Calendar: January 16-22, 2026
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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FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said
Today, we dive back into the mists of time and remind ourselves what the storytellers behind the cameras were making twenty years ago in Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond! This is according to “The Confidential Teletype” on page 44 of MICRO-FILM issue 7, which we published all the way back in October 2005 and assembled in the heart of the Sesquicentennial Neighborhood. It was a relatively busy time for the local movies and about to lead into a handful of more elaborate endeavors that would show our communities we had the capacity for fostering and accommodating something bigger, which is being borne out belatedly as you’ve been reading in our string of Reports that closed out 2025. Let’s continue…
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Laser-beam light has appeared at the end of the long, dark, nasty tunnel where originates the intense output of Hart D. Fisher (MF 2). The former Champaign underground comix publisher has seen his short film CHANCE MEETING hit DVD through Chanting Monks Studios in Florida as a Flowers on the Razorwire release, while his fabled C-U serial killer feature, THE GARBAGE MAN, will finally gut video stores everywhere this fall thanks to SRS Cinema in New York …
Other horror movies have recently emerged from Champaign-Urbana soil, courtesy of Ed Glaser and Mobled Queen Entertainment. His short subjects, DEAD BY DAWN 2 and NIGHT OF ANUBIS, feature local magician Andy Dallas in contemporary black-and-white salutes to the terror films of yore – Robert Wiene’s THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI in the former, vintage mummy and zombie programmers in the latter. Glaser plans to produce his inaugural feature-length film soon …
And yet another ghoul will eventually walk the prairie cornfields! Coming off a lengthy stint working for Hollywood company David Foster Productions (THE CORE), Homer native Ryan E. Heppe visited east central Illinois in August 2004 with partners Nicholas Bird and Amy Beth Heppe to shoot a teaser for STALKED, an Eighties-style scarecrow slasher that will serve as the first production for Knightime Pictures LLC. They’ll collect some B-roll locally this summer, with full-blown stalking to commence mid-2006 …
WILL-TV Channel 12 editor Eleanore Stasheff has been furiously assembling the latest entry in her cable-access fantasy programs, EIDOLON. Like her numerous prior multi-part adventures, EIDOLON mixes intrigue, romance, snappy one-liners, and confident heroines hoofing it from one cliffhanger to the next. Working with many long-time collaborators (including lead actresses Brittany Whalen and Morgan Thomas) from her days at Champaign’s Parkland College and Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Stasheff intends for EIDOLON to bridge the gap between her no-budget roots and professional narrative work …
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…and see how this all played out. After a lengthy residence in California working in the adult video industry and developing a handful of horror/genre streaming channels, including the flagship original American Horrors, Fisher moved back to the Midwest and is now settled in Wisconsin. THE GARBAGE MAN can be found lurking in the depths of American Horrors itself and was ultimately a no-go at SRS, instead coming out on DVD through an outfit called Indie Pictures. Recently, the American Horrors brand has branched out with an eponymous film festival held annually in Lake Geneva while Fisher expands his online foothold, such as with his recent acquisition of the long-running Roku favorite, B-Movie TV.
Elsewhere, Glaser would level up next with two PRESS START videogame movies and a myriad of cult films and historical projects under a new name, Neon Harbor Entertainment, but has not been openly active in this space as of late. Similarly, Stasheff had filled the Nineties and Aughts before and after EIDOLON with her wizardly goodness under the Sine Fine Films banner, but the cascade of low-budget and high-tempo shorts, features, and miniseries has grown quiet except for the occasional reunion special. And, STALKED stalled after the proof-of-concept short was completed, while Heppe’s personal film output has trickled down as he plies other trades in the entertainment industry as a story analyst and producer at Voyage Media as well as a content creator, voiceover artist, and screenplay instructor.
We’ll peek at cinema history du C-U one more time next week, and feel free to Report your new talking points to friends and neighbors from all over. Knowing our foundation is a vital part of solidifying our scene. Cheers!
LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers
@ Esquire Lounge, Champaign, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* meeting (1/19, 7 p.m.)
@ Lincoln Square, Urbana, IL
Champaign Movie Makers* presents “48-Hour Film Competition” (1/16, 7 p.m.-1/18, 7 p.m.)
@ Rantoul Business Center, Flyover Film Studios, Rantoul, IL
“The 2026 Filmworkers Expo” (1/17, 12-5 p.m.)
NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area
@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE, ALL YOU NEED IS KILL (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), THE CHORAL*, HAPPY PATEL: KHATARNAK JASOOS (in Hindi with English sub), NIGHT PATROL*, ANACONDA, AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, GREENLAND 2: MIGRATION, THE HOUSEMAID, MARTY SUPREME, IS THIS THING ON?*, PRIMATE, THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SEARCH FOR SQUAREPANTS (animation), ZOOTOPIA 2 (animation) (1/16 on), MADAGASCAR 20th anniversary* (animation) (1/16-1/22), THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING* (re-release) (1/16-1/21), THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS* (re-release) (1/16-1/20, 1/22), THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING* (re-release) (1/16-1/19, 1/21-1/22), MERCY (1/22 on) *single screenings daily
@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE, CHARLIE THE WONDERDOG (animation), NIGHT PATROL, NO OTHER CHOICE (in Korean with English sub), SHEEPDOG*, AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, DAVID (faith animation), GREENLAND 2: MIGRATION, HAMNET*, THE HOUSEMAID, I WAS A STRANGER*, IS THIS THING ON?, MARTY SUPREME, PRIMATE, SONG SUNG BLUE, THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SEARCH FOR SQUAREPANTS (animation), ZOOTOPIA 2 (animation) (1/16 on), Indian cinema: NARI NARI NADUMA MURAI (in Telugu with English sub; 1/16-1/21), ANAGANAGA OKA RAJU* (in Telugu with English sub; 1/16-1/21), and MANA SHANKARAVARAPRASAD GURY (in Telugu with English sub; 1/16-1/21), THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING* (re-release) (1/16; 1/19-1/22, 12 p.m.), THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS* (re-release) (1/17; 1/19-1/22, 4 p.m.), THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING* (re-release) (1/18; 1/19-1/22, 8:15 p.m.), MEAN GIRLS (2004) (1/18, 3 & 7 p.m.; 1/21, 7 p.m.), MERCY (1/22 on) *single screenings daily
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
The News-Gazette Film Series presents CITIZEN KANE (1/17, 1 & 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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NOW PLAYING | The Cities Beyond
@ The Lorraine Theatre, Hoopeston, IL
SONG SUNG BLUE (1/16-1/18)
@ The Normal Theater, Normal, IL
VERTIGO (1/16-1/18), VIKRAM (in Telugu with English sub) (1/21), FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN (1/22)
@ The Onarga Theatre, Onarga, IL
CHARLIE THE WONDERDOG (animation) (1/16-1/18)
@ The Princess Theatre, Leroy, IL
AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH (1/16-1/18)
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.
4/3-4/10
28th annual Wisconsin Film Festival, Madison, WI
4/9-4/12
36th Onion City Experimental Film Festival, Chicago, IL
4/17-4/19
26th Roger Ebert’s Film Festival*
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
COMMUNITY & CAMPUS SERIES | Champaign-Urbana area
Chambana Film Society presents “The Savoy Arthouse”
@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL, 3 p.m. unless noted otherwise
1/25: The Champaign Movie Makers* 2026 48-Hour Film Competition Screening; 2/1: MOSES THE BLACK*; 2/8: THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB
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Compiled by Jason Pankoke.
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“Calendar du C-U”
© 2026 Jason Pankoke/C-U Blogfidential
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