Marina Schenk) in a canary slicker is flitting about their home. Huls also talks on his Substack account about two more shorts, THE FAWN and a follow-up to BEYOND THE BASEMENT DOOR, among his creative endeavors of 2024 and 2025.

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And, adding to our list of upcoming cinema-and-a-celebrity-or-two screenings that we first told you about a few Report filings back, we have learned the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts has something called “Insidious: The Further You Fear” on tap for Friday, February 7. We use the term loosely here in that the “star” is the INSIDIOUS horror franchise itself and its various characters will play a part in a “paranormal demonstration” that unleashes havoc on the theater and its audience. We think. Maybe…?

To close on a seasonally weird-o note, the endlessly awesome “Windy City Ballyhoo” page on Facebook shared an advertisement that ran sixty years ago in Chicago newspapers to herald the opening of K. Gordon Murray’s all-ages matinee of LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD AND HER FRIENDS, a fantasy import in disguise, and SANTA’S MAGIC KINGDOM, an extremely odd time capsule filmed by Murray at the Santa’s Village attraction in suburban Dundee that was one-part promotion for those parks and one-part an unofficial sequel to Murray’s Mexico-produced stable like RIDING HOOD, PUSS ‘N BOOTS, and SANTA CLAUS. It’s still mind-boggling to us, even after sorting out the sordid for this previous Report and in the Almanac entry below, which recalls when the Florida B-movie ballyhoo king moved his campaign down to the Castle Theatre in Bloomington, where he lived in his adolescent years, later the same month.

Oh, right. We were going to keep it short. We actually meant “relatively short compared to recent weeks” and we can’t move on to the Calendar listings until we drop yet another local cinema bombshell on you folks. This time, the catch is it gets totally personal for your friendly neighborhood Mr. JaPan. Read on.

 

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

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I have a confession to make. I’ve kept a “Eureka! I’ve found it!” moment up my sleeve until now. It’s surprising, it’s fleeting, it’s seminal, and it has revived a memory in my life.

What happens when you’re browsing the socials and, in the most unlikely of places, you happen upon archival evidence of … yourself?

I recently built a Report around headlines that I found while scrolling on my phone. For better or worse, I do it a little bit every day despite having the personal laptop and work iMac sitting here within easy reach at MFHQ Deux. However, on September 7, I came across a video that looked pretty neat because of older interests and then found something long lost to me.

In my pre-teens, I loved the monsters of the movies and it centered on Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine from Warren Publishing, although I was late to the “Monster Kid” party by a generation. The first issue my parents bought for me was #168, dating from 1980 and sporting the CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND aliens on its cover. The number that hooked me was issue 175 from 1981, which featured the summer fantasy hits-to-be like RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, CLASH OF THE TITANS, SUPERMAN II, and … RODAN? If you know me, you know my lifelong soft spot for kaiju.

There was an old-fashioned newsstand in Plano, Illinois, where I lived when I was little. The owners saved a copy of every new FM issue for me behind the counter and I would walk there after school to buy it, weather allowing. When it was time for the hotly anticipated 25th anniversary issue to ship in early 1983, it never showed up. I had to read about the cancellation of issue 192 and closing down of Warren in the pages of Starlog magazine a few months later at a Waldenbooks store. A cultural gut punch to a kid is not fun when it happens in public.

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A decade later and less than two weeks after I crossed the stage in my cap and gown at Illinois Wesleyan University of Bloomington to accept a BFA degree in graphic arts, I boarded an airplane with my father William so we could travel to my graduation present, which was to attend the Famous Monsters World Convention in Arlington, Virginia. May of 1993 was more or less the 35th anniversary of the debut of FM, so the promoters were playing it up with the promise that attendees would receive copies of the first new FM issue since, well, the issue before the issue that never arrived. Attractions included a giant dealers’ room, panel discussions, and appearances by FM editor and figurehead Forrest J Ackerman along with several of the old-guard talents who were fixtures in the pages of the original magazine.

This included the legendary science-fiction author Ray Bradbury. I knew it and went prepared.

So, I was lazy-scrolling on my phone and came across a video posted by the “Horror Ads” page on Facebook. A convoluted headline – “35 Years of Famous Monsters of Filmland on Wild Chicago/ET, 1993” – made it sound like the Chicago-centric magazine program WILD CHICAGO had covered the convention for some reason. “Okay, I’ll watch,” I thought.

The video is actually two segments ripped from someone’s old VHS tapes. In the first, CHICAGO reporter Will Clinger ventures into the north suburbs to visit with lo-fi monster movie maker David “The Rock” Nelson, a former boxer and street preacher who found a new calling with his camcorder on hand. In the second, ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT takes in the Famous Monsters convention and talks with several of the guests including the Hollywood directors Joe Dante (GREMLINS) and John Landis (THE BLUES BROTHERS), original horror host John Zacherley, scream queen Brinke Stevens, and Ackerman. A smattering of vintage movie props and a few booths bursting with merchandise are also shown.

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But, wait. There at the 5:31 mark, just after a trademark quip with a grin from Landis, is a two-shot of me visiting with Bradbury as he autographs my copy of Something Wicked This Way Comes. Then it cuts to a few comments from Bradbury and continues. I didn’t remember that a professional cameraman had been crouching next to me when our encounter took place. In fact, I’ve never seen this ET segment before now. Dad and I were still on the East Coast when the episode aired more than thirty-one years ago.

As the moment re-materializes in my head, I now remember that my mother Patricia told me “The Grandmas,” my grandmother and great-grandmother on Mom’s side of the family who lived together in suburban Stickney, had seen me on television. ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT was one of several shows they routinely watched after dinner. They wouldn’t have had the presence to tape that episode, though. I don’t recall if they even had a VCR at that point. A heads-up horror fan must have recorded it for posterity and I will project a big and loud “thank you” to the universe on behalf of them.

Of course, I still have the paperback. I read it again a few years ago. It is meaningful in large part due to its themes about the passage of time and fears over aging and losing family and regaining memories and having the possible wonders of our world sucked away by dark forces in a moment’s breath. And also, the emotional through-line of a relationship between an older father and a fresh-faced son with a lifetime still ahead for at least one of them.

As it turns out, that book and all the swirling recollections about it aren’t going anywhere. I may not “live forever” like Bradbury’s sideshow muse, Mr. Electrico, but I can sure try for as long as I breathe and type.

