Windy City International
Documentary Festival
May 2-11, 1997
Now in its third year, this Columbia College-sponsored festival showcases documentaries from around the world, with a special focus this year on films from Asia.
Columbia faculty member and filmmaker Martha Foster directs the festival, which begins with a Friday opening night fundraiser showing of the 1993 Chinese television documentary “The Boatmen of the Baili Gorge” and concludes May 11 with the Best of Festival selection, “It Ain’t Love,” a controversial documentary about a group of young actors who develop a play about abuse based on their own experiences.
The “Images of Asia” section, which comprises about half of the 30 films, runs the opening weekend. It includes stories about a nomadic Tibetan family (“Nomads in the Sky”), gay life in a Philippine farming community (“Sunflowers”) and a look at contemporary Mongolia (“Mongolia on the Edge of Time”). Other features include 1997 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize winner “Girls Like Us,” about an ethnically diverse group of girls in south Philadelphia, and “Onward Christian Soldiers,” a Dutch journalist’s perspective on the American religious right.
Last year’s festival included 1996 Academy Award nominee “Tell the Truth and Run,” Rick Goldsmith’s story about foreign correspondent George Seldes.
Screenings take place at the Chicago Cultural Center (78 E. Washington St.) on the weekends and Columbia College’s Hokin Auditorium (623 S. Wabash Ave.) during the week. Aside from the $30 opening night benefit, admission is free. Call 312-663-1600, ext. 5773.
— Mark Caro
Silver Images Film Festival
May 8-23, 1997
None of Chicago’s more unusual film events is the Silver Images Film Festival, which was founded by Chicago’s Terra Nova Films, a local nonprofit film company dedicated to erasing or correcting harmful cultural stereotypes, especially those involving aging. Terra Nova, in existence since 1981, started the Silver Images festival in 1994 to screen and honor the best films on aging and the elderly to help remedy the country’s rampaging youth fetish and the resulting reduction of older people in TV and movies to neglect, travesty or ridicule. This year, Silver Images has spread its venues all around the city. Its major prize — to be presented Thursday at a special gala at Maggiano’s Restaurant and a screening at the Cineplex Odeon Gardens Cinema in Old Orchard Shopping Center, Skokie (5:30-10 p.m.; tickets: $50) — goes to one of my ’96 favorites: writer-director Herb Gardner’s “I’m Not Rappaport,” with Walter Matthau and Ossie Davis as feuding octogenarians.
Outstanding films include: “A Great Day in Harlem,” “Strangers in Good Company,” “Ruby and Rata,” “A Foreign Field,” “Bookends,” “Young at Heart,” “Lillian.”
Screenings are usually held at The Film Center of the School of the Art Institute, Facets Multimedia, The Chicago Cultural Center Theater and many other locations around Chicago and the suburbs (including The Copernicus Senior Center, Crestwood Sony Theaters and the Hinsdale Theater). Ticket prices are $4, $3 and $1 (at various locations); group rates available. Call 773-881-6940.
— Michael Wilmington
Black Harvest Film Festival
Aug. 1-10, 1997
Founded in 1995 by The Film Center at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to replace the defunct 13-year-old Blacklight Film Festival previously presented at The Film Center and other venues, the Black Harvest Film Festival showcases black cinema during 10 days in August with a special emphasis on independent African-American and African films.
The festival usually features around 20 films, and premieres have included the African films “Guimba” and “Tuesday Morning Ride.”
Screenings take place at The Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Columbus Drive and Jackson Boulevard). Tickets are $6 ($3 for Film Center members). Call 312-443-3733 or the 24-hour hot line, 312-443-3737.
— Monica Eng
Chicago Underground Film Festival
More Top Picks Camp Kitchens
Aug. 13-17, 1997
The Chicago Underground Film Festival, founded in 1994 by Jay Bliznick and Bryan Wendorf, is one of the hotter and more ambitious festivals on the local scene. Now held in August and running about five days, the festival gathers its collection of offbeat and avant-garde films from the four corners of the globe (and judging from some of the films I have seen there over the years, even farther away than that).
“Our purpose,” according to festival programmer Wendorf, “is to showcase low-budget independent films from all over the world. We leave the definition of what is `underground’ to the filmmakers who submit their work, though we do seem to end up with a lot of risque stuff.”
In addition to the 20-some features and 80 or so shorts, the festival also gives the annual Jack Smith Lifetime Achievment Award each year, in honor of the 1960s experimental filmmaker who died of AIDS in the 1980s. This year’s recipient is the perpetually underground John Waters, whose work will be highlighted in a retrospective.
