C-U Biz-en-scène: 12.17.2010

“C-U Biz-en-scène” appears every Thursday/Friday on C-U Blogfidential to give our readers a succinct snapshot of the cinema activity in and near Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA. Please support the artists and their work, attend screenings and events, and otherwise become active in our esoteric little world!

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MFHQ & YOU:
Four Digits and Three Hundred Fans … To-day?!

Don’t be surprised if the next two or three weeks’ worth of CUBiz take on a lean and mean sheen as we’re spending some quality time scrubbing behind the ears (and couches and cabinets and chairs, oh my!) of the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters to make it presentable. During this faux down time, may we encourage some or all of our dearest readers to visit the C-U Confidential Facebook group and the C-U Confidential YouTube channel, especially if you have not perused them for some time? We can tell that both offshoots receive a trickle of ocular love over time, but we encourage you to fill our stockings with virtual good cheer by helping goose (ooh!) the number of FB fans to 300 and YT views to 1,000 by January 1, 2011! It costs you nothing and your continued enjoyment and use of both resources fills us with endless cheer. Hear, hear!!!

PRODUCTION

While the average everyday human beings of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond plow through the snow filled streets of our fair twin cities, no rest will be had for the few, the proud, the filmmakers! Word is that CUBlog will soon get an exclusive peek at footage from Kill Vampire Lincoln ProductionsONCE UPON A TIME IN 1972 as well as the full-length script for Colin Price’s RED LIGHT! We’ve also stepped foot on the set of the newest project from Thomas Nicol and Tangeant Productions, THE WINDOW INTO TIME, and we’ll tell you a bit more about it after we visit again … and, maybe, again! Our new friend Paul Holze will embark on his inaugural Africa voyage next month to begin research for his documentary, THE STORY OF HAPPINESS. Finally, our journalistic nose for all the local movie news fit to post turned up that DISPOSABLE, the Dreamscape Cinema thriller made prior to MY DOG THE SPACE TRAVELER, will play the Canopy Club on Thursday, January 13, 7 p.m., presumably in its finished form. There, there!!!

EXHIBITION

Sanford Hess of the Art Theater in Champaign is now offering unique programming in concert with Emerging Pictures’ digital distribution service, the Emerging Cinemas Network, allowing him to present a wider variety of material to the C-U public in high definition. Since the Art’s bread and butter is the motion picture, Hess is integrating the service with limited-run presentations of live performance beginning with Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost last weekend and The Nutcracker ballet this weekend, to be followed by a monthly dose of opera (Carmen in January, Rigoletto in February, La Traviata in March) and ballet (Flames of Paris in January, Giselle in February, Don Quixote in March). Specially priced passes are now available for each set of opera and ballet shows, which will save you money on individual performance tickets, and Emerging’s expansive catalog of specialty, classic, and world films will surely prove fruitful for the Art in the long run. Support Hess’ trial period and he might just gift the C-U with even more unexpected and amazing cinema than usual. Encore, encore!!!

MEDIA LINKS

Wethinks an acute case of sequelitis has crept into the foray as we present links to stories that indirectly follow up recent subject matter on CUBlog. For starters, Weblog loafing has unearthed developments in the progress of Daniel Griffith’s long gestating documentary on the Bloomington-raised B-movie producer, K. Gordon Murray. Not only did Turner Classic Movies schedule the official premiere of THE WONDER WORLD OF K. GORDON MURRAY this month, paired with the ubiquitous Mexican fantasy import SANTA CLAUS (1959) which made Murray’s name, but clearance issues forced Griffith and TCM to push its bow to 2011; the filmmaker promises to reveal a new broadcast date as well as DVD release timetable as soon as possible. And then, numerous news outlets aided Roger Ebert in spreading the news this past week that ROGER EBERT PRESENTS AT THE MOVIES would hit the airwaves beginning January 21 on PBS stations across the United States and worldwide for our service men and women via the Armed Forces Network; WILL-TV will play it on their 12.1 HD channel. Finally, THQ and their Champaign subsidiary, Volition, Inc., broke the first teaser trailer for their 2013(!) videogame collaboration with Guillermo del Toro called InSANE which, being issued so early in the development process, reveals pretty much nothing about the project except that it may sport a fashionable black and green visual palette along with a carpet of slimy wormy things. Mmmmmmmm-hmmmmmmm!!!