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CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

60 Years AgoSaturday, December 19, 1964: The Castle Theater in downtown Bloomington, Illinois, delights the children of the community with a special premiere of LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD AND HER FRIENDS attended by one of the stars, Stinky the Skunk, and its distributor, K. Gordon Murray. An English-language version of CAPERUCITA Y SUS TRES AMIGOS, the second of three similar movies from Mexico about Red’s adventures in faraway lands with various fantasy companions, this “kiddie matinee” is typical of the product imported and released by Murray’s eponymous K. Gordon Murray Productions, Inc., of Miami, Florida. Between the colorful marketing materials, easily catching the eyes of young theater goers, and the cheery ballyhoo at locations like the Castle, creating excitement for low-budget fairy tales wild with imagination, it is clear that Bloomington native Murray has successfully applied the entrepreneurial lessons he learned while growing up adjacent to a world of carnivals, fairs, and circuses. For today’s event, Robert Powers wears the replica skunk outfit in a more benign twist on the shambling horror costumes and gnarly props foisted on unsuspecting audiences by the likes of William Castle. Rafael Aldrete, known as “El Enano Santanón,” played the diminutive Stinky in the film series as well as Puss n’ Boots in a standalone Murray offering, all directed and produced by Roberto Rodríguez between 1960 and 1962 at the famous Churubusco-Azteca Studios in Mexico City. [R]

 

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Festival* screening series feat. “Short Docs” incl. THE QUILTERS, CYCLING WITHOUT AGE, FACING THE FALLS (12/29, 4 p.m.)

 

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
BABYGIRL, BABY JOHN (in Hindi with English sub), A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, THE FIRE INSIDE, GLADIATOR II, HER STORY (in Mandarin with English sub), HOMESTEAD (faith film), KRAVEN THE HUNTER, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM* (animation), MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NOSFERATU, RED ONE*, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, WICKED (12/27 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
BABYGIRL, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, THE FIRE INSIDE, GLADIATOR II, HOMESTEAD (faith film), KRAVEN THE HUNTER, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM* (animation), MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NOSFERATU, RED ONE, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, WICKED (12/27 on) *single screenings daily

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
No movies until Roger Ebert’s Film Festival in April 2025.

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 »

Calendar: December 20-26, 2024

December 20th, 2024

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

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

12/21: Max Libman (founder/host, CU International Film Festival, Urbana, IL)
12/21: Linda McElroy (volunteer, Route 66 Film Festival, Springfield, IL)
12/25: Shea Kelly (producer/host, FILMWAR! YouTube channel, A Thousand Yard Stare Productions, Decatur, IL)

 

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

As you may have realized by now, dearest detectives, we’re on a run of consecutive Reports in which cultural preservation and the cinema doings of the C-U are the paramount topic. Last week, we talked about how Chicago Filmmakers will honor the legacy of the former Champaign short subject distributor, Picture Start, and by direct proxy its founder, University of Illinois alumnus Ron Epple. Two weeks ago, we revealed that Saturn’s Core Audio & Video is releasing on a well-stocked Blu-ray edition the twenty-five-year-old local indie DOGS IN QUICKSAND, unavailable to see for many years. Shortly, we’ll talk for the first time about yet another surprise revival that is indirectly tied to our area’s picture show history, but we’d like to first take a look at goings-on in the entertainment world that will be helpful for context.

It’s fitting that we broach the subject of “preservation” in today’s Calendar, given the impending wide release on Christmas Day of Robert Eggers’ stylish horror show, NOSFERATU, and the silent-era milestone that inspired it. After premiering in Berlin in March 1922, F. W. Murnau’s NOSFERATU: A SYMPHONY OF HORROR and its producer, Prana-Film, were pursued by Bram Stoker’s widow Florence, who wanted to have all prints of the movie destroyed and profits turned over due to it being an unauthorized adaptation of her husband’s signature novel, Dracula. Although she won her case in the German courts, Prana declared bankruptcy and random prints made it out to the world anyway, depriving Stoker of a decisive victory. Today, Kino Lorber offers an official restoration from the Murnau Foundation and Ebertfest” treated us to its creepy glory as part of an Alloy Orchestra performance in 2001.

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Believe it or not, that turn of events – NOSFERATU was released in the United States in 1929 or possibly earlier, according to one of numerous posts on the topic at Silent-ology, which probably contributed to its survival long before the advent of budget VHS tapes – might not be the most dramatic one we discuss! Yet, can you imagine in this singular instance if a film, no matter how slight or significant its effect on the movie-goers of its time, had disappeared for good and not been viewed or appraised in Germany or across the globe by successive generations? What would the horror film, or vampire cinema, or “goth” culture look like in 2024 without its influence? The “butterfly effect” of its absence might be staggering.

As for the current crop of amazing film-rescue stories, let’s start with the program ENDURANCE from the award-winning team of Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, and Natalie Hewit. It premiered on the National Geographic channel on Friday, November 1, and follows a team of modern treasure hunters who brave the Antarctic in the hopes of finding the sunken remains of the Endurance, inadvertently piloted to its polar death by Sir Ernest Shackleton and his men in 1914. The piece gives us an astoundingly clear look at how those early 20th century explorers weathered such harsh conditions after their craft got mired in the ice and capsized before their eyes, thanks in large part to the plates and footage shot on site by the Endurance’s photographer, Frank Hurley, who dove into icy waters to save his reels from the wreckage. ENDURANCE includes compelling snippets of material that are excerpted from Hurley’s own documentary, SOUTH, which was recently restored by the British Film Institute and re-released intact by Kino Lorber and Milestone Film & Video in 2022, the year Endurance was finally found.

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The avid fan base of Turner Classic Movies seemed to be intrigued and shocked on the socials when the network announced it was broadcasting the documentary by Michael Lurie and Eric Friedler, FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT, in prime time this past Tuesday, December 17. It is a long-gestating account of what Jerry Lewis and his crew went through to make THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED, a tale of a man played by Lewis who is forced to perform as a clown for children held in a concentration camp during World War Two, which apparently uses little- or never-seen stills and behind-the-scenes footage from the production. Theories have compounded over the last half-century as to why CLOWN was ultimately shelved by Lewis; the Library of Congress has possession of the only known print and will allegedly make it available to view later in 2025 per the late entertainer’s instructions. We won’t expect an official release of it, well, ever, but we’re sure many others had the same gut feeling about Orson Welles’ THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, the Aretha Franklin performance film AMAZING GRACE, and various key titles that were formerly in limbo.

