C-U Biz-en-scène: 01.28.2011
“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:
We’re In It to Post It, Deux
On Friday, February 25, C-U Blogfidential will celebrate five years’ worth of blogging all that is characteristic of the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond! Not only that, we’ll join the 5/500 club shortly thereafter when we post for the 500th time. We’re unsure quite how astounding an achievement this really is, but at the least it’s proof positive that we’re bound, determined, and stubborn enough to keep CUBlog afloat for your entertainment and education. That said, we’re in a take-and-give mood here at the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters. Starting right after the 25th, when we publish your humble editor’s annual “In My Backyard” essay, we’d like to feature your words about living la vida cinema in MICRO-FILM Country! Please send us no more than 2,000 words total describing five significant movie milestones you’ve encountered in or near the C-U during the past five years! You could recall awesome theatrical shows, impeccable video viewing, sublime on-set achievements, once-in-a-lifetime celebrity encounters, or anecdotes so uniquely dazzling that even we aren’t smart enough to come up with them as examples! Basically, you’ll submit your own personal movie timeline running parallel with the life span of CUBlog itself. Send us your stories by Tuesday, May 10, for consideration! Of course, we reserve the right to reject submissions for any reason and edit accepted material for grammar, clarity, and accuracy before posting. Celebrate the CUBlog legacy by helping make it richer than ever before!
EXHIBITION
Veteran independent filmmaker Mike Trippiedi of Champaign has announced his feature drama, AMBER ROSE, will have its World Premiere at the Washington D.C. Independent Film Festival which will take place March 3-13 in the nation’s capital. Location and full schedule for the 13th edition of DCIFF, including satellite classes, seminars, live music after hours, and an “Independent Summit on the Hill,” have yet to be announced but we’re positive Trippiedi will fill us in once he’s forwarded the details. Congratulations to the cast and crew of the movie! We hope this will be only the first of many play dates worldwide for the production, created completely in Champaign-Urbana.
PRODUCTION
An e-mail update issued by the Illini Film & Video club at the University of Illinois listed information about a spring semester “independent study” through Krannert Art Museum involving the video recording of “several museum events for museum Web site, Facebook, YouTube, and other public relation needs. The candidate will work closely with museum staff to design, develop, and present the final product.” Videos will provide a “significant record” of KAM’s 50th anniversary year in operation. Interested students should contact Anne Sautman at (217) 244-0419 or asautman [at] illinois [dot] edu.
MERCH
On the heels of our Dark Maze Studios “Images of the Week” posted last Friday, we received a deluge of update goodness from the Champaign group particularly in regards to PRESS START 2 CONTINUE, for which director Ed Glaser is assembling a trailer and finalizing the DVD for March 11 release. We finally know about extras, which will include a filmmakers’ commentary track, a separate cast commentary, a making-of featurette, and the short adventure PRESS START: BIO-HAPHAZARD, with more goodies soon to be announced. Amusingly, the press release encourages fans to stage PRESS START 2 viewing parties and send the filmmakers evidence (e.g., photos) for posting on the Internet. We highly doubt your humble editor will allow such a throw-down to take place at MFHQ but it does sound fun. What sounds even more fun to our ears, but is not even alluded to in the update, is a PRESS START 2 local theatrical premiere! Hmm, when in the world could that possibly take place? (Hint: Pay attention to our second post later this afternoon. Put our “2” and PRESS START 2 together. Cry out in elation. Repeat.)
SUBMISSIONS
Wearing your thinking tuques, friendly neighborhood filmmakers? It’s time once again for you to find events at which to show your masterpieces to the world! Two weeks ago, we told you about the Kansas City FilmFest; today we clue you in on something called KC CreepFest, apparently returning after a 2010 hiatus on October 28-29 of this year. To be fair, festival brains Big Atom Productions has been busy with its own filmic aspirations including CADAVERELLA and BONNIE & CLYDE VS. DRACULA, the latter recently picked up by Indican Pictures for release next month. Hit up Big Atom’s Jennifer Friend at jenn [at] bigatomproductions [dot] com if you have regional horror/grindhouse of the Midwest persuasion that you’d be interested in seeing play Missouri this fall.
The players behind two long-standing Windy City fests are stocking up to shock the city folk with outré cinema. More immediate are the needs of the 18th annual Chicago Underground Film Festival, presented by IFP/Chicago, for which the regular submission deadline passes next Tuesday, February 1, with the late deadline coming on Tuesday, March 15. CUFF will “confront the tired, the market-driven, and the predictable” at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago from June 2-9. While experimental work has a home at CUFF, it is the exclusive province of the Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival, sponsored by Chicago Filmmakers, which will stage its 23rd annual edition June 23-26 at CF and other venues. Final deadline to enter is April 15. The mission of Onion City is to offer “a wide variety of contemporary experimental works, focused on artistic excellence but also with an eye towards representing differing styles, forms, and nationalities.”
Last but not least, the 17th annual Brainwash “Drive-In Bike-In Walk-In” Movie Festival will drop independent movie madness on Oakland, CA, in August. This celebration of the lo-fi and quirky has three deadlines with escalating entry fees: the “Early Bird” accepting screeners postmarked by April 15, the “On Time” accepting screeners postmarked by May 1, and the proverbial “Late” accepting screeners postmarked by May 10. All the details and more can be found here including the amusing stipulation to “please never send your parents’ home videos!” The six Brainwash award-winners will earn their makers free Gorilla film production software. You can direct questions to shelbytoland [at] yahoo [dot] com.
