Film
Reckless Inspiration
First impressions, they say, stay with you permanently. A small audience was reminded of this when they gathered on March 11 in the Film Studies Center of the University of Chicago’s Cobb Hall to attend Fire Escape Films’ Winter Screening of new student films. The evening featured six short premieres by both first-time filmmakers... »
Synesthetic Experience: WHPK’s annual music-movie event showcases Midwestern creativity
This Saturday, Pictures and Sounds brings the recent surge in live, improvised soundtrack performances to the campus of the University of Chicago. An annual collaboration between WHPK 88.5 FM and the University’s Film Studies Center, the event features a sampling of four acts gleaned from the Midwestern avant-noise/free improvisation music scene. Each performer has... »
Have You Seen These Kids?: A Pilsen production studio runs on youthful creativity
“After he cuts the kid’s arm off and the blood spurts everywhere, then you’re gonna roar, oh and you—you roll around this way…and you—when they fall you’re just gonna twirl the baton on down to the ground…” This is not usual office banter. This is not an ordinary office. This is not an ordinary... »
All the Small Things
In an age of high-tech special effects and computer-generated imagery (CGI), the state-of-the-art has begun to overshadow the art of moviemaking itself. Although it may seem that most animators have succumbed to the flash and convenience of CGI, Yuri Norstein will not be moved. Making an appearance last week at the University of Chicago’s... »
Behind the Scenes: UofC students’ feature film premieres at Doc Films
Jack Mayer is nervous. Leaning on a metal desk in the one-room office of Fire Escape Films in the basement of the University of Chicago’s Ida Noyes Hall, surrounded by cameras, cables, and computers, the young film director and fourth-year college student holds the brim of a tropical print ball cap and stares at... »
Sister City Cinema: The Lithuanian Film Festival brings visions of Vilnius to Chicago
Americans have long been loath to learn foreign languages and equally unenthusiastic about subtitled films—an unfortunate trend, but by no means a hopeless one. Launched in 1960 by Mayor Richard J. Daley, Chicago’s uncommonly active Sister Cities program has since been dedicated to building the city’s international character through events like the upcoming Lithuanian... »
Pranking the Powerful: Culture jammers the Yes Men appear at the Co-Prosperity Sphere
June 19, 2007. The scene is a large, fluorescently-lit conference room, walls draped in threatening black curtains, the air chiming with the scattered tinkling of metal, glass, and thick, cream-colored hotel-grade dinnerware. Slight murmurs drift upwards from a series of round tables filled with the occupants’ self-satisfied smiles. If it weren’t for the overabundance... »