Independent cinema is not exempt from the elements shuffle. Last month, Kevin Smith posted a short compilation of outtakes from CLERKS on YouTube and revealed he had almost an hour’s worth of footage that no one had actually viewed since the View Askew crew filmed their seminal 1994 slacker comedy in New Jersey. On October 27, the Chicago International Film Festival premiered a restoration of the little-seen and innovative 1999 love story COMPENSATION, an evocation of African-American relationships and disability that was set and shot in Chicago by the filmmaker Zeinabu irene Davis, which is now represented by Janus Films, on tap for the Criterion Collection treatment in mid-2025, and selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress earlier this week. And in September, Matthew Harrison’s RHYTHM THIEF received a premiere of its 4K DCP at Los Angeles’ 2220 Arts + Archives, the start of a new lease for the 1995 New York City drama as it also arrives on Blu-ray this month courtesy of Kino Lorber and after a one-year delay; the Sundance award-winner had been stuck on dated DVD and only been given limited availability online for half its lifetime before now.

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These black-and-white, low-cost gems are just three of the many thousands of movies and their related ephemera that need to be treated with care and respect if they’re going to survive in a viewable condition for our future generations. By someone. At some point. With a reasonable budget and resources. And a potential for an audience, when all is said and done, to justify the effort. It’s not simple, quick, or cheap. At a certain point, it might not even be up to just the big studios or prominent producers or boutique labels or knowledgeable archives or cinema societies or non-profit specialty groups to take care of the flicks. They can’t do it all and have every right to pick and choose what comes first, second, or one hundredth in line. It should be to no one’s surprise at this point if fandom or the grassroots step up to help preserve our culture. And they have.

 

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

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“Eureka! We’ve found it!” is not an exclamation we normally blurt out in our doings at the service of the Champaign-Urbana film culture. Most of the subjects and activity we share with you on CUBlog date from modern times and are common knowledge in the circles du C-U that we run with. As long-time readers know, our coverage will occasionally reflect the discovery by Ye Ed of knowledge and artifacts related to the movies, movie-going, and movie-making in our communities. To him, they are as good as gold. Such was the case when he learned a few years ago, while skimming the Daily Illini archives at the Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections, about the vaudeville novelty “Making Movies” that took place on the stage of the Orpheum Theatre and the campus of the University of Illinois in 1919. It had a very clever hook – patrons and citizens took part in the making of a one-reel dramedy, LOVE’S YOUNG DREAM.

We have yet to learn that our DREAM is still alive. The print is most likely long gone.

A much rarer development is when someone outside of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond reaches out with a find that relates directly or peripherally to our movie history. This happened over the summer when Chris Clawson, historian and media producer at the Historical Society of Greenfield, Massachusetts, wrote to us about “Making Movies” due to his own research in regards to their own movie history. He zeroed in on the names of its promoters, Joseph Maddern and Tom Ward, in our CUBlog articles because the former had brought the same act to Greenfield a few years later.

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As with the Orpheum production of LOVE’S YOUNG DREAM, the creation of the Greenfield edition followed a three-part template: one, the producers filmed scenes from a stock script in the booking venue and the surrounding city with local people, places, and businesses; two, they also filmed the audiences who are invited to fill the venue and watch the scenes being staged for camera on the stage as a demonstration of how films were made; and three, they had the film processed and edited together as quickly as possible and premiered the completed reel at the venue to draw back the locals, who would be amazed to see themselves, friends, and neighbors act out the silent vignette on the big screen. In Greenfield, the former Victoria Theatre wowed the crowd with their own DREAM in June of 1924.

It turned out that Mr. Clawson and Carol Aleman, president of the Greenfield historical society, were putting the finishing touches on a video presentation that would re-introduce their community to DREAM a la Victoria and mark the 100th anniversary of its occurrence. In the effort to shore up the narration and factoids to be used in the video, Clawson found us and your humble editor went through the talking points with him to help out as best he could. However, there was an even bigger surprise for us that can finally be shared. This is a case of living vicariously through the fruits of others’ labors…

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Aleman and Clawson hosted their video premiere on Friday, October 11, at the Garden Cinema of Greenfield to a showing of more than 100 spectators. Special to their presentation was that it included the digitized, restored, and intact LOVE’S YOUNG DREAM from 1924! How’s that for a very clever hook?

Generously, the Historical Society has uploaded the complete presentation to Vimeo for easy viewing. A well-made and informative segment tells how Clawson and Aleman located the reel, researched the story behind it, identified some of the individuals who participated in it, and subsequently prepared the film to be appreciated today, which included the use of computer applications to add a music score made up of vintage cues that were first used in the silent film era. Bracketing the segment is DREAM, complete with new color tints and its original (and awkward) dialog cards, and a vintage news reel that was produced by Pathé News and depicts the fun and games of the first Greenfield Winter Carnival in 1923.

Kudos to Clawson, Aleman, and others who helped bring the project to life. We can learn a few lessons from the ways in which they embraced local heritage, however offbeat it might have looked at first glance, and created something enticing with it. We also are fortunate to be able to enjoy from afar the closest approximation to LOVE’S YOUNG DREAM that we might get as it would have been viewed by our relatives and predecessors at the Orpheum in 1919. Let’s take the big cosmic hint and look closely at our archives, collections, attics, trunks, and basements for the treasures. We are the grassroots who can ensure that Champaign-Urbana’s history and artistry on film will be preserved as film history. Eureka!

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NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
HOMESTEAD (faith film), MUFASA: THE LION KING, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, GLADIATOR II, HER STORY (in Mandarin with English sub), KRAVEN THE HUNTER, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM (animation), MOANA 2 (animation), RED ONE, WICKED (12/20 on), A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, THE FIRE INSIDE (12/24 on), BABYGIRL, BABY JOHN (in Hindi with English sub), NOSFERATU (12/25 on)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
HOMESTEAD (faith film), MUFASA: THE LION KING, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER* (faith film), GLADIATOR II, KRAVEN THE HUNTER, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM (animation), MOANA 2 (animation), THE ORDER*, RED ONE, WICKED (12/20 on), The Royal Ballet: The Nutcracker (12/22, 3 p.m., 12/23, 7 p.m.; recorded), IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (12/22, 3 & 7 p.m.; 12/24, 12, 3 & 7 p.m.), A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, THE FIRE INSIDE (12/24 on), BABYGIRL, NOSFERATU (12/25 on) *single screenings daily

@ 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 »

Calendar: December 13-19, 2024

December 15th, 2024

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

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

12/16: Lauren Laws (vlogger, Nyx Namor YouTube channel, Champaign-Urbana, IL)

 

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

This week, the Report would like to give credit to the C-U online magazine Smile Politely for their unwavering coverage of the arts and culture of our communities, especially when they put front and center the local folks and their creations, vocations, and activism that might be readily glossed over or ignored in the mainstream press outlets of the immediate region. We also love the enthusiasm that is expressed by their Arts Editor, Amy Penne, and her willingness to incorporate film doings in that overall space embraced by the magazine’s mission. Among the virtues of their editorial breadth, SP more readily picks up on and address C-U Blogfidential topics in a timely fashion than we’re able to right now.

