THE COLLEGE OF MEDIA AT I LLINOIS PRESENTS 13th Annual

April 27- May 1 The Virginia Theatre 203 W. Park, Champaign

www.ebertfest.com

Special support provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. FILM SCREENINGS AT THE VIRGINIA THEATRE LIVE WDWS ON-AIR INTERVIEW Wednesday, April 27, 2011 Please Tune In to WDWS-AM 1400! 7:00 pm Metropolis Wednesday, April 27, 2011 10:30 pm Natural Selection 9:00 am - 10:00 am Jim Turpin’s (WDWS)Ebertfest Interview Thursday, April 28, 2011 1:00 pm Umberto D ACADEMIC PANEL DISCUSSIONS 3:30 pm My Dog Tulip 8:00 pm Tiny Furniture Thursday, April 28, 2011 9:00 am – 10:15 am Friday, April 29, 2011 Personal Stories in Film 1:00 pm 45365 Moderated by Eric Pierson 4:00 pm Me and Orson Welles Pine Lounge, 1st Floor 8:30 pm Only You 10:30am -11:45 am Far Flung Correspondents: International Perspectives Saturday, April 30, 2011 in Film Criticism 11:00 am A Small Act Moderated by Omer Mozaffar Pine Lounge, 1st Floor 2:00 pm Life, Above All 6:30 pm Leaves of Grass Friday, April 29, 2011 9:30 pm I Am Love 9:00 am – 10:15 am Sunday, May 1, 2011 Ebert Presents: Reinventing the TV Show in the Digital Age Noon Louder Than a Bomb Moderated by Chaz Ebert Pine Lounge, 1st Floor SPECIAL POST-FESTIVAL SCREENING 10:30am -11:45 am Sunday, May 1, 2011 Choices: The Movies We Make, the Roles We Play 4:00 pm Louder Than a Bomb Moderated by Nate Kohn Pine Lounge, 1st Floor The Champaign County Anti-Stigma Alliance is pleased to announce that they will have a special showing of LOUDER THAN A BOMB immediately following the close of Ebertfest (May WORKSHOP 1). The Anti-Stigma Alliance is a community collaboration which Free and open to the public works to address and challenge the negative impact of stigma. This screening will be at the Virginia Theatre at 4:00 pm and it Saturday, April 30, 2011 will free to the public. 9:00am -10:30 am An Amateur Guide to No-Budget Filmmaking Filmmaking for the Rest of Us Moderated by Don Tingle Illini Union/General Lounge, 2nd Floor FILM SCREENINGS AT THE VIRGINIA THEATRE LIVE WDWS ON-AIR INTERVIEW Wednesday, April 27, 2011 Please Tune In to WDWS-AM 1400! 7:00 pm Metropolis Wednesday, April 27, 2011 10:30 pm Natural Selection 9:00 am - 10:00 am Jim Turpin’s (WDWS)Ebertfest Interview Thursday, April 28, 2011 1:00 pm Umberto D ACADEMIC PANEL DISCUSSIONS 3:30 pm My Dog Tulip 8:00 pm Tiny Furniture Thursday, April 28, 2011 9:00 am – 10:15 am Friday, April 29, 2011 Personal Stories in Film 1:00 pm 45365 Moderated by Eric Pierson 4:00 pm Me and Orson Welles Pine Lounge, 1st Floor 8:30 pm Only You 10:30am -11:45 am Far Flung Correspondents: International Perspectives Saturday, April 30, 2011 in Film Criticism 11:00 am A Small Act Moderated by Omer Mozaffar Pine Lounge, 1st Floor 2:00 pm Life, Above All 6:30 pm Leaves of Grass Friday, April 29, 2011 9:30 pm I Am Love 9:00 am – 10:15 am Sunday, May 1, 2011 Ebert Presents: Reinventing the TV Show in the Digital Age Noon Louder Than a Bomb Moderated by Chaz Ebert Pine Lounge, 1st Floor SPECIAL POST-FESTIVAL SCREENING 10:30am -11:45 am Sunday, May 1, 2011 Choices: The Movies We Make, the Roles We Play 4:00 pm Louder Than a Bomb Moderated by Nate Kohn Pine Lounge, 1st Floor The Champaign County Anti-Stigma Alliance is pleased to announce that they will have a special showing of LOUDER THAN A BOMB immediately following the close of Ebertfest (May WORKSHOP 1). The Anti-Stigma Alliance is a community collaboration which Free and open to the public works to address and challenge the negative impact of stigma. This screening will be at the Virginia Theatre at 4:00 pm and it Saturday, April 30, 2011 will free to the public. 9:00am -10:30 am An Amateur Guide to No-Budget Filmmaking Filmmaking for the Rest of Us Moderated by Don Tingle Illini Union/General Lounge, 2nd Floor Contemporary Clothing Walnut At University Downtown Champaign 398-5858 Menu At esquirelounge.com

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2 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival Welcome from Roger Ebert ...... 4 MOVIE REVIEWS WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2011 Welcome from President Michael J. Hogan...... 7 Metropolis accompanied by the

Welcome from the College of Media ...... 9 Alloy Orchestra (7:00pm) ...... 32 Natural Selection (10:30pm)...... 36 Festival Dedication...... 10 THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2011 ...... Complete Schedule of Events 12 Umberto D (1:00pm) ...... 40 My Dog Tulip (3:30pm) ...... 42 Renovations at the Virginia Theatre...... 15 Tiny Furniture (8:00pm) ...... 44

Important Information about the Festival ...... 17 FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2011

Dining Tips...... 19 45365 (1:00pm) ...... 48 Me and Orson Welles (4:00pm) ...... 50 Festival Guests ...... 21-30 Only You (8:30pm) ...... 52

Festival Sponsors ...... 68 SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2011 A Small Act (11:00am) ...... 56 A Look Back at Last Year’s Festival ...... 72 Life, Above All (2:00pm) ...... 59 Leaves of Grass (6:30pm) ...... 60 Parking Information and Area Map...... 75 I Am Love (9:30pm) ...... 62

Special Thanks...... 77 SUNDAY, MAY 1, 2011 “Ebert Presents” a new TV adventure...... 79 Louder Than a Bomb (Noon) ...... 66

Daily Illini Illio Technograph Buzz WPGU-FM the217.com Independent Univerity of Quarterly Weekly Commercial Entertainment student news Illinois engineering entertainment radio station Web site organization Yearbook magazine magazine to the 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival

this year director Nate Kohn and I Let me just briefly tell you but she won a “breakthrough squeezed in one extra film. I was about the new discoveries and award” because we jurors felt This year’s festival in Austin to be on the jury of the some old rediscoveries we have “Natural Selection” displayed a SXSW® Festival, saw Robbie Pick- for you this year, in the order of side of her talent we hadn’t seen is dedicated to ering’s “Natural Selection,” and their screenings: before. couldn’t resist adding it to this Fritz Lang’s complete “Me- Older films have always had Claude Chabrol year’s list. tropolis” (1927) was long thought an important role at Ebertfest, Our guests this year include to be lost, but in 2008 a nearly and when I saw “My Dog Tulip” Jill Clayburgh old friends like Norman Jewison complete 16mm print was miracu- by Paul and Sandra Fierlinger I and the Alloy Orchestra, good lously discovered in Buenos Aries, not only fell in love with it but Tony Curtis friends like Richard Linklater and and we will see it this year with was reminded of Vittorio De Sica’s Tim Blake Nelson, and one who a new score created by the Alloy classic “Umberto D.” (1952). Blake Edwards has a special significance for me, Orchestra. Our good friend David When you see the two films Jon Siskel, Gene’s nephew. But in Bordwell calls it “one of the great you will understand why. “My Dog terms of evoking the purpose of sacred monsters of the cinema.” Tulip” was inspired by a book I Dennis Hopper a festival like this, none is more Robbie Pickering’s “Natural Se- have much love for, and the Fier- inspiring than Tilda Swinton. lection” so impressed our jury at lingers bring it to life with anima- Sidney Lumet Yes, we know she is a great SXSW® that we gave it the Grand tion of such life and vibrancy it’s actress. But let me tell you the Jury Prize--along with prizes for a reminder of how limited much Arthur Penn story of Tilda’s Magical Perambu- editing, sound, screenplay, and recent animation has been. lating Film Festival. Inspired per- two breakthrough performances. I know what the budget was for haps by our friend Werner Herzog Then it added the festival’s Audi- Lena Dunham’s “Tiny Furniture,” From Roger Ebert (who hauled a boat up a hill), in ence Award. No, it’s not about but I’m not saying. Films don’t 2009 she took her own film festi- Darwin’s Theory…or perhaps in get points for being inexpensive, he long-term renovation of val on the road, joining 40 other a way it is. It’s about a dogged, but for being good. In this film, our treasured Virginia The- film lovers in physically hauling a lovable woman who wants her Durham is uncanny in the way atre continues this year 33-ton portable cinema through husband’s child in one way or an- she evokes the daily lives of her with restoration of the lobby, the her Scottish Highlands to show other. I met Pickering and his star characters, whose relationships concession stand and the upstairs independent films in a different Rachael Harris in Austin, liked are far too complex to be broken lobby. The marquee is a work in village every night. I now attach them instantly, and am delighted down in simple ways. It has hu- progress. The preservation of the- a photograph of her in this heroic they’ll be joining us in person. mor that’s not made, but found. aters like this is invaluable; such enterprise. Harris is an experienced actress, It includes a sex scene that is buildings will never again be con- structed, and most of our film- makers will never have seen their films with such a large audience. In all the moments of Ebertfest, surely one of the most magical was when we showed “Singin’ in the Rain” and Donald O’Connor walked onstage and said, “You know, I danced on this stage in vaudeville.” Here, too, did the Marx Brothers perform, and Houdini demonstrated his amaz- ing escapes. With the passing in March 2011 of Houdini’s last living stage assistant, his secrets have now joined him in his grave. We have an exceptional sched- ule this year, and a remarkable group of guests. The festival al- ways threatens to burst out of the time we have available, and again Screen queen Tilda Swinton hauling a 33-ton portable cinema through Scotland for her independent film festival in 2009.

4 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival convincing despite taking place in is not nearly as well known as it truly remarkable. Yes, it has a Bordwell and Kristin Thompson) an unutterably depressing venue. deserves to be. Here is an embrac- “double role” for Edward Norton, are many of the Far-Flung Cor- It speaks to a common problem: ing, joyous story of love and fate, but this isn’t an occasion for respondents who contribute to After college – what do you do starring Marisa Tomei and Robert special effects; it’s a collaboration my website, several of the special then? The actors David Call and Downey Jr. near the dawns of by Norton and Nelson to make contributors to “Ebert Presents” Alex Karpovsky and producer Kyle their remarkable careers. It’s a twins who are distinguishable on TV, and a good many film crit- Martin will join us. reminder of how much genuine from the inside out. The movie is ics and bloggers. Chat them up. “45365” is the zip code of Sid- pleasure a movie can provide. Nor- funny, heartfelt, surprising, and They’re interesting. ney, Ohio, a town that has much man has been so kind as to join a virtuoso example of overcoming New to the Far-Flung ranks this to remind me of the Urbana I us. He is one of the best storytell- technical difficulties with its bril- year are Pablo Villaca, one of Bra- grew up in. The brothers Turner ers I know. liance of vision. Tim Blake Nelson zil’s best known critics, Krishna and Bill Ross grew up in Sidney, I saw “A Small Act” at Sun- will be with us. Shenoi from India, Olivia Collette and were apparently such familiar dance 2010, and was powerfully I have been guilty of referring from Canada, and Anath White faces that they were able to film struck by it. This documentary to Tilda Swinton as Saint Tilda, from Los Angeles. Back again to this documentary over the course by Jennifer Arnold and Patti Lee because if there were a movie see old friends are Ali Arikan from of a year while sometimes being begins with a small gesture of heaven she is the saint to whom Turkey, Michael Mirasol from the all but invisible. There are shots kindness on the part of a woman I would direct my prayers. Here is Philippines, Gerardo Valero from where you feel the camera must in Sweden, and widens into an a woman who is fearless, bound- Mexico and Omer Mozaffar from not have been present. One of incalculable portrait of the happi- lessly talented, and just plain a Chicago, who will moderate the my favorite elements in the show ness she brings about. It shows a nice person. There’s no showbiz FFC panel discussion. Grace Wang is Sidney’s local radio station, community transformed. In a time edge to her. She’s all about the will arrive a little late, having just which reminds me of WDWS and when goodness seems everywhere work. Without regard for “career been at the Hong Kong Film Fes- our friend Jim Turpin. It is a local under threat, it shines with hope. choices,” and no doubt to the tival as an Associate Programmer station, deeply involved, not a I met the filmmakers at Sun- despair of her agents, she has for the Toronto Film Festival. Re- purveyor of mass-marketed for- dance, and I was also so lucky as steadfastly chosen daring projects member Wael Khairy from Egypt, mulas. The Ross brothers will be who outsmarted the volcano and joining us. arrived late last year? He was Richard Linklater is one of the We have an exceptional schedule planning to come again, but says directors I admire most; I was Egypt is a little too exciting to about to call him a “new direc- this year and a remarkable group of guests. leave right now. tor,” and then realized how long Speaking of film festivals, Ja- he’s been around while always net Pierson is returning for her seeming to reinvent himself. His to meet and be overpowered and on the basis of her faith in their second year. She’s the director of “Me and Orson Welles” is, I think, charmed by the remarkable Hilde directors. As a result, she has SXSW®, which has exploded on one of the best films imaginable Back. I am incredibly honored she the most impressive filmography three fronts--movies, music and about the theater and its com- will grace us with her presence. of her generation. “I Am Love” interactive media. bination of hard work and ego. Filmmakers Jennifer Arnold and strikes me as one of the truest Chaz is the producer of “Eb- Orson Welles has fascinated me Patti Lee will also be with us. films ever made about eroticism ert Presents.” She and I will from the days when the Urbana At Cannes 2010 I saw the world and identity. Saint Tilda will be be proudly introducing our co- High School science-fiction club premiere of Oliver Schmitz’s “Life, here with us on the stage Donald hosts, Christy Lemire and Ignatiy recreated his “War of the Worlds” Above All.” The audience in the O’Connor blessed for her. Vishnevetsky, and several of our broadcast and when I first saw Theatre Lumiere rose up as one I met Jon Siskel long ago, when contributors: Alison Bailes, Dann “Citizen Kane” in the Art Theater. person to cheer it. Looking across he was one of “Gene’s nephews.” Gire, Omar Moore, Kartina Rich- Here is the very young Welles, the aisle from my seat, I was He has grown into a considerable ardson, Matt Zoller Seitz and Matt extravagantly gifted, supremely struck by the joy of the filmmak- filmmaker. His “Louder Than a Singer. self-confident. Linklater will join ers, who had created something Bomb” was a labor of love filmed Don’t be a stranger. Tell them us. so good that was so worth doing. over some years, challenging they’re going straight to the pool I met Norman Jewison very Especially given South Africa’s many accepted ideas about inner room. early in my work as a film critic, official approach until recently city high schools and the whole Chaz has been my right hand and he has been a steadfast friend about AIDS, this film carries an half-understood but quickly- in the planning of Ebertfest 2011. of 40 years. He is also a great urgent message. We will be joined growing world of Poetry Slams Nobody will ever know how hard director and an exemplary citizen by its exciting young star Kho- (which began in Chicago, by the Nate Kohn and Mary Susan Britt of Movie Nation. The first time motso Manyaka and director Oli- way). Jon and his co-director and her staff work on the festival. I did a stop-action analysis of a ver Schmitz at what, it turns out, Greg Jacobs will be with us, and Nate, an Urbana native, now pro- film using a LaserDisc, it was at is the film’s US Premiere! their extraordinary film will be fessor at the University of Georgia the Canadian Center for Advanced Tim Blake Nelson is well-known followed by a live performance by and administrator of the Peabody Film Study, which he founded and as an actor, but deserves equal a team of poets from Steinmetz Awards, helps me choose the funded in Toronto. Jewison has fame as a director. I’ve admired High School. films. He obtains the prints and made many wonderful movies, but every one of his films, particularly If you’re reading this while in permissions. He and Mary Susan “Only You” holds a special place the harrowing Holocaust drama your seat, take a look around. work with our guardian angel, in my heart. Ebertfest began as “The Grey Zone” (2001). Now Scattered through the audience Mary Frances Fagan of American the “Overlooked Film Festival,” comes “Leaves of Grass,” which (some in the first row every year and it strikes me that “Only You” I saw at Toronto 2009 and found with our special friends David continued on next page

All Q&A sessions and panel discussions will be streamed live on the Internet at www.ebertfest.com
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Airlines, to arrange transportation serving as drivers and guides here. Mary Frances is another C-U for festival guests. Our festival native, so you can see we haven’t Our festival couldn’t happen couldn’t happen without our forgotten our roots. dedicated sponsors and volun- Steven Bentz and his cheer- without our dedicated sponsors teers. We thank them all for their ful staff at the Virginia Theatre loyalty and continuing support. put out the welcome mat. The and volunteers. We thank them all for their The festival is a production Champaign Park District and the loyalty and continuing support. of the College of Media of the Champaign Police Department are University of Illinois at Urbana- always helpful. Local volunteers Champaign, whose dean, Jan act as drivers and guides for our Slater, has been generous in her guests. Betsy Hendrick throws her film courses were so important for ford Hess will be booking several support and encouragement. now-legendary Saturday night many years at the University. I titles from this and previous fes- Laurel, Steve, Kacie and Layla at party. Where would we be without met him many years ago when he tivals, chosen in discussion with Leone Advertising are webmasters our fabled projectionists James reviewed movies for The News-Ga- Nate and me. These titles were for ebertfest.com; Carlton Bruett Bond and Steve Kraus, who bring zette, and we had long talks over selected for their special appeal, is responsible for the posters and their own digital projectors to the years. He sponsored a film and will extend the range of the look of the festival; The Daily complement the theater’s vintage series at the Library, flying the choices available. At a time when Illini, my other alma mater, pro- 35/70mm projectors? A shout-out flag after film societies began to the exhibition of art and indepen- duces this splendid program. A to our good friend Bertha Mitch- die because of home video. I saw dent films is in jeopardy, the Art special thank you to our leading ell, who serves her famous down- him with Milos Stehlik of “Facets Theater is an essential resource sponsor, the Champaign County state barbeque from the tent in at Cannes” every year. He could for Champaign-Urbana. Anti-Stigma Alliance. front of the theater. Try it! You’ll always be counted on for pointed Our sponsors and volunteers And very special thanks to EBERTFEST like it! The Illini Union plays host and sometimes irascible contribu- make the festival possible.PARK ST Many University President Michael Ho- for all ofTwo our guests in the great heart tions to the Q&As.shops. I miss him. sponsors have been with us all 13 gan and his wife, Virginia, and CARRIE’S

of the campus. I’m very pleased that the noble years; some areJANE with us for the Chancellor Robert Easter and his ADDAMS A friendOne not with us this yearshort and nearby Art Theaterwalk. will be a first time this year. Volunteers STRANDOLPH wife, Cheryl, for their generous NEIL STNEIL is Professor Edwin Jahiel, whose part of Ebertfest this year. San- serve in many ways,CHURCH including ST support.

