C-U Biz-en-scène: 11.01.2011

“C-U Biz-en-scène” normally 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:
Halloween ‘11: Season of the Glitch

We knew it would happen at some point, when enough activity swirled around the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters that we’d fail to pull our weekly Biz column out of the proverbial hat. Why are we not surprised this finally took place in the week leading up to Halloween? That said, we could have waited to reboot this Friday with a fresh lowdown on Champaign-Urbana movie culture, but we also realized a handful of key midweek events might be of interest – including Thursday’s final Art Theater showing of TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL – thereby warranting the extra effort.

If nothing else, we spent more total running time than usual watching movies publicly during October’s end. That’s good, right? A trip over to Sleepy Creek Vineyards in Fairmount last Thursday, October 27, yielded bite-sized frights aplenty during the second annual Freeky Creek Short Film Festival, during which Bill Kephart pulled out his Peter Sellers multi-character playbook and skewed our expectations as the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, and an extremely gruff circus clown who calls everyone “Bingo.” Our friends at Psychic Joker Entertainment mixed movies with magic and other seasonal mayhem for 10 days straight at SoDo Theatre in downtown Champaign; they included the original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD on Sunday, October 30, and the cheeky triad of THE LAST MAN ON EARTH with Vincent Price, PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE directed by Ed Wood, Jr., and VOYAGE TO A PREHISTORIC PLANET featuring Russian special-effects footage repurposed by Roger Corman, on Tuesday, October 25. Returning MICRO-FILM contributor Jeff McCoy joined us to take in the FRIGHT NIGHT remake at the Art on Wednesday, October 26; fleet-footed and relatively faithful to the 1985 original despite a clever switch in setting to Las Vegas, it nevertheless wallows in camp and iffy CGI animation sold somewhat by a straight-faced cast including Colin Farrell and Anton Yelchin.

What filmic frights did you encounter leading up to yesterday’s All Hallow’s Eve? Let us know by posting in the Comments field below and chatting up your humble editor on Thursday at the 10 p.m. TUCKER & DALE show or earlier at the 5:30 p.m. screening of THE COMMITMENTS at the Krannert Art Museum!


ITEM OF THE WEEK, Round 1

It’s November 1. That must mean festival passes for the 2012 Roger Ebert’s Film Festival are on sale as of 10 a.m. today. Step on it, folks!


PLAYING THIS/LAST WEEK

THE TRANSIENT*: Saturday, 11/5, 5:46 p.m., Drunken Zombie Film Festival, Peoria, IL

@ The Art Theater, Champaign, IL: THE WAY (10/28 on), RA.ONE (10/28, 9:30 p.m., Bollywood), FRANKENSTEIN (1931; 10/29, 10/30, 12 p.m. w/CU Film Society discussion), TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL (10/29, 10/30, 11/3, 10 p.m.),

@ Krannert Art Museum, UIUC, Champaign, IL: IPRH Film Series presents THE COMMITMENTS (11/3, 5:30 p.m., free)

@ Room 108, English Building, UIUC, Urbana, IL: Illini Film & Video meeting (11/2, 6:30 p.m.)

@ Room 108, English Building, UIUC, Urbana, IL: Auditions for Illini Film & Video club film SNOWBOUND (11/2, 7:30-10 p.m.)

@ Room 1040, NCSA, UIUC, Urbana, IL: Round table with RYAN animator Chris Landreth (10/30, 2 p.m., free, open to public)

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL: THE GODFATHER (11/5, 1 & 7 p.m.)