That’s a good thing in our removed-from-the-milieu situation. Film culture usually receives the coverage elsewhere when something is actively filming, about to premiere publicly, wins an award, appeals to families, or is “Ebertfest” branded. Ye Ed knows because he still looks through the websites and socials of central Illinois sources for story ideas. From afar. Daily. Whether it’s good or bad, for C-U’s sake.

Several recent pieces on SP that we’ve read are solid examples. Your humble editor was invited to attend a work-in-progress screening of BRIM, the period-shifting drama about systemic racism in American health care that has been in the works from Keenan Dailey, Trude Namara, Kevin Lau, and their collaborators at Visage Entertainment and partner companies, but could not go; plenty of others apparently did including Penne, who digs into the film’s heady aims and themes. SP also shared another press release from the Champaign County Film Office and Flyover Film Studios that highlights regional production, in this instance a few selections with elements of the Christmas holidays in their storytelling and design; we will Scrooge a bit again as we did at Halloween and clarify that half the movies mentioned are Chicago productions made with a helping hand from professionals with east central Illinois ties, in particular the Flyover folks. Still, feel free to check them out regardless of their overall C-U DNA.

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Last month, Penne wrote eloquently about the “patchwork quilt” qualities of the revived magazine show PRAIRIE FIRE, once a WILL-TV staple in the Nineties and now an upgraded and award-winning program that basks in the glow of down-home localism, often with portraits of folks who flourish with their creative passions and better their communities in the process; the recent article touches on several high points of the current second season of episodes. One can also find relevant nods in SP’s omnibus pieces; the brand-new and annual “BEST of 2024” concludes with a big hat tip to Flyover and its commercial potential for the county coffers and those who want to work in entertainment media for a living, while the also-new and annual “WORST of 2024” ends with “heartbreak” as it reiterates Café Kopi will close its downtown Champaign location after 31-plus years in business on Sunday, December 22. The homey coffee house is a seminal location for Ye Ed due to the indirect role it has played in our Confidential doings.

And, inherent in the ways that SP likes to dissect the arguable deficiencies of the C-U in order to arrive at constructive solutions for us all to consider, their “empty spaces” round-up piece from September includes the umpteenth reminder that we don’t have the Art Theater anymore to enjoy. I visited town on Monday for personal reasons and drove past the dimmed marquee with the current $870,000 asking price hung on it – still sad looking, still a bit irritating to think about, and fated to be a recurring topic now that the city is digging up its central downtown parking lot a mere block away to make room for a beautified public plaza in order to attract all the foot traffic they’re hoping for. The blight has to be documented, whether it’s the Smile Politely way or otherwise, because it isn’t just about a vacant movie house, folks.

It’s our lives and we’re definitely the lesser for it. We don’t want to hear or read it sometimes, but thanks to the mettle of publisher Seth Fein and his editorial staff, we can keep thinking and learning about the C-U. As a former contributor and employee of what was the most comparable precedent, the alternative print weekly The Octopus founded by Paul Young, it’s heartening to see SP stay the course. Well done.

You know the drill, then. Read SP, send in your story ideas and words and feedback to SP, contribute with your wallet to SP to help float the modest operating capital they need each year. Two full decades of fostering low-budget public service and journalism for Champaign-Urbana and its citizens is certainly nothing to take lightly. May they continue to highlight our worthwhile and needs-improvement sides for twenty years more, and make sure Amy Penne is always caught up on our weird little film culture world.

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

To that end, however, we wouldn’t be CUBlog-ging if we felt there was nothing more for us to contribute about the cinematic arts of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond. After nearly twenty years of keeping a sharp eye on our topics of choice, we’re versed in putting together the two-and-twos that might just go over the collective heads at our area’s television and radio stations, newspapers, websites, podcasts, and other blogs. The following is a case in point and, honestly, even we didn’t see it coming.

CUBlog watches over the intriguing fare that is presented in Chicago and the suburbs along with what goes down in the C-U and we’re subscribed to a few relevant email sources on that front. It includes Chicago Filmmakers, a long-running non-profit center that teaches filmmaking skills and also screens non-mainstream fare. So, when we receive an announcement about a CF program called “Picture ReStart,” we have to take notice. Why? It’s because 31-plus years ago – that fateful time again, 1993 – we lost a fellow named Ron Epple who once was the one-man film force of Champaign-Urbana, and in particular on the University of Illinois campus, before he relocated to the Windy City. Among his achievements, Epple operated a short film distributor called Picture Start out of his home in Champaign.

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The company’s library of 16-millimeter prints was acquired by Chicago Filmmakers in the Nineties, initially to make them available as viewing and research copies, but now the group acts as a caretaker for the collection. They and curator Ben Creech will share some of the spoils in their new and monthly “Picture ReStart” series beginning on Saturday, January 18, 6 p.m., at the Historic Firehouse Cinema on 1326 W. Hollywood Avenue in Chicago. The first grouping is called “Her Expansive Self,” the show on February 15 is “Surface Tensions,” and the follow-up on March 25 is “Animated Breakdowns,” all teasing at what lies therein. CF should announce the individual films of each program on Facebook prior to the events, and you can read more about Creech, Epple, Picture Start/“ReStart,” and future dates on this web page.

It is a neat offering for those who appreciate the experimental and art films of yore, while it is certainly relevant to us as a body of work assembled by a C-U original in the C-U. We don’t often get windows into our cinema past from an era previous to, say, when Mike Trippiedi and his creative clan made DOGS IN QUICKSAND in 1997, so this is an effort we should support however we can. Maybe a C-U screening of a “Picture ReStart” compilation could be arranged for later in 2025 or early 2026? Let’s dream into action, ambassadors and promoters du C-U! In the meantime, let your minds wander with the following “teaser films” of sorts photographed by Chicago Filmmakers, which includes the wonderful Maya Deren in her classic dreamlike meditation, MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON, from 1943. Otherwise … what are they?

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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Esquire Lounge, Champaign, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* meeting (12/16, 7 p.m.)