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porting role in yet another ly became Champaign-Urbana’s Welcome to the big-screen splash in 1967, when best-known festival and was U of I graduate Roger Ebert voted one of the nation’s “25 13th edition of launched a film review column Coolest Film Festivals” in 2009 in the Chicago Sun-Times that by MovieMaker, a leading maga- “Ebertfest”! has earned him a Pulitzer Prize, zine on filmmaking. a star on Hollywood’s Walk Roger and his wife, Chaz, ost people probably of Fame and a long career on crafted the event to showcase don’t realize it, but television that has made him overlooked classics from Roger’s the University of Il- America’s best-known and most personal must-see list. In the linois has contributed as much beloved movie critic. process, they also have created to movies as Spielberg, Pixar and Over the last four-plus de- a showcase for Roger’s alma ma- popcorn. cades, the Urbana native has ter and his hometown, drawing Sound on film revolution- never forgotten the town where invaluable national attention ized movie-making, and traces he grew up or the university and thousands of viewers every UI President Michael J. Hogan its roots to U of I Engineering where he sharpened the skills year. Professor Joseph Tykociner, who Award-winning director Ang Lee that made him a household Welcome to the 13th edition invented image-and-audio film are among the movie legends name. of “Ebertfest,” and enjoy the and unveiled it to the world in who used the U of I as a spring- Thirteen years ago, Roger show. And if you see Roger and 1922. Two-time Oscar winner board to Hollywood. donated his name and talent to Chaz, be sure to give them two Gene Hackman and Academy The university played a sup- create “Ebertfest,” which quick- thumbs up.

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4MBUFS is one of the most anticipated to be your host for the next few erything run smoothly and calmly. Interim Dean, College of Media events in Champaign-Urbana. It’s days. Our pride is only intensi- Thanks to our own Dr. Nate Kohn, a special time – not because of fied by 13 years of success and the who has been our festival director elcome to Ebertfest! the incredible movies and the glitz far-reaching effects of Ebertfest, since the very first Ebertfest. And What could possibly and glamour of the celebrities which draws people from around many thanks to our sponsors who be better than five (although it is pretty cool). It is a the country and around the globe, keep coming back each year, and days of movies (chosen by your special time because we welcome making Ebertfest a truly interna- to the hundreds of volunteers who favorite critic), hanging with home our native son and alumnus tional film festival. do whatever needs to be done. people who love the movies as – Roger Ebert. For years, Roger has Many thanks to Roger and Most of all, thanks to you, the you do, engaging with those who provided us greater insights and Chaz. Thank you for your loyalty moviegoers. Your love of the art direct or write or act in the mov- appreciation for movies in general. to the college, the university and of storytelling and filmmaking ies, watching the movies with But with Ebertfest, Roger gives us the city. We are grateful for your encourages us to make every Eb- your favorite critic (and his lovely a very personal experience with dedication and enthusiasm that ertfest bigger and better. Thank wife), watching great movies in a each film and exposes us to old makes this event possible every you for joining us for this annual great theater, and eating lots and releases in a new and magical way. year. And thank you for shar- tribute to great movies and a great lots of popcorn? The answer: Ab- There is just no better way to en- ing your love of the movies with movie critic. Welcome to the 13th solutely nothing. joy the art of film. us. This event is organized and Annual Ebertfest. Ebertfest is a special time here We, in College of Media at the orchestrated by Mary Susan Britt at the University of Illinois and University of Illinois, are proud – whose tireless efforts make ev- Enjoy the show!

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,PIO party for HAL the computer, we these movies to you, to share us with their very best 35mm Festival Director got to talking about what makes a Roger’s choices with you. prints and digital masters. successful film festival. We agreed And we are seeing them as the I also want to thank all of our t is a great privilege to wel- that movies are best seen on a re- women and men who made them sponsors, volunteers, festival pass come you to the thirteenth ally large screen. And watching a intended them to be seen -- with holders and individual ticket hold- annual Roger Ebert’s Film Fes- movie is not something to be done state-of-the-art projection and ers for their welcome participation tival, a special event of the Uni- alone—it is a communal activ- sound on a screen the full width in this endeavor. We look forward versity of Illinois’ College of Media ity, bringing together friends and of the Virginia Theatre. For that, to their unwavering support, and in partnership with the greater strangers in a mutual emotional we thank our cinema designer yours, as our festival continues to Champaign-Urbana community adventure. When we sit in the James Bond, projectionist Steve blossom each year in the Central and lovers of movies everywhere. darkened Virginia, both alone and Kraus, and all the people at the Illinois spring. Our festival has changed little together, we enter another world, Virginia Theatre and the Cham- Finally, I want to recognize over the years, remaining true to transported for a couple of hours paign Park District. We are partic- Associate Festival Director Mary Roger’s original vision: the cel- from the routines of our everyday ularly pleased this year to show off Susan Britt, Dean Jan Slater, and ebration and shared enjoyment of lives into the wondrous dreams- the theatre’s restored lobby area in President Michael J. Hogan, with- great movies, as they were meant capes of shared imagination. the continuing refurbishing of this out whose hard work and enthu- to be seen by those who made That is what this festival is all magnificent movie palace. siastic support this festival would them. Ebertfest is all about the about – about sharing, and com- We also thank Michael Barker of not be possible. films. We give no prizes, have munity, and Roger Ebert, and the Sony Pictures Classics, Sony Pic- This festival is Roger Ebert’s no categories, and no business is love of great movies. tures, Rialto Pictures, New Yorker gift to his hometown, and for that done at our festival. That’s how Together at this festival, we are Films, Ryan Werner of IFC, 7th we thank him and his wife Chaz. we conceived the festival and seeing – and by seeing, we are Arts Releasing, Alloy Orchestra, They are a remarkable team, and that’s how it still is today. celebrating – movies that Roger Kino International, Siskel/Jacob it is an honor to work with them. In 1997, when Roger hosted a considers worthy of our full atten- Productions, Patti Lee and Jenni- So as the lights dim and the screening of “2001: A Space Odys- tion, films that reveal and reflect fer Arnold, First Look Pictures, De- curtains open, please sit back and sey” at the Virginia Theatre as the wonder of the human condi- tour Filmproduction, and Magnolia let the festival once again em- part of the University’s birthday tion. We are honored to bring Pictures for graciously providing brace you.

All Q&A sessions and panel discussions will be streamed live on the Internet at www.ebertfest.com
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5IFBUSF 9 FILM FESTIVAL DEDICATION

ClaudeCHABROL French film director, actor, writer, producer June 24, 1930 - September 12, 2010 Breakthrough movie: "Le Beau Serge" 1958 Other popular movies: "Le Boucher" 1970 "Masques" 1987 "Madame Bovary" 1991 "La Ceremonie" 1996 Last movie directed: "Bellamy" 2009 Other facts: Awards: Chabrol made an average Priz Rene clair from of at least one movie the Academie Fracaise a year from his debut for his body of work in in 1958 to his death in 1995. 2010. Lifetime Achievement Was inspired by the Award in 2003 from the famous work of Alfred European Film Awards. Hitchcock.

JillCLAYBURGH TonyCURTIS American actress American actor April 30, 1944 - November 5, 2010 June 3, 1925 - September 29, 2010 Breakthrough movie: Breakthrough movie: "The Wedding Party" "Sweet Smell of Success" 1969 1957 Other popular movies: Other popular movies: "An Unmarried Woman" "The Defiant Ones" 1958 1978 "Some Like It Hot" 1959 "Starting Over" 1979 "Spartacus" 1960 "First Monday in "Sex and the Single Girl" October" 1981 1964 "I'm Dancing as Fast as I Nominated for Best Last movie directed: Other facts: Can" 1982 Actress at the Academy "The Jill and Tony Curtis Born with the name Last movie acted in: Awards in 1978 for "An Story " 2008 Bernard Herschel Unmarried Woman" and Schwartz. "Bridesmaids" 2011 Awards: 1979 for "Starting Over." Elvis Presley reportedly Awards: Nominated for Best copied his duck-tail Best Actress at Cannes Other facts: Actor at the Academy hairstyle after seeing it Film Festival in 1978 for Appeared on several TV Awards in 1958 for "The on screen. "An Unmarried Woman." shows and on Broadway. Defiant Ones."

10 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival '*-.
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BMBLF&%8"3%4 %FOOJT)011&3 Film director, screenwriter and producer Film director and producer July 26, 1922 - December 15, 2010 May 17, 1936 - May 29, 2010 Breakthrough movie: Breakthrough movie: "Operation Petticoat" "Rebel Without a Cause" 1959 1955 Other popular movies: Other popular movies: "Breakfast at Tiffany's" "True Grit" 1969 1961 "Easy Rider" 1969 "The Pink Panther" 1963 "Hoosiers" 1986 "Darling Lili" 1969 "Blue Velvet" 1986 "Victor Victoria" 1982 Last movie acted: Last movie directed: Life Career Award from "Alpha and Omega" 2010 Velvet" in 1986 "Son of the Pink the Academy of Science Awards: Other facts: Panther" 1993 Fiction, Fantasy and Horror in 2004. Best First Work at Filmed movies in over 22 Awards: Cannes Film Festival for countries. Other facts: Laurel Award for Screen "Easy Rider" in 1969. Was a prolific Writing Achievement Married to Julie Andrews for more than 40 years. Best Actor from photographer, painter, from the Writer's Guild Montreal World Film poet and collector of America in 2002. Festival for "Blue art.

SJEOFZ-6.&5 ASUIVS1&// Film director, producer and screenwriter Film director and producer June 25, 1924 - April 9, 2011 September 27, 1922 - September 28, 2010 Breakthrough movie: Breakthrough movie: "12 Angry Men" 1957 "The Left Handed Gun" Other popular movies: 1958 "The Pawnbroker" 1966 Other popular movies: "Serpico" 1973 "The Miracle Worker" 1962 "Murder on the Orient "Bonnie and Clyde" 1967 Express" 1974 "Alice's Restaurant" 1969 "Dog Day Afternoon" "Little Big Man" 1970 1975 Last movie directed: "The Wiz" 1978 4 times including "12 "Penn & Teller Get Killed" director at the Oscars Last movie directed: Angry Men" 1957, "Dog 1989 3 times: "The Miracle Day Afternoon" 1975, Worker" 1962; "Bonnie "Before the Devil Knows Awards: You're Dead" 2007 "Network" 1976 and "The and Clyde" 1967; "Alice's Verdict" 1982. Career Achievement Restaurant" 1969. Awards: Award from LA Film Academy Award for Other facts: Critics Association in Other facts: Lifetime Achievement in Began his career as an 2002. Later in life became an off-Broadway and TV executive producer for 2005. Nominated for best Nominated for best director at the Oscars director. "Law & Order."

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5IFBUSF 11 of events for Roger Ebert’s Film Festival Presented by the College of Media April 27-May 1, 2011

FILM SCREENINGS AT THE VIRGINIA THEATRE SPECIAL POST-FESTIVAL SCREENING Wednesday, April 27, 2011 Sunday, May 1, 2011 7:00 pm Metropolis 4:00 pm Louder Than a Bomb 10:30 pm Natural Selection The Champaign County Anti-Stigma Alliance is pleased to Thursday, April 28, 2011 announce that they will have a special showing of LOUDER THAN A BOMB immediately following the close of Ebertfest (May 1:00 pm Umberto D 1). The Anti-Stigma Alliance is a community collaboration which 3:30 pm My Dog Tulip works to address and challenge the negative impact of stigma. 8:00 pm Tiny Furniture This screening will be at the Virginia Theatre at 4:00 pm and it will free to the public.

Friday, April 29, 2011 1:00 pm 45365 LIVE WDWS ON-AIR INTERVIEW 4:00 pm Me and Orson Welles 8:30 pm Only You Please Tune In to WDWS-AM 1400! Wednesday, April 27, 2011 Saturday, April 30, 2011 9:00 am - 10:00 am 11:00 am A Small Act Jim Turpin’s (WDWS)Ebertfest Interview 2:00 pm Life, Above All 6:30 pm Leaves of Grass ACADEMIC PANEL DISCUSSIONS 9:30 pm I Am Love Illini Union Sunday, May 1, 2011 1401 Green Street, Urbana, IL Noon Louder Than a Bomb Free and open to the public

All films will be shown at the Historic Virginia Theatre, 203 W. Thursday, April 28, 2011 Park Ave., Champaign, IL. Roger and festival guests will appear 9:00 am – 10:15 am on stage after each film to join the audience in discussions Personal Stories in Film about the films. Festival passes ($135), individual tickets ($13) Moderated by Eric Pierson and student & senior citizen tickets ($11) are on sale at the Pine Lounge, 1st Floor Virginia Theatre box office, at 217-356-9063. 10:30 am – 11:45 am For more information contact: Mary Susan Britt at [email protected] or 217-244-0552 Far Flung Correspondents: International Perspectives College of Media in Film Criticism Moderated by Omer Mozaffar Go to www.ebertfest.com to read our Official Festival Blog Pine Lounge, 1st Floor by Roger Ebert’s Far Flung Correspondents and others.

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 9:00 am – 10:15 am Ebert Presents: Reinventing the TV Show in the Digital Age Moderated by $IB[
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10:30am -11:45 am Choices: The Movies We Make, the Roles We Play Moderated by /BUF
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 9:00 am -10:30 am An Amateur Guide to No-Budget Filmmaking Filmmaking for the Rest of Us Illini Union Hotel Moderated by %PO
5JOHMF Illini Union/General Lounge, 2nd Floor Everyone has a story to tell, but not everyone has the skills to tell it in movie form. You will learn those skills at this workshop. Shooting and editing a short film is within reach of anyone with access to a video camera and a computer. The techniques you will learn apply to both narrative fiction and documentary filmmaking with emphasis on short films. Many film festivals and on-line film communities provide opportunities for amateur and beginning filmmakers to screen their short films. This workshop is open to novice and experienced filmmakers of all ages. This workshop provides a basic overview of the amateur, no-budget filmmaking process. Filmmaking can be complicated, but you’ll learn to break it down into small steps. You’ll learn how to organize your story, plan the production, and shoot and edit your film using simple techniques. You’ll learn low and no cost ways to give your short film a professional look, and how to overcome many of the technical obstacles to filmmaking. Mr. Don Tingle is the Workshop Director for the Alabama Filmmakers Co-op. Don has presented over 90 workshops on various aspects of low budget and amateur moviemaking for the North Alabama community and multiple regional film festivals. Don has served as host and moderator for panel discussions at festivals and has interviewed actors, screenwriters and filmmakers. Don created and operates a filmmaking summer day camp for kids and is programmer and host of Huntsville’s annual Rocket City Short Film Festival.

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5IFBUSF 13 Signature Martini Genuine Absinthe Full Bar Great Steaks Great Fish Great Crêpes

Proud supporters of Ebertfest. Sit outside, see the world; sit inside, relax. 415 North Neil at Washington in Downtown Champaign 352.5880 www.carmonsrestaurant.com

At the MTD, every day is Earth Day. Recycling programs, workshops, hybrid buses and more.

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14 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival

The Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign has been a staple of the community for 90 years and has been undergoing renovations over the past few years. The Virginia is home to the 13th Annual Roger Ebert's Film Festival.

By Melissa Silverberg, Daily Illini Staff Writer

elebrating 90 years "My dad told me he saw Harry in 2011, the Virginia Houdini and the Marx Brothers Theaters like that are no longer Theatre has been there," Ebert said. "Theaters like undergoing another series that are no longer built. When of renovations to restore the a community has one, it's a built. When a community has one, Champaign landmark to its treasure." original greatness. Many in the Champaign- it's a treasure. The theater, which hosted its Urbana community including first show in 1921, has housed local residents and the - Roger Ebert - performers such as Charlie Champaign Park District have Chaplin, the Marx Brothers and been involved with the updates. more recently the annual Roger Renovations to the lobby area it first opened, but several Theatre seats a little over 1,500 Ebert's Film Festival, which is were paid for by a $1 million gift historic preservation activists patrons. hosted at the Virginia every year. from the late Michael Carragher. in Champaign-Urbana were An open house in March gave "I grew up going to the The blue and yellow neon unhappy with the removal of the visitors a first hand look at the Virginia, which along with the sign outside the Virginia Theatre sign that had been in place since most recent renovations, but Rialto always showed the top was taken down in November the 1940s. visitors to the 13th annual Roger movies," Ebert said in an e-mail as part of the renovations and Over the next few months Ebert's Film Festival will enjoy interview. "It was to me a palace there are plans to replace it with there will be renovations to the updates during the five days — the grandest building in a rectangular sign that more the upstairs bathrooms. Other of movie screenings. town." closely resembles the marquee upgrades in the works include "I've been watching the Although the theater first above the original theater in the painting for the main auditorium renovations as a work in opened as a vaudeville house, it 1920s. and updating the structure of progress," Ebert said. "Slowly but has hosted live performances, Members of the Champaign the stage and dressing rooms. surely, something wonderful is newly released movies and even Park District said that the Down the line the facility's being restored." concerts to thousands of patrons change will make the theater seating may also need to be over the past 90 years. look more like it did when restored or replaced. The Virginia

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5IFBUSF 15 TIRE & AUTO

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5IFBUSF 17 18 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival Festival restaurant sponsors

