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 Shop Apple on Campus Stop by our location in the heart of the U of I campus to learn more about education discounts for University of Award-winning service for your Mac. 512 E. Green Street t www.illinitechcenter.com Store Hours: Mon–Sat: 9am–6pm Sun: Noon–5pm www.illinitechcenter.com/support 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.