Calendar: August 15-21, 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!
8/15: Chuck Koplinski (movie journalist, The Illinois Times, Springfield, IL)
8/18: Jeff Brandt (owner, Exile on Main Street, Champaign, IL)
8/19: Ken Lee (vice president, Michael Wiese Productions, Studio City, CA)
FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said
What else can we talk about in this week’s Report, fearless readers? Plenty, as it turns out, and we’ll take “Miscellaneous of Interest” for $1,000, Alex … The University of Illinois announced last month the release of a new volume from the University of Illinois Press called The Future of Memory: A History of Lossless Format Standards in the Moving Image Archive by Jimi Jones and Marek Jancovic, in which the authors describe the recent development of several electronic methods for archiving holdings in a high-quality digital form and the struggles in not only settling on a universal standard for library work, but also arriving at viable solutions that are often at odds with accepted practices in the entertainment and broadcast industries. Jones, who recently began working for the University of Illinois Foundation and will teach his final iSchool course this upcoming semester, has a long relationship with UI higher education as a student, instructor, and researcher specializing in asset management and preservation.
Out in the C-U community, the bridge between a growing professional filmmaking scene and other arts disciplines has been strengthening on several fronts from Pens to Lens to Flyover Film Studios and on; a current example is illustrated by this Indiegogo campaign to raise funds and augment the budget for “Golden Meadow,” an upcoming music video that will use scenes set in our region’s rural landscape (including underwater footage!) to augment the song by local artist Jill Greenlee that “encapsulates life’s trials and beauty.” Her vision will be in good hands with the production team of director Sarah Cayce, producer Sarah Sharp, and cinematographer Robert Patrick Stearn, all of them critical players in the Flyover startup and usually present on the sets of nearly all the recent major narrative filming to be done in and adjacent to Champaign County; the drive ends after Labor Day and the video will be created this fall after many months of planning. Greenlee often appears at local gigs and is also a portrait and still life painter.
And on a frustrating note, we’ve seen the regional articles about AMC locations being shut down with practically no notice to their own employees or the communities where they operate and it feels like Danville in 2022 all over again. The Journal Gazette & Times-Courier wrote the AMC Classic Mattoon 10 theater would close its doors after the last shows on Thursday, August 7, and one week later on Thursday, August 14, the same would come to pass at the AMC Classic Pekin 14 per the Peoria Journal-Star, which also noted a third location in Marion had also gone out of business. So much for the first-run industry rebound that apparently had been gathering steam since the waning of the pandemic. Maybe the corporate talking heads and industry analysts spinning every last box-office victory are full of it as the sum total weekly numbers are actually pretty stagnant. Superheroes aren’t quite working like they had been. Sequels to modest hits really aren’t working at all. Original smashes like SINNERS and sleeper hits like WEAPONS are very spread out right now. Disney is, well, Disney. Where does exhibition go from here, really? Novelty popcorn buckets can only carry you so far…
IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scenes on the Small Screen
Mr. JaPan actually made progress with picking up the mess in aisle MFHQ and that makes Godzilla jolly…
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Today’s share is pretty self-explanatory and a good instance of an oddball find that is completely related to our delayed show-and-tell of C-U movie ephemera, but also completely outside of that sequence since it’s not something Ye Ed is planning to pick up. Conveniently, this also serves as the first of a few brief notes on the doings at the revived and rockin’ Lincoln Square Theatre in downtown Decatur; organizers have gone all-in on a winning formula for the 109-year-old venue – touring music acts, seemingly half originals and half tributes, but who’s counting? – while rarely dipping a toe in what had been the primary attraction in the mid-20th century, the movies. We’ll discuss that a bit in future Calendars, but for today we’d like to share the following that our rummaging editor found in the dense jungle of eBay way back in April and, lo and behold, is still available today from the reseller “kruhe”:
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Dated February 1960 and described as an Ektachrome slide, despite the fact much of the hue has faded to pink, the image above is one of a few for sale from the merchant that depicts firemen working on this block of Main Street, as certain angles also show a firetruck ladder stretched to the rooftop. Given that it was wintertime when this happened, either Decatur was in a deep freeze and the buildings covered in ice or the fire department had doused the block to put out the fire with so much water or foam that it resulted in a cascading ice effect. Whatever actually happened, the effect is visually striking and, according to local historian and paranormal expert Troy Taylor, the damage suffered by the structures also altered the makeup of the Lincoln Square. It’s unfortunate the name of the photographer is not on the slides, at least what is pictured in the eBay listings, but it leads us to believe they were taken by a bystander and not a member of the press. Maybe the current LST trust can pool together and add this history to their archives.
CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History
10 Years Ago … Sunday, August 16, 2015: That’s Rentertainment in Champaign closes for good at the end of the business day after serving the University of Illinois campus and Champaign-Urbana community for just a little more than thirty years. Remaining stock would be relocated to the Parasol Label Group building on Griggs Street in downtown Urbana and, for a time, made available to walk-in customers in the “Rec Room” wing along with collectibles from Geoff Merritt’s other retired Campustown storefront, Toon Town. As of 2025, Rentertaiment’s DNA is sparse at Parasol, although some items can be found on the floor and others, mostly of the print variety, can be purchased from their eBay account. A little bit of video is also available among a lot of great audio recordings at the Parasol seller account on Discogs.
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LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers
@ Esquire Lounge, Champaign, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* meeting + Pens to Lens recap (8/18, 7 p.m.)