 

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
HER STORY (in Mandarin with English sub), KRAVEN THE HUNTER, THE LAST DANCE (in Cantonese with English sub), THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM (animation), THE MAN IN THE WHITE VAN, FLOW (animation), GLADIATOR II, MOANA 2 (animation), RED ONE, WICKED, Y2K* (12/13 on), I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION (religious documentary) (12/14, 4 p.m.; 12/17, 7 p.m.), RM: RIGHT PEOPLE, WRONG PLACE (music documentary; in Korean with English sub) (12/14, 2 p.m.), BLACK CHRISTMAS 50th anniversary (12/15, 4 p.m.), AX Cinema Nights: BABYMETAL: LEGEND – 43 THE MOVIE (concert film) (12/15, 4:30 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), HOMESTEAD advance screening (12/16, 7 p.m.), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (12/16, 7 p.m.), HOMESTEAD (12/18 on), MUFASA: THE LION KING, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 (12/19 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
KRAVEN THE HUNTER, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM (animation), THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (faith film), GLADIATOR II, MOANA 2 (animation), THE ORDER, RED ONE, WEREWOLVES, WICKED, Y2K (12/13 on), “For King + Country: A Drummer Boy Christmas Live” (faith concert recording) (12/13-12/18, 1:30 p.m.), “Seventeen: ‘Right Here’ World Tour in Japan” (concert performance) (12/14, 7 p.m., simulcast), I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION (religious documentary) (12/14, 12/17, 4 & 7 p.m.), “André Rieu Christmas Concert” (faith concert recording) (12/14, 3 p.m.), WHITE CHRISTMAS 70th anniversary (12/15, 1 & 7 p.m.; 12/16, 7 p.m.), HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS (2000) (12/15, 3 & 7 p.m.; 12/18, 7 p.m.), MUFASA: THE LION KING, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 (12/19 on)

@ The Canopy Club, Urbana, IL
Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin “Ultimate Anthology” tour (film music of Argento, Romero, etc.) (12/14, 7 p.m. doors, 8 p.m. show)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
Illinois Public Media presents “The Arthouse Experience Film Series” feat. ROBOT DREAMS (animation) (12/14, 7 p.m.)

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

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Read the rest of this entry »

Calendar: December 6-12, 2024

December 6th, 2024

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

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

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

 

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

We at CUBlog plan to petition for this Friday to be designated as “Pankoke Comes Clean Day” and the only payment required is you lend us an ear! The Report is therefore turned over to him, for once, and if you listen very closely as you read, you might just hear our humble editor orating about a few recent activities he’s participated in apart from the Confidential. All MFHQ Deux and no play makes … well, you know.

At first, let’s flash back. The online Cultured Focus Magazine talked with our good friend Andrew J. Rausch in November about all things Quentin Tarantino and being a professional author on the occasion of his new book, Generation Tarantino: The Last Wave of Young Turks in Hollywood, being listed for release in mid-2025 by Rowman & Littlefield. As it seems to happen lately when Rausch is interviewed, the article inevitably leans into the topic of the famous filmmaker’s “lost first film” and the subject of a prior book, My Best Friend’s Birthday: The Making of a Quentin Tarantino Film, for which Mr. JaPan wrote an essay.

Last month, Ye Ed put on his festival cap outside of the late New Art Film Festival and the C-U for the first time in nearly 20 years at the service of the Lake County Film Festival in upstate Grayslake. He volunteered on a jury with veteran comedy writer Steve Young and documentary director Leslie McCleave to view and deliberate over the “Narrative Shorts” selections of the 2024 program; “Best Narrative Short Film” was awarded to AS EASY AS CLOSING YOUR EYES, an affecting drama with science fiction overtones about a grieving mother who turns to group therapy and more after losing her son. Nat Dykeman of the Chambana Film Festival organized the LCFF, which took place between October 31 and November 11.

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And just yesterday, Thursday, December 5, indie publisher Jason “Java” Croft of Champaign released the digital edition of the 70th issue of Bachelor Pad Magazine, a compact celebration of the Fifties and Sixties swingin’ lifestyle. It seems like only yesterday – well, 17 years ago, if we’re real about it – that Jason “Needs More Java” Pankoke designed the debut issue of the long-running quarterly and he moonlights today as a proofreader on all the regular and special issues. Breaking news: he might earn his first-ever byline in “The Digest of Atomic Age Culture” if a story prospect or two pan out. Sorry, but they’re top secret for now!

On Tuesday, December 3, boutique juggernaut Vinegar Syndrome launched their annual “Partners Only Month” during which they promote the wares of all the participating video labels who work with their OCR Distribution arm. This usually includes a raft of brand-new December releases for customers to feast upon and, in the POM Class of 2024, we have from Saturn’s Core Audio & Video of New Jersey the Blu-ray debut of Mike Trippiedi’s made-in-C-U-and-Sidney opus, DOGS IN QUICKSAND! We’ll comb through the details of this disc for you soon, but we can now reveal that Ye Ed had a slight hand in helping the eclectic video oeuvre of Trippiedi, Bill Yauch, and friends finally make it to the hi-def age.

In closing, we made mention a few weeks ago about Pankoke’s rare weekday trip to Champaign. It happened on a Tuesday and his main destination was the television studio lab for students at Parkland College. It seems that our Confidential associate Drea Aarons is taking a media production class or two per semester and she needed guests for a talk show concept, so myself and the effervescent Kaity Bequette joined her for some seasonal spooky discussion! It’s not intended to air on PCTV or online as it is for her class, but we can share the following sneak peek courtesy of Aarons.

In other words, what a timeline this has been! It almost feels like, dare we say it, old times.

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p.s. Although AS EASY AS CLOSING YOUR EYES had played in dozens of film festivals worldwide prior to appearing at LCFF, yours truly learned after the fact why this might have been a little more personal for some of the film’s key participants. It turns out that actress/co-producer Laura Coover, who plays the role of the mother “Lila,” and co-writer/co-producer/sound mixer Aaron Golden are both from Chicagoland and attended the University of Illinois in Urbana at roughly the same time. On the side during their UI studies, Coover played a minor role in the Mark Roberts movie of his play, WELCOME TO TOLONO, and Golden the lead part in the second dramatic short made by fellow underclassmen Chris Folkens, TOXIN. Assistant camera Chris Blim and executive producer Jon Michael Hill are also alumni of UI.

Considering the pro pedigree of the work on display in CLOSING YOUR EYES, the recurring lesson remains – we all start out somewhere, including the friendly corn-fed confines of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond, where we learn, experience, grow, move on, and repeat. Kudos to director Parker Croft and his team for crafting a completely realized and compelling portrait with this film. Try to see it when you can, dearest readers, for its success is well earned. You can learn more about the making of the film through the official website of Paper Horse Pictures.

 

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

My primary contribution to the Blu-ray of DOGS IN QUICKSAND was to design the souvenir booklet included in the package. Although I did create a handful of jacket designs for DVD products in the mid-Aughts, this endeavor was on a different level and I relied on my professional training in publication layout to piece it all together. While you will need to purchase DOGS in order to enjoy the full spread in print, which includes a complementary essay on DOGS by Heather Drain and then-and-now interviews between myself and our long-time confidant in film, Mike Trippiedi, we’ve been given the thumb’s up from Ross Snyder at Saturn’s Core to exclusively tease the booklet right here on C-U Blogfidential! You can click on the graphics below to pull up larger versions for easier viewing, and the impressionistic collage of the DOGS cast that appears on the booklet front and the slipcase was created by the artist Nate Higley.

