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Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesCHIRP Radio Movie Collection: The Blues Brothers (1980)
[The CHIRP Radio Movie Collection documents our favorite movies that feature music or musicians.]
The Blues Brothers (1980)
The Plot: Two brothers (played by Dan Akroyd and John Belushi) put their old band back together in a quest to raise money to save the orphanage where they were raised.
This is a movie that remains one of the more successful film adaptations of a “Saturday Night Live” sketch. Unlike most most movies that started out as SNL ideas, this one feels like an actual film put together by actual film makers. The movie is elevated by several effectively staged stunts and car chases as the Brothers tear their way from Joliet prison to Chicago’s Loop while being chased by everyone from highway patrolmen to neo-Nazis.
E. Malcolm Martinez writesThe Midwest Independent Film Festival’s Screening of “Sole Survivor” Is This Tuesday!
The Midwest Independent Film Festival’s First Tuesdays series returns to Landmark’s Century City Theatre (2828 N. Clark) on November 5th with the screening of the acclaimed documentary Sole Survivor.
Directed by local filmmaker Ky Dickens, who will be in attendance for a post-screening discussion, the documentary presents the stories of four sole survivors of commercial airplane crashes. They speak for the first time of the tragic events that they, and only they, survived and the questions and feelings that arose from their experience. It has been recognized by PBS as one of the most anticipated documentaries of the coming year and CNN Films is scheduled to release the film in early 2014.
The evening begins at 6pm with a pre-show cocktail reception and a Producers Panel at 6:30 p.m. Sole Survivor screens at 7:30 p.m., followed by a post-screening reception. Sole Survivor is co-presented by the festival and Women In Film Chicago. You can watch a trailer for the film and purchase advance tickets ($10 General Admission, $15 for Premium Reserved) at www.MidwestFilm.org.
Jason Crock writesCouldn’t You Wait?: The Story of Silkworm
The particular charm of Silkworm is explained many times over the course of Couldn’t You Wait?, a documentary that was self-released by the filmmakers last month as a $5 DRM-free download. It may be producer Steve Albini who puts it most succinctly: “People that like Silkworm really like Silkworm, but they’re not like normal people, and there aren’t that many of them.” What made the band strange, and what made them a taste worth acquiring, is a subject the filmmakers have been plumbing since beginning the project in late 2006. To tell the story of how different the band’s path was, and how Chicago played a part in that story, several subjects are interviewed, and their responses are interspersed with clips of the band’s performances throughout the years.
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesDon’t Miss the 20th Anniversary of the Chicago Underground Film Festival
It’s been 20 years since a young Columbia College film student named Jay Bliznick established a film festival that would spotlight creative film and video work outside of the system that supports major Hollywood players and elitist distributor events. For him and others who share his passion for film and desire to see new, original projects, years of dedication and effort have established the Chicago Underground Film Festival as one of the most respected and anticipated annual events for cinephiles, movie buffs, and anyone else who wants to see the kind of independent, experimental, and documentary work that doesn't make it into the local metroplex.
This year’s festival will treat audiences to outstanding work from the past and present. In the words of Festival Coordinator Lori Felker, ”We've got a really energizing mix of films from the past 20 years mixed in with current in-competition films. It really gives you a sense of how broad the definition of ‘underground’ is, how weird ‘weird' can get, and interesting and talented people are.”
Dan Epstein writesSeen and Heard Video Showcase
Music videos ruled the eighties and early nineties as mainstream bits of cinema feeding our hungry pop-obsessed culture. Now, the rules have changed, and the video’s descent into the shadows of pop culture has opened doors to genre experimentation.
The Seen and Heard showcase highlights videos that embrace this change and shave the edges of video and music production. Filmmaker and curator of the showcase, Amir George, along with Zach Maderas guitar player for Outer Minds, Nelson Carvajal filmmaker and writer, and Todd Lillithum, program director for Chicago Filmmakers, talked with CHIRP’s Amye Frye about video’s redefinition.
Check out the Seen and Heard Video Music Showcase Friday September 16th at Chicago Filmmakers!
Featured music in the story:
Duran Duran, Girls on Film
Kodachrome, Modern Man, video directed by Nelson Carvajal
Outer Minds, Bohemian Grove, video directed by Chris Anderson
Click here to download a copy of the story.