C-U Blogfidential

Seemingly, we’re unable to escape the topic of local movie theaters potentially biting the dust if they can’t afford the highly expensive projection equipment necessary to show movies offered only as digital files. Here is the first of two fresh ruminations about it.

From the “Images of the Week” Dept.: After seeing the Martin Scorsese film HUGO and its loving depiction of the first visionary filmmaker, Georges Melies, your humble editor recalls a quiet moment spent with Papa George on January 13, 1992.

In this edition of C-U Blogfidential’s all-purpose column, “C-U Biz-en-scène,” we address several developments in media and intellectual property involving restored copyright, Kodak bankruptcy, SOPA/PIPA, and an AMPAS report. Yes, get serious.

From the “Images of the Week” Dept.: In this second of three installments featuring images culled from our archives pertaining to the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond, we highlight (mostly older) random activity!

From the “Images of the Week” Dept.: Ah, the ephemera of the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond we sometimes forget we have… In this first of three installments featuring images culled from our archives, student bodies of area colleges represent!

In this edition of C-U Blogfidential’s all-purpose column, “C-U Biz-en-scène,” we discuss THE LORD IS NOT ON TRIAL HERE TODAY with Jay Rosenstein, encourage walking, engage in talking, and reveal what movies are now playing/renting near you!

Normal, IL, movie-maker R.C. Raycraft releases his rock documentary INCIDENT AT KICKAPOO CREEK a full 40 years after the music festival “Incident at Kickapoo Creek” originally took place, starting at the Normal Theater on Monday, May 31, 2010.

A series of presentations to showcase the creative, non-commercial output of post-World War II filmmakers in Europe to help the intercontinental “Marshall Plan” meet its goals will be held September 24-26, 2009, on the Unviersity of Illinois campus under the title, “Selling Democracy: Films of the Marshall Plan, 1948–1953,” hosted by Sandra Schulberg.

Press release on the Web site of the University of Southern California about a $2 million donation from Playboy founder Hugh Hefner that will establish a new exhibition space and archive in their School of Cinematic Arts. Plus, your editor bitches about the lack of a film school at the University of Illinois. Again.

Coming Soon: THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL and WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE at Normal Theater, Normal, IL (10/25-28/07), NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) at Avon Theatre, Decatur, IL (10/26/07), Community Planning Month Film Festival at Urbana City Council Chambers, Urbana IL (10/28/07), CHILDREN OF THE GRAVE at Avon Theatre, Decatur, IL (10/31/07), and “Film Exposed” workshop at 131 GSLIS Building, UIUC, Champaign, IL (11/2/07).

WILL-TV and the University of Illinois Library once again sponsor “Home Movie Day,” a celebration of amateur small-gague cinema, at the WILL studios on Saturday, August 11, 2007, 1 p.m.

Article in Champaign daily The News-Gazette about the “Audio-Visual Self-Assessment Program,” an initiative by the University of Illinois Library to develop a computerized system that will aid collectors and archivists in analyzing media holdings.

WILL-TV and the University of Illinois Library sponsor “Home Movie Day,” a celebration of amateur small-gague cinema, at the WILL studios on Saturday, August 12, 2006, 1 p.m.