We hope you dig on DOGS once a copy is securely in your paws!

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CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History

15 Years AgoTuesday, December 1, 2009: On the occasion of World AIDS Day, a locally-made dramatic featurette called THIS LIFE AIN’T PRETTY has its world premiere at Brookens Auditorium on the University of Illinois campus in Springfield. It features Danielle Ward as the main character, Brittney, a heterosexual and seemingly healthy young woman and mother who is diagnosed with the virus that ultimately kills her, hitting her family and community hard with anguish and a test of their faith. A cautionary tale about the health concerns and stigma faced by African-American individuals who contract HIV, THIS LIFE AIN’T PRETTY is the first film release from Predestined Arts & Entertainment, an independent company that was established by sisters and Champaign natives Candice and Kimberly D. Conner to develop creative media by and for women and people of color. Kimberly, now a resident of the capital city, wore several hats as director, writer, editor, and a producer on the half-hour-long project, which also stars Kevin Craig West, Dingani Beza, Cheyenne Smith-Youngblood, Shirley Crawford, Irma Norris, and James Johnson in the supporting roles. THIS LIFE AIN’T PRETTY would soon play numerous festivals and educational events around the world, winning awards and leading to larger feature-length stories for Conner such as JUMP IN and BEFORE ‘I DO’. As reported on 12/1/09 at CUBlog. [R]

 

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

DOGS IN QUICKSAND* U.S. Blu-ray Release: Tuesday, 12/3, Limited via Vinegar Syndrome, Bridgeport, CT/Saturn’s Core Audio & Video, Bloomingdale, NJ

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting (12/9, 7 p.m., Room 1002)

 

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
FLOW (animation), GET AWAY, RAY* (re-release), SOLO LEVELING: REAWAKENING (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), WEREWOLVES, Y2K, BONHOEFFER* (faith film), GLADIATOR II, MOANA 2 (animation), RED ONE, WICKED (12/6 on), RM: RIGHT PEOPLE, WRONG PLACE (music documentary; in Korean with English sub) (12/6-12/8), “For King + Country: A Drummer Boy Christmas Live” (faith concert recording) (12/6-12/9), Studio Ghibli Fest: MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (animé) (12/8, 3 p.m., English dub; 12/9, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (12/9, 7 p.m.), AX Cinema Nights: BABYMETAL: LEGEND – 43 THE MOVIE (concert film) (12/11, 7:30 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION (religious documentary) (12/12, 7 p.m.), BLACK CHRISTMAS 50th anniversary (12/12, 7:30 p.m.), INTERSTELLA 5555: THE 5TORY OF THE 5ECRET 5TAR 5YSTEM (animé) (12/12, 7:30 p.m.), KRAVEN THE HUNTER, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM (animation) (12/12 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
THE ORDER, WEREWOLVES, Y2K, THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (faith film), MOANA 2 (animation), GLADIATOR II, RED ONE, WICKED (12/12 on), “For King + Country: A Drummer Boy Christmas Live” (faith concert recording) (12/6-12/10), Studio Ghibli Fest: MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (animé) (12/7, 3 p.m., 12/9, 12/11, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub; 12/8, 3 & 7 p.m., 12/10, 7 p.m., English dub), The Metropolitan Opera: Die Zauberflöte (12/7, 1 p.m., recorded), UFC 310: Alexandre Pantoja vs. Kai Asakura, more (mixed martial arts) (12/7, 9 p.m., simulcast), BONHOEFFER (faith film) (12/8-12/10, 12/12), LOVE ACTUALLY 20th anniversary (12/8, 3 & 7 p.m., 12/11, 7 p.m.), “André Rieu Christmas Concert” (faith concert recording) (12/11, 7 p.m.), I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION (religious documentary) (12/12, 4 & 7 p.m.), KRAVEN THE HUNTER, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM (animation) (12/12 on)

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS (2000) (12/6-12/7, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
The News-Gazette Film Series presents IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (12/7, 1 & 7 p.m.), “Holiday in Whoville 2024” feat. HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS (1966) (12/8, 12 p.m. doors, 1-4 p.m. cartoon (shown hourly))

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 »

Calendar: Nov. 29-Dec. 5, 2024

November 29th, 2024

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

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

11/22: Chase Todd (cohost, Phil & Chase Watch Everything podcast, Earth-217 Studios, Villa Grove/Savoy, IL)
12/3: Greg Woods (publisher, The Eclectic Screening Room, Toronto, Canada)
12/3: Bryan Wendorf (programmer/artistic director, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Chicago, IL)

 

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Mere hours after filing last week’s Report, Ye Ed was taking a late-night break at MFHQ Deux and scrolling through Google headlines on his phone. Algorithm powers of persuasion aside, it surprised him to find several stories within a sixty- or seventy-count assortment that were relevant to the Confidential methodology, considering all the publishing that is done online every day. These are those stories…

In one, Bloody Disgusting reported that Nicolas Elert and John Pata, the respective music score composer and director-writer of the filmed-in-Rantoul horror tale BLACK MOLD, were collaborating on releasing a limited-run vinyl soundtrack as well as the expected digital downloads through Elert’s Bandcamp profile. In another, Variety broke that WWE wrestling star CM Punk had been cast in the upcoming Syfy original series REVIVAL that is currently being filmed in Canada under the watch of Aaron B. Koonz and Luke Boyce, the latter of Shatterglass Studios and Flyover Film Studios in Champaign/Rantoul. In yet another, the Collider entertainment site elected to cite the late Roger Ebert and his love for CHOP SHOP, the low-budget “realist” drama from filmmaker Ramin Bahrani set on the streets of the Queens neighborhood in New York City; it was barely released to theaters in 2008 by Koch Lorber Films but found a large and receptive audience at Champaign’s Virginia Theatre the next year during the eleventh Roger Ebert’s Film Festival.

And in one more, Bloody Disgusting paid tribute to another creative and native son from Illinois, Ray Bradbury, with a glowing review of a new “Treehouse of Horror” episode on THE SIMPSONS entitled “Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes;” the Fox Network aired it last Sunday, November 24. Apparently, the final segment of the anthology special takes its cues from Fahrenheit 451, which was previously adapted for HBO a few years ago with Michael B. Jordan and Michael Shannon in the leads and Bahrani in the director’s chair. For our finishing move this bout, we have a colorful piece from Cageside Seats about the kinds of television that inspired a young Champaign-Urbana boy named Tony Khan, well before he took the reins at several professional sports operations and founded the popular All Elite Wrestling; G. I. JOE, THE A-TEAM, and World Wrestling Federation broadcasts were all favorites. Go figure, brother.