Last year was an especially strong one, with films like “Mary Jane’s not a Virgin Anymore” and “The Delicate Art of the Rifle” standing out in an impressive field. This year also promises to be solid, with the opening night film scheduled to be “Love God,” a rock-‘n’-roll monster comedy romance that played at Sundance. It’s being billed as the first all-digital feature film. This also will be the first year when movies will be projected in 35 mm.
This year’s Chicago Underground Film Festival takes place Aug. 13-17 at the Theatre Building, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. Tickets are $6 per film (a festival pass is $50). Call 773-866-8660, or visit the festival’s Web site at http://www.cuff.org.
— John Petrakis
Russian Arts Festival
late September/early October 1997
This festival of Russian theater, graphic arts and film is returning to Chicago for a second year to showcase the work of contemporary Russian artists. This year’s film lineup will emphasize the new (1996-97) work of young Russian filmmakers with nine movies, including “Bring the Car,” “Arrival of the Train” and Eldar Riyasonov’s “Hi Dummy.”
Screenings will be held at the Fine Arts Theater, Music Box Theatre and Piper’s Alley Theatre. Tickets are $7. Call 847-492-9527.
M.E.
Iranian Film Festival
Oct. 4-Nov. 2, 1997
In 1989, The Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago founded this fest, which is now the major showcase for new Iranian cinema in the United States. It has been curated from the beginning by Film Center associate director Alissa Simon who has to don burnooses and veils on her film-hunting expeditions to Iran. The fest’s purpose: to gain recognition for a national movie industry whose artists like Abbas Kiarostami have made stunning achievements in the face of government censorship and initial Western misunderstanding. Chicago’s fest has spawned offshoots and tours in colleague art centers and other cities. Among new developments this year: a more extensive catalog and a panel discussion sponsored by the Illinois Humanities Commission.
Outstanding film premieres and guests include “Bashu the Little Stranger,” “The Runner,” “Salaam Cinema,” “Closeup,” “Where is the Friend’s Home?” and “Life and Nothing More”; directors Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Darius Mehrjui and Bahram Bayzai; actresses Tahmineh Milani and Fatemeh Motamed-Arya.
About 10 films are shown to the target audience of film lovers and Iranian-American groups at The Film Center of the School of the Art Institute (Columbus Drive and Jackson Boulevard). Tickets are $6, $3 (Film Center members); group rates available. Call 312-443-3733 or 312-443-3737.
M.W.
Chicago International
Chilldren`s Film Festival
Oct. 9-19, 1997
Founded in 1983 by Facets Multimedia executive director Milos Stehlik and artistic director Nicole Dreiske, this “Cannes for Kids” as it calls itself is an ambitious attempt to get youngsters interested in world film art, provide an alternative to lower-quality American children’s fare and award achievement in children’s cinema worldwide. Scheduled near the beginning of each school year, the kids fest offers features, shorts, videos and cartoons from around the world, workshops for children with film professionals, classes, a special media camp and a variety of unusual events (including, last year, a children’s book fair). The kids fest is traditionally strong in animation and short films, and the schedule is often of strong interest for adults, too. (British cartoon superstars Wallace and Gromit got a Chicago boost here.) Parents who don’t want to simply abandon their tots to Saturday’s wham-bam TV juggernaut may be delighted at what they find here.
Liz Shepherd, who guided it for the past four years, has left as festival director, replaced by Rebekah Cowing. Although the fest is exploring other venues to increase its audience potential, it’s still a Facets Multimedia baby and reflects its philosophy.
Outstanding films (usually shown at Facets Multimedia, 1517 W. Fullerton Ave.) have included “The Tinder Box” (Denmark), “The Peanut Butter Solution” (Canada), “Sour Death Balls,” “Shiloh” (U.S.), “Asi” (Iceland), “The Wrong Trousers,” “A Grand Day Out,” “The Wind in the Willows” (Great Britain), “Naran” (Japan), “Lotta Leaves Home” (Sweden), “Le Magique” (Tunisia). Special appearances have included Liesel Matthews, Michelle Trachtenberg, Martha Plimpton. (This year: director Carroll Ballard).
Usually about 150 to 180 long and short films are shown to a target audience of children ages 6-13 and their parents. Ticket prices are $4 ($3 for Facets members); group rates available. Call 773-281-9075.
M.W.
