Calendar: July 18-24, 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!
7/17: Don “Hotdog” Waller (proprietor, Don’s Underwater Drive-in & Bed-in Breakfast, Redacted, IL)
7/17: Derek Huey (cinematographer, GRINNERS, Refinery Films LLC, Mount Carroll, IL)
7/19: Don May, Jr. (founder/restoration, Synapse Films, Southfield, MI)
7/21: Shawnee E. Tefteller (owner, Shawnee Studios Model & Talent Management/Casting, Mount Olive, IL)
FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said
This week, we’re going to let the (motion) pictures do the talking as the Report, Images, and Almanac departments take their turns in dropping a thought or two about the role of physical media in the current swing of things. Under this header, we’ll remind you that Chicago Filmmakers continues to host their monthly screenings of vintage materials from the catalog of the specialty distributor, Picture Start, which went defunct in the Windy City in the mid-Nineties but was launched and operated for some time before that in Champaign by the late Ron Epple. A recent email blast from CF promotes the upcoming schedule and displays the most overt visual to date, which makes the connection absolutely clear. We hope the non-profit organization and “Picture ReStart” curator Ben Creech have entertained a healthy turnout during the first half of 2025 and continue to do so through the end of the year. Below, we share their crib notes about the short subjects on deck, all of them to be projected from the same 16-millimeter prints that Picture Start used to store in Champaign and license for theatrical, academic, broadcast, and home video presentations, to be shown the next three months. You can continue to their website for more details about the initiative and also rewind a bit here on CUBlog for our earlier commentary on this effort to contextualize a near-forgotten era of short-form indie cinema. The next “ReStart” is tomorrow, Saturday, July 19, starting at 6 p.m. in the Chicago Filmmakers Firehouse, 1326 W. Hollywood Ave., Chicago.
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From June 25, 2025, via email:
Upcoming Shows
PICTURE RESTART 16MM SERIES
We are excited to announce the next three programs for Picture ReStart – our monthly screening series on 16mm.
In July, we’ll be spotlighting an under-celebrated local experimental filmmaker, showing five of his best films, each playing mischievous games with meaning and language in “Prepared Texts.” In August, we’ll be showing ten films that inspire our inner kiddos by experimenting with cinematic form with an open sense of creativity and minimal tools in “Forever Young.” In September, as a special program for the REELING Film Festival, we’ll be screening four films that linger over the male body in search of a spiritual physicality in “His Sacred Flesh.” Each program will be entirely projected on 16mm film and will feature works that have not screened in Chicago in decades.
Prepared Texts | 7.19.25 | 6 p.m.
A PREPARED TEXT, Dana Hodgdon
PHONEME FROLICS, Dana Hodgdon
DEAR FRIENDS, Dana Hodgdon
DIALECTIC DEFINITIONS, Dana Hodgdon
REFLEXFILM/FAMILYFILM, Dana Hodgdon
“Forever Young” | 8.16.25 | 6 p.m.
DOT-TO-DOT CARTOON CARTOON, JP Somersaulter & Lillian Somersaulter-Moats
GENIUS OF LOVE, Cucumber Studios & The Tom Tom Club
BABY UP-CHUCK, Wendy Hershey
HAND, Deanna Morse
RIVER LETHE, Amy Kravitz
EUPHORIA, Vince Collins
JUMPING, Osamu Tezuka
ROCKERS, Ed Counts
PHASES, Henry Selick
BAMBI MEETS GODZILLA, Marv Newland
“His Sacred Flesh” | 9.20.25 | 6 p.m.
AUTOMONOSEXUAL, Edgar Barens
SONG OF THE GODBODY, James Broughton
CANTICO, James Herbert
CATHEDRAL, Ronald Chase
We encourage you to buy tickets quickly as these screenings SELL OUT fast!
~ Chicago Filmmakers
IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scenes on the Small Screen
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And under this header, we’ll talk about Ye Ed’s emergence in the world of boutique video labels. We previously disclosed that he debuted at the end of 2024 with the New Jersey-based company, Saturn’s Core Audio & Video, as the designer and de facto guest editor for a booklet accompanying the Blu-ray release of DOGS IN QUICKSAND, a late Nineties indie comedy of quirks produced in the C-U by Mike Trippiedi and Bill Yauch. Made available for pre-order on July 1 is the second Saturn’s Core release to feature his booklet composition talents, TWISTED ISSUES, a Florida-lensed punk scene sci-fi horror mélange from the visual artist and camcorder maverick Charles Pinion (RED SPIRIT LAKE), whose early travels took him from Gainesville to New York to San Francisco and involved flirtations with bands, zines, the NYC and Los Angeles porn worlds, the Cinema of Transgression, and lots more Eighties and Nineties DIY lore.
