C-U Blogfidential

Filmmaking entrepreneur Kimberly Conner of Springfield broke through when her first feature JUMP IN received national DVD distribution last September. Her second full-length drama is on the way!

From the “Images of the Week” Dept.: WILL-TV and 40 North 88 West have launched a new video series about local artists, ART: BEHIND THE SCENES. Media mavens represent!

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

Shatterglass Studios, a media firm in Champaign, Illinois, has made public its new production summarizing the 16th annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival held in April 2014 at Champaign’s Virginia Theatre.

From the “Images of the Week” Dept.: There may be no honor involved in remembering when Hollywood enlisted the C-U, but that does not mean we can’t throw a little love down WITH HONORS way.

The School for Designing a Society in Urbana will host its first-ever Interdependent Film Festival beginning tonight, Thursday, July 31, 2014,at the Independent Media Center in downtown Urbana, featuring the work of local women filmmakers.

It’s been a few years, but Champaign-Urbana will play host this summer to a film production that didn’t originate here. Read on for our first thoughts about Daryl Wein, Zoe Lister-Jones, and FOOD. (P.S. They’re casting, too!)

From the “Images of the Week” Dept.: In the mix of the fifth New Art Film Festival tomorrow, Sunday, April 13, 2014, at the Art Theater Co-op in downtown Champaign, IL, will be the drama-comedy THE DRUNK. Here is a first look at its upcoming DVD release!

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

Champaign Movie Makers, a group dedicated to fostering independent and personal filmmaking in the Champaign-Urbana area, will next meet at Shatterglass Studios just south of downtown Champaign, IL, on Tuesday, August 20, 2013. Focus will be on the makers of the feature HOUSE OF THADDEUS!

Fresh links lead us to consider once again the sound-on-film technology developed by Joseph Tykocinski-Tykociner nearly a century ago, especially since the fruits of his labor are finally available for study.

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

This may not constitute a “scene” as we’ve been experiencing lately in the C-U, but at the least WE HAD THIS BAND and THE GRAVEYARD MENACE bring some fresh filmmaking blood to Bloomington-Normal!

Once again, we feel behind the times in our own reporting niche but that will not stop us from encouraging you last-minute to support Urbana Basement Sessions, engage in “Dinner and Bikes,” and revel in the success of Pens to Lens!

To be honest, we’ve always hedged at the thought of awarding our own annual “Oscars” to the significant movie achievers of Champaign-Urbana for the sake of film scene parity. Smile Politely has now beat us to that punch, thank you.