43rd Chicago International Film Festival
09-06-07, 09:53 AM
#1
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
Thread Starter
43rd Chicago International Film Festival
Just got an early listing/sneak preview of programs to be featured this year.
The festival runs October 4-17.
The one program I'm looking forward to out of this list, is the collection of Essanay shorts.
INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM COMPETITION
Savior's Square - Poland
The team behind 2005 Gold Hugo recipient My Nikifor, Krzysztof Krauze and Joanna Kos-Krauze, explores the tragic effects of financial crisis and emotional conflict on a family in this compelling cautionary drama.
Ploy - Thailand
International festival favorite Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's (Invisible Waves) hypnotic requiem on the breakdown of a marriage is fueled by a husband's friendship with a young girl and his wife's paranoid delusions.
--------------------------------
NEW DIRECTORS COMPETITION
Hard-hearted - Russia
First-time director Aleksei Mizgiryov, who picked up the Best Debut prize at the Sochi Open Russian Film Festival, looks at the stark reality of Moscow through the eyes of Anton, a young war vet from the countryside. Anton's rosy vision of the city, fueled by memories of a lost love, is quickly squashed on his first encounter with the city's crooked cops.
Lovesickness - Puerto Rico
The passion of first-time filmmaker Carlitos Ruíz Ruíz teems in a darkly comic triptych that celebrates all the complexities of our richest emotion. The innocence of young love blooms for a small boy just as his father throws a major kink into the family, a middle-aged loner's obsessions come to a head when he boards a bus and insists the driver marry him, and a 70-year-old spitfire suddenly finds herself in the center of a love triangle.
--------------------------------
DOCUFEST
Freddie Mercury: Lover of Life, Singer of Songs - The Untold Story - UK/Austria
A special presentation of the documentary recognized by Roger Ebert in his 2007 Overlooked Film Festival and the most intimate and revealing portrait of the real man behind the larger-than-life character. Director Rudi Dolezal travels the globe to recreate Freddie's early life in Zanzibar and India, gathering tales along the way from the insiders in Freddie's closely guarded life--including his mother, sister, schoolmates, and former lovers.
America the Beautiful - USA
Chicago filmmaker Darryl Roberts crafts an alarming and revealing examination of society's views on the representations and idealizations of the female body image.
We are Together - UK
An unforgettable story of determination, Paul Taylor's work follows a group of orphaned children in South Africa who use music to overcome hardship and loss.
Chicago 10 - USA
Brett Morgen's documentary fuses archival footage, interviews, and striking animation to recount the anti-war demonstrations during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He also looks at the following year's Chicago Conspiracy Trial, examining the protest's key figures, including Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Bobby Seale.
--------------------------------
SHORTS
Not Bad, Boy - China
Keith Qix Chen crafts the gripping tale of a lonely 75-year-old woman who does all she can to keep a delivery boy around.
The Ladies - USA
Christina Voros' film channels Grey Gardens to display the hilarious and devoted relationship of two fiercely independent sisters nearing the ends of their lives.
--------------------------------
WORLD CINEMA
Lars and the Real Girl - USA
Craig Gillespie directs Academy Award®-nominees Ryan Gosling and Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer, and Paul Schneider in a script by Six Feet Under scribe Nancy Oliver. Lars Lindstrom (Gosling), a loveable introvert whose emotional baggage keeps him from fully embracing life, takes his family on an emotional journey after he brings home a new friend--Bianca, a life-size doll whom he treats like a real person.
The Witnesses - France
André Téchiné's (Changing Times) compelling AIDS drama, set in the 1980s, explores the fragility and fluidity of the boundaries that define human relations.
Beaufort - Israel
Joseph Cedar, himself a veteran of Israel's first war with Lebanon, crafts a thoughtful and intense war drama about the 2000 Israeli evacuation of a mountaintop fortress in southern Lebanon. The powerful, provocative film, which favors the soldiers' points of view over any political stance, earned the directing prize at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Getting Home - China
After realizing that his old friend and co-worker Liu has died suddenly, Zhao promises to return the body to Liu's distant hometown for a traditional burial. Sixth-generation director Zhang Yang's (Shower) humorous road movie offers a unique insight into the lives of the common people who ultimately define this touching story about a man's dedication to his friend.
--------------------------------
CINEMA OF THE AMERICAS
The Aerial - Argentina
Esteban Sapir's visually seductive drama is set in a futuristic, Orwellian world where a villainous media magnate has stolen the citizens' voices... literally.
