Starting October 11, CIFF will once again grace the halls of the Music Box Theatre (and a number of other local venues), delivering 150 films from more than a dozen countries to movie lovers across Chicago.
Category: Movie Feature
Reeling returns
Reeling International Film Festival is back to showcase a dizzying array of LGBTQ+ content, from campy horror to historical documentaries.
Hello CUFF
The Chicago Underground Film Festival is back, and the longest-running fest devoted to the subculture of movies has quite a variety of attractions.
Documenting the ‘pure childhood joy’ of baseball
Solutions for violence disruption often fall on the shoulders of politicians and policymakers, but one youth baseball league is tackling the issue through the power of organized sports, as highlighted in an upcoming documentary.
Solidarity in the summer
As has been the case for most of my adult life, I’ve also watched a lot of movies (and occasionally, some television) this summer. What’s been different this year is that I’m now thinking more about those who made what I’m watching, both in front of and behind the camera.
An artist in exile
Fazel Ahad Ahadi expected to spend his whole life in Afghanistan with his extended family. But in summer 2021, Ahadi found himself hastily dismissing class and speeding home to raise a bonfire of books in his backyard. The Taliban had reclaimed Afghanistan’s capital city, and a 20-year artistic renaissance had come to an abrupt and violent end.
No easy answers
“A String of Pearls: The Films of Camille Billops & James Hatch” is a complete retrospective of their film work, the first-ever in Chicago.
South of Roosevelt screens films at south-side brewery
With a projector, a screen, chairs, and drinks, Whiner Beer Co.’s garden will turn into a moviegoing oasis for south-side filmmakers.
A local industry renaissance
Film and television production in Chicago still lacks the resources, glamour, and consistency of opportunity found on the coasts—but you can’t build Chicago’s community and authenticity in a Hollywood hangar.
Revelation and celebration
The 12-film retrospective presented at the Gene Siskel Film Center, under the questionable title of “The Dirty Stories of Jean Eustache,” will introduce audiences to the work of a fiercely personal artist.
Doesn’t anyone fuck anymore?
Will No Hard Feelings revive the sex comedy? Probably not. Has it at least revolutionized the subgenre, bringing something heretofore unseen to the summer slate? Maybe . . .
Godzilla is coming to the Music Box Garden
The Music Box Theatre and Chicago film critic and programmer Katie Rife are showing several different sides of Godzilla with four screenings of his later, lesser-seen classics, playing at sundown in the Music Box Garden every night from July 24-27.
See beyond disability in The Unseen
Inspiration and overcoming are the Hollywood disability default. Jennifer Goodman, RJ Mitte, and their collaborators suggest that there’s a lot more to see.
Bound for the floor
Just as The Matrix invites a trans textual reevaluation—spurred from its creators coming out as trans women years after release—Bound subconsciously uses its genre-bending cinematic elements toward corporeal freedom and autonomy.
Pride at the movies
Here’s a list of recommended titles, with an unapologetic slant toward films screening in Chicago theaters.