The third annual City of Lights Film Festival, which kicks off on Thursday evening, is set to show six feature films and 13 short films at various locations in downtown Aurora across the three-day event.
In homage to the Aurora community’s connection with some of house music’s biggest producers, opening night of the festival will feature a screening of “Move Ya Body: The Birth of House,” a documentary tracing the inception of house music in 1980s Chicago, according to a news release from the city of Aurora, the festival’s sponsor.
“The films and events taking place during festival weekend reflect the truth that everyone — in Aurora and beyond — has a story worth telling,” Festival Director Sam Loveland said in the city news release.
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The festival’s kick-off will take place starting at 6 p.m. on Thursday at The Venue at 21 S. Broadway in downtown Aurora. The opening night event will feature house music before and after the screening of “Move Ya Body,” and set to be in attendance are film producer Chester Gordon Algernal and film subject Vince Lawrence, who is a Chicago-based record producer, according to the city’s news release.
Tickets to the opening night screening of “Move Ya Body,” which also include access to a question-and-answer session and an after-party, cost $20 and can be purchased online.
Across Friday and Saturday, the film festival will also feature the dramas “Ghostlight” and “Sunfish (and other stories on Green Lake); the documentaries “Every Little Thing” and “Slice of Life: The American Dream. In Former Pizza Huts” and the Spanish-language comedy “23 Horas,” according to the news release.
Tickets for these screenings, which can also be purchased online, vary in price but cost around $10, the festival’s Eventbrite webpage shows.
Attendees of this year’s festival can expect more time with filmmakers, including “23 Horas” director Bruno Irizarry, who will be in Aurora all weekend, city officials said in the news release.
Irizarry will travel from San Juan, Puerto Rico, joining writers and directors Sierra Falconer of “Sunfish” and Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson of “Ghostlight,” who will speak to audiences following their films’ respective screenings, the release said.
Plus, on Saturday, a free panel event featuring teaching artists from the Paramount School of the Arts in Aurora will take place at 11 a.m., and a young creatives mixer will follow the screening of student films and music videos later that afternoon, according to the city news release.
The festival is set to close with a reception Saturday that will include the presentation of the Excellence in Student Filmmaking Award, officials said in the release. Tickets to that mixer, set to take place at 8 p.m. at Society 57 in downtown Aurora, cost $20 and include “light bites” as well as “creator talk-back,” according to the festival’s Eventbrite webpage.
More information, as well as a link to buy tickets, can be found at: aurorafilmfest.com