MEDIA LINKS
We can barely justify the plural in the subhead this week, but we do what we can to live up to our promises. Luckily, the marquee trajectory points you right to the 2011 Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences “Oscar” nominees, listed in full by IndieWIRE, so that will keep you busy for a few moments if you haven’t obsessed over them already. If you have started making a mental punch list of winners, then express your gut feelings by filling out this ballot sponsored through The217.com and Savoy 16 Theaters by Saturday, February 26, and possibly win up to one year’s worth of free admission “for two” at the ol’ multiplex to the south. We also received a suggestion from our pal Joe Taylor to read over this rumination by Los Angeles-based post-production consultant and Final Cut Studio expert Larry Jordan of trends that independent video producers would be wise to keep in mind while working through 2011. Those who didn’t catch our initial reactions to EBERT PRESENTS AT THE MOVIES on Wednesday will be happy to know an official Web site has been launched for the program. Aaaaaaaaaand, that’s a wrap.
PLAYING THIS WEEK
@ The Art Theater, Champaign, IL: I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS (1/28 on), TRON: LEGACY (1/28, 1/29, 2/3, 10 p.m.), SEVEN SAMURAI (1/29, 12 p.m., Akira Kurosawa, hosted by Richard Leskosky), RAN (1/30, 12 p.m., Akira Kurosawa, hosted by Richard Leskosky)
@ The Avon Theater, Decatur, IL: THE RITE, 127 HOURS, ALL GOOD THINGS (1/28 on), THE RITE hosted by Troy Taylor (1/29, 5 p.m.)
@ The Normal Theater, Normal, IL: WINTER’S BONE (1/27-1/30, 7 p.m.)
@ The Lorraine Theatre, Hoopeston, IL: THE RITE, THE GREEN HORNET (1/28 on)
ADDED! @ Gemini Cinemas, Villa Grove, IL: THE GREEN HORNET, MORNING GLORY (1/28 on)
ADDED! @ The Onarga Theatre, Onarga, IL: GULLIVER’S TRAVELS (1/28-1/30, 2/2, 7 p.m.)
@ That’s Rentertainment, Champaign, IL: RED, SECRETARIAT, THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST, ENTER THE VOID, NOWHERE BOY, SAW: THE FINAL CHAPTER, more! (1/25 on)
@ Norris University Center, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL: B-Fest 24 hour marathon (1/28-1/29)
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Locally produced movies and events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Go see ‘em!
COMING SOON
2/3: THE COVE screening & academic discussion
@ Tarble Arts Center, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL, 7 p.m.
2/12: THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW
@ The Canopy Club, Urbana, IL, Midnight
2/18-2/27: Big Muddy Film Festival
@ Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL
2/27: PROBABILITY OF POSSIBILTIES* dance film (Premiere)
@ Krannert Art Museum, UIUC, Champaign, IL, 3 p.m.
2/27: Central Illinois Film Commission “Red Carpet Party”
@ TBD, 5:30 p.m.
3/10: THE LINGUISTS w/filmmakers
@ Doudna Fine Arts Center, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL, 7 p.m.
3/11: DVD release: PRESS START 2 CONTINUE*
+ Dark Maze Studios, Champaign, IL
3/22-3/27: Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, MI
3/30-4/1: Wisconsin Film Festival, Madison, WI
4/8: The New Art Film Festival at Boneyard Arts Festival
@ The Art Theater, Champaign, IL
4/27-5/1: Roger Ebert’s Film Festival
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
NEW! 6/23-6/26: Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival, Chicago, IL
9/16-9/18: Route 66 International Film Festival
@ Hoogland Center for the Arts, Springfield, IL
COMMUNITY FILM SERIES
“Real Vs. Reel” Movie Series
@ Danville Public Library, Danville, IL, 6:30 p.m.
2/14: HOOSIERS; 3/14: A PLACE IN THE SUN; 4/11: THE FUGITIVE
Springfield Art Association 20th Annual Film Festival
@ AMC Parkway 8, Springfield, IL, 1 & 4 p.m. (Sun.), 7 p.m. (Tues.)
1/30, 2/2: LAST TRAIN HOME; 2/13, 2/15: MADEMOISELLE CHAMBON; 2/27, 3/1: UNDERTOW; 3/13, 3/15: MOTHER AND CHILD; 3/27, 3/29: MADE IN DAGENHAM; 4/10, 4/12: MY DOG TULIP
The News-Gazette Film Series 2011
@ The Virginia Theater, Champaign, IL, 1 & 7 p.m.
2/5: SOME LIKE IT HOT; 3/12: THE MATRIX; 4/23: TOY STORY; 5/14: REAR WINDOW; 6/4: MOULIN ROUGE!; 7/23: BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S; 8/6: ARSENIC AND OLD LACE; 9/10: ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT; 10/8: THE EXORCIST; 11/5: THE GODFATHER; 12/3: THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS
UPDATE! WILL-TV/Independent Lens “Community Cinema” series
@ Champaign Public Library, Champaign, IL, 6:30 p.m.
2/24: ME FACING LIFE; 3/17: PUSHING THE ELEPHANT; TBA: BHUTTO, WELCOME TO SHELBYVILLE, TWO SPIRITS
OUTRO
Here’s something to think about, folks – of the almost five years’ worth of content here on C-U Blogfidential, 100% of the material has been edited, coded, and posted by your humble editor, who has also written possibly 95% of it (not to mention 100% of the copy lurking on the Pages) save for the columnists, occasional feature contributors, and press releases run wholesale. We’d certainly love to spread the wealth and open up the depth of what we can offer our dearest readers so, whether or not you contribute to the “five C-U movie milestones from the past five years” series pitched at the beginning of CUBiz this week – which, of course, we would love for you to do – hit us up if you’re serious about adding valuable words to this token independent press for independent film rooted in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.
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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. 27 © 2011 Jason Pankoke/C-U Blogfidential.