PLAYING THIS WEEK

@ The Art Theater, Champaign, IL: THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST (12/17 on), THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (12/17, 12/18, 12/23, 10 p.m.), The Nutcracker (12/18-12/19, 12 & 2:30 p.m., ballet)

@ The Avon Theater, Decatur, IL: THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER (12/17 on), STONE, THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST (12/17-12/21), TRUE GRIT, BLACK SWAN (12/22 on)

@ The Normal Theater, Normal, IL: A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1935) (12/16-12/17, 7 p.m.), IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (12/18-12/19, 7 p.m.)

@ The Lorraine Theatre, Hoopeston, IL: YOGI BEAR (12/17 on), THE POLAR EXPRESS (12/18, 12 p.m., Free)

@ That’s Rentertainment, Champaign, IL: THE TOWN, DESPICABLE ME, THE OTHER GUYS, NANNY MCPHEE RETURNS, THE A-TEAM, CYRUS, WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY, MICMACS, EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP, JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK, more! (12/14 on)

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@ The Canopy Club, Urbana, IL: Pizza + Pitcher and Movie – TBA

Locally produced movies and events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Go see ‘em!

COMING SOON

NEW! 1/13, 2011: DISPOSABLE*
@ The Canopy Club, Urbana, IL, 7 p.m.

1/18, 2011: DVD release: SHEEBA*

2/11, 2011: DVD release: PRESS START 2 CONTINUE*

2/18-2/27, 2011: Big Muddy Film Festival
@ Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL

3/22-3/27, 2011: Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, MI

3/30-4/1, 2011: Wisconsin Film Festival, Madison, WI

4/27-5/1, 2011: Roger Ebert’s Film Festival
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL

COMMUNITY FILM SERIES

“Real Vs. Reel” Movie Series
@ Danville Public Library, Danville, IL, 6:30 p.m.

1/10/11: SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS; 2/14/11: HOOSIERS; 3/14/11: A PLACE IN THE SUN; 4/11/11: THE FUGITIVE

The News-Gazette Film Series 2011
@ The Virginia Theater, Champaign, IL, 1 & 7 p.m.

1/22/11: TOP GUN; 2/5/11: SOME LIKE IT HOT; 3/12/11: THE MATRIX; 4/23/11: TOY STORY; 5/14/11: REAR WINDOW

WILL-TV/Independent Lens “Community Cinema” series
@ Champaign Public Library, Champaign, IL, 6:30 p.m.

1/27/11: FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE

OUTRO

Nothing interests us more right now at MFHQ than to celebrate the occasion of your humble editor’s lovely, funny, quirky elder niece reaching the big one-oh today, December 17. Happy Birthday, Miss Hope! May you enjoy the day and brighten our lives for many decades more with the eternal spring in your step!!!

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That’s it for the “business of our scene” this week!

If you have relevant news, opportunities, dates, or promotions that you would like included in CUBiz, please forward the who, what, where, when, and how much to cuconfidential [at] gmail [dot] com.

Compiled by Jason Pankoke

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MF FIRE SALE!

We ask that you consider purchasing back issues of MICRO-FILM and C-U Confidential to help erase our outstanding print bill before we return to the printer with files for not only CUZine no.5 but our delayed special issues, C-U Confidential ’99 and MICRO-FILM 2000. You can order by using the “Donate” PayPal button here or sending cash/check/money order/cashier’s check to: Jason Pankoke, Editor, MICRO-FILM, 401 N. Prairie, Suite 3D, Champaign, IL, 61820. Documents should be made payable to “Jason Pankoke” and personal/business checks will have to sit 4-6 weeks to clear. The sale is good for MICRO-FILM issues 1-7 (do not use the old PayPal buttons if you want sale prices) and C-U Confidential issues 1-4 until further notice. For any single order: 1st copy MF, $5 ppd; 2nd copy MF, $4 ppd, 3rd copy MF, $3 ppd; 4th+ copy MF, $2 ppd each; 1st copy CUZine, $4 ppd; 2nd copy CUZine, $3 ppd, 3rd+ copy CUZine, $1 ppd each. If you have trouble figuring out a total price, simply write us at cuconfidential [at] gmail [dot] com for help. We need to nail this by the end of February 2011 or nefarious decisions will have to be made in the bowels of the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters. Thanks in advance for your support!

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“C-U Biz-en-scène” no. 21 © 2010 Jason Pankoke/C-U Blogfidential.

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