We will probably play a little fast, loose, and brief with Reports over the next few weeks since it’s the end of the year. There are further local film developments that we’re asked to not write about yet – “ugh” to la vida C-U and movie business confidentiality, grumbles Mr. JaPan – but those breaking announcements and a nostalgic flashback track will be shared before 2025 chimes in. Stay tuned!

 

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

In the meantime, we’ll happily plug once again the world premiere of THE L.A.F. KIDS from NorthEnd Empire LLC and their label, NorthEnd Empire Films, which is set for 6 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday, November 30, at the restored Fischer Theater in downtown Danville. Below is their show poster, which you can enlarge with a click so the QR codes can be scanned; they will direct you to last year’s IRRESPONSIBULL feature and the more recent SCAREBUSTERS. Also be sure to skim the NorthEnd Facebook account for more details, images, trailers, and appearances in central Illinois media. The Peoria-based group is clearly going to town at the grassroots level and loving it. More power to them!

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THE L.A.F. KIDS is a NorthEnd Empire LLC (Peoria/Champaign-Urbana/Chicago, IL) production that is written and directed by Nate L. Morris and edited by Sylvio Fleurimond. The film stars Brian Yabrough, Chuck Gibson, Marissa Curry, Holden Hightower, Na’Vaiya Lewis, Adila Taylor, Naijier Morris, Williams “Big Bill” Dixon, Reesha Morris, and Amanda Allhands.

 

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ The Fischer Theatre, Danville, IL
NorthEnd Empire LLC presents THE L.A.F. KIDS* red carpet world premiere (11/30, 6 p.m.)

 

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
MOANA 2 (animation), THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (faith film), BONHOEFFER (faith film), GLADIATOR II, HERETIC, RED ONE, VENOM: THE LAST DANCE, WICKED, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (11/29 on), FLOW (animation), “For King + Country: A Drummer Boy Christmas Live” (faith concert recording), RM: RIGHT PEOPLE, WRONG PLACE (music documentary; in Korean with English sub), SOLO LEVELING: REAWAKENING (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), WEREWOLVES, Y2K (12/5 on)

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
MOANA 2 (animation), THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (faith film), BONHOEFFER (faith film), CONCLAVE, GLADIATOR II, A REAL PAIN*, RED ONE, VENOM: THE LAST DANCE, WICKED, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (11/29 on), NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION (12/1, 3 & 7 p.m.; 12/4, 7 p.m.), The Metropolitan Opera: Tosca (12/4, 1 & 6:30 p.m., recorded), “For King + Country: A Drummer Boy Christmas Live” (faith concert recording) (12/5 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE (11/22-11/23, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ Spurlock Center for World Cultures, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies* presents GREMLINS (12/5, 7 p.m., Knight Auditorium, free)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
The News-Gazette Film Series presents THE WIZARD OF OZ (11/30, 1 & 7 p.m.), Illini Radio Group presents “Mix 94.5 Throwback Thursdays” feat. FRIDAY (12/5, 7 p.m.)

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

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Calendar: November 22-28, 2024

November 22nd, 2024

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

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

11/28: Ryan Mitchelle (editor, A ROYAL CHRISTMAS BALLET, Hybrid LLC, Woodland Hills, CA)
11/28: Robert Patrick Stern (cinematographer, CURSE OF THE SIN EATER, Samuel Goldwyn Films, Los Angeles, CA)

 

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Just in time for the gift-giving season, Facebook adverts-in-disguise have been appearing over the last week or so for a few “personality-and-a-movie” special events that are coming to the area next year, so we might as well Report on them in case you or your loved ones would have the itch to attend. On the afternoon of March 16, the McAninch Art Center at the College of DuPage in west suburban Glen Ellyn will play host to “John Waters: A Live Director’s Screening & Commentary of Hairspray,” at which the Baltimore legend will kvetch lovingly about his sweet 1988 musical comedy. A week later on March 22 at the Peoria Civic Center in Peoria, fans can drop plenty of peanuts to enjoy “The Princess Bride: An Inconceivable Evening with Cary Elwes” and join the veteran actor, who played “Westley” in Rob Reiner’s arch and funny 1987 skewering of fantasy and swashbuckling tropes, in the moment. And a year from now on October 10, the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Bloomington will ask their patrons to vote for “Napoleon Dynamite Live,” a screening that will feature cast members Jon Heder (“Napoleon”), Jon Gries (“Uncle Rico”), and Efren Ramirez (“Pedro”) riffing on their 2004 surprise hit. We guess this is a thing, now? Waters has made special event appearances over the years, and we’re sure they’ve been totally worth it, while the “Napoleon” gang recently brought their three-man jam to the Egyptian Theatre up north in DeKalb over the summer, so it isn’t new for them. We weren’t kidding about the peanuts, either. It will cost the following to attend: $62-$72 for HAIRSPRAY and Waters, $24-$49 for NAPOLEON DYNAMITE and Team Pedro, and $29-$89 on up to a $159 VIP option for THE PRINCESS BRIDE and Elwes. If the cost added to dinner, travel, and possible lodging are worth it to you, have at it.

 

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

We turn from the nostalgia for cult classics that still received a boost from Hollywood and made $80 million combined at the US box office to the here-and-now of two local indies stretching their legs as best they can and a surprise live performance the gorehounds will lap up. First, John Isberg’s FINAL SUMMER will be screened again at Day of the Dead Chicago, taking place this weekend at the Crown Plaza O’Hare in Rosemont, during the film festival portion on November 23 at 4 p.m. with costar Bishop Stevens in attendance. Then, Ash Hamilton and company’s F’D: TALES FROM THE END TIMES will be given its actual, for-real, red-carpet premiere at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Illinois Theater of Jacksonville, a town where some of the filming took place for the sci-fi/horror anthology. And finally, nothing says Xmas quite like Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin, a modern iteration of the Italian prog-goth outfit that famously composed the soundtracks for numerous horror and giallo films by the likes of Dario Argento, Michele Soavi, Luigi Cozzi, and George A. Romero; they will play their last North American “Ultimate Anthology” gig of the year on Saturday, December 14, at the Canopy Club in Urbana, of all places. The tour name is due to the show being a pastiche of Goblin’s screen work and other compositions recorded over their career. C-U doesn’t get esoteric live performance connected to the cinema very often, so, don’t miss it!