Chicago International Film Festival
Oct. 9-19, 1997
The granddaddy of all Chicago’s Film Fests first appeared in 1965 and has, in the three decades since, brought hundreds of world-class filmmakers and a few movie legends to Chicago, while premiering innumerable films that have become modern classics as well as more than few that have seemed to some, eccentric or outre. Nothing if not controversial, Chicago’s largest film fest exemplifies the tastes and quirks of founder and longtime director Michael Kutza an exuberant, knowledgeable and some say reckless maestro who, through fair weather and foul, has been the single-minded driving force behind the festival for all its 33 years.
The fest’s main goal is to bring the best international cinema to Chicago. But it is also committed to American indies (Martin Scorsese was a 1968 Chicago discovery) and director retrospectives. And it’s competitive, with a prize jury and awards: the Golden and Silver Hugos (the all-time Hugo champ was the late Rainer Werner Fassbinder, with five). Chicago also dispenses lifetime achievement awards (and perhaps over-generous “Star of the Decade” citations), which draw some big stars, along with the 50 or so filmmakers usually in attendance (the fest’s first 1965 group: directors King Vidor and Stanley Kramer and star Bette Davis).
The festival has been through a rocky two-year period recently, with the 1995 resignation of respected program director Marc Evans and a wounding boardroom battle in which some members sought Kutza’s ouster. But last year’s supposed make-or-break fest apparently was a success. This year’s program will continue with a trimmer lineup and a higher percentage of English language films (to placate the subtitle-challenged). Among innovations planned are a new competition for Best First or Second Feature (with a separate jury) and a FIPRESCI award, from the preeminent international critics’ group.
Outstanding recent film premieres (since 1988) include “The Decalogue,” “The Piano,” “Farewell, My Concubine,” “Short Cuts,” “Secrets & Lies,” “Breaking the Waves,” “Three Colors: Blue, White, Red,” “Like Water for Chocolate,” “Reservoir Dogs,” “Through the Olive Trees,” “Ladybird, Ladybird,” “Landscape in the Mist,” “Dear Diary,” “Heavenly Creatures,” “Antonia’s Line” and “Shine.”
Outstanding guests (all time) include: directors Federico Fellini, Francois Truffaut, Howard Hawks, George Cukor, Oliver Stone, Satyajit Ray, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Pier Paolo Pasolini; actors Jack Lemmon, Charlton Heston, Jodie Foster, Tom Cruise, Ann-Margret, James Earl Jones, Sally Field, Sophia Loren, Harold Lloyd. About 100 features and 60 shorts are presented to a target audience, according to Kutza, of “people who love movies.” Screenings are usually at the Fine Arts, Pipers Alley, Music Box and Chicago Theater. Ticket prices are about $8 ($6.50 for members); group rates available. Call 312-425-9400 or 312-332-FILM.
M.W.
Polish Film Festival
Nov. 1-9, 1997
The Polish Film Festival was started as a joint venture by the Society for Polish Art and The Film Center to promote and exhibit new films and introduce major artists. Mining the rich film heritage of a country whose movie industry from the 1950s’ postwar heyday of Andrzej Wajda and Alexander Ford up to the modern era of Krzysztof Kieslowski and Agnieszka Holland has been one of the strongest in Eastern Europe, the two organizations co-sponsored it until last year. But, in 1996, under director Christopher Kamyszew, the fest broke off on its own, making the Gateway Theater in the Copernicus Center its main venue (while seeking others). This year, the fest plans to offer, in addition to its films, special programs, concerts and exhibitions. And Kamyszew is making plans for a second festival, called “Europa, Europa,” to focus on European cinema in general. (Tentative date for “Europa, Europa”: May 1-10, 1998).
Outstanding premieres and guests include: “A Short Film About Love” and “A Short Film About Killing” (Kieslowski), “The Touch” (Zanussi), “Bitter Moon” (Polanski), “Johnnie the Aquarius” and “Playing With a Death Angel” (Kolski); directors Krzysztof Zanussi, Jan Jakub Kolski, Agnieszka Holland, Radoslaw Piwowarski; actors Boguslaw Linda, Joanna Trzepiecinska.
The fest features about 20 films for a target audience of people interested in European cinema and Chicago’s Polish-American community. Films are usually shown at the Gateway Theater, 5216 W. Lawrence Ave., and Facets Multimedia, 1517 W. Fullerton Ave. Ticket prices are $5-$6; group rates available. Call 773-486-9612.
M.W.