La León - Argentina/France
Santiago Otheguy's moody, meditative debut explores the growing rift between two men living in a remote Argentine river community. Meticulously presented in high-definition black and white, La León is fraught with sinister sexual undertones.
--------------------------------
BLACK PERSPECTIVES
I'm Through with White Girls - USA
A hipster searches for resolution of his on-going issues with race, identity, and romance in Jennifer Sharp's stylish, comedic look at love and commitment.
--------------------------------
ANIME FOCUS
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - Japan
Through the invention of time travel, tomboy Makoto learns lessons of friendship, responsibility, and love in Mamoru Hosoda's enchanting coming-of-age tale.
--------------------------------
FAMILY PROGRAMMING
August Rush - USA
A charismatic young Irish guitarist (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and a sheltered young cellist (Keri Russell) have a chance encounter one magical night but are soon torn apart, leaving in their wake an orphaned infant. Years later, performing on the streets of New York and cared for by a mysterious stranger (Robin Williams), the child (Freddie Highmore) uses his remarkable musical talent to seek the parents from whom he was separated at birth.
--------------------------------
100 YEARS OF FILMMAKING IN CHICAGO
A century ago, the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company made Chicago a moviemaking city second to none. From its Gold Coast and Uptown studios, Essanay produced hundreds of films on the old-world streets of our fair city, providing a major boon to the motion picture business then, and an inimitable and entertaining historical record now. The surviving Essanay reels have been seen by only a few hundred people today, but the Festival is presenting this priceless piece of Chicago history to all of us with a special program of short films made between 1907 and 1915.
The festival runs October 4-17.
The one program I'm looking forward to out of this list, is the collection of Essanay shorts.
INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM COMPETITION
Savior's Square - Poland
The team behind 2005 Gold Hugo recipient My Nikifor, Krzysztof Krauze and Joanna Kos-Krauze, explores the tragic effects of financial crisis and emotional conflict on a family in this compelling cautionary drama.
Ploy - Thailand
International festival favorite Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's (Invisible Waves) hypnotic requiem on the breakdown of a marriage is fueled by a husband's friendship with a young girl and his wife's paranoid delusions.
--------------------------------
NEW DIRECTORS COMPETITION
Hard-hearted - Russia
First-time director Aleksei Mizgiryov, who picked up the Best Debut prize at the Sochi Open Russian Film Festival, looks at the stark reality of Moscow through the eyes of Anton, a young war vet from the countryside. Anton's rosy vision of the city, fueled by memories of a lost love, is quickly squashed on his first encounter with the city's crooked cops.
Lovesickness - Puerto Rico
The passion of first-time filmmaker Carlitos Ruíz Ruíz teems in a darkly comic triptych that celebrates all the complexities of our richest emotion. The innocence of young love blooms for a small boy just as his father throws a major kink into the family, a middle-aged loner's obsessions come to a head when he boards a bus and insists the driver marry him, and a 70-year-old spitfire suddenly finds herself in the center of a love triangle.
--------------------------------
DOCUFEST
Freddie Mercury: Lover of Life, Singer of Songs - The Untold Story - UK/Austria
A special presentation of the documentary recognized by Roger Ebert in his 2007 Overlooked Film Festival and the most intimate and revealing portrait of the real man behind the larger-than-life character. Director Rudi Dolezal travels the globe to recreate Freddie's early life in Zanzibar and India, gathering tales along the way from the insiders in Freddie's closely guarded life--including his mother, sister, schoolmates, and former lovers.
America the Beautiful - USA
Chicago filmmaker Darryl Roberts crafts an alarming and revealing examination of society's views on the representations and idealizations of the female body image.
We are Together - UK
An unforgettable story of determination, Paul Taylor's work follows a group of orphaned children in South Africa who use music to overcome hardship and loss.
Chicago 10 - USA
Brett Morgen's documentary fuses archival footage, interviews, and striking animation to recount the anti-war demonstrations during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He also looks at the following year's Chicago Conspiracy Trial, examining the protest's key figures, including Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Bobby Seale.
--------------------------------
SHORTS
Not Bad, Boy - China
Keith Qix Chen crafts the gripping tale of a lonely 75-year-old woman who does all she can to keep a delivery boy around.
The Ladies - USA
Christina Voros' film channels Grey Gardens to display the hilarious and devoted relationship of two fiercely independent sisters nearing the ends of their lives.