@ The Fischer Theatre, Danville, IL
“FischerFest: The Cinematic Legacy of Gene Hackman” featuring: BONNIE & CLYDE (8/16, 11 a.m.), THE FRENCH CONNECTION (8/16, 3 p.m.), UNFORGIVEN (8/16, 7 p.m.), CRIMSON TIDE (8/17, 11 a.m.), “Dessert & Discussion” hosted by Chuck Koplinski and Pamela Powell (8/17, 2 p.m.), and THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS (8/17, 4 p.m.) Further details
NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area
@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
AMERICANA*, COOLIE* (in Tamil with English sub), DEAD TO RIGHTS* (in Mandarin with English and Chinese sub), EAST OF WALL*, JIMMY AND STIGGS*, THE KNIFE*, NOBODY 2, SHIN GODZILLA (in Japanese with English sub), WAR 2* (in Hindi with English sub), WITCHBOARD*, THE BAD GUYS 2 (animation), THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS, FREAKIER FRIDAY, JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH, THE NAKED GUN, SKETCH*, SUPERMAN, WEAPONS (8/15 on), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (8/18, 7 p.m.), NE ZHA II sneak preview (animation) (8/18, 7 p.m.), HONEY DON’T, NE ZHA II (animation; English dub), RELAY (8/21 on) *single screenings daily
@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
AMERICANA, COOLIE (in Tamil with English sub), DEAD TO RIGHTS (in Mandarin with English and Chinese sub), EAST OF WALL, NOBODY 2, WAR 2 (in Hindi with English sub), THE BAD GUYS 2 (animation), F1 THE MOVIE, THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS, FREAKIER FRIDAY, JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH, THE NAKED GUN, SKETCH, SUPERMAN, WEAPONS (8/15 on), TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES 35th anniversary (8/16-8/19, 1 & 7 p.m.; 8/20, 7 p.m.), THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS (8/16, 2 & 7 p.m.; 8/17, 3 & 7 p.m.; 8/20, 7 p.m.), UFC 319: Dricus du Plessis vs. Khamzat Chimaev, more (mixed martial arts) (8/16, 9 p.m., simulcast), NE ZHA II sneak preview (animation) (8/18, 7 p.m., IMAX), “Texas Chain Saw Day” feat. THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974), documentary preview (8/18, 7 p.m.), “RiffTrax Live!” presents TIMECOP (8/19, 7 p.m., simulcast), PRIMITIVE WAR (8/21 on)
@ Main Quad, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents “Welcome Back Film on the Quad” feat. HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (8/24, 9 p.m., free)
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
40 North, Champaign Movie Makers, Champaign-Urbana Design Organization, and Champaign Park District present the 2025 Pens to Lens Gala and Award Ceremony* (8/16, 2 p.m. doors and red carpet, 3 p.m. presentation) Information
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
MEN IN BLACK, NOBODY 2, TOP GUN: MAVERICK, THE BAD GUYS 2 (animation), FREAKIER FRIDAY, WEAPONS (8/15 on)
@ The Harvest Moon Twin Drive-in, Gibson City, IL
THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW 50th anniversary (Screen 1), FREAKIER FRIDAY (Screen 2) (8/15, 8/17), THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW 50th anniversary with Flustered Mustard shadow cast performance (Screen 1), FREAKIER FRIDAY (Screen 2) (8/16)
@ The Lorraine Theatre, Hoopeston, IL
FREAKIER FRIDAY (8/15-8/17)
@ The Normal Theater, Normal, IL
FANTASTIC VOYAGE (8/15-8/17), INNERSPACE (8/16-8/17), CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD (8/20), KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE (8/21)
@ The Onarga Theatre, Onarga, IL
Closed for the week.
@ The Princess Theatre, Leroy, IL
THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS (8/15-8/17)
@ The Route 66 Drive-in Theater, Springfield, IL
THE BAD GUYS 2 (animation), FREAKIER FRIDAY (Screen 1), WEAPONS, SUPERMAN (Screen 2) (8/15-8/17, 8/20-8/21)
@ VIP Lincoln Grand 6, Lincoln, IL
NOBODY 2, THE BAD GUYS 2 (animation), THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS, FREAKIER FRIDAY, JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH, THE NAKED GUN, WEAPONS (8/15 on)
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, Screen Magazine, and the Chicago Reader.
COMING SOON | Area-wide Events
8/22 & 8/24
JIMMY IN SAIGON* screening w/filmmaker Peter McDowell
@ Chicago Filmmakers Firehouse Cinema, Chicago, IL, 7 p.m. (8/22) & 6 p.m. (8/24)
9/17-9/21
32nd Chicago Underground Film Festival
@ ACX Harper Theater – Hyde Park, Chicago, IL
9/19-9/28
43rd Reeling: The Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival
@ Landmark’s Century Centre Cinema + Chicago Filmmakers, Chicago, IL
9/20-9/22
Champaign Film Society presents
the first CineSonic* music film festival
@ TBA, Champaign-Urbana, IL
10/15-10/26
61st Chicago International Film Festival
@ Music Box Theatre, etc., Chicago, IL
11/6-11/16
34th Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival
@ The Hi-Pointe Theatre, St. Louis, MO
11/7-11/8
24th Route 66 International Film Festival*
@ Hoogland Center for the Arts, Springfield, IL
11/8-11/9
Dark History & Horror Con* 2025
feat. Screaming Mad Film Festival
@ The Orpheum Theatre, Champaign, IL
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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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