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*NQBTUB well as gourmet specialty pizzas http://www.boltinilounge.com http://www.greatimpasta for the more adventurous. Enjoy you’re hungry or if it's late Boltini has quickly become de restaurant.com our fine selection of domestic, imported and microbrewer beers. night and you need a quick rigueur for downtown folks. Downtown Urbana’s favorite pasta Intimate seating and a beautiful restaurant with over 50 variations Open daily until 2:00 am. interior soothe you as you peruse of pasta made fresh daily. bite to eat … Champaign- 39 Main Street, Champaign, IL the best-chosen list of liquor in Excellent wine selection, fresh (217) 398-5988 Urbana has dining options for town. Light fare includes small seafood specials, and a relaxing everyone. plates, cheese plates, salad atmosphere. Free parking. and soup, flat breads, tacos, Monday thru Thursday 11:00 am 4FWFO
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5IFBUSF 19 20 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival A warm welcome to our 2011 4QFDJBM
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he following are in- any sound imaginable. Utilizing Natural Selection is Pickering’s My Dog Tulip their famous "rack of junk" and feature film directorial debut and vited special guests electronic synthesizers, the group went on to win an unprecedented Thursday, April 28, 3:30pm for the festival. generates beautiful music in a seven awards at the 2011 spectacular variety of styles. They SXSW® Film Festival, including 1"6-
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(director / animator / writer) was born As always, their attendance can conjure up a simple German the Grand Jury Prize for best bar band of the 1920s or a French narrative feature, the Audience in Ashiya, Japan in 1936 to is contingent on factors symphony. The group can make Award, two jury prizes for Czechoslovakian diplomats, and spent his childhood years in over which they have little the audience think it is being breakthrough performances (for attacked by tigers, contacted by lead actors Rachael Harris and New Hampshire and Vermont. control, such as unforeseen radio signals from Mars or swept Matt O’Leary), best editing, best From 1947-67, he lived in up in the Russian Revolution. score, and best screenplay. Communist Czechoslovakia, changes in their work sched- Terry Donahue (junk percussion, where he graduated from the Industrial School of Arts in ule. But we hope that most, accordion, musical saw, banjo), 3"$)"&-
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1*$,&3*/( (writer/ in 1973. director) grew up in Jersey of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules. Other film credits include: Best He has been an independent Village, Texas, where he spent animator and cartoonist of most Sundays in run-down in Show, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration, Starsky cultural periodicals since 1958, churches with his mom. He went producing short films for Prague on to receive his undergraduate & Hutch, Kicking & Screaming and Daddy Day Care. TV and Kratky Film. In the West, degree at NYU’s Tisch School of he continued to work as an the Arts, where he wrote and Her TV credits include Metropolis CBS’ "Gary Unmarried," guest independent animator in Paris, directed two short films, both Hilversum, Munich, New York and Wednesday, April 27, 7:00pm of which won the Student Film starring on Starz’s "Party Down" and playing Gary Cole's Philadelphia. He has received Award at the Hamptons Film numerous awards, including an 5)&
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03$)&453" is a wife on "The Good Guys." Festival. He was also awarded Oscar® nomination, two Peabody three-man musical ensemble, Previously, Harris appeared the Lew Wasserman Screenwriting awards, a Pew Fellowship in the writing and performing live on ABC's "Cougar Town" and Award at NYU for his work and Arts (PFA) grant for body of work, accompaniment to classic silent Showtime’s "Fat Actress." Rachael went on to screen both films at and over 100 major Animation films. Working with an outrageous can next be seen on Fox's new festivals around the world. Festival awards and honors assemblage of peculiar objects, comedy pilot "Family Album" with After graduation, two of internationally. they thrash and grind soulful Mike O'Malley and Rob Huebel. Pickering’s commercials were Fierlinger has produced music from unlikely sources. Harris also recently appeared selected to be honored at over 800 films, including TV Performing at prestigious film in the Hollywood Bowl production the annual Association of commercials and industrial films, festivals and cultural centers in of Rent in Los Angeles. She was Independent Commercial educational and children’s films, the US and abroad (The Telluride born in Worthington, Ohio and Producer’s Show in New York. Both and films for ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, Film Festival, The Louvre, Lincoln currently resides in Los Angeles, spots were shown in gala HBO, Showtime, "Sesame Street," Center, The Academy of Motion California. screenings around the country Oxygen, Nickelodeon, MTV, Pictures Arts and Sciences, the at such venues as the New York Comcast and European networks. National Gallery of Art, and Museum of Modern Art, the Dallas His feature films include others), the Alloy Orchestra has Museum of Art, the San Francisco Drawn From Memory (1994) for helped revive some of the great Umberto D Museum of Modern Art, the PBS’ American Playhouse, which masterpieces of the silent era. Chicago Museum of Contemporary Thursday, April 28, 1:00pm received best TV feature award An unusual combination of Art, and the LA County Museum of at Annecy, France, and My Dog found percussion and state-of- Art. The spots are now part of the Tulip, based on the book by J.R. the-art electronics gives the MOMA's permanent collection in Orchestra the ability to create New York. continued on next page

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5IFBUSF 21 Ackerley, and featuring the voices His previous credits include of Christopher Plummer, Lynne the SXSW® 2010 Audience Award Redgrave, Isabella Rossellini and winner NY Export: Opus Jazz (PBS, others. My Dog Tulip is currently BBC, Factory 25), Matt Wolf's in US distribution by New Yorker Wild Combination: A Portrait Of Films, will open in the UK in Arthur Russell (Sundance Channel, April, and will be released on Plexifilm) and Jody Lipes's Brock DVD and VOD in May. Currently Enright: Good Times Will Never Be in production is Slocum at Sea The Same (Factory 25). with Himself, based on the book Sailing Alone Around the World by DAVID CALL (actor) is a native of Joshua Slocum (1899), his first Washington state and a graduate independent i-film production of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. slated for self-published Call is one of the rising actors of serialization installments in 2012. the American independent film He also teaches two classes; scene. He most recently starred Hand Drawn Computer Animation in Alistair Banks Griffin’s Two and In Pursuit of Originality, Gates of Sleep (Cannes 2010) and and provides private lessons for Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture (IFC exceptionally gifted individuals. Films) and can be seen in the upcoming films Nor’easter (Andrew SANDRA SCHUETTE FIERLINGER Brotzman) and Ry Russo-Young’s (director / color designer / paint Nobody Walks. animator) grew up in Wayne, Call’s past film credits include Pennsylvania and graduated Did You Hear About the Morgans? in 1978 from the Pennsylvania with Hugh Grant, as well as Academy of the Fine Arts with Evening, Beautiful Ohio and The their highest awards. Since 1989 Notorious Bettie Page. He has and her marriage to Paul, she has also worked extensively in TV, collaborated with him in many with recurring roles on “Gossip capacities – foremost as co- Girl,” “Rescue Me” and “Fringe director, art director, background and Mercy,” as well as past and color designer – on several appearances on “Numb3rs,” “Army dozen films for “Sesame Wives” and “Law & Order: Criminal Street,” Nickelodeon, “American Intent.” He recently directed, Playhouse,” the Children’s Book co-wrote and produced the short of the Month Club, ITVS/PBS film B.U.S.T., which won the specials, and TV commercials. Special Jury Prize at the Dallas Fierlinger’s most recent films Film Festival. include Still Life with Animated Dogs, which won the 2001 RYAN WERNER (distributor) is Peabody Award; A Room Nearby, Senior Vice President of Marketing which won the 2005 Peabody & Publicity at Sundance Selects/ Award; and My Dog Tulip. IFC Entertainment. Among the Currently in production is films he's worked on are Abbas Slocum at Sea with Himself, a Kiarostami's Certified Copy; Ricki self published i-film slated for Stern's Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Internet release in 2012. Work; Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days’; Olivier Assayas' Carlos and Summer Hours; Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Tiny Furniture Park; Matteo Garrone's Gomorrah; Thursday, April 28, 8:00pm Steven Soderbergh's Che; and Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture. He also worked at Magnolia Pictures, KYLE MARTIN (producer) was recently named the 2010 Shooting Gallery, Wellspring, Sundance Institute Mark Sundance Channel and IFP. He Silverman Producing Fellow. He lives in NYC. is currently working with director Matt Wolf on the feature Teenage, a stylized meditation on early 20th century youth cultures, and is developing the Sundance Institute-supported projects Bluebird (with writer/director Lance Edmands) and Confederacy (written by Jody Lee Lipes and Jeff Peixoto).

22 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival 45365 Only You Friday, April 29, 1:00pm Friday, April 29, 8:30pm

TURNER ROSS (director/ NORMAN JEWISON (director) producer/editor/DP) & BILL ROSS has been a vibrant force in the (director/producer/DP) won the motion picture industry for five 2009 SXSW® Grand Jury Award decades, nominated for four for best documentary feature Oscars®, including three Best and the Independent Spirit Truer Director awards. His films have Than Fiction Award with their first received 46 nominations and feature-length film, 45365. They 12 Oscars®. In 1999, Jewison have gone on to receive numerous received the prestigious Irving awards and nominations, Thalberg Award at the Academy including nominations for editing, Awards®, and in 2010, he cinematography, and debut received the Directors Guild of feature at the Cinema Eye Honors America’s Lifetime Achievement and the BFI London Film Festival’s Award. In 1986, Jewison Grierson Award. established the Canadian Film Their documentary, fiction, Centre, akin to the AFI in the US. Bullock and multi-media short films have Born and raised in Toronto, been featured at museums and Jewison graduated from the and Associates film festivals throughout the University of Toronto in 1949. world. 2011 will see the release After two years with the BBC in of another feature, Tchoupitoulas, London, he returned to Canada to a document from the New Orleans write, direct and produce some of night. They are currently filming Canada’s most popular musicals, on the Texas border. dramas, comedy-variety shows and specials for the CBC. Educational In 1958, he moved to CBS New York, where he directed a string Me and Orson Welles of landmark TV series, including Consultants Friday, April 29, 4:00pm “Your Hit Parade,” “The Andy Williams Show,” and specials featuring Harry Belafonte, RICHARD LINKLATER (director) serves as the Artistic Director for Danny Kaye and Judy Garland, the Austin Film Society, which he collectively earning three founded in 1985 to showcase films Emmys®. Supporting from around the world that were His directorial debut film was not typically shown in Austin. The the 1962 Tony Curtis comedy, 40 Austin Film Society has given out Pounds of Trouble. After The Thrill Ebertfest over $1,000,000 in grants to Texas of it All, Send Me No Flowers, and filmmakers and, in 1999, received The Art Of Love--all for Universal- from the beginning! the Directors Guild of America’s -Jewison became an independent DGA Honor in recognition of its filmmaker. His successful first support of the arts. effort, The Cincinnati Kid, which Writer/director Linklater’s he co-wrote and directed, is now credits are: It's Impossible To considered a classic. Since then, Learn To Plow By Reading Books his films have covered a wide (1988); Slacker (1991); Dazed range of subjects and styles, And Confused (1993); Before from the political satire of The Congratulations Sunrise (1995); Suburbia (1997); Russians Are Coming, The Russians The Newton Boys (1998); Waking Are Coming and the stylish Roger and Chaz! Life (2001); Tape (2001); Live gamesmanship of The Thomas From Shiva’s Dance Floor (2003); Crown Affair to the angry irony School Of Rock (2003); Before of ...And Justice For All and the Sunset (2004); $5.15/Hr. (2004, sultry mystery of In The Heat of TV); Bad News Bears (2005); A the Night, winner of five Oscars® Scanner Darkly (2006); Fast Food including Best Picture for 1967. Nation (2006); Inning By Inning: Jewison directed the hit A Portrait Of A Coach (2008); Me screen versions of Fiddler on the And Orson Welles (2009); and Roof and Jesus Christ Superstar, Bernie (2011). the futuristic Rollerball and the political drama F.I.S.T. He directed and co-produced A Soldier’s Story (1984), which was nominated for three Oscars®. He

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5IFBUSF 23 produced Iceman (1984), and (Fox) and Bunny, which was directed Agnes of God (1985), nominated for two Independent which was honored with three Spirit Awards. Lee has also shot Oscar® nominations. Jewison several documentary projects, directed Moonstruck (1987), including the Sundance Channel's another multiple Oscar® winner, "Big Ideas for a Small Planet" produced The January Man and American Mullet. Being well- (1988), and directed In Country versed in shooting a wide range (1989). Other People’s Money of formats and genres proved (1991) became Jewison’s 25th helpful to Lee with A Small Act, film in 28 years. her first project as producer. In 1994, Jewison directed Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey JENNIFER ARNOLD (writer / Jr. in Only You, a romantic director / producer) graduated comedy about a woman who from UCLA and the University travels to Italy in search of her of Nairobi with a BA in African one true love. He executive- History and returned to UCLA produced "Geronimo," one in for an MFA in film. Her award- the TNT series of original dramas winning film, Maid Of Honor, portraying historical events in screened at Sundance before Native American history. Jewison airing on HBO/Cinemax and Film produced and directed "Funny 4. Arnold returned to Sundance is Money" (1998), a two-hour with her Internet series, "The Showtime documentary on Mullet Chronicles," which was the importance of humor and developed into the documentary entertainment in America in the American Mullet and released 20th century. by Palm Pictures and Lionsgate. In 1995, Jewison executive- Arnold also co-directed a produced the Sundance documentary for Ethan Coen favorite Dance Me Outside and and wrote a motocross script, the Showtime series “Picture Speedway, which was selected for Windows;” directors included the Berlin Talent Campus’ script him, John Boorman and Peter clinic, IFP’s No Borders and FIND’s Bogdanovich. Universal Pictures Directors Lab/Fast Track Program. released Jewison’s film The Her most recent project, A Small Hurricane (1999) starring Denzel Act, a documentary feature, Washington. Jewison directed premiered in competition at and produced Bogus (1996). He Sundance 2010 and was awarded executive produced "Walter & the Adrienne Shelly Foundation Henry" (2000, Showtime) and Excellence in Filmmaking Award directed the Emmy®-nominated and the Humanitas Prize. A Small "Dinner with Friends" (2001, Act is currently being broadcast HBO). on HBO and is a top documentary Jewison produced and directed pick by Roger Ebert and a New The Statement (2003), starring York Times Critic’s Pick for 2010. Michael Caine and Tilda Swinton. His current project is a screenplay HILDE BACK (film subject) by Oscar® winner John Patrick Shanley, based on the Italian film Bread and Tulips. Life, Above All Saturday, April 30, 2:00pm

A Small Act OLIVER SCHMITZ (director), Saturday, April 30, 11:00am the child of German immigrants, was born in 1960 in Cape Town, PATTI LEE (producer / DP) South Africa. He attended the graduated from UCLA’s Michaelis School of Fine Arts in film school, and began her Cape Town, graduating with a BA career lighting feature films, in Fine Arts. During his college commercials and television years he worked as a co-manager shows, working with notable and DJ at Scratch, the legendary cinematographers such as Newton nightclub he co-founded in the Thomas Sigel and Guillermo early 1980s. In 1983 Schmitz Navarro. Her cinematography began an editorial apprenticeship credits include “Awkward in Johannesburg, and in 1985-86 Situations for Men” (Warner worked in Dortmund as an editor Brothers), "The Bernie Mac Show" for the WDR, one of Germany’s

24 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival largest public broadcasters. heroine Chanda, she stepped in He returned to South Africa, front of the camera for the first still under apartheid, to direct time. ® his first feature film. Without the The Ultimate Tan permission of local authorities, MICHAEL BARKER (distributor) he shot the gangster drama has been the Co-President of Mapantsula in the Soweto Sony Pictures Classics since its township. The film debuted inception over 19 years ago. Text ULTIMATE Follow us on at Cannes (1988), went on to Sony Pictures Classics produces, receive awards for best film, best distributes, and acquires to 411669 Facebook director and best editing at the independent films from all over AA Vita Awards, and numerous the world. for FREE TANS! & Twitter international distinctions, Films currently playing include including the Interchurch Film the Academy Award® winning Award at the Munich Filmfest documentary Inside Job (Charles 1909 W. Springfield, Champaign and the Australian Human Rights Ferguson), Another Year (Mike Between Blockbuster® Video and The Pancake House Award. Its highest honor was Leigh), Barney’s Version (Richard being named the best South J. Lewis), Of Gods And Men FREE MEMBERSHIP REGISTRATION African film of the decade at (Xavier Beauvois), Winter in the 2006 South African Film Wartime (Martin Koolhoven) and & Television Awards. The film The Illusionist (Sylvain Chomet). Unlimited Tanning only was also well received by South Sony Pictures Classics earned Africa’s black population, seven 2010 Academy Award® attaining cult status. nominations and four 2010 $4.72/week* In the late 1980s Schmitz Golden Globe® nominations. on the Ultimate Monthly Membership teamed with other documentary Upcoming pictures include filmmakers to direct nine the Academy Award®-winning Includes Beds with Face Tanners documentaries, including Jo’burg foreign feature In A Better World Stories, commissioned by Arté (Susanne Bier), Incendies (Denis 4 Levels of Tanning Included in 1997. In 2000 he shot his Villeneuve), POM Wonderful Freeze or Cancel Anytime second feature film, Hijack Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Stories, another gangster drama, Sold (Morgan Spurlock), and *Additional Fees May Apply Expires 5/31/11 which he also wrote and directed. Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen). With increasingly longer waiting Over the years Michael has periods between projects, he worked with some of the world's moved back to Germany in 2000, finest filmmakers, including Akira making a name for himself as a Kurosawa, Louis Malle, Pedro successful TV director. Alomodóvar, Yimou Zhang, Ingmar Cinema remained in his heart Bergman, Guillermo del Toro, and s s and, in 2005, he was one of the Robert Altman. Past successes directors in the collaborative include Capote; Crouching Tiger, feature film Paris je t’aime (2006), Hidden Dragon; and Howards End, which premiered at Cannes. all nominated for the Best Picture Richard D. Throughout his career, Schmitz Academy Award®. received numerous awards, among them the German Television Award Mohr in 2008 for “Doctor’s Diary,” the Adolf Grimme Award in 2007 for Leaves of Grass best director, and the Cinéma Saturday, April 30, 6:30pm Tout Ecran for best TV series at the Geneva Film Festival for the 5*.
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/&-40/ (director) critically acclaimed, “Turkish for most recently wrote, directed and Beginners.” Schmitz’ next film produced Leaves of Grass, a dark will be an adaptation of Wladimir comedy starring Edward Norton, Kaminer’s Russendisco. Schmitz Keri Russell, Susan Sarandon lives in Berlin with his family. and Richard Dreyfuss. The film Robert W. premiered at the 2009 Toronto ,)0.0540
."/:"," (actor) Film Festival and was released in comes from Elandsdoorn, South August 2010. Nelson also plays a Africa, where she was born in supporting role in the film. Switzer 1996. She attended the local In October 2002, Nelson high school and caught the eyes released The Grey Zone, which of talent scouts during a choir he wrote and directed based Proud supporters of Ebertfest performance. She was excited on his award-winning play. It when she was asked to participate is the dramatic story of the in the casting for Life, Above Sonderkommandos, a special All and has turned out to be a s s natural as an actress. To play the continued on next page