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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Festival* screening series feat. THE HOBBY (11/24, 4 p.m.)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
BONHOEFFER (faith film), GLADIATOR II, WICKED, THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (faith film), HERETIC, RED ONE, SMILE 2*, VENOM: THE LAST DANCE, WE LIVE IN TIME, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (11/22 on), Studio Ghibli Fest: POM POKO (animé) (11/24, 3 & 7 p.m., English dub; 11/26, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub) and THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAYUGA (animé) (11/25, 7 p.m., English dub; 11/27, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), MOANA 2 (animation) (11/26 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
BONHOEFFER (faith film), GLADIATOR II, WICKED, THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (faith film), CONCLAVE, HERETIC, A REAL PAIN, RED ONE, VENOM: THE LAST DANCE, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (11/22 on), The Metropolitan Opera: Tosca (11/23, 12 p.m., simulcast), ELF (11/24, 3 & 7 p.m.; 11/27, 7 p.m.), Studio Ghibli Fest: POM POKO (animé) (11/24, 3 & 7 p.m., English dub; 11/26, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub) and THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAYUGA (animé) (11/25, 7 p.m., English dub; 11/27, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), MOANA 2 (animation) (11/26 on)

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE (11/22-11/23, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
Illinois Public Media presents “The Arthouse Experience Film Series” feat. RUSHMORE (11/22, 7 p.m.)

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

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Calendar: November 15-21, 2024

November 16th, 2024

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

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

11/16: Kymberly Harris (founder/producer, Firsthand Films, Los Angeles, CA)
11/17: Eric Stanze (director/co-writer/executive producer, ANXIETY, Wicked Pixel Cinema, St. Louis, MO)

 

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Not a ton to Report this week, although there’s plenty to talk about in the long run. The Route 66 International Film Festival of Springfield and the Lake County Film Festival of Grayslake, organized by Nat Dykeman of the Chambana Film Festival series, recently wrapped and the former has announced their award winners. At home, Chambana returns this Sunday, November 17, 4 p.m., at the Savoy 16 with THE PROBLEM OF THE HERO, a topical dramatization of when the playwright Paul Green and writer Richard Wright collaborated to adapt for stage the latter’s novel, Native Son, and passes have gone on sale at the Virginia Theatre for the next Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, which will open on Wednesday, April 23, with a brand-new 70mm print of John Ford’s THE SEARCHERS according to the News-Gazette. On YouTube, John Isberg of Swede Films (FINAL SUMMER) has uploaded a new cut of his short film RED HORSE, which we had not seen before, and it can be described as “an American tolerance story;” it stars Aaron Munoz, Jace Jamison, and Kyle A. Thomas as solders on opposite sides of the Civil War who make a brief truce. And, most empowering for the potential future of film production in our immediate area, the drama ALBANY ROAD opens today on more than 100 screens across the United States for a minimum one-week run, including at the AMC Champaign 13 on North Prospect Avenue. Filmed in large part in Champaign County and brought to the area by the proactive folks at Shatterglass Films and Flyover Film Studios with a helpful assist from the Champaign County Film Office at Experience Champaign-Urbana, be sure to remind everyone you know about that very fact. Time to show up, C-U.

 

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

During the post-credits ALBANY ROAD interview session at “Ebertfest back in April, director and writer Christine Swanson praised their overall filming experience in the area and said she was happy for her film to be a “poster child” for what could be accomplished in Champaign-Urbana. It was one of several graceful complements offered by Swanson, her husband and the film’s producer, Michael Swanson, and their lead actress, the great Lynn Whitfield. Therefore, if you happen to be attending an AMC multiplex and notice the one-sheet poster below, framed outside by the entryway or inside the lobby, consider seeing their movie and returning the favor. They could have taken their art and business to a hundred other places than where we call home. Support goes both ways and, even though ALBANY ROAD will inevitably resurface on any combination of streaming services in the coming months, tell your theaters with your dollars and presence that you want to enjoy movies like this one in a communal setting. Additionally, we hear it’s a good film and that’s always a bonus when you want to go to bat for a non-mainstream, low-budget, high-quality picture. This is a special occurrence, the likes of which has rarely happened to date with the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond. (For better or worse, we should know.) All the best fortune to the Faith Filmworks team on their theatrical play!

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ALBANY ROAD is a Faith Filmworks LLC (Los Angeles, CA/Champaign-Urbana-Sidney-Monticello-Rantoul, IL) production that is written and directed by Christine Swanson and produced by Michael Swanson with cinematography by Spencer Combs, production design by Stefanie Mitchell, costume design by Fontella Boone, casting by Marissa Ross, and editing by Grisha Alasadi. Music composer is Leon Lacey, co-producer is Abe Thompson, producers are Brett Hays, Sarah Sharp, and Kevin McGrail, and the film stars Renée Elise Goldsberry, Lynn Whitfield, J. Alphonse Nicolson, Lisa Arrindell, Gary Dourdan, Joe Holt, Rachel Nicks, Ben Rappaport, and Lily Cowles. It is a 2024 theatrical release through AMC Theaters and Malco Theaters, runs 135 minutes, and is rated PG-13.

 

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
Chambana Film Festival* screening series feat. THE PROBLEM OF THE HERO (11/17, 4 p.m.)

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting (11/18, 7 p.m., Room 1002)

@ Esquire Lounge, Champaign, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* meeting (11/18, 7 p.m.)

 

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
ALBANY ROAD, KANGUVA (in Tamil with English sub), THE OUTRUN, RED ONE, ANORA, THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (faith film), CONCLAVE, HERE*, HERETIC, MEMOIR OF A SNAIL* (animation), SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE*, SMILE 2, VENOM: THE LAST DANCE, WE LIVE IN TIME, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (11/15 on), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (11/18, 7 p.m.), BONHOEFFER (faith film) (11/18 on), GLADIATOR II, WICKED (11/21 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
A REAL PAIN, RED ONE, ANORA, THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (faith film), CONCLAVE, ELEVATION, HERE, HERETIC, SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE, SMILE 2, VENOM: THE LAST DANCE, WEEKEND IN TAIPEI, WE LIVE IN TIME, THE WILD ROBOT (animation) (11/15 on), UFC 309: Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic, more (mixed martial arts) (11/16, 9 p.m., simulcast), THE POLAR EXPRESS (animation) (11/16, 11:30 a.m. & 2 p.m.; 11/17, 12:30, 3 & 7 p.m.), THE FIFTH ELEMENT (11/17, 4 & 7 p.m.; 11/20, 7 p.m.), GLADIATOR II, WICKED (11/21 on)

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents SCREAM (1996) (11/15-11/16, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
Illini Radio Group presents “Rewind 92.5 Movie Series” feat. THE BOY AND THE HERON (animé) (11/20, 7 p.m.)

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

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