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While Pinion’s creative endeavors have never intersected with Champaign-Urbana to our knowledge, we wanted to hold up the TWISTED and QUICKSAND discs as two worthwhile examples of the many titles put out in recent times by Saturn’s Core and other smaller labels that are devoted to presenting and preserving the curios, weirdos, and died-in-the-wool black sheep of independent cinema along with their respective histories. Saturn’s Core’s owners, Ross Snyder and William Hellfire, stack each release with interviews, related media, and ephemera to give their adventurous customers a sense of time, place, and mise-en-scène from which the main attractions emerged. These kinds of home videos are fueled by passion and a sense of necessity, so more power to anyone who dares to take the niche release plunge. Above and below are product pictures from Saturn’s Core’s distribution partner, OCN Distribution, while we’ve added our own shots of the booklets in hand so you can better see the printed product out of the cases.
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We’ll do our best to hold down the fort at MFHQ Deux while Mr. JaPan flirts with flexing his media muscle a bit more along these lines. Already, he’s delivered a third booklet to Saturn’s Core for an unannounced project and started discussions with them about a fourth. He previously contributed a personal recording with notes of a public appearance by Bruce Campbell and Josh Becker to our friends at Synapse Films in Michigan for inclusion in the 2021 Blu-ray/DVD release of the “one-shot” crime film RUNNING TIME, taped at Noyes Laboratory on the University of Illinois campus in Urbana a long time ago. We’ll make the rare pitch for serious inquiries from folks who’d like to talk with him about future (and paying) endeavors; please write to microfilm.magazine [at] gmail [dot] com on that front. Danke schön!
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CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History
What could we possibly offer under this header? One last Almanac entry on the history of our dearly beloved, That’s Rentertainment, and evidence of a modern analog, so to speak. We don’t normally comment or illustrate under this section, but, when we saw the accompanying photo on Facebook a couple of days ago, we said to ourselves, “Sold!” It is promo for our also beloved, Exile on Main Street, which has been serving their customers well in downtown Champaign for the last twenty years. Visit them in the old train terminal to browse their massive selection of LPs, CDs, cassettes, limited editions, threads, collectibles, and, as we now know, VHS gold! You can click on the image to enlarge in your browser and better take in the slabs, which include an “edited version” (!) of REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, Patrick Stewart with a price tag on his head in SAFE HOUSE, and THIS IS SPINAL TAP, the only tape you’ll ever be able to kindly rewind to eleven. Hey, hands off our DOUBLE WHAMMY!
20 Years Ago … Friday, July 22, 2005: On “Collector’s Day,” owner Geoff Merrit and his staff at That’s Rentertainment launch the arduous task of purging approximately 16,000 VHS cassettes from their library to make way for DVD replacements and fresh stock at their location on the corner of Sixth and John streets in the Campustown area by the University of Illinois in Champaign. After dropping prices daily throughout the weekend, the sale racks would be migrated to the back of the store and linger for another two years until much of the analog catalog was removed. Approximately 100 tapes remained in a token VHS section for the next decade until Rentertainment went out of business in 2015, and approximately 100 more tapes resided in safe keeping with MICRO-FILM editor Jason Pankoke in part to serve as the basis for a new publication, The Video Throne, which never came to fruition. [R] [Rev. 7/18/25]
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NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area
@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
EDDINGTON, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, SAIYAARA* (in Hindi with English sub), SMURFS (animation), TANVI THE GREAT* (in Hindi with English sub), ELIO* (animation), F1 THE MOVIE, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH, ME3AN 2.0*, SUPERMAN (7/18 on), Studio Ghibli Fest: MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (animé) (7/19, 4 p.m., 7/20, 4 & 7 p.m., 7/23, 7 p.m.; English dub; 7/21-7/22, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), AMC “Scream Unseen” (mystery movie) (7/21, 7 p.m.), THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS, OH HI! (7/24 on) *single screenings daily
@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
EDDINGTON, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, SMURFS (animation), 28 YEARS LATER, ELIO (animation), F1 THE MOVIE, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH, LILO & STITCH, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, SOVEREIGN*, SUPERMAN (7/18 on), Studio Ghibli Fest: MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (animé) (7/19, 2 p.m., 7/20, 4 & 7 p.m., 7/23, 7 p.m.; English dub; 7/21-7/22, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), UFC 318: Max Holloway vs. Dustin Poirier, more (mixed martial arts) (7/19, 9 p.m., simulcast), BATMAN FOREVER (7/20, 3 & 7 p.m.; 7/23, 7 p.m.), THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS (7/24 on) *single screenings daily
@ Main Quad, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents “Summer Films on the Quad” feat. DROP (7/24, 9 p.m., free)
Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!