Reeling `97: The 17th Chicago Lesbian and Gay International Film Festival
Nov. 7-16, 1997
Begun in 1980 by Brenda Webb, the heterosexual woman who heads Chicago Filmmakers, the Chicago Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival began as a forum for many of the gay filmmakers she knew who had few venues for their gay-themed works. When the fest made its debut, there were few gay films and even fewer positive or realistic gay images in popular films, so Webb’s idea was considered both radical and innovative.
Since then, the festival has grown: Last year, it screened 150 films in 50 themed programs. But because many gay films the Chicago-themed “Go Fish,” “johns” or “Poison,” for example now go directly into commercial distribution, the festival has begun to put its emphasis on more radical material, emerging directors, foreign film and video.
Usually held in the fall, with screenings at The Music Box Theatre and Kino-Eye, the festival depends on a gay and lesbian community-based steering committee to aid in its selection. A community-based jury awards nine prizes in three categories: narrative, documentary and experimental/animation.
Previous festival highlights have included “A Beautiful Thing” and the U.S. premiere of Yvonne Rainer’s “Murder and Murder.” Ticket prices are $6-$8 (a festival pass is around $50). Call 773-384-5533.
— Achy Obejas
Hong Kong Film Festival
March 7-April 26, 1998
Next year will be the 10th year that The Film Center of the School of the Art Institute has presented its popular Hong Kong Film Festival, which focuses on new or recent movies out of Hong Kong. Programmed by Film Center director Barbara Scharres, the festival also features sidebar retrospectives that spotlight major directors, stars or screenwriters.
The 1998 festival (Saturdays and Sundays March 7-April 26) may be especially interesting because it should include some of the first Hong Kong films made after the colony’s transition this June from British to Chinese rule.
More Top Picks Best Sunglasses Under 100
Usually 15 to 20 films are shown with repeat screenings. The festival has introduced Chicago audiences to movies by Hong Kong stars and filmmakers who since have achieved success on this side of the Pacific, including Jackie Chan (“Police Story” and “Project A”), John Woo (“The Killer”), Tsui Hark (“Once Upon a Time in China”) and Ringo Lam (“City on Fire”).
Screenings take place at The Film Center of the School of the Art Institute (corner of Columbus Drive and Jackson Boulevard). Tickets are $6 ($3 for Film Center members). Call 312-443-3733 or the 24-hour hotline at 312-443-3737.
M.C.
Women in the Director’s Chair International Film & Video Festival
(March 1998)
This 17-year-old festival was founded in 1980 by a group of women volunteers who organized a five-day festival held at six theaters to show the work of women video and filmmakers, give them networking opportunities, workshops and a social support structures during the festival usually held the third weekend in March and year-round.
The organization is called Women in the Director’s Chair and the festival usually features 90 to 120 films at three to four venues; the organization has hosted Chicago premieres of such films as Liz Cherche and Guenevere Turner’s Chicago-made “Go Fish.” Ticket are $5-$7 per showing. Call 773-281-4988.
M.E.
African Film Festival
April 1998
Dr. Alice Stephens, a full-time film and video faculty member at Columbia College in Chicago, founded the African Film Festival in 1995 and continues to serve as its artistic director. Through the use of numerous volunteers, including enthusiastic students, she has rapidly turned the African Film Festival into one of the largest and most eclectic in the city, with a program of well over 60 films.
This year’s festival, which wrapped last week, focused on films of the African diaspora, including movies from Europe, Canada, Australia, the Caribbean, South America, the African continent and the United States. There were 15 Chicago premieres, counting features and shorts, including films by such well-known international filmmakers as Euzhan Palcy of Martinique. Plus, Palcy, along with other prominent filmmakers, came to the festival to discuss their work.
In addition to new material, the festival also brings back important films from years past. This year, that list included “Camp De Thiaroye” by Senegalese director Ousmane Sembene; “Guimba The Tyrant” by Malian director Cheick Oumar Sissoko; “Silences of the Palace” by Tunisian director Moufida Tlati; and “Daughters of the Dust” by American director Julie Dash. The festival also has a separate children/family program, which this year was loaded with award-winning children’s films.
The African Film Festival takes place in April, normally over two weekends, at assorted venues in and around the Columbia College campus, 600 S. Michigan Ave. Screenings are free, but tickets must be obtained in advance on a first-come, first-served basis. Call 312-663-1600, ext. 5170, or 312-663-1124.
J.P.