--------------------------------
WORLD CINEMA
Lars and the Real Girl - USA
Craig Gillespie directs Academy Award®-nominees Ryan Gosling and Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer, and Paul Schneider in a script by Six Feet Under scribe Nancy Oliver. Lars Lindstrom (Gosling), a loveable introvert whose emotional baggage keeps him from fully embracing life, takes his family on an emotional journey after he brings home a new friend--Bianca, a life-size doll whom he treats like a real person.
The Witnesses - France
André Téchiné's (Changing Times) compelling AIDS drama, set in the 1980s, explores the fragility and fluidity of the boundaries that define human relations.
Beaufort - Israel
Joseph Cedar, himself a veteran of Israel's first war with Lebanon, crafts a thoughtful and intense war drama about the 2000 Israeli evacuation of a mountaintop fortress in southern Lebanon. The powerful, provocative film, which favors the soldiers' points of view over any political stance, earned the directing prize at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Getting Home - China
After realizing that his old friend and co-worker Liu has died suddenly, Zhao promises to return the body to Liu's distant hometown for a traditional burial. Sixth-generation director Zhang Yang's (Shower) humorous road movie offers a unique insight into the lives of the common people who ultimately define this touching story about a man's dedication to his friend.
--------------------------------
CINEMA OF THE AMERICAS
The Aerial - Argentina
Esteban Sapir's visually seductive drama is set in a futuristic, Orwellian world where a villainous media magnate has stolen the citizens' voices... literally.
La León - Argentina/France
Santiago Otheguy's moody, meditative debut explores the growing rift between two men living in a remote Argentine river community. Meticulously presented in high-definition black and white, La León is fraught with sinister sexual undertones.
--------------------------------
BLACK PERSPECTIVES
I'm Through with White Girls - USA
A hipster searches for resolution of his on-going issues with race, identity, and romance in Jennifer Sharp's stylish, comedic look at love and commitment.
--------------------------------
ANIME FOCUS
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - Japan
Through the invention of time travel, tomboy Makoto learns lessons of friendship, responsibility, and love in Mamoru Hosoda's enchanting coming-of-age tale.
--------------------------------
FAMILY PROGRAMMING
August Rush - USA
A charismatic young Irish guitarist (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and a sheltered young cellist (Keri Russell) have a chance encounter one magical night but are soon torn apart, leaving in their wake an orphaned infant. Years later, performing on the streets of New York and cared for by a mysterious stranger (Robin Williams), the child (Freddie Highmore) uses his remarkable musical talent to seek the parents from whom he was separated at birth.
--------------------------------
100 YEARS OF FILMMAKING IN CHICAGO
A century ago, the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company made Chicago a moviemaking city second to none. From its Gold Coast and Uptown studios, Essanay produced hundreds of films on the old-world streets of our fair city, providing a major boon to the motion picture business then, and an inimitable and entertaining historical record now. The surviving Essanay reels have been seen by only a few hundred people today, but the Festival is presenting this priceless piece of Chicago history to all of us with a special program of short films made between 1907 and 1915.
10-04-07, 11:36 AM
#2
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
Thread Starter
barump!
Starts tonight with a screening of The Kite Runner at the Chicago Theater.
I got tickets for my must-sees (17 programs!). I'll be in the theater while the Cubs are playing game 3 a mile or so up the street.
There's some old films playing I'm excited about, including a collection of shorts made by the Essanay studios in Chicago from 1907 - 1915, as well as Charles Burnett's follow up to his Killer of Sheep (my favorite 'new' release of 2007), My Brother's Wedding.
Current stuff I'm looking forward to is Bela Tarr's The Man from London and a new Jacques Rivette.
I've loaded up the next two weekends with films with some stuff during the week (took some vacation days). Most of the screenings I'm going to are at the Landmark.
Anyone else checking anything out?
Starts tonight with a screening of The Kite Runner at the Chicago Theater.
I got tickets for my must-sees (17 programs!). I'll be in the theater while the Cubs are playing game 3 a mile or so up the street.
There's some old films playing I'm excited about, including a collection of shorts made by the Essanay studios in Chicago from 1907 - 1915, as well as Charles Burnett's follow up to his Killer of Sheep (my favorite 'new' release of 2007), My Brother's Wedding.
Current stuff I'm looking forward to is Bela Tarr's The Man from London and a new Jacques Rivette.
I've loaded up the next two weekends with films with some stuff during the week (took some vacation days). Most of the screenings I'm going to are at the Landmark.
Anyone else checking anything out?