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5IFBUSF 25 squad of Jews who processed Company, and then with other corpses in the crematoria at theaters in England and around Birkenau. Harvey Keitel, Steve the world. Buscemi, and Mira Sorvino star In 1985 she began her long in the fi lm, which premiered at collaboration with English the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. director Derek Jarman. Soon she The National Board of Review became Jarman's close friend honored the fi lm with a “special and regular talent, appearing in recognition of fi lms that refl ect each one of his movies, including the freedom of expression” award Caravaggio (1986), The Last of in 2002. England (1987), War Requiem close to campus + upgraded amenities + all utilities included In 2001, Nelson directed O, (1988), The Garden (1990), and a contemporary adaptation of Edward II (1992), until his death Shakespeare’s Othello, which from AIDS in 1994. starred Martin Sheen, Julia Stiles, Swinton continued to and Josh Hartnett, and won the showcase her talent in best director award at the 2001 independent fi lms, and built Seattle Film Festival. a small but solid fan base. In In 1997, Nelson made his 1992 she completed what later directorial debut with the fi lm became one of her best-known Eye of God, which he also wrote. projects, her galvanizing portrayal The fi lm appeared at the 1997 of the androgynous character Sundance Film Festival and was Orlando in the fi lm adaptation released theatrically the same of Virginia Woolf's Orlando. But year. It won the top award at the despite the fi lm's popularity, she 1997 Seattle Film Festival, as well continued to focus her work on as the Bronze Prize at the Tokyo independent fi lms, staying out Film Festival. of the limelight. After a break in His acting credits include the the mid 1990s for the pregnancy 217.367.0720 | 302 E. John St. Suite 100 upcoming Everybody Loves Whales, and the birth of her twins, Xavier starring Drew Barrymore and John and Honor, she returned to the facebook.com/TowerAtThird Krasinski; David Frankel’s The Big screen, working with Tim Roth Year with Owen Wilson and Steve in The War Zone (1999), Leonardo Martin; Flypaper with Ashley DiCaprio in The Beach (2000), The Judd and Patrick Dempsey; Sin Deep End (2001) Bin; Yelling To The Sky; American and Adaptation (2002). She Violet; The Incredible Hulk with received a British Independent Edward Norton and Liv Tyler; The Film Award nomination for her Astronaut Farmer, Fido, Warm role in Young Adam (2004). Springs, Meet the Fockers, Syriana, She was recognized as Best Holes, The Good Girl, Wonderland, Supporting Actress at both Minority Report, and O Brother the BAFTA Film Awards and Where Art Thou?. He has also the Academy Awards® for her acted extensively in New York performance in Michael Clayton theater, appearing in The Beard of (2007). Swinton also won a Avon, Mad Forest, Oedipus, Troilus Saturn Award as Best Supporting and Cressida, Richard III, and Actress for her performance Twelfth Night. in The Curious Case of Benjamin His playwriting credits include Button (2008) and a 2010 Dublin Eye of God, Anadarko, and The Film Critics Award for her work in Grey Zone, which won him I Am Love. Newsday's Oppenheimer Prize, as well as Encore magazine's “Taking Off” Award, Louder Than a Bomb Sunday, May 1, Noon

I Am Love JON SISKEL (director/producer), Saturday, April 30, 9:30pm co-founder of Siskel/Jacobs Productions, was executive TILDA SWINTON (actor) was producer and co-creator of the born in London to an upper-class series "Fake Out", which ran Scottish family and was educated for two seasons on Court TV. at Cambridge University, where He has also produced shows she graduated with a degree in for the A&E series “American Social & Political Science/English Justice,” “Investigative Reports” Literature before she started and “Biography,” and his work acting with the Royal Shakespeare has been shown on The Travel

26 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival Channel, Discovery, and History. Kavaklıdere, Ankara. This led to Siskel serves on the board of an interest in both cinema and directors of Free Spirit Media, Greek Mythology, eventually pav- a Chicago-based youth media ing the way for a lifelong immer- organization, as well as the Gene sion in the arts. His eclectic, and Siskel Film Center. somewhat idiosyncratic, cinematic interests include the films of the GREG JACOBS (director/ ‘movie brats,’ Alfred Hitchcock, producer), co-founder of Siskel/ Jewish comedy, film noir, biogra- Jacobs Productions, served as phies, and movies about contem- VP/Chief Creative Officer at porary British history (that don’t Towers Productions, where he involve stammering monarchs). oversaw the content of more Originally from Ankara, than 200 documentaries on five Turkey, Ali has lived in Cologne, different networks, including Germany; Durham and London, award-winning shows and series UK. He currently resides in for A&E, History, Discovery, The Istanbul, Turkey. Weather Channel, and CNN. A graduate of Yale University, Greg "-*40/
#"*-&4 is the film critic has a master's degree in history for More Magazine and a contrib- from Ohio State, and is the uting critic for “Ebert Presents” author of Getting Around Brown: on PBS. She appears on NBC’s Desegregation, Development, and “Today Show” as a film critic and the Columbus Public Schools. industry reporter. She also guest hosts the New York Film Critics ,&7*/
$07"- (founder & artistic Series and maintains her own film director of Louder Than a Bomb) website. From 2005-2009 Alison co-hosted the NBCUniversal -"."3
+03%&/ (Steinmetz High weekly movie review show “Lyons School Poet) & Bailes Reel Talk.” She and Jeffrey Lyons shared their dif- $)"3-&4
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.$/*()5 (Steinmetz office and reported on industry High School Poet) trends. “Reel Talk” also featured celebrity interviews. ,&7*/
)"33*4 (Steinmetz High Prior to joining WNBC, Alison NC STATE UNIVERSITY School Poet) created “At The Angelika” for the IFC. She wrote, produced +²464
-"3, (Steinmetz High and hosted this monthly look College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences School Poet) at the independent film scene, which later became known as DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS “At The IFC Center.” Previously, Alison was a senior producer of the weekly film magazine show 2011 Panelists & “Flix” on VH1. She began her Special Guests career at CNN, working for their daily entertainment news show "-*
"3*,"/ is the chief film “Showbiz Today.” critic of Dipnot TV, a Turkish A UK native, Alison has lived news portal and iPad magazine, in the US since 1989. She gradu- and one of Roger’s Far-Flung ated from Oxford University, with Correspondents. Ali’s also a regu- a BA in French and German lar contributor to The House Next Literature. An avid athlete, she Door, Slant Magazine’s official also earned a varsity award in blog. Occasionally, he updates rowing. his personal blog, Cerebral Supernova Mastication. In addition, his 0-*7*"
$0--&55& has been wind bubble writing appears on various film deconstructing movies since she and pop-culture sites on the realized some of her friends were J. Blondin, blogosphere. He also believes in willing to humor her. She has a NC State the transformative potential of thing for Laxmi Chhaya dance Physics Twitter. routines, a crush on Fellini, and Where explosive discoveries are made! Ali’s first encounter with the a non-negotiable fear of zombie awesome power of cinema was flicks. Based in Montreal, Olivia www.physics.ncsu.edu when he saw Ray Harryhausen’s works at Spacial Audio as a com- The Clash of the Titans at the Ad courtesy of Brand Fortner now-defunct Akün Sineması in continued on next page

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5IFBUSF 27 munications strategist. In her DANN GIRE, Daily Herald film spare time, she likes to find any critic, serves as president and reason to host a dinner party. No, founding director of the Chicago really. Any reason at all. Film Critics Association. When he was a student at Eastern Illinois TOM DARK is a literary agent for University in 1974, he saw The the Heacock Hill Literary Agency. Exorcist at the Orpheum Theater Certain of his clients, if they in Champaign, and his life was are correct, may point the way never the same. Dann has been toward faster-than-light technol- named a contributing critic/cor- ogy, or present classically empiri- respondent for "Ebert Presents." cal evidence that suggests con- sciousness forms biological mat- CHRISTY LEMIRE, co-host of ter, not the other way around. If "Ebert Presents," is the film critic they are wrong, no harm done. In for The Associated Press, based any case, it is time for new ideas. in Los Angeles. She has been The more basic, cheaper and the writing reviews for the AP for 12 more accessible to individual years and in 2004 was named the experimentation, the better. first full-time film critic in the Tom has worked as an edi- news organization's history. tor, writer, copywriter, promoter, Christy filled in for Roger sev- producer, sound engineer, musi- eral times on "At the Movies" cian, actor, scriptwriter, political in 2007 and has appeared on organizer, public speaker and a "The Charlie Rose Show," "Good host of other occupations, for- Morning America" and "The View," gotten but for the philosophical to name a few. She also covers experiment they represented. This the Oscars®, Golden Globes® and experiment began in adolescence, many other awards shows each owing to independent reading, year. wondering what philosophy ever A third-generation LA native, had to do with anything. Forty Christy is a member of the LA years into this experiment, the Film Critics Association. question has become “what makes people keep dismissing MICHAEL MIRASOL is a Filipino their own philosophies?” independent film critic who Tom estimates he has watched has been writing about films about 20,000 movies in his life for the past eleven years. He so far, but almost never meets briefly served as film critic for anyone who recommends a film the Manila Times and now writes he has already seen. occasionally for Uno Magazine and his blog The Flipcritic. C.O. “DOC” ERICKSON, an execu- Last year, he was named by tive producer, has over 50 years' Roger as one of his Far-Flung experience as a producer and Correspondents, and continues production manager on many of to contribute written and video Hollywood's biggest films. He essays on film. began his career at Paramount Pictures, serving as production OMAR MOORE is an attorney and manager on five Alfred Hitchcock a film critic. He is the founder films: Rear Window, To Catch A and editor of The Popcorn Reel, Thief, The Trouble with Harry, a movie review, film essay, The Man Who Knew Too Much video and celebrity interview and Vertigo. He left Paramount website. A member of the San to become John Huston's asso- Francisco Film Critics Circle, Omar ciate producer on The Misfits, is a contributing critic to the PBS Freud and Reflections in a Golden TV program “Ebert Presents” as Eye. He was production man- well as a Far-Flung Correspondent ager on Joseph L. Mankiewicz's for Roger’s blog at the Chicago Cleopatra. He also spent three Sun-Times. Omar is the San years supervising film production Francisco Indie Movie Examiner, for Brut Productions and later and he has appeared on American became associated with Robert Public Radio and other radio pro- Evans on Chinatown, Players, grams talking about film. Omar Urban Cowboy and Popeye. Other is a regular contributor to "The producer/production credits Movie Mob", part of a radio show include 55 Days at Peking, Blade hosted by DC film critic Tim Runner, Groundhog Day, Fast Gordon. His letters on film and Times at Ridgemont High, Magic legal issues have been published and The Lonely Guy. in The New York Times. Omar can

28 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival be found on Twitter. If he could he also serves as department video essays analyzing the styles some of his art on his website, tweet a 120-page script in 140 chair. Eric has written on a vari- of Oliver Stone, Wes Anderson, Artistic Scrapyard, and some of characters, he would. Omar con- ety of topics ranging from film Budd Boetticher, Bill Melendez, his writing on his blog, Cinematic tinues to be spellbound by the distribution in the 1970s to hate Joseph Losey, Kathryn Bigelow, Jackass. brilliance of Vertigo and 2001: A group recruiting via the Internet. Michael Mann and other directors. He is proud to be Roger's Space Odyssey. Among the journals in which his His pieces can be viewed online youngest Far-Flung Correspondent, work has appeared are Screening at Salon.com, The Museum of the and even more so to have been OMER MOZAFFAR is a part-time Noir and The Journal of Mass Moving Image, The L Magazine, invited to Ebertfest. He will be instructor at various colleges Media Ethics. His most recent and on YouTube. Seitz is also the coming to Illinois from Sharjah, throughout the Chicago area, work, “The Promise of Roots,” is founder of The House Next Door, a along with his mother and including the University of part of a forthcoming book on website devoted to critical writ- 15-year old sister. Chicago and Loyola University. the African-American TV audi- ing about film and TV. He usually lectures on Theology, ence. Currently he is appearing MATT SINGER is the on-air host Mysticism, History, and Literature. in the documentary, "Infiltrating KRISHNA SHENOI is a 17-year- of the Independent Film Channel's He works extensively in children's Hollywood: The Rise and Fall old Indian boy who has been “IFC News” and a regular contrib- curriculum development. He of the Spook Who Sat By The obsessed with movies for as utor to its website. His criticism is one of Roger's Far-Flung Door." Eric is a graduate of the long as he can remember. He's has also appeared in print in Correspondents. He is a nice boy. University of Illinois with degrees a lover of Steven Spielberg, Ray The Village Voice, Spin Magazine, in Theater and Communications. Harryhausen, Robert Zemeckis, and on NPR, MTV, E!, and “Ebert MICHAEL PHILLIPS is the film movie soundtracks, superhero Presents.” Matt lives in Brooklyn critic of the Chicago Tribune, JANET PIERSON,the producer films, The Eels, and his mother's with his wife, dog, and a prop and can be seen regularly on of the South by Southwest® food. His passion for films and sword from the film Gymkata. CLTV as well as heard regularly (SXSW®) Film Conference and making them began early on. on WGN-AM. Opposite Richard Festival since April 2008, has When he was seven or eight, he GERARDO VALERO is Roger’s Roeper and, subsequently, A.O. spent over 25 years championing used to make home movies with Mexico City Far-Flung Scott, he had the pleasure of independent films and filmmak- an old Sony camcorder, building Correspondent, where he lives co-hosting nearly 100 episodes ers, in a variety of roles including blocks and clay models, employ- with his wife Monica. Even of the Disney/ABC version of “At distributor, exhibitor, producer’s ing very rough stop-motion though he’s been going to the the Movies.” Phillips covered film rep, investor, workshop producer, animation techniques. Today, movies since the days when for the San Diego Union-Tribune executive producer, documentary he still creates and edits short double and triple features of and the Twin Cities weekly City subject, and as co-creator and films, which you can see on his re-released films opened in his Pages, where he served as arts segment director of the IFC cable YouTube channel. neighborhood theater on almost editor. He was also the film critic TV series “Split Screen.” Much of Apart from filmmaking, Krishna for Minnesota Public Radio. Across this work was in partnership with paints quite a bit. You can see continued on next page the last 20 years, he has been the her husband, the author/produc- drama critic of the Dallas Times er/professor John Pierson. Janet Herald, San Diego Union-Tribune, just completed a six-year term on St. Paul Pioneer Press, Los Angeles the Austin Film Society Board, Times, and Chicago Tribune. He and is now on the advisory board. has taught at the University of Chicago Graham School, and the DAVID POLAND is the creator and annual USC/NEA arts journalism publisher of Movie City News, host 2011 www.artistsagainstaids.info workshop in Los Angeles. Most of the half-hour online interview recently, on a Hearst fellowship, series DP/30, and he still finds Thursday, April 28 The 19th annual volunteer he conveyed what passes for his time to stir it up daily on The 7:00pm – 9:00pm knowledge at the University of Hot Blog. First Look Opening operated exhibition and Georgia in Athens. He has served $50/person in advance sale, featuring over 250 local on juries and panels on every- KARTINA RICHARDSON is a call 217.351.2437 thing from the Pulitzer Prizes to writer and filmmaker. She is the Friday, April 29 artists’ works, will be held the Cinema For Peace Foundation author of the critically-acclaimed 6:00pm – 10:00pm in downtown Champaign. in Berlin and the Rome Film film commentary and video essay Grand Opening Festival. He lives on Chicago's site Mirror. Kartina is one of ID will be required for alcohol Proceeds go directly to the northwest side with his wife Roger's Far-Flung Correspondents and their 10-year-old son, who and a contributing critic to Saturday, April 30 Greater Community AIDS considers hot buttered popcorn “Ebert Presents.” In addition to 1:00pm – 10:00pm Project (GCAP), a local, non- "the ace of snacks,” one step writing on film, Kartina explores Exhibition continues above “king.” Michael is proud to race, gender, and culture on her Sunday, May 1 profit agency providing call Roger, Chaz, Nate Kohn and blog This Moi. 1:00pm – 7:00pm support ser vices for those the rest of the folks who bring Exhibition continues. us Ebertfest his colleagues and MATT ZOLLER SEITZ, a staff Artists’ Reception affected by HIV/AIDS in east his friends. critic for Salon.com and Pulitzer 4:00pm – 6:00pm Central Illinois. Prize finalist in criticism, is a ERIC PIERSON is a film/television Brooklyn-based journalist and Monday, May 2 teacher and scholar, with a strong film editor. His articles about 1:00pm – 7:00pm NEW LOCATION Exhibition continues interest in the ways that film movies, TV and popular culture The Blue Line Station and TV shape popular culture. He have appeared in The New York & closes teaches in the Communication Times, Slate, New York Press, The For information call 804 N. Neil St. Champaign Studies Department at the Star-Ledger, Newsday and other 217.351.2437 one block north of Post Office at Neil and Columbia University of San Diego, where publications. He writes and edits www.artistsagainstaids.info