Asian American Showcase
April 1998
You could call the Asian American Showcase, founded in 1996, the hipper side of the Asian American film experience in the United States. Started by local writer and music critic Ben Kim, the showcase seeks to discover cutting-edge films by young Asian American filmmakers, preferably dealing with subjects that appeal to a younger Asian American audience. A look at this year’s festival, which ended last month, makes it clear what Kim is shooting for. “Shopping for Fangs” is a pop-culture extravaganza, heavily influenced by directors Quentin Tarantino and John Woo, complete with subplots involving werewolves and dual identities, while “Sunsets” chronicles the lives of three small-time losers who stagger from party to party over one endless summer.
The festival, in its second year, started small, with no more than four features and four accompanying shorts on its 1997 menu. But Kim stresses that all the features were midwestern premieres and that all the filmmakers were in town to attend the screenings.
The Asian American Showcase takes place in April, normally over two weekends, at The Film Center of the Art Institute. Admission is the regular Film Center price of $6 ($3 for Film Center members). Call The Film Center of the Art Institute, 312-443-3733.
J.P.
Chicago Asian American Film Festival
April 1998
The Chicago Asian American Film Festival, co-sponsored by the Asian American Institute and the Asian and Asian American Studies Program at Loyola University, began in 1994 with an emphasis on issue-oriented fiction films and documentaries. According to festival co-founders Ashraf Manji and Yvonne Lau, “The festival seeks to inform the general public and the Asian American community about the rich diversity of Asian experiences in America.” In that vein, the festival focuses on such themes as evolving identities, women’s voices, identity and the arts, and cultural miscommunication. Since it is a theme-oriented festival, the goal is not simply to find current films but also films that address the concerns of the community.
Outstanding films from this year’s festival, which ended last week, included “Girls Like Us,” a prize-winning documentary that follows four Philadelphia teenage girls one of them Vietnamese through their high-school years, and “The Shot Heard Round The World,” about the violent death of a Japanese exchange student in Baton Rouge, La.
The festival takes place in April, over a four-week period, at assorted venues in and around the Loyola University campus. Screenings are free, though there may be a cover charge for parties and receptions. Call the Asian American Institute, 773-271-0899 or Loyola’s Asian American Studies Program, 773-508-8997.
J.P.
Chicago Latino Film Festival
Spring 1998
The Chicago Latino Film Festival began 13 years ago at St. Augustine College, next to Charlie Chaplin’s Esanay Studios on the Northside, when Pepe Vargas projected 14 films on a concrete wall for an audience of about 500.
It’s come a long way since then, with more than 100 films and videos and attendance upward of 30,000 this year. Now headquarted at Columbia College, the festival has become the great crossover, drawing a mix of Latinos and non-Latinos to its English, Spanish and subtitled offerings.
Usually held in the spring, the festival is a showcase for Latino and Latin American culture. This year, the program (April 4-14) boasted films from 17 different countries, including Spain and Portugal. Films are shown at Facets Multimedia and at least two other venues each year. Selections are made by community-based screening committees but fest awards are strictly voted on by the audiuence.
Festival highlights have included films by Tomas Gutierrez Alea and Maria Luisa Bemberg. Tickets are $7, $5 for members, and $4.50 for students; group rates available (a festival pass is $60). Call 312-431-1330.
A.O.
ADDITIONAL SPECIAL FILM EVENTS
There are other special ethnic film showings throughout the year, too:
– The Margaret Mead Film Festival is a traveling showcase for anthropological films that has come to Chicago’s Field Museum sporadically for many years but this year has made a commitment to make it a yearly tradition, usually in the spring. For a flat fee ($13-$15 a day), visitors can view several short and long films that explore the lifeways and traditions of various cultures. The festival usually features 16 to 20 films. Call 312-322-8854.
– New Indian films in Hindi and Malayalam are shown in Chicago nearly every week. They usually last three to four hours (with intermission) and tell love and action stories, with breaks for song and dance numbers. Only about five percent include English subtitles, but the plots are not hard to understand. For details and schedules, call Al Mansoor Video, 773-764-7576. Admission is usually $6-$8 and films can be seen at: Woodgrove General Cinema, 75th Street and Lemont Road, Woodridge; Adelphi Theater, 7074 N. Clark St.; Gateway Theatre, 5216 W. Lawrence Ave. (The Gateway also shows films from Korea, Mexico and Poland with occasional English subtitles; call 773-777-9438.)
– Italian Cultural Institute features themed Italian film series in its auditorium at 500 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1450. The current series focuses on Marcello Mastroianni, and runs Tuesday nights through May 27. Free. Call 312-822-9545.
— Monica Eng