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NOW PLAYING | The Cities Beyond
@ Clintonia Eagle Theater, Clinton, IL
I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, SMURFS (animation), F1 THE MOVIE, JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH, SUPERMAN (7/18 on), TROLLS (animation) (7/22-7/23, 10 a.m., free)
@ The Harvest Moon Twin Drive-in, Gibson City, IL
SUPERMAN (Screen 1), JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH (Screen 2) (7/18-7/23), SUPERMAN (Screen 1), THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS (Screen 2) (7/24)
@ The Lorraine Theatre, Hoopeston, IL
SUPERMAN (7/18-7/20)
@ Marcus Bloomington Cinema + IMAX, Bloomington, IL
EDDINGTON, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, SMURFS (animation), 28 YEARS LATER, ELIO (animation), F1 THE MOVIE, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH, LILO & STITCH*, ME3AN 2.0*, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, SUPERMAN (7/18 on), Indian cinema: JUNIOR* (Telugu w/Eng sub, 7/18-7/23), KOTHAPALLILO OKAPPUDU (Telugu w/Eng sub, 7/18-7/23), and HARI HARA VEERA MALLU: PART I (Telegu w/Eng sub, 7/23), Studio Ghibli Fest: MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (animé) (7/19-7/20, 3:30 p.m., 7/23, 7 p.m.; English dub; 7/21-7/22, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE (animation) (7/20-7/24, 11 a.m.), ROGER WATERS: THIS IS NOT A DRILL – LIVE FROM PRAGUE (concert film) (7/23, 7:30 p.m.), THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS (7/24 on) *single screenings daily
@ The Normal Theater, Normal, IL
PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE (7/20), the Normal and the Children’s Discovery Museum present HARRIET THE SPY (7/21, 1 p.m.; 7/23, 7 p.m.), “The Summer of Bond” series feat. GOLDENEYE (7/24)
@ The Onarga Theatre, Onarga, IL
SMURFS (animation) (7/18-7/20)
@ The Princess Theatre, Leroy, IL
ELIO (animation) (7/18-7/20)
@ The Route 66 Drive-in Theater, Springfield, IL
SUPERMAN, F1 THE MOVIE (Screen 1), JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (Screen 2) (7/18-7/20, 7/23-7/24)
@ VIP Lincoln Grand 6, Lincoln, IL
I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, SMURFS (animation), F1 THE MOVIE, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH, LILO & STITCH, SUPERMAN (7/18 on), TROLLS BAND TOGETHER (animation) (7/23-7/24, 10 a.m.)
NOW PLAYING | Midwest
For detailed and curated listings of Chicago-area film presentations and related events, please visit the fine folks at Cine-File and subscribe to their definitive “Cine-List” weekly blast. And for northern Illinois industry news, be sure to read Reel Chicago and Screen Magazine.
COMING SOON | Area-wide Events
8/16
Pens to Lens Gala 2025*
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL, 3 p.m.
8/16-8/17
“FischerFest” celebrating Gene Hackman
@ The Fischer Theatre, Danville, IL
9/17-9/21
32nd Chicago Underground Film Festival
@ ACX Harper Theater – Hyde Park, Chicago, IL
9/20-9/22
Champaign Film Society presents
the first CineSonic* music film festival
@ TBA, Champaign-Urbana, IL
NEW! 10/15-10/26
61st Chicago International Film Festival
@ Music Box Theatre, etc., Chicago, IL
11/8-11/9
Dark History & Horror Con 2025
feat. Screaming Mad Film Festival
@ The Orpheum Theatre, Champaign, IL
4/23-4/26, 2026
Roger Ebert’s Film Festival*
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
COMMUNITY & CAMPUS SERIES | Champaign-Urbana area
Champaign Park District presents “Moo-vie Nights at Prairie Farm”
@ Prairie Farm/Centennial Park, Champaign, IL, 8 p.m., free
7/25: HOME ON THE RANGE; 8/8: CHARLOTTE’S WEB (2006)
Illini Union Board presents “Summer Films on the Quad”
@ Main Quad, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL, 9 p.m. Thursdays, free
7/31: THUNDERBOLTS*; 8/7: LILO & STITCH; 8/14: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING
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Compiled by Jason Pankoke.
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“Calendar du C-U”
© 2025 Jason Pankoke/C-U Blogfidential
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