All Q&A sessions and panel discussions will be streamed live on the Internet at www.ebertfest.com
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5IFBUSF 29 a daily basis, he started taking movie-related contests, including children's fairytale for the stage. column on Rogerebert.com. film seriously when he discovered an Omega Watch from Mexico’s Pablo is currently the editor Grace is fluent in Mandarin “Siskel and Ebert and The Movies” Cine-Premiere Magazine in 1995. and film critic for Cinema em and Cantonese and a beginner in the mid 1980s and became an Cine-Premiere, coincidentally, has Cena, the oldest Brazilian movie in Japanese and Spanish. In avid watcher. This period coin- recently contacted him to blog in website, which he created back her spare time, she practices as cided with the two years he spent upcoming issues. in 1997, and also teaches courses a lawyer, daydreams on public getting his MBA, during which he His favorite films are Steven in film theory and film criticism transport, and has a weakness for spent much time debating films Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) and all over Brazil. In 2007, he was red shoes and good people. She with friends, especially with fel- Francis Coppola’s The Godfather the only non-US film critic to currently resides in Toronto. low S&E fans. (1972) and The Godfather II be invited by the Museum of the Aside from having his eyes (1974)—their ranking depend- Moving Image and The New York ANATH WHITE, an Illinois native, opened by the show about the ing on which one he’s seen more Times to participate in a week- was a committed movie goer in right films to see, he learned recently. Gerardo enjoys playing long seminar on film criticism. her early teens. By college, the there about the beauty of black tennis, watching DVDs and writ- In 2008, he directed his first International Film Series at the and white, the facts behind ‘pan ing about movies. short film, Ethics, and in 2009, University of Colorado turned her & scan’ and cropping (which upon special invitation, he acted on to film. Following a back-to- rendered his previously treasured PABLO VILLACA, a film critic temporarily as the director of the nature stint in the mountains Beta movie collection unwatch- since 1994, has written for many International Film Institute in Los above Boulder (no running water, able) and, most importantly, the Brazilian movie magazines. In Angeles. In 2011, he will direct plumbing nor electricity, no predictability of certain cliché- 2002, he became the first Latin- his second short film, which is neighbors for miles), she moved filled movies. Since Roger pub- American critic to be part of the currently in pre-production. to Denver and gave ten years to lished his first entry in his Little Online Film Critics Society, and radio. Five were at public station Movie Glossary, Gerardo could no he is still its only Brazilian mem- IGNATIY VISHNEVETSKY is a KCFR-FM, when it was still "free longer watch any film, TV show or ber. He has published columns critic and essayist for MUBI.com, form." As a deejay, local host for commercial without searching for on websites such as Hollywood co-founder of the acclaimed Cine- "Morning Edition," and producer new suggestions, at least some Elsewhere and eventually became File.info, and a contributor to the of dozens of arts/film-related of which have been published by a collaborator on the acclaimed Chicago Reader. Prior to becoming segments, including for NPR, she Roger in every one of his last ten site Movie City News. In 2005, he a film critic, Ignatiy worked as a was awarded a national Grant for Movie Yearbooks. published his first book, O Cinema translator for Novoe Literaturnoe Women in Public Broadcasting. Gerardo has been published Além das Montanhas (Cinema Obozrenie, Russia's premier liter- She segued into (pre-Limbaugh) four times in Time Magazine’s Beyond the Mountains), a biog- ary journal. Born in the Soviet talk when she began producing "10 Questions" segment (the raphy of film director Helvécio Union, Ignatiy moved to America shows for Alan Berg, the top talk most recent being with James Ratton, and in 2001, he won a when he was eight and soon host at the venerable 50,000-watt Cameron). He has won several theater award for adapting an old moved to Chicago because he KOA-AM. Nine months later, Berg “could find more films to see was murdered in a political assas- here." Ignatiy helps program the sination by a neo-Nazi cadre. Fast current Cine-File Selects series at forward five years. When Oliver the University of Chicago's Doc Stone directed Talk Radio, the Films, the nation's oldest film script for which combined a play Three floors booked solid. society. He also co-manages the by Eric Bogosian with elements Locally owned for more than 25 years Odd Obsession underground and of the Alan Berg story, Anath was alternative video store. Stone's technical advisor on the Dallas shoot, and had a cameo in GRACE WANG has a deep passion the film. This experience gave her for cinema and writes related the gumption to relocate to Los musings alongside poetry, short Angeles. Since 1990, after hold- stories, and photography on ing distribution and special proj- her website, Etheriel Musings. ects coordinating positions at the She is one of Roger’s Far-Flung AFI, she's done everything from Correspondents and a regular script coverage for The Sundance contributor to RogerEbert.com, Institute to researcher/creative The Spectators Arts Blog, and consultant on numerous Showtime Jane Addams Book Shop various online publications. She films to associate producing/coor- is also a contributing author to dinating British TV shoots in the the forthcoming book World Film US and, most recently, associate Locations: New York. Grace acted producing three documentaries. as Social Media Coordinator for Now a Far-Flung Correspondent, the 2010 Toronto International she also writes poetry and literary Film Festival, and is returning as non-fiction, and is currently com-

EBERTFEST a TIFF Programming Associate for pleting a memoir of the four and PARK ST the 2011 Festival. She recently a half years following Alan Berg's embarked on a two-month trip to murder. China and will be reporting her observations of both life and the JANE ADDAMS state of cinema in China, as well Go to www.ebertfest.com to

RANDOLPH ST as special reports from 35th Hong

NEIL STNEIL read our Official Festival Blog CHURCH ST Kong International Film Festival, by Roger Ebert’s Far Flung 1st Beijing International Film Festival, and Ebertfest 2011, in a Correspondents and others.

30 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival WE’RE PROUD TO PLAY A SUPPORTING ROLE.

The Academy extends congratulations to Ebertfest on the occasion of its 13th annual celebration of motion pictures.

www.oscars.org

All Q&A sessions and panel discussions will be streamed live on the Internet at www.ebertfest.com
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A scene from "Metropolis."

By Roger Ebert

he opening shots of the forgettable original places in the ner.'' Even Rotwang's artificial featuring restored “Metropolis” are cinema. “Metropolis” fixed for hand was given homage in “Dr. so crisp and clear they countless later films the image of Strangelove.'' come as a jolt. This mistreated a futuristic city as a hell of mate- The missing footage restored masterpiece has been seen until rial progress and human despair. in this version comes to about 30 now mostly in battered prints From this film, in various ways, minutes, bringing the total run- missing footage that was, we descended not only “Dark City'' ning time to about 150 minutes. now learn, essential. Because of a but “Blade Runner,'' “The Fifth Bordwell, informed by the chief 16mm print discovered in 2008 in Element,'' “Alphaville,'' “Escape restorer, Martin Koerber of the Buenos Aires, it stands before us From L.A.,'' “Gattaca'' and Bat- German Cinematheque, observes as more or less the film that Fritz man's Gotham City. The labora- that while the cuts simplified Lang originally made in 1927. It tory of its evil genius, Rotwang, “Metropolis” into a science-fiction is, says expert David Bordwell, created the visual look of mad film, the restoration emphasizes “one of the great sacred monsters scientists for decades to come, subplots involving mistaken iden- of the cinema.” especially after it was so closely tities. We all remember the “two Lang tells of a towering city mirrored in “Bride of Franken- Marias”: the good, saintly human of the future. Above ground, it stein'' (1935). The device of the and her malevolent robot copy, has spires and towers, elevated “false Maria,'' the robot who looks both played by Brigitte Helm. We highways, an Olympian stadium like a human being, inspired now learn that the hero, Freder, and Pleasure Gardens. Below the the Replicants of “Blade Run- also changes places with the surface is a workers' city where the clocks show 10 hours to squeeze out more work time, the workers live in tenement housing Lang tells of a towering city of the and work consists of unrelenting service to a machine. This vision future ... Lang created one of the unforgettable of plutocracy vs. labor would have been powerful in an era when original places in the cinema. “Metropolis” fixed for the assembly line had been intro- countless later films the image of a futuristic city as duced on a large scale and Marx had encouraged class warfare. a hell of material progress and human despair. Lang created one of the un- 32 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival WEDNESDAY 7pm BEHIND worker Georgy, in an attempt to even Stanley Kubrick's mania for Lang's story is broad, to put it identify with the working class. control look benign. According mildly. Do not seek here for psy- THE SCENES Freder's father, Fredersen, is the to Patrick McGilligan's book Fritz chological insights. The storytell- ruler of Metropolis. Lang: The Nature of the Beast, ing is mostly visual. Lang avoided METROPOLIS The purpose of the tall, ca- the extras were hurled into vio- as many intertitles as possible, (1927) No MPAA rating daverous Thin Man, assigned by lent mob scenes, made to stand and depends on images of star- Freder's father to follow him, is for hours in cold water and han- tling originality. Consider the first 8SJUUFO
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also made more clear. And we dled more like props than human glimpse of the underground pow- Fritz Lang learn more about the relationship beings. The heroine was made to er plant, with workers straining between Fredersen and the mad jump from high places, and when to move heavy dial hands back $BTU scientist Rotwang, and Rotwang's she was burned at a stake, Lang and forth. What they're doing Alfred Abel as Fredersen love for the ruler's late wife. This used real flames. The irony was makes no logical sense, but visu- Gustav Frohlich as Freder woman, named Hel, was lost that Lang's directorial style was ally the connection is obvious: Rudolf Klein-Rogge as Rotwang in the shorter version for the not unlike the approach of the They are controlled like hands Fritz Rasp as The Thin Man simplistic reason that her name villain in his film. on a clock. When the machinery Erwin Biswanger as Georgy on the pedestal of a sculpture The good Maria, always bathed explodes, Freder has a vision in Brigitte Helm as Maria/Robot resembled “Hell,” and distributors in light, seems to be the caretak- which the machinery turns into feared audiences would misun- er of the worker's children — all an obscene, devouring monster. 3VOOJOH
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tonishing special effects to create a revolutionary firebrand and pursued by Rotwang (the beam The film included more than its two worlds. Lang's film is the stirs up the workers. Rotwang, of his light acts like a club to 37,000 extras summit of German Expressionism, instructed by Fredersen, captures bludgeon her). The image of the with its combination of stylized this Maria, and transfers her Tower of Babel as Maria addresses Adjusting for inflation, the film cost sets, dramatic camera angles, bold face to the robot. Now the work- the workers. Their faces, arrayed more than $200 million to make. shadows and frankly artificial ers, still following Maria, can be in darkness from the top to the theatrics. fooled and controlled by the false 1SJOU
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Kino International The production itself made Maria. continued on next page The Alloy Orchestra Alloy Orchestra is a three-man musical ensemble, writing and performing live accompaniment to classic silent films. Working with an outrageous assemblage of peculiar objects, they thrash and grind soulful music from unlikely sources.

Performing at prestigious film festivals and cultural centers in the U.S. and abroad (The Telluride Film Festival, The Louvre, Lincoln Center, The Academy of Motion Pictures, the National Gallery of Art), Alloy has helped revive some of the great masterpieces of the silent era.

An unusual combination of found percussion and state- of-the-art electronics gives the Orchestra the ability to create any sound imaginable. Utilizing their famous “rack of junk” and electronic synthesizers, the group generates beautiful music in a spectacular variety of styles. They can conjure up a French symphony or a simple German bar band of the '20s. The group can make the audience think it TERRY DONAHUE (junk percussion, accordion, musical saw, banjo), KEN is being attacked by tigers, contacted by radio signals from WINOKUR (director, junk percussion and clarinet) and ROGER MILLER Mars or swept up in the Russian Revolution. (synthesizer, percussion).

All Q&A sessions and panel discussions will be streamed live on the Internet at www.ebertfest.com April 27-May 1, 2011
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5IFBUSF 33 continued from previous page bottom of the screen. The doors tricks of today, “Metropolis'' fills in Rotwang's house, opening and the imagination. Today, the ef- "Metropolis" does what many great closing on their own. The lascivi- fects look like effects, but that's ous dance of the false Maria, as their appeal. Looking at the origi- films do, creating a time, place and characters the workers look on, the screen nal “King Kong,” I find that its filled with large, wet, staring effects, primitive by modern stan- so striking that they become part of our arsenal of eyeballs. The flood of the lower dards, gain a certain weird effec- city and the undulating arms of tiveness. Because they look odd images for imagining the world. the children flocking to Maria to and unworldly compared to the be saved. slick, utterly convincing effects Much of what we see in “Me- that are now possible, they're both in length and quality. cruel to his colleagues, a perfec- tropolis'' doesn't exist, except more evocative: The effects in Although Lang saw his movie tionist madman, and the result is in visual trickery. The special modern movies are done so well as anti-authoritarian, the Nazis one of those films without which effects were the work of Eugene that we seem to be looking at liked it enough to offer him con- many others cannot be fully ap- Schufftan, who later worked in real things, which is not quite the trol of their film industry (he fled preciated. Hollywood as the cinematogra- same kind of fun. to the United States instead). Note: Some of the restored pher of “Lilith'' and “The Hustler.'' The restoration is not pristine. Some of the visual ideas in “Me- footage shows small black bands According to Magill's Survey of Some shots retain the scratches tropolis'' seem echoed in Leni at the top and left side, marking Cinema, his photographic system picked up by the original 35mm Riefenstahl's pro-Hitler “Triumph missing real estate. Expert projec- “allowed people and miniature print from which the 16mm Bue- of the Will'' (1935) — where, of tionist Steve Kraus says this im- sets to be combined in a single nos Aires copy was made; these course, they have lost their irony. age area was lost due to shortcuts shot, through the use of mirrors, are insignificant compared to “Metropolis'' does what many taken either in making the 16mm rather than laboratory work.'' the rediscovered footage they great films do, creating a time, negative or quite possibly years Other effects were created in the represent. There are still a few place and characters so striking earlier when the 35mm print they camera by cinematographer Karl gaps, but because the original that they become part of our worked from was made. Freund. screenplay exists, they're filled in arsenal of images for imagining The result was astonishing for by title cards. In general, this is a the world. Lang filmed for nearly This article is based in part on my its time. Without all of the digital “Metropolis” we have never seen, a year, driven by obsession, often 1998 Great Movies essay.

Congratulations on 13 years of Ebertfest!

Debbie and Lauren

Hartman

34 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival AmericanAmerican AAirlinesirlin ssalutesalutes Rogeroger EberEbert and the College of Media on the 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival.

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M9950-25_7.5x9.5_BravoBravo_BW.indd 1 April 27-May 1, 2011
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Still of Rachael Harris and Matt O'Leary in "Natural Selection."

By Logan Hill, SXSW Film Juror

n Austin, the breakfast ta- donor-comedy genre a dramatic deliberate, we instantly started cos are incredible, the two- new twist (dozens of twists, talking about Natural Selec- stepping is sweaty, and the actually). Gifted, journeywoman tion’s opening sequence: A gi- streets are swarming with thou- comic actress Rachael Harris gets ant lawnmower slowly crosses a sands of powerful nerds (here her first plum starring role as thick grassy field from one side for the Interactive festival) and Linda White, a startling depar- of the screen to the other, back amazing beards (here for the ture from the snippy, ballbusting and forth. The lawnmower stops. music). This week, I’ve had the roles she's usually recruited for And then the camera zooms in thrill of serving on the SXSW (The Hangover, Modern Family). on the huge canvas clippings Film Festival’s narrative feature Linda is a good Christian gal back, which bears the name of jury with two heavy-hitters: who is barren, and whose devout a local prison. Then the bag rips the discerning force of nature husband, Abe (John Diehl), re- open and you see Raymond's that is Roger Ebert, and Michelle fuses to sully her body with im- deranged face, slathered in grass Satter, a leather-jacketed deity pure sex that’s not in the service clippings and grinning madly of the Sundance Film Institute. of babymaking. But when Abe as he busts out of prison. Talk Last night, all three of us unani- passes out at a fertility clinic about an entrance. mously awarded the Grand Jury and falls into a coma, Linda We also talked about the Prize — along with prizes for discovers that her saintly hubby poignantly beautiful visuals in editing, sound, screenplay, and has been masturbating to porn the Josh Lucas grief drama A two breakthrough performances and donating his sperm for more Year in Mooring and awarded — to Robbie Pickering’s spec- than two decades. His dying cinematographer Elliot Davis tacular debut, Natural Selection, wish is for Linda to seek out his honors; we also agreed that Evan a multifaceted comedy about son. She finds Raymond (Matt Ross’s taut, vital performance a woman who tracks down the O'Leary), that self-destructive, as a teenage kid caught up in drugged-out escaped convict drug-addled, charming freak gang violence in Aimee Lagos’s who she believes was the re- force of nature. And they hit the 96 Minutes deserved a special sult of her husband's long-ago road, busting out of genres and breakthrough performance sperm donation. Then we found expected tropes as they drive prize. But we kept returning to out the film won the Audience along. Natural Selection. At one point, Award, too. It is hard not to love The competition lineup this Roger, whose thyroid cancer this film. year was admirably crowded has barely slowed him down, Natural Selection is a film with fresh faces and new talent, typed on his computer — and that gives the emerging sperm- but when the jury sat down to pressed enter. A digital voice

36 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival WEDNESDAY 10:30pm BEHIND announced that he felt that but I’m happy that we unani- one film most fully delivered on mously decided to give so many THE SCENES everything it aspired to be, and awards to "Natural Selection." NATURAL SELECTION we all agreed. What makes that I’m still reeling at how high (2011) No MPAA rating statement so impressive is that a level of difficulty this film "Natural Selection" aspired to so worked at, with its bold tonal 

 

very much. It’s a wild road-trip shifts, meshing of truly dark ma- Robbie Pickering odd-couple romp, a pitch-perfect terial and spastic physical com- satire of marriage and morality, edy; it seems like an absurdly   a perversely satisfying romance, difficult movie for a first-time Rachael Harris an oddly empowering women’s filmmaker to even attempt. That 
 anthem, and, above all, the best Pickering pulled it off is terribly Jon Gries sort of comedy — one that’s exciting. Last year, the festival 
 absolutely grounded in messy premiered Tiny Furniture and Matt O'Leary human drama, and given life by launched the hot career of Lena 
  Harris and O’Leary, two actors Dunham. It’s been a thrill to who deliver career-changing watch her career take off. This Running time: 89 minutes performances that demanded we year, don’t be surprised if you give both of them breakthrough hear a whole lot more about Robbie Pickering, writer and director of  
performance awards along with Robbie Pickering. "Natural Selection." Winner of both the jury and Ross. (The festival begged to audience awards for narrative give just one award — an en- feature at the SXSW Film Festival graved belt buckle — but we This year, don't be surprised if you hear couldn’t bear the thought of 

Windar passing any of them over). a whole lot more about Robbie Pickering. Productions, LLC We admired other films, too,

All Q&A sessions and panel discussions will be streamed live on the Internet at www.ebertfest.com April 27-May 1, 2011



  37 “Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our con- science in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.”