@ The Avon Theater, Decatur, IL: PUSS IN BOOTS, THE RUM DIARY, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 (10/28 on), JEEPERS CREEPERS (10/28, 10:30 p.m., free), TRICK ‘R TREAT (10/29, 10:30 p.m., free)

@ The Normal Theater, Normal, IL: TALES OF TERROR (10/27-10/28), TRON (10/29-10/30)

@ Route 66 Twin Drive-In, Springfield, IL: “Spooky Nights” movies: ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, THE GHOST & MR. CHICKEN, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, ARMY OF DARKNESS (10/28-10/29)

@ Landmark Cinemas, Peoria, IL: Drunken Zombie Film Festival* (11/4-11/5)

@ Sleepy Creek Vineyards, Fairmount, IL: Freeky Creek Short Film Festival* (10/27-10/29)

@ The Lorraine Theatre, Hoopeston, IL: PUSS IN BOOTS, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 (10/28 on)

@ The Onarga Theatre, Onarga, IL: PUSS IN BOOTS (10/28-10/30, 11/2)

@ That’s Rentertainment, Champaign, IL: CAPTAIN AMERICA, WINNIE THE POOH, PEARL JAM TWENTY, SHAOLIN, THE PEOPLE VS. GEORGE LUCAS, RARE EXPORTS: A CHRISTMAS TALE, more! (10/25 on)

@ Centerbrook Drive-In, Martinsville, IN: DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 (10/28-10/29)

@ Landmark Century Centre Cinema, Chicago, IL: THE LAST RITES OF JOE MAY presented by Midwest Independent Film Festival (11/1, 6 p.m. w/producers’ panel)

@ Landmark Century Centre Cinema, Chicago Filmmakers, etc., Chicago, IL: Reeling Lesbian & Gay International Film Festival (11/2-11/12)

@ Harvest Moon Twin Drive-In, Gibson City, IL: Closed for the season!

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


COMING SOON

11/10-11/12: Embarras Valley Film Festival
@ EIU campus, Charleston, IL

11/10-11/20: St. Louis International Film Festival, St. Louis, MO

11/11-11/13: HorrorHound Weekend (Horror culture), Cincinnati, OH

NEW! 11/12: CUFS “Intro to DSLR Filmmaking” workshop
@ M2, Champaign, IL, 1 p.m.

11/12: “John Waters: This Filthy World,” Indianapolis, IN

NEW! 11/16: Champaign Movie Makers meeting
@ SoDo Theatre, Champaign, IL, 7 p.m.

11/18-11/20: Illinois International Film Festival, Chicago, IL

NEW! 11/26: HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PT. 1 & 2
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL

NEW! 11/29, 12/1: THE HELP
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL

NEW! 12/3: NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL

1/20, 2012: Issue release: C-U Confidential ‘99
+ Paper Opteryx, Champaign, IL

4/15, 2012: Buttered Corn on the Cob Film Festival
@ 88 Broadway, Urbana, IL

4/18-4/22, 2012: Wisconsin Film Festival, Madison, WI

4/25-4/29, 2012: Roger Ebert’s Film Festival
@ The Virginia Theater, Champaign, IL


COMMUNITY FILM SERIES

Horror Films
@ The “Haunted” Avon Theater, Decatur, IL, 10:30 p.m., free
10/28: JEEPERS CREEPERS; 10/29: TRICK ‘R TREAT

The New Classics: Great Books to Great Films from the Past 50 Years
@ Danville Public Library, Danville, IL, 6:30 p.m.
11/14: ORDINARY PEOPLE; 12/12: FAIL SAFE (1964); 1/9/12: NEVER CRY WOLF; 2/13/12: AWAKENINGS; 3/12/12: ADAPTATION; 4/9/12: UP IN THE AIR

UPDATE! The News-Gazette Film Series 2011
@ The Virginia Theater, Champaign, IL, 1 & 7 p.m.
11/5: THE GODFATHER; 12/3: NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION


UNIVERSITY FILM SERIES

AsiaLENS: AEMS Documentary/Film Series
@ Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, 7 p.m.
11/8: WHO KILLED CHEA VICHEA?; 12/8: WINGS OF DEFEAT

UPDATE! Global Lens 2011: International Films
@ The Art Theater, Champaign, IL
11/8: WHITE MEADOWS, Iran

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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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“C-U Biz-en-scène” no.66 © 2011 Jason Pankoke/C-U Blogfidential.

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