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Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday\/Saturday on <\/em>C-U Blogfidential<\/span><\/strong> and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.<\/em><\/p>\n ~~~~~<\/p>\n MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!<\/strong><\/p>\n 4\/21: Brian Paris (multimedia producer, City of Champaign administration department, Champaign, IL) \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said<\/strong><\/p>\n Given how the crowd at Roger Ebert\u2019s Film Festival<\/strong> is in part reflecting on the 10th anniversary of the revered film critic\u2019s passing, we present to you three items that recall other locally connected folks who once were active in the film arts. First, included in the Kino Lorber<\/strong> home video sale that will end after Monday, April 24<\/strong><\/a><\/span>, is the neorealist drama THE OLIVE TREES OF JUSTICE<\/strong> from 1962, directed by the American documentarian James Blue<\/strong> and photographed by the University of Illinois<\/strong> cinematography professor Julius Rascheff<\/strong>. This unusual production is the only French film to be shot in Algeria<\/strong> during that country\u2019s war to gain independence from France<\/strong> and also one of the only feature credits for Rascheff, who died in 2017. OLIVE TREES<\/strong> had not been properly distributed in the United States<\/strong> before Kino began to offer it theatrically in January 2022<\/a><\/span> and on Blu-ray and VOD in April of last year.<\/p>\n Gone for much longer but still a source of inspiration is Vachel Lindsay<\/strong>, the Springfield<\/strong>-raised poet and traveling performer who authored the first true publication of film analysis, The Art of the Moving Picture<\/span><\/strong>, which was published in 1915. We\u2019ve learned the state of Illinois<\/strong> recently collaborated<\/a><\/span> with the Vachel Lindsay Foundation<\/strong> and The Storyteller Studios<\/strong> to produce a documentary, THE LIFE AND WORK OF VACHEL LINDSAY<\/strong>, which had its first public screening last Friday, April 14<\/strong>, at UI-Springfield<\/strong> and will be shown again this Saturday, April 22, 7 p.m.<\/strong>, at the Varsity Center<\/strong> in Carbondale<\/strong>. Participants in the project include Lindsay scholar David Logan<\/strong>, a previous special guest of the New Art Film Festival<\/strong>, while fans can soon view the piece, directed by Kevin Christensen<\/strong>, at both the historic Vachel Lindsay Home<\/strong> in the Capital City and online courtesy of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources<\/strong> and State Historic Sites Springfield<\/strong>. Dearest readers can watch a trailer right now at the Storyteller website<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n To close, who the heck du C-U was ever going to tell us about Dora Hall<\/strong>? Based on what little we now know from online writing about this peculiar saga<\/a><\/span>, Chicago<\/strong> suburbanite Hall rekindled her love of performing later in life and recorded extensively in the 1960s and 1970s while she was in<\/em> her sixties and seventies, bankrolled by husband and well-off Solo Cup<\/strong> founder Leo Hulseman<\/strong>. Most of the songs were covers, mixed-and-matched on various LPs and cassettes issued by various labels invented for the cause, and when their allure waned with customers, even as giveaway products sent through the mail or bound into the packaging of Solo\u2019s plastic ware, Team Dora began to develop a series of syndicated television specials<\/a><\/span> to star her and lower-tier Hollywood<\/strong> celebrities in the service of old-fashioned fun. Several of these were resurrected as VHS releases in the late 1980s around the time of Hall\u2019s death, listing as a mailing address the former Solo Cup factory in Urbana<\/strong> that is now known as Dart Container<\/strong>. Presumably, Hall\u2019s products were stored and shipped from there.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area<\/strong><\/p>\n @ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL<\/strong> @ Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL<\/strong> @ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL<\/strong>
\n4\/21: William Kephart (scene shop chief clerk, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, UIUC, Urbana, IL)
\n4\/24: Ron Bonk (producer\/distributor, SRS Cinema, Syracuse, NY)
\n4\/25: Marty McKee (writer, Johnny LaRue\u2019s Crane Shot<\/span>, Champaign-Urbana, IL)<\/p>\n
\nCHEVALIER, THE COVENANT, EVIL DEAD RISE, HOW TO BLOW UP A PIPELINE, AIR, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES, JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4, MAFIA MAMMA*, THE POPE\u2019S EXORCIST, RENFIELD, THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (animation), SUZUME (anim\u00e9; in Japanese w\/English sub or English dub) (4\/14 on), Studio Ghibli Fest: Spirited Away: Live on Stage<\/span> (anim\u00e9 adaptation; in Japanese w\/English sub) (Feat. Kanna Hashimoto: 4\/23, 4 p.m., simulcast; 4\/25, 7 p.m., recorded) (Feat. Mone Kamishiraishi: 4\/27, 7 p.m., simulcast), ARE YOU THERE, GOD? IT\u2019S ME, MARGARET., BIG GEORGE FOREMAN: THE MIRACULOUS STORY, POLITE SOCIETY, PONNIYIN SELVAN: PART 2 (in Tamil), SISU (4\/27 on) *single shows daily<\/p>\n
\nIllini Union Board presents \u201cSpring 2023 Weekend Films\u201d feat. ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA; (4\/21-4\/22, 7 p.m., free w\/i-card)<\/p>\n
\nBEAU IS AFRAID, THE COVENANT, EVIL DEAD RISE, AIR, AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER (3-D)*, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES, JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4, NEFARIOUS, THE POPE\u2019S EXORCIST, RENFIELD, SCREAM VI, THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (animation), SUZUME (anim\u00e9; in Japanese w\/English sub or English dub) (4\/21 on), MAFIA MAMMA, SWEETWATER* (4\/21-4\/22, 4\/24-4\/27), Studio Ghibli Fest: Spirited Away: Live on Stage<\/span> (anim\u00e9 adaptation; in Japanese w\/English sub) (Feat. Kanna Hashimoto: 4\/23, 4 p.m., simulcast) (Feat. Mone Kamishiraishi: 4\/27, 7 p.m., simulcast), BLAZING SADDLES (4\/23, 3 & 7 p.m.; 4\/26, 7 p.m.), FLASHDANCE 40th anniversary (4\/26, 7 p.m.), ARE YOU THERE, GOD? IT\u2019S ME, MARGARET., BIG GEORGE FOREMAN: THE MIRACULOUS STORY (4\/27 on) *single shows daily<\/p>\n