More Ebertfest 2014!

The 16^th edition of Roger Ebert’s film festival, mostly known as “Ebertfest” is in the books.  Today after the last screening, we drove the 3 hours to “Ketelsen East” in St Charles, Illinois.  It was an exciting and very entertaining 5 days for us, not only to be exposed to high-quality films, but to be able to spend time with 1500 others who enjoy them, and rub elbows with those that make them and appear in them. 

The morning after our last post and the end of day one of the festival was an emotional event. The night before was the regional premier of “Life Itself”, an emotional review of his career and last months of his life. On Thursday morning was the unveiling of a statue of Roger that is to grace the front of the Virginia Theater, home of Ebertfest. It was a race against time to get the financing and casting finished in time for this year’s event, and it should be permanently located by the city of Champaign (requires some rework of curbs and planters) before next year’s version. The image at left shows the noontime unveil, with a good sized crowd with Chaz and artist Rick Harney looking on at the right side. At right, Chaz has a private moment seeing her husband’s image for the first time. While eventually the emotions settled down, the double whammy of “Life Itself” and the statue unveil the first 24 hours of the festival affected her a lot. By today she was back to her lively, energetic self as she introduced each screening, or one of the principles who made the movie, director, actor or producer...

The statue of Roger is meant to be interactive. He is shown with an empty theater seats on either side and the public is welcome to join him. Many took the opportunity to have pictures taken with his image, and of course, we had to do it too. It wasn’t difficult to find volunteers to take pictures for you, and Melinda and I got our portrait joining Roger’s “thumbs up” trademark sign. Eventually he