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38 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival April 27-May 1, 2011
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By Roger Ebert

mberto is upright, neat, exact, and the cut of his Uclothes shows that he was once respectable. Now he is a retired civil servant on a fixed income that is not enough to sup- port him, not even in his simple furnished room, not even if he skips meals. He and his dog are faced with eviction by a greedy landlady who would rather rent his room by the afternoon to shame-faced couples. Vittorio De Sica's "Umberto D" (1952) is the story of the old man's struggle to keep from falling from poverty into shame. It may be the best of the Italian neoreal- ist films--the one that is most simply itself, and does not reach for its effects or strain to make its message clear. Even its scenes Carlo Battisti as Umberto Domenico Ferrari in "Umberto D." involving Umberto's little dog are told without the sentimentality In his shoes we might hope to be- maid, who is pregnant. She isn't that pets often bring into stories. have as he does, with bravery and sure if the father is the boy from

Umberto loves the dog and the resourcefulness. Florence, or the one from Naples. dog loves him because that is the The movie follows its hero as he Umberto is not offended that she nature of the bond between dogs faces the possibility that he may sleeps with more than one man. and men, and both try to live up lose his room and be turned into He is beyond being surprised by to their side of the contract. the streets to beg. He has always the trouble sex can bring, cares The film is told without false paid his bills and this prospect about her as she cares about him, drama. Even when Umberto calls horrifies him. The opening shot because they are both good people the ambulance and has himself shows him joining a street demon- in a bad place. taken to the hospital, there is stration in Rome, as old men seek Because his dog has needs, Um- no false crisis, no manufactured an increase in their meager state berto has needs. He must care for fear that he will die. Later, when pensions. Umberto marches in the Flag. He is truthfully sick when Umberto considers suicide, he goes protest, but is not a joiner, and in- he arranges to go to the hospital, about it in such a calm and logical deed when the police disperse the but not that sick, and the trip is way that we follow his reasoning crowd he is angry not at the cops, mostly to get a few days of clean and weigh the alternatives along but at the organizers: "They didn't sheets and good meals. He ar- with him, instead of being ma- even get a permit!" He smuggles ranges for the maid to take care of nipulated into dread. "Umberto D" his little dog Flag into a dining the dog while he's gone, and even avoids all temptations to turn its hall where the old are given free stages a pantomime with a stick hero into one of those lovable Hol- lunches, and slips his food under and a ball to distract the dog from lywood oldsters played by Matthau the table for the dog, while trick- following him. or Lemmon. Umberto Domenico ing the stern welfare workers with Later he finds that the dog ran Ferrari is not the life of any party some quick plate-switching. He out the apartment door, maybe to but a man who wants to be left tries to sell his watch, but every- look for him, and is lost. There is alone to get on with his business. one has a watch they want to sell. a scene of documentary simplic- We gradually learn the outlines ity, in which Umberto seeks Flag of his life. He lives in a room in- at the dog pound, and learns how fested with ants, which the land- unwanted dogs are put to death. Umberto doesn't care if we love him lady will do nothing about. Adul- He peers helplessly into a cage so or not. That is why we love him. terous couples leave his room just filled with barking, scrambling as he is returning to it. His friend dogs that he cannot see for sure if in the rooming house is Maria the Flag is even there. When he finds

40 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival THURSDAY 1pm BEHIND the dog, note how De Sica shows holds it to understated pathos. for the money, and that many of them greeting one another. This Umberto watches a successful beg- their pets don't have long to live. THE SCENES whole passage is all the more af- gar. He puts out his own palm, Umberto offers them money to fecting because the movie doesn't halfway, not really committing take Flag, but their eyes tell him it UMBERTO D milk it for tears, but simply shows himself. As a man is about to give is not enough to support the dog (1952) No MPAA rating it happening. him money, he turns the hand for long. Leaving, he hides under Neorealism was an Italian move- over, as if testing for rain. He a bridge, but the dog finds him, 8SJUUFO
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ment, born in wartime, continuing cannot beg. He thinks. He gives and again we're reminded of a se- Cesare Zavattini through the 1950s, which believed his hat to his dog, which sits up quence that could be in a Chaplin %JSFDUFE
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that films should be made close and holds it in its mouth, while film, but has been toned down to Vittorio De Sica to the surface of everyday life Umberto hides nearby. No, this quiet sadness. and played by non-professionals will not work either: He will not "Umberto D" tells what could Carlo Battisti who embodied their characters. demean his dog by making it do be a formula story, but not in a BT
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'FSSBSJ Maria-Pia Casilio "Umberto D" is one of the most something he would not do. formula way: Its moments seem BT
.BSJB successful demonstrations of that The stages by which Umberto generated by what might really theory. The old man is played by arrives at the idea of suicide and happen. A formula film would find Running time: 89 minutes Carlo Battisti, then 70, a univer- then is drawn away from it are a way to manufacture a happy sity lecturer who had not acted among the best in the film. His ending, but good fortune will not 5SJWJB: before. dog is central to the action--both fall from the sky for Umberto. Many actors in the film, including De Sica (1901-1974) said his because he will not abandon it by Perhaps his best luck is simply the two leads, were new to acting, method was to form a mental im- his own death, and because the that he has the inner strength to while those playing smaller parts age of a character while working dog refuses to leave his side. It endure misfortune without losing were more established actors. on the screenplay with his long- is the fact of the dog's love that self-respect. It is said that at one time collaborator Cesare Zavattini. saves him, because he cannot level or another, Chaplin's charac- Two different dogs were used to "Until I can find the man, woman ignore it. One great scene takes ters were always asking that we play Flag in the film. or child who fits the figure I see place when Umberto takes the dog love them. Umberto doesn't care if in my mind's eye," he wrote, "I to a couple that boards unwanted we love him or not. That is why we 1SJOU
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Rialto Pictures do not begin." With "Umberto dogs. It's clear they're in it only love him. D," "before fortune smiled on me once again, I had searched Rome, Naples, and other cities and had lingered for hours, for days even, in those places where I was most likely to find the kind of old-age pensioner who was the hero of my film...but I had not yet met the person who from the first had smiled at me with sorrowful dig- nity from the pages of the script." Sorrowful dignity is exactly what Battisti embodies for Um- berto. He is observant, under- standing, sympathetic. He doesn't rail against the injustice of the world, but is simply determined to defend the corner he occupies with his dog. Because Umberto doesn't talk much with other characters, we have to determine his thoughts by how he looks and what he does, and there is a masterful scene in which he considers begging in the street, and decides against it. Note the timing of this sequence. With a slightly different twist, it could shot-by-shot be a comic bit for Chaplin's Little Tramp, but De Sica A scene from "Umberto D."

All Q&A sessions and panel discussions will be streamed live on the Internet at www.ebertfest.com April 27-May 1, 2011
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By Roger Ebert

y Dog Tulip" is the story of a man who finds love only once in his life, for 15 perfect years. It is the love of a dog. It may be the only love he is capable of experiencing. As other men write books about a woman in their life, J.R. Ackerley wrote a book about a German shepherd he rescued from a cruel home. My Dog Tulip has been a private discovery by many readers for years, and now it becomes an animated film that combines elating visuals with a virtuoso voice performance by Christo- pher Plummer. The film is animated, but not A scene from the animated movie "My Dog Tulip." intended for children. It is told from and by an adult sensibil- Tulip gives him unconditional is very difficult to dislike a be- ity that understands loneliness, love. Evolution, which pro- ing who worships you and would gratitude and the intense cu- duced humans who could think gladly die for you — especially riosity we feel for other lives, and were self-aware and knew when it is handsome and frisky man and beast. The story is nar- loneliness, also in an act of and empathetic, and a good, rated by Plummer, in the voice serendipity produced dogs who good doggie, yes it is. of a man in his 60s who works could know us and love us. How In a sense, “My Dog Tulip" is for the BBC and lives in London strange that an animal could a natural history. Ackerley is near Putney Common. We know evolve as a wolf, self-select as educated by Tulip in the needs from the book that Ackerley a wolf who sought human com- and ways of domesticated dogs.

was homosexual, and that is pany, and become an animal He attends to the feeding of implied without the film making that values human company and Tulip, the training, the groom- anything of it. For our purposes considers its owners to be won- ing, the walking, the territorial he is a soloist, cantankerous, derful gods. People who do not marking behavior, the sexual crabby, lonely. like dogs do not know dogs. It needs, the illnesses, the person- ality, the life and death. No par- ents of a child have never been more observant or taken better care of their charge. To this story, directed and animated by Paul and Sandra Fierlinger, “My Dog Tulip" brings Sandra's watercolors. Fierlinger is the sort of watercolorist one would collect. Her colors, her line, her ability to saturate or wash, are well-suited to the story. She makes a London in which its black cabs and red buses come alive, and then turns pastoral on Putney Com- mon. Her animated paintings have life and impact. She is an original, but if you know of an A scene from the animated movie "My Dog Tulip." artist named David Gentleman,

42 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival THURSDAY 3:30pm BEHIND you'll get the idea. And through J.R., so did Tulip. Given Ackerley's apparent cel- THE SCENES ibacy, it becomes the source of some humor when he struggles MY DOG TULIP to find Tulip a suitable mate. (2009) No MPAA rating It isn't clear that Tulip much wants to become pregnant, but %JSFDUFE
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Ackerley is determined that she Paul and Sandra Fierlinger be impregnated. Perhaps she is a surrogate through which he 8SJUUFO
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"DLFSMFZ plot, no contrived suspense. Tu- Lynn Redgrave lip grows old and dies, as must WPJDF
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1MVN1VHJMJTU Brian Murray "My Dog Tulip" is the story of a man who finds love only WPJDF
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#MBOEJTI once in his life, for 15 perfect years. It is the love of a dog. Running time: 83 minutes 1SJOU
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New Yorker Films

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All Q&A sessions and panel discussions will be streamed live on the Internet at www.ebertfest.com April 27-May 1, 2011
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By Roger Ebert

here is a strange space between when you leave school and when you begin work. You are idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean. You grow restless. You cannot go back and are un- certain how to proceed. "Tiny Furniture" is about Aura, who is becalmed on that sea. She has graduated from col- lege in Ohio, and returned home to live in her mother’s loft in Tribeca. Her boyfriend called it quits; he had to return home to Colorado and see about the spirits of his ancestors, or some- thing. Four years of education have left her with one video on YouTube and the ability to show approval when a guy says he’s reading The Road by Cormac Mc- Carthy. Her mother is a famous artist who makes a lot of money Lena Dunham in a scene from "Tiny Furniture." selling photographs of tiny fur- niture, sometimes in the same Keith, and with her new friend, ematographer, Jody Lee Lipes, frame as the feet and legs of Na- Charlotte (Jemima Kirke), who doesn’t move the camera. It’s dine, Aura’s sister, who is taller, has a British accent, lends her locked down for a steady, flat thinner and younger than Aura. clothes and otherwise seems gaze. This is correct. It sees Aura (Lena Dunham) is dis- firmly one-up. None of these like Aura sees. She regards with contented. She hates living at characters have what you might detached fascination as people home but has no money to move call chemistry, and that seems behave as people will. Her per- out. She wants a good job but deliberate. This is a movie about sonality doesn’t suggest track- takes one taking reservations at people who are all passive-ag- ing shots. a restaurant. She wants love and gressive, including Aura. Nobody Why do I feel such affec- acceptance, and finds it much laughs or tries to say anything tion for "Tiny Furniture"? It’s a diluted by her distracted mother funny, and when Aura is happy well-crafted film, for one thing. (Laurie Simmons) and her com- sometimes, she doesn’t trust it. For a first picture, it shows a petitive sister (Grace Dunham). Aura is played by Lena Dun- command of style and purpose; Of possible boyfriends ham, who wrote and directed Dunham knows what she wants there are: (1) Jed (Alex the film. Her mother and her and how she needs to get it, Karpovsky), a "big deal sister are played by her real and succeeds. Her character on YouTube," who rides a mother and sister. The loft in Aura is not charismatic or glow- mechanical pony while re- Tribeca is where her family ing or mercurial or seductive citing Nietzsche, and (2) lives. I have no idea if they’re or any of those advertising Keith (David Call), who playing themselves, but they’re adjectives, but she believes she works at the restaurant certainly convincing. Dunham, deserves to be happy, and we and has a girlfriend but indeed, plays one of the most do, too. asks Aura out and then real people I’ve seen outside The movie has a scene in stands her up. of a documentary. She and the which sex is enacted. It isn’t Aura’s life unfolds with- others are unaffected, behave as great sex. It calls into question out plot because there people we know actually do, live Woody Allen’s statement that is none. The film seems in familiar rhythms. the worst sex he’d had wasn’t deliberately motionless, Visually, the film is simple that bad. It happens unexpect- although deep currents and direct, as unadorned as edly between two people. It the white cabinets that cover a happens in the most depress- Kyle Martin, producer of "Tiny are stirring. We see Aura Furniture." at home, with Jed and wall of the loft. Dunham’s cin- ing place for sex I can imagine.

44 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival THURSDAY 8pm BEHIND No, worse than whatever you’re thinking. It is so desperately THE SCENES dutiful. Two people become There is a strange place between when you seized with the urgent need to leave school and when you begin work. You are idle TINY FURNITURE create an orgasm together and (2010) No MPAA rating succeed, and that exhausts the as a painted ship upon a painted ocean. You grow subject. The scene and what restless. You cannot go back and are uncertain how 8SJUUFO
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leads up to it define Aura and Lena Dunham her partner in terms of what to proceed. they will settle for. Sometimes $BTU that’s better than nothing. Lena Dunham I know what the budget of BT
"VSB this movie was, but never mind. Laurie Simmons Lena Dunham had every penny BT
4JSJ she required. She also had all Grace Dunham the talent she needed, and I BT
/BEJOF look forward to her work. It’s Jemima Kirke hard enough for a director to BT
$IBSMPUUMF work with actors, but if you’re Alex Karpovski working with your own family in BT
+FE your own house and depicting David Call passive aggression, selfishness BT
,FJUI and discontent and you produce a film this good, you can direct Running time: 93 minutes just about anybody in just about 1SJOU
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IFC Films anything. A still image from "Tiny Furniture."

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All Q&A sessions and panel discussions will be streamed live on the Internet at www.ebertfest.com April 27-May 1, 2011
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5IFBUSF 45 46 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival April 27-May 1, 2011
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A scene from "45365."

By Roger Ebert

he first shot tells us evokes what Winesburg, Ohio shop, the back seat, the football "45365 is the zip code of might have looked like as a docu- practice, the front lawn when the town." In this ach- mentary. a man agrees to put up a sign ingly beautiful film, that zip Take me for an example. I supporting a judge running for code belongs to Sidney, Ohio, a knew everyone in the film. I grew reelection. The Rosses must have handsome town of about 20,000 up there. Well, actually in area filmed so much they became both residents. The brothers Bill and code 61820, which is Urbana, Illi- trusted and invisible. They know Turner Ross were born there per- nois. My home town was close to this town without even thinking haps 30 years ago. Of course they Sidney, Illinois, just as 45365 is about it. knew everybody in town, and not far from Urbana, Ohio. There There is a beautiful shot dur- when they spent seven months of are also towns named Homer and ing a church service which pans 2007 filming its daily life, their Philo near both towns named slowly to the right over the con- presence must have eventually Urbana. East central Illinois was gregation and pauses looking into become commonplace. Their film settled by people from Ohio. a door to a stairwell. A woman In my midwestern town, I and small girl come up the stairs. knew these people, their homes, The camera follows them back to their friendliness, the trouble the left until the girl is deposited some of them got into, and I back in her pew, having obvious- knew why after the high school ly just been taken to the potty. football game some of the kids Were those two people cued? hung out under the arc lamps Obviously not. I suggest the cam- and others were in the shade eraman, Bill or Turner, observed of the bleachers with the hoods them getting up, intuited where pulled up on their sweatshirts. I they were going and why, and even recognized, because I once composed the camera movement covered the police beat, exactly instinctively. A brief shot you the tone of voice a policeman will may not even consciously notice, use after stopping a drunk driver but a perfect shot, reading the he's known for ten years. room as our minds do. All human The film is privileged. No life is in it. one is filmed with a hidden I've never seen a barber shop camera. The camera must have like the one in the film. All three Directors Bill Ross and Turner Ross accept an award at the 2010 Independent been right there, in the living barbers are surprisingly young; Spirit Awards. room, the river bank, the barber one seems to be a teenager. Yet

48 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival FRIDAY 1pm BEHIND there is the order and routine of a tiny mike he holds up to his Spring, summer, autumn, win- a small-town barber shop with mouth, and then to hers. He tells ter. Summer showers. The first THE SCENES barbers as old as Moses. Do these everyone to come on downtown, snow falling out at the aban- kids own the shop? Well, why the skies are clearing. At the car- doned drive-in theater. Music on 45365 not? It would cost less than a Su- nival, Elvis Junior is onstage. It's Radio 105.5 Lawns. Good looking (2009) No MPAA rating percuts franchise. What do they pouring rain. A guy uses a broom old buildings. Sidney still looks talk about? What all barbers talk to push up the canvas roof of the like a town, not a squatter's camp %JSFDUFE
CZ about, the Friday night football tent and spill out the rainwater. of fast food outlets. One extraor- Bill Ross and Turner Ross game. A mobile home has been painted dinarily stupid review of the film Sidney has what can only be up as an exhibit for LIVE! The complains "all of these situations "XBSET described as a great radio station. World's Smallest Woman! are filmed as if we already know Bill and Turner Ross' first feature Local human beings sit before Trains rumble through Sidney the story of who these people length film, 45365, was the winner the mikes and run the boards. on business of their own. The are. We don't even learn anyone's of 2009's SXSW Grand Jury Award This station isn't a robot from Los radio station is used for the judi- names." for Best Documentary Feature and Angeles. They play hits of the 80s cial candidate to record "…and I This isn't that kind of a docu- the Independent Spirit Truer Than and 90s, they make announce- approve of this message." A man mentary. If you need to know ev- Fiction Award. They have gone on ments, they have a sports talk goes to court for sentencing. erybody's name, you'll never, ever to receive numerous awards and show about the Sidney Yellow- Drunk. understand this film. Hell, I could nominations, including nomina- jackets. The team has a chicken We've seen two of his former go to Sidney, Ohio tomorrow and tions for Editing, Cinematography, dinner benefit coming up. Adults wives agreeing that he needs to feel right at home. and Debut Feature at the Cinema $7, kids $3. get his act together. They argue Eye Honors and the London BFI It looks like rain on the day of over whether he left the one for "45365" won the $25,000 Roger Grierson Award. the parade, but the station's re- the other, or left the one and and Chaz Ebert Truer than Fiction porter is on the spot. He's hooked then married the other. They Award at the 2010 Independent Running time: 90 minutes up via his cell phone, and inter- don't exactly seem to be fighting Spirits. The contest was 1SJOU
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7th Arts Releasing views a woman on the street with over him. independently judged.

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All Q&A sessions and panel discussions will be streamed live on the Internet at www.ebertfest.com April 27-May 1, 2011
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By Roger Ebert

emember that Orson Welles himself didn't always look like Orson Welles. He was a master of makeup and dis- guise, and even when appearing in the first person, liked to use a little putty to build up a nose he considered a tad too snubbed. The impersonation of Welles by Christian McKay in "Me and Orson Welles" is the centerpiece of the film, and from it, all else flows. We can almost accept that this is the Great Man. Twenty-four years after his death at 70, Welles is more than ever a Great Man. There is some- Zac Efron and Claire Danes in a scene from "Me and Orson Welles." thing about his manner, his voice and the way he carries himself Richard Linklater's "Me and rises to a speaking role. He is star- that evokes greatness, even if it Orson Welles" is one of the best struck and yet self-possessed and is only his own conviction of it. movies about the theater I've ever emboldened by a sudden romance He is widely thought of as having seen, and one of the few to relish that overtakes him with a Mercury made one masterpiece, "Citizen the resentment so many of Welles' cohort, Sonja Jones (Claire Danes). Kane" (1941) and several other collaborators felt for the Great The film is steeped in theater considerable films, but flaming Man. He was such a multitasker lore. The impossible hours, the re- out into uncompleted projects that while staging his famous hearsals, the gossip, the intrigue, and failed promise. Yet today even Mercury Theatre productions on the hazards of stage trap doors, such a film as "The Magnificent Broadway, he also starred in sev- the quirks of personalities, the Ambersons" (1942), with its end- eral radio programs, carried on an egos, the imbalance of a star sur- ing destroyed by the studio, often active social life and sometimes rounded entirely by supporting makes lists of the greatest of all napped by commuting between actors -- supporting on stage and time. jobs in a hired ambulance. Much in life. Oh, he had an ego. He once of the day for a Welles cast Many of the familiar originals came to appear at Chicago's Audi- member was occupied in simply are represented here, not least Jo- torium Theatre. A snowstorm shut waiting for him to turn up at the seph Cotton (James Tupper), who down the city, but he was able to theater. co-starred with Welles in "Citizen get to the theater from his nearby Most viewers of this film will Kane" and "The Third Man." Here hotel. At curtain time, he stepped not necessarily know a lot about is John Houseman (Eddie Marsan, before the handful of people who Welles' biography. There's no need not bulky enough but evocative), had been able to attend. "Good to. Everything is here in context. who was Welles' long-suffering evening," he said. "I am Orson The film involves the Mercury's producer. And the actor George Welles -- director, producer; actor; first production, a "Julius Caesar" Coulouris (Ben Chaplin), who impresario; writer; artist; magi- set in Mussolini's Italy. It sees played Mr. Thatcher in "Kane." All cian; star of stage, screen and ra- this enterprise through the eyes at the beginning, all in embryo, dio, and a pretty fair singer. Why of Richard Samuels (Zac Efron), all promised by Welles they would are there so many of me, and so a young actor who is hired as a make history. They believed him, few of you?" mascot by Welles, and somehow and they did.

Richard Linklater's "Me and Orson Welles" is one of the best movies about the theater I've ever seen, and one of the few to relish the resentment so many of Welles' collaborators felt for the Great Man.

50 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival FRIDAY 4pm BEHIND McKay summons above all the unflappable self-confidence of THE SCENES Welles, a con man in addition to his many other gifts, who was ME AND ORSON WELLES later able to talk actors into ap- (2008) PG-13 pearing in films that were shot over a period of years, as funds %JSFDUFE
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became available from his jobs in Richard Linklater other films, on TV, on the stage and in countless commercials ("We 8SJUUFO
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4BNVFMT that swept people up. People were Christian McKay and Zac Efron in a scene from "Me and Orson Welles." Claire Danes able to feel that even in his ab- BT
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+POFT sence; I recall having lunch several lunch there every single day. identification with Welles. He was Christian McKay times at the original Ma Maison Efron and Danes make an at- 30 when he made his first film, BT
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8FMMFT in Beverly Hills, where no matter tractive couple, both young Welles of course 25, both swept who I was interviewing (once it and bold, unswayed by Welles' along by unflappable fortitude. Running time: 114 minutes was Michael Caine), the conversa- greatness but knowingly allow- "Me and Orson Welles" is not only 1SJOU
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Detour tion invariably came around to a ing themselves to be used by it. entertaining but an invaluable Filmproduction mysterious shadowy figure dining Link-later's feel for onstage and companion to the life and career in the shade -- Welles, who ate backstage is tangible, and so is his of the Great Man.

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All Q&A sessions and panel discussions will be streamed live on the Internet at www.ebertfest.com April 27-May 1, 2011
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5IFBUSF 51

By Roger Ebert

orman Jewison's "Only "Only You" gives us two people who You" is the kind of light- hearted romance that's should fall in love and live happily ever an endangered species in today's Hollywood. It is total fantasy, light after together for the rest of their days. They know it, as a feather, contrary to all no- tions of common sense, it features we know it, and all their friends know it. a couple of stars who are really good kissers – and it takes place The movie begins when the the ceremony because he is on his mostly in Venice, Rome, and the heroine, Faith, is 11. She and her way to Venice. The friend's name, glorious Italian hillside town of cousin Kate ask a Ouija board who of course, is Damon Bradley, and Positano. What more do you want? she will marry, and the answer is Faith abandons all her wedding Movies like this were once written clear: She will marry a man named plans, of course, to fly after him for Katharine Hepburn ("Sum- Damon Bradley. A few years later, to Venice. mertime"), Audrey Hepburn ("Ro- a fortuneteller tells her the same Peter, the man who has made man Holiday") and Rossano Brazzi thing. Such a coincidence cannot the call, is played by Robert ("Three Coins in the Fountain"). Or be ignored, and so "Damon Brad- Downey Jr., and one of the ques- remember Clark Gable and Sophia ley" becomes a psychic beacon for tions posed by the movie is Loren in "It Happened in Naples"? the appropriately named Faith. whether he is, in fact, really Da- There is a case to be made that no Years pass, however, and no mon Bradley. What is interesting modern actors have quite the in- Damon Bradley appears, and fi- is that he may be, even if he's not nocence or the faith to play such nally Faith, now played by Marisa – a paradox you will understand heedless lovers, but Marisa Tomei Tomei, becomes engaged to a po- after you see the movie. Whether and Robert Downey Jr. somehow diatrist (John Benjamin Hickey). he is or isn't hardly matters after manage to lose all the baggage of Then, on the eve of her wedding, Faith and Peter fall in love in our realistic, cynical age, and give she receives a call from a friend of Venice, or after they continue us a couple of fools in love. the groom's, who cannot attend their romance in Rome, or after it nearly comes to pieces in Positano. The screenplay by Diane Drake of course throws great hurdles in the way of the lovers, not least those caused by Faith's explicit belief in the childhood prophecy. All of this is sheer contrivance and artifice, which is part of the fun. There is a fine line between the Idiot Plot, so called because the characters act in defiance of com- mon sense, and what we might call, in deference to Jewison's 1987 hit, the Moonstruck Plot – in which the characters also act in defiance of common sense, but we don't mind because it's fun. "Only You" gives us two people who should fall in love and live happily together for the rest of their days. They know it, we know it, and all of their friends know it. We also know with a confidence bordering on certainty that they will fall in love. And so there is a special kind of movie pleasure in watching them pigheadedly post- pone their bliss – especially when Norman Jewison, director of "Only You." they do it on Italian locations

52 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival FRIDAY 8:30pm BEHIND lovingly photographed by Sven Nykvist. THE SCENES I can think of many angst-laden young Hollywood stars, many of ONLY YOU them accomplished actors, who (1994) PG could not have come within miles of the work done by Downey and %JSFDUFE
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Tomei in this movie. There is craft Norman Jewison involved, yes, and even a certain inspiration, but what I reacted Marisa Tomei to more strongly was an ineffable BT
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1FUFS here, and happier together than Bonnie Hunt apart. That it what must be pres- BT
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(JPWBOOJ supermarket papers that they are "linked in real life," and so I must touch, began his directing career ment when I say that in "Only 5SJWJB assume their chemistry comes just as movies like this were going You" she has some of Doris Day's from acting. All the more remark- out of style. He directed Doris Day sunny warmth. I suppose Doris Bridget Fonda was the original able. (Or maybe not; many real-life in "The Thrill of It All" (1963), Day is out of fashion, and so are choice for the lead female role. couples sometimes seem fed up co-starring James Garner, and in movies like "Only You," but just with one another on the screen.) "Send Me No Flowers" (1964), with because something is not done Running time: 108 minutes Norman Jewison, who directs Rock Hudson, and I hope Marisa anymore doesn't mean it's not 1SJOU
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5IFBUSF 53 54 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival Who cares about April showers when Film Buffs, Don’t Miss... we have Ebertfest? i8FJSE
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April 27-May 1, 2011
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5IFBUSF 55

By Roger Ebert

he heartwarming docu- filled with energy. We see them mentary "A Small Act" meeting for the first time. centers on the life story She is flown to Kenya, ser- of Chris Mburu, who as a small enaded by the choir from Mb- boy living in a mud house in a uru's village, feasted, thanked, Kenyan village had his primary gowned in traditional robes. She and secondary education paid for says that her $15 was an insig- by a Swedish woman. This cost nificant sum to her, but she kept her $15 a month. They had never it up because she thought even a met. He went on to the Univer- small act was worth performing. sity of Nairobi, graduated from In the film, we see the mud Harvard Law School, and is today house Chris grew up in. Then we a United Nations Human Rights follow Kimani, Ruth and Caroline Commissioner. -- three Kenyan students who The film shows Mburu seeking hope to win high scores and con- the Swedish woman who "made tinue in school. This will depend Jennifer Arnold, director of "A Small my life possible." She is Hilde on winning one of the scholar- Act." Back. Before even meeting her, ships. Their families pin all of in gratitude he started a founda- their hopes on these kids. ly, Kenya has been able to make tion named the Hilde Back Foun- One says she would miss her primary education free. dation, to fund scholarships for family at a boarding school, but The schools we see are not poor village children. She is now would enjoy being able to study physically impressive; the one 85 years old, a German Jew who by electric light. In this village focused on in the film is a very was sent to Sweden as a child. the students study by the light basic brick structure with no Her family died in the Holocaust. of a single oil flame. Most fami- amenities and crowded class- She never married, has lived lies in Kenya want their children rooms with simple board benches

in the same apartment for 35 to attend high school, seeing and desks. A gym? Don't make years, was a school-teacher. She that as the key to success in life. me laugh. is a tiny woman, but robust and They lack the money, but recent- Education focuses on read- ing (in English) and math, with some history and geography. The students are impressed by their ability to be in school at all. Their parents sacrifice to send them; child labor could add to the family income. At the end of primary school, they take tests to qualify for secondary education if they can afford it. The film shows some of the test questions. To me, they look dif- ficult for kids that age. They pass or fail; too many American schools graduate students who are functionally illiterate. Hilde Back is asked if, since she never had children, she thought of Chris as a son. We see in the film that they stay in close touch. "But I have had children," she replied. "I was a teacher. I had many, many chil- dren." And one lived in a mud house in Kenya. Hilde Back in a scene from "A Small Act."

56 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival SATURDAY 11am Hilde Back is asked if, since she never had children, she thought of Chris BEHIND as a son. We see in the film that they stay in close touch. "But I have had THE SCENES children," she replied. "I was a teacher. I had many, many children." And A SMALL ACT one lived in a mud house in Kenya. (2010) No MPAA rating 8SJUUFO
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Hilde Back and Chris Mburu in a scene from "A Small Act."

Remember to buy New Zealand Wines

Use Piccadilly in Champaign

All Q&A sessions and panel discussions will be streamed live on the Internet at www.ebertfest.com April 27-May 1, 2011
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5IFBUSF 57 58 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival SATURDAY 2pm BEHIND By Roger Ebert THE SCENES liver Schmitz's "Life, Above All" has been LIFE ABOVE ALL the best heart-warmer (2010) PG-13 and tear-jerker so far – and when I write from Cannes I use %JSFDUFE
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the term "tear-jerker" as a com- Oliver Schmitz pliment, because this is a hard- ened crowd and when you hear Khomotso Manyaka snuffling in the dark you know BT
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&TUIFS emotions, evoked with sympa- Lerato Mvelase thy and love. BT
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Sony Pictures Classics moderate prosperity and well- Classics tended homes. It centers on the her mother, and Tinah Mnum- 12-year-old Chanda, who takes zana as the neighbor. The film's on the responsibility of holding ending frightens the audience norance and mystery surround- her family together after her with a dire threat, and then ing the disease, which in fact baby sister dies. Her mother is finds an uplift that's unlikely increased its spread. By directly immobilized by grief, her father enough in its details to qualify dealing with the poisonous cli- by drink, and a neighbor woman as magic realism. mate of rumor and gossip, the helps her care for two younger "Life, Above All" must be film takes a stand. But in na- siblings. particularly effective in South tions where AIDS has been de- Suspicion spreads in the Africa, where former president mystified, "Love, Above All" will neighborhood that the real Thabo Mbeki persisted in puz- play strongly as pure human cause of the family's problems zling denial about the causes drama, and of two women, one is AIDS, although the word it- and treatment of AIDS. This promptly and one belatedly, ris- self isn't said aloud until well contributed to a climate of ig- ing courageously to a challenge. into the film. More plot details can await my review, but let me particularly praise the per- The film is about deep human

formances of young Khomotso Manyaka, in her first role as emotions filled with sympathy and love. Chanda; Keaobaka Makanyane as

A still image from "Life, Above All." A still image from "Life, Above All."

All Q&A sessions and panel discussions will be streamed live on the Internet at www.ebertfest.com April 27-May 1, 2011
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5IFBUSF 59

Edward Norton plays a dual role, twin brothers who have grown apart, in this scene from "Leaves of Grass."

By Roger Ebert

im Blake Nelson's "Leaves at all about "Leaves of Grass" movie about the drug culture of of Grass" is some kind before going to see the movie, rural Oklahoma. of sweet, wacky mas- although I rather doubted it Spoilers in this paragraph. terpiece. It takes all sorts of would be about Walt Whitman. Kincaid is on the fast track. He's risks, including a dual role with What I did know is that the ac- published books, is a crossover Edward Norton playing twin tor Tim Blake Nelson has written intellectual superstar, is offered brothers, and it pulls them off. and directed three films I enor- a chance to open his own de- It is certainly the most intel- mously admired: "Eye of God" partment at Harvard. Then he ligent, philosophical and poetic (1997), "O" (2001) and "The gets a telephone call telling him film I can imagine that involves Grey Zone" (2001), all three his twin brother Brady is dead. five murders in the marijuana- dealing in a concrete dramatic He has long since severed his old dealing community of Oklahoma way with important questions: family ties, but he flies home and includes John Prine singing Religion, redemption, race, the for the funeral to Little Dixie, "Illegal Smile." Holocaust. And that the actor Oklahoma, and is met at the Sometimes you can't believe Edward Norton has never agreed airport by his twin's best friend your luck as a movie unfolds. to appear in a film he didn't be- There is a mind behind it, joyful lieve he had reason to respect. invention, obvious ambition. As The film opens with Norton as is often the case, I had studi- a philosopher named Bill Kincaid ously avoiding reading anything giving a lecture on Socrates to a packed classroom of star- struck students at Brown. It's a measure of Nelson's writing and "Leaves of Grass" is some kind of Norton's acting that this lecture It takes all sorts isn't a sound bite but is allowed sweet, wacky masterpiece. to continue until the profes- of risks, including a dual role with Edward Norton playing sor develops his point, and it's an interesting one. Only as I twin brothers, and it pulls them off. think back do I realize what an Tim Blake Nelson, director of "Leaves audacious way that is to open a of Grass."

60 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival SATURDAY 6:30pm

(Nelson). As it turns out, Brady BEHIND is not dead, and the story was a lie designed to lure him back THE SCENES home for two purposes. One is LEAVES OF GRASS to force him to see his mother, a (2009) R 1960s pothead played by Susan Sarandon. The other is to act as 8SJUUFO
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First Look twins equally brilliant; Brady am much occupied with the vari- but man can conceive of parallel Pictures has designed and built a hydro- ous definitions of God. Here is lines, and prove them absolutely ponic farm that is producing its Brady's theory, as explained to by mathematics. Just so with Another valuable character seventh generation of top-quali- his best buddy: There is a God, Brady's God. We can form an is Janet (Keri Russell), a local ty weed. He is also something of but man can never conceive idea of perfection reaching into English teacher and poet, who a philosopher himself. In writ- of him or know him, because infinity, but we live in a uni- quotes Whitman to Billy and ing his dialogue, Nelson doesn't God is perfect and we cannot verse that will never – can never entrances him in a way he has condescend. He is a Tulsa native know perfection. Take for an – intersect with his. Rather never before allowed. I suspect who dismisses the widespread example parallel lines extend- elegant thinking, wouldn't you Janet has personal meaning to notion that a man's "hick" ac- ing to infinity. There can never say, as expressed in Brady's own Nelson. In a press conference he cent (the movie's word) provides be indefinitely parallel lines pothead bar-room vernacular in said he is grateful to have been a measure of his intelligence. demonstrating themselves in the the cab of a pickup truck with a raised around books and rheto- Brady sounds like a semi-literate real physical world, because it shotgun rack. ric, and much of his dialogue redneck, but he's very smart. does not admit of parallelism. I suspect there's a lot of Tim here may be payback. Yes, but Blake Nelson in this film that is also always perfectly appropriate buried out of sight. Some ele- and in tune. ments are visible. That would The plot involves as many include the Jewish community dead and severely wounded bod- of Tulsa, which Nelson affec- ies lying around as in "Blood tionately describes as "wildly Simple," and Nelson weaves it eccentric, unlikely and exotic." expertly without a lot of vis- The plot includes not only ible "plotting." The story is the Rothbaum the drug lord and terrain the characters move well-known charitable benefac- through, and they are always tor, but Ken Neuwald (Josh the foreground. What stands Pais) the financially desperate out is the ability of both Billy orthodontist who finds himself and Brady (perhaps even more bizarrely drawn into the plot. Brady) to understand the world As is Rabbi Zimmerman (Maggie philosophically and deal with it Siff), who explains to Billy Kin- intellectually. caid her belief that the world Here's a quote for the video is broken and our duty is to try box: "One of the year's best!" No, Susan Sarandan and Edward Norton in a scene from "Leaves of Grass." to fix it. Tim Blake Nelson...thank you.

All Q&A sessions and panel discussions will be streamed live on the Internet at www.ebertfest.com April 27-May 1, 2011
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5IFBUSF 61

Tilda Swinton stars in "I Am Love."

By Roger Ebert

id she understand when provides an ideal role for her, in Italian fluently, but with a Russian she married her husband that her actions speak instead of accent, a reminder that she is not what sort of family she words. We learn she has her own quite one of them. was joining? She knew they were private space, that after launching Few actresses can embody rich Italian aristocrats, operators a family event, she likes to leave it urgent sexual desire so well as of textile mills in Milan. But did running smoothly and retire to her Swinton. She is realistic about she understand that as a wife from room upstairs. such feelings. When she learns her Russia, she would serve and pro- The opening act of Luca Gua- daughter Elisabetta (Alba Rohrwa- vide and even be loved, but would dagnino's film establishes the stat- cher) is a lesbian, she reacts not never truly be a member? ure of the Recchi family as surely as a mother, possibly with shock, When we see Emma (Tilda Swin- as the Corleones are established but as a woman, in surprise and ton) she is preparing the Recchi in “The Godfather,” or the Salinas curiosity. She has heard of such house for the birthday party of the in Visconti's “The Leopard.” It things. The heart has its reasons. patriarch. She seems to relate more may be impossible to write about The feast opening the film is as a caterer than as a hostess. At this film without evoking “The prepared by Antonio (Edoardo the head of the table is the grand Leopard,” not simply because they Gabbriellini), a friend of her son old Edoardo (Gabriele Ferzetti). both involve Italian aristocrats, Edo's. She consults with this young Among those gathered are his son but because they involve matters chef, and a feeling passes into her. and her husband, Tancredi (Pippo of succession, and the way that Later, on a visit to her daughter Delbono). The old man makes an love and lust can breach the walls in San Remo, she happens to see unexpected announcement: He is aristocrats live behind. Guadagnino Antonio, and with decision follows retiring, and putting Tancredi in makes the connection inescapable him through the streets. This is all charge. But not Tancredi alone. His by the use of the name Tancredi; done without dialogue. The camera grandson, their son, Edo (Flavio in “The Leopard,” Alain Delon pays is pursuer and pursued. The longer Parenti) also will share the respon- the Salina nephew of that name. she follows him, the more certain sibility. The Recchi family has been liv- they must meet. Is Emma filled with joy? Her ing in a particular way for a long Of course they make love. Ac- husband and son will inherit time. Cushioned by great wealth, tresses are often called upon to the dynasty? She is so calm and working in an industry associated enact sex in the movies. Swinton expert, it's hard to say. Tilda with style, never challenged, well- does it differently with each char- Swinton is a daring actress who educated, its hungers cloaked in acter, understanding that sexuality doesn't project emotions so much tradition, it occupies its place of is as distinctive as speech or taste. as embody them. “I Am Love” privilege effortlessly. Emma speaks Emma is urgent as if a dam has

62 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival SATURDAY 9:30pm BEHIND burst, releasing not passion but Recchi family embodies a tradition accent, as Tilda Swinton would, happiness. Of course this affair which, like a church, requires de- but her performance is nothing as THE SCENES threatens her relationship with her votion if not belief. trivial as a feat of learning. She husband, her son and her family. “I Am Love” is an amazing film. evokes Emma as a woman who I AM LOVE But most long-established families It is deep, rich, human. It is not for years has accepted the needs (2009) R have overcome the inconveniences about rich and poor, but about old of the Recchis and discovers in a of adultery. Continuity is more and new. It is about the ancient few days to accept her own needs. 8SJUUFO
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All Q&A sessions and panel discussions will be streamed live on the Internet at www.ebertfest.com April 27-May 1, 2011
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5IFBUSF 63 Champaign-Urbana’s News-Gazette is locally-owned, not in a chain, and a damned fine paper. “My first journalism school. – Roger Ebert Thanks, Roger. We’re pretty fond” of you too. Start smart and stay smart at Ebertfest with writer Melissa Merli’s daily coverage.

64 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival VIRGINIA THEATRE

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show at The News-Gazette Film Series featuring some all time favorites. Movies like these were meant to be seen on the big screen, and at only $5 a ticket you can take the The Virginia Theatre is not just about movies whole family! Shows are at 1pm & 7pm. All shows begin at the or theatre. The Virginia Theatre is also a advertised time. No ads or trailers. historic and unique venue to hold your wedding reception, business meeting, or class May 14 “Rear Window” (1954) reunion. With a great downtown Champaign A wheelchair bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his location and friendly staff, why not consider apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has the Virginia Theatre for your next event? committed murder. Call 217-356-9053 for more information. June 4 “Moulin Rouge” (2001) A poet falls for a beautiful courtesan whom a jealous duke covets in this stylish musical, with music drawn from familiar 20th century sources. July 23 “Breakfast at Tifany’s” (1961) Do you like the theatre atmosphere? Then A young New York socialite becomes interested in a young man who take the time to give something back to your has moved into her apartment building. community by volunteering at the Virginia Theatre! The Virginia relies solely on the Aug 6 “Arsenic and Old Lace” (1944) generosity of community volunteers to serve A drama critic learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden as ticket takers, ushers, and concessions staff. aunts are homicidal maniacs, and that insanity runs in his family. No matter how much or how little time you Sept 10 “All Quiet on the Western Front” (1930) have, volunteering is a great way to help A young soldier faces profound disillusionment in the others, make new friends, and have fun too! soul-destroying horror of World War I. After a short training session, you’re on your way. Call 217-356-9053 to join Virginia’s volunteer team.

Tickets for most shows may now be purchased online at www.thevirginia.org as well as at the box ofce or by calling 217-356-9063.

April 27-May 1, 2011
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5IFBUSF 65

By Roger Ebert

oetry slams began in The film was directed by Greg Chicago in 1984 and Jacobs and Jon Siskel (Gene's have become an interna- nephew), who followed sev- tional phenomenon without most eral competitors for months people probably having heard of and guessed well in choosing them. They're poetry readings those they focused on. The 2008 as a spectator sport. Individuals Steinmetz team had some gifted and teams are scored by judges repeaters, and we also meet three on the Olympic 10-point scale, outstanding solo talents: but while Olympic diving judges t
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Film screening sponsored by: Champaign County Anti-Stigma Alliance entered before it won the 2007 themselves the Steinmenauts, are performers with real feelings and Bomb in a thrilling upset. Can Lamar Jordan, Kevin Harris, Jésus important things to say. Steinmetz and its coach, James Lark, Charles Smith, and She’Kira I hesitate to hint about the Sloan, repeat? .D,OJHIU
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The Steinmetz team in a scene from "Louder Than a Bomb."

66 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival SUNDAY 12noon BEHIND steal some of the thunder and surprises from the performers. I'll Here are real performers with real THE SCENES end on this. After "Louder Than a Bomb" plays theatrically, it will LOUDER THAN A BOMB air on the Oprah Winfrey Net- feelings and important things to say. (2010) No MPAA rating work. Why doesn't Oprah consider it a pilot for a series? America's %JSFDUFE
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Got Talent, all right, but maybe Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel we've been looking for it in the wrong places. minireview Featuring: "Louder Than a Bomb" (Un- Kevin Coval, Adam Gottlieb, rated, 100 minutes). Chicago's Elizabeth Graf, Kevin Harris, annual city-wide poetry slam John Hood, Lamar Jorden, Peter competition involves teams or Kahn, Jésus Lark, Nate Marshall, performers from 6o high schools, She'Kira McKnight, Preye Porri, and the finals, called Louder James Sloan, Charles Smith, Than a Bomb, are like a rock Robbie Q. Telfer BOE
Nova concert crossed with a basketball Venerable tournament. We meet the team from Steinmetz, hoping to repeat Running time: 100 minutes as city champions, and poets 1SJOU
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Siskel/Jacob from Whitney Young, Oak Park/ Productions River Forest, and Northside Col- lege Prep. Inspiring and electrify- ing. Directed by Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel (Gene's nephew). Nova Venerable in a scene from "Louder Than a Bomb."

Investing more than money At Hickory Point Bank & Trust, we believe it takes more than money to make the world go around. That’s why we’re proud to support Ebertfest.

There is a difference.

www.hickorypointbank.com Membe FDIC 



  

  

All Q&A sessions and panel discussions will be streamed live on the Internet at www.ebertfest.com April 27-May 1, 2011
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5IFBUSF 67 thanks to those who made the Festival possible

FILM CIRCLE SPONSORS DIAMOND SPONSORS THE ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES IDENTITY $25,000 + $10,000 + The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Roger & Chaz Ebert Champaign County Anti-Stigma Alliance Betsy Hendrick American Airlines/American Eagle Leone Advertising

IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION

4 x

x 1/2 x

AMPAS | PRELIMINARY IDENTITY GUIDELINES | 3

DIAMOND SPONSORS PLATINUM SPONSORS $10,000 + $5,000 + The News-Gazette * President & Mrs. Michael Hogan Digital Theater Systems ** Horizon Hobby Geoffrey and Ann Poor/Balanced Audio Technology *** Shatterglass Studios

* The News-Gazette has made a one-time donation of $50,000 toward the remodeling of the Virginia Theatre’s projection booth. ** DTS has made a one-time donation of $10,200 worth of digital audioequipment for the Virginia Theatre. *** Champaign Rotary Club, Geoffrey and Ann Poor/Balanced Audio Technology, Glenn Poor’s Audio-Video and Phase Technology: a one-time donation of $26,000 worth of equipment for speakers for the Virginia Theatre.

68 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival GOLD SPONSORS SILVER SPONSORS GIFTS-IN-KIND GIFTS-IN-KIND $2,500 + $1,500 + L.A. Gourmet Catering Adams Outdoor Advertising Steve & Susan Zumdahl Dawn Riordan, for the Fleurish The Great Impasta Marsha Woodbury Normal Theater Premier Print Group Boltini Lounge COL (IL) J.N.Pritzker, IL ARNG Cowboy Monkey Leone Advertising, Website 40 North/88 West (Retired) Guido’s Stella Artois Thompson.McClellan Bullock & Associates, Cheryl & Soma Ultra Lounge Silver Creek & The Courier Cafe Ralph & Joe, Garcia’s Pizza Don Bullock Jupiter’s Pizzeria & Billiards CarltonBruettDesign in a Pan Chuck and Eileen Kuenneth Seven Saints Illini Media/The Daily Illini The BankVertising Company Illinois Film Offi ce Sam Murphy & Steve Peltz Champaign Park District Andrews McMeel Publishing JSM Development Susan Evans & John Lamkin Virginia Theatre Community Concierge Magazine eGIX web hosting Champaign County Tent News Talk 1400/Lite Rock 97.5 Sun Singer Wine & Spirits, LTD.

Project Te, Inc. Carter’s Furniture Development Herriott’s Coffee Company

'-&63*4)

SILVER SPONSORS $1,500 + PATRONS Stan Lanning & Colleen Quigley $750 + Richard D. Mohr & Michele Thompson Robert W. Switzer Bill & Wilma O’Brien Brand Fortner Paul & Martha Diehl Ann Benefi el & Joseph Kunkel Ashley Rodman & Matt Gladney Chuck & Lynn Nelson Hilary Frooman & John Lee Fraeda & Gary Porton Busey Robeson Family Benefi t Fund Louis & Sandy Rice Ann Beddini - Barb Hulseberg In Memory of Walter Abelmann Don Tingle Charlie Boast & Marsha Clinard Joe Bennett - Aaron Hines Jim Johnson & Coleen Quinn Maxine & Jim Kaler FESTIVAL FRIENDS Cynthea Geerdes & Todd Martinez $500 + Sharon Shavitt & Bowen Cho Steven Zimmerman Gary & Connie Wikoff Advanced Hearing Services Marci Dodds & Jon “Cody” Carol Livingstone & Dan Grayson Sokolski Max & Betsy Mitchell One Main Development Chipman Design Architecture

FESTIVAL ASSOCIATES $250 + Jean and Hiram Paley Yvette Scheven Ed & Nancy Tepper Dianna K. Armstrong Dan & Marge Perrino John Foltz Troylene Ladner Charles E. Erickson Robin & Robert Fossum

April 27-May 1, 2011
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5IFBUSF 69 Live On Stage At The Little Theatre...

A Classic Movie Experience June 1-12, 2011 June 15-26, 2011 Serving beer, wine, and mixed drinks.

Ebertfest Encore Schedule During Ebertfest, The Art Theater will be encoring films from this year and a few selections from prior years. Separate admission is required for The Art Theater’s shows, even for June 29-July 10, 2011 July 13-24, 2011 July 27-August 14, 2011 Ebertfest pass holders. Screenings at The Art Theater FRIDAY (4/29): 5:00 – My Dog Tulip 7:30 - Metropolis (Restored version with original soundtrack, not Alloy Orchestra) 10:30 - Waking Life (not an Ebertfest film, but directed by Richard Linklater) 217-728-7375 or Order Online at www.thelittletheatre.org SATURDAY (4/30) 1:00 – My Dog Tulip 3:00 - Frozen River (Ebertfest 2009) 5:30 - My Winnipeg (Ebertfest 2009) 7:30 - Tiny Furniture 10:00 - Waking Life (not an Ebertfest film, but directed by Richard Linklater)

SUNDAY (5/1) 12:00 – Sita Sings the Blues (Ebertfest 2009) 126 W. Church St. Champaign 2:00 - Metropolis (Restored version with original soundtrack, not Alloy Orchestra) 5:00 – Playtime (Ebertfest 2005) 7:30 - Tiny Furniture

MONDAY (5/2) 7:30 - Synecdoche, NY (Ebertfest 2010)

TUESDAY (5/3) 7:30 - Sita Sings the Blues (Ebertfest 2009)

WEDNESDAY (5/4) 7:30 – Closed for a private rental

Thursday (5/5) 7:30 - I Am Love 10:00 - Waking Life (not an Ebertfest film, but directed by Richard Linklater)

All films will be digitally presented

126 W. Church St. Take the CUMTD Bus Champaign www.theCUart.com

70 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival NEED A BREAK FROM CLASSES? CATCH A LEX TO EAST PEORIA PAR
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"QSJM
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5IFBUSF 71 Photos courtesy of A look back at the 2010 Festival Thompson McClellan

Local media interviewing Roger and Chaz at the Opening Reception hosted by President and Mrs. Ikenberry.

Director Barbet Schroeder and Kim Morgan discuss Vincent twirling his jacket and dancing to University “Barfly” on stage of Illinois Marching Band’s Illinois Loyalty song after at the 2010 fes- the screening of “Vincent: A Life in Color.” tival.

Director Yojira Takita receives a standing ovation after Roger and his Far Flung Correspondents on the panel “The Global Web of Film Lovers, moderated by Omer the screening of “Departures” at the 2010 festival Mozaffar, during the 2010 festival. with Director Nate Kohn and Chaz Ebert.

72 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival Festival guests on stage after the screening of "Synecdoche, New York." L-R Michael Barker (Sony Pictures Classics), Roger and Chaz embrace at the close of the Nell Minow, Anthony Bregman (producer), Kim Morgan, Charlie Kaufman (director). 2010 festival.

Director Michael Tolkin on stage before the screening of “The New Age” at the 2010 Director James Mottern and Michelle Monaghan festival. on stage after the screening of “Trucker.” Festival Director Nate Kohn moderates “Getting the Damned Thing Made” panel discussion at the 2010 festival.

Governor Pat Quinn declared it “Ebertfest Day” at the opening of the 12th Annual Festival and Panel discussion audience asking questions during 2010 festival. presented Roger and Chaz with the Proclamation. All Q&A sessions and panel discussions will be streamed live on the Internet at www.ebertfest.com "QSJM
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5IFBUSF 73 SP24402

An original musical written by Robert Picklesimer and Lucinda Lawrence

Order online at Reserved: Adults ..$18; Seniors & Students .. $16 Children 12 and under: ...... $10 www.thevirginia.org/tickets General Admission (Adults, Seniors, Students): .....$15 Family Pack (five tickets, maximum 2 adults): .$45 or call 217.356.9063

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2332= Champaign Neil Urbana W*)2*6)&;=5.)&;
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74 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival City of Champaign public parking information

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Visit pritzkermilitarylibrary.org for more than 300 free webcasts and podcasts with today’s foremost military historians, Medal of Honor recipients, and more – powerful stories of courage and sacrifice that tell the story of the Citizen Soldier throughout American history.

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Join us for the Saturday Film Series - classic movies with introductions by local historians, shown weekly at the new Pritzker Military Library, 104 S. Michigan Ave. in Chicago.

more than a library…it’s an experience

76 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival to those who made the 2011 Festival possible

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5IFBUSF 77 Champaign-Urbana’s entertainment magazine Look for it every Thursday

TCT&AGraphics CUSTOM BANNERS AND PRINTING Banners Vehicle Wraps We can create a design that is uniquely yours.

TENTS STAGING TABLES LIGHTING CHAIRS lINENS AC/HEATING champaigncountytent.com 217-328-5749 tctagraphics.com 217-328-5749 1-800-252-1355

78 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival

By Melissa Silverberg, Daily Illini Staff Writer

oger Ebert is back on TV, well at least his name is. “Ebert Presents, At the Movies,” a new weekly program which premiered Jan. 21, brings the genre of critical reviews that was made famous by Ebert back to TV viewers across the nation. “Ebert Presents” is co-hosted by Christy Lemire of The Associated Press and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of Mubi.com. The duo discusses and reviews movies each week along with various segments from other well-known film critics, including Ebert himself. The program is produced in Chicago at WTTW, where Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert began taping “Sneak Previews” some 35 years ago. Ebert has been a part of many other similar shows including “Siskel & Ebert” and excited to work with the show “Ebert & Roeper.” Ebert said and near the legend that is now was the time to bring film Roger Ebert. reviews back to television. “During the four decades “TV benefits from a show I have known Mr. Ebert, one of intelligent criticism in the quality strikes me as his greatest wasteland of meaningless asset, aside from his obvious celebrity news,” Ebert said knowledge and intelligence: in an e-mail interview. “It’s a Fearlessness,” Gire said. “Who corrective to showbiz gossip. wouldn’t want to work with a And it helps get the news out guy like that?” about non-mainstream films.” “Ebert Presents at the As blogging has expanded over Movies” is now airing on 320 the past several years, there are public television stations many more writers expressing nationwide. their thoughts on films, but The executive producer is $ISJTUZ
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7JTIOFWFUTLZ Dann Gire, the Daily Herald film Roger’s wife, Chaz Ebert, and the critic and a contributor to “Ebert director is Don Dupree, who was Christy is the film critic Ignatiy is a critic and Presents,” said that he still the director of “Siskel & Ebert” for The Associated Press essayist for MUBI.com, the sees film criticism as a serious and “Ebert & Roeper” for 15 in LA. Christy filled in for Chicago Reader, and co- undertaking. years. Roger Ebert several times founder of the acclaimed “Well-written, insightful, “The potential for “Ebert knowledgeable, engaging film Presents” is what gives me on “At the Movies” in 2007 Cine-File.info. Ignatiy helps criticism continues to be an goosebumps,” Gire said. “This and has appeared on “The program the Cine-File Selects essential form of journalism, program celebrates the movies Charlie Rose Show,” “Good series at the University of especially during the age of the as an artform, not just popular Morning America” and “The Chicago’s Doc Films, the Internet,” Gire said. entertainment, and does it with View,” to name a few. nation’s oldest film society. Gire said he has been beyond intelligence and wit.”

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“The resulting Steakburger is a symphony of taste and texture.” 80 13th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival - Roger Ebert, Sun Times Coming In A Few Minutes!

Starring THE DOUBLE STEAKBURGER™ WITH CHEESE! Featuring PREMIUM CUTS OF REAL STEAK! “A TRUE MASTERPIECE OF A MEAL” Let your imagination run wild as we take a few extra moments to sear your Steakburger™ on our super hot grill & give it those famous crispy edges, then toast your bun to perfection and finish dressing your sandwich just the way you’ve ordered it! Yes, it takes a little longer here than it might down the street, but remember, we don’t just warm up your food... WE PREPARE IT FRESH JUST FOR YOU! There’s Fast Food and Then There’s QUALITY FOOD MADE FAST!

“The resulting Steakburger is a symphony of taste and texture.” - Roger Ebert, Sun Times Krannert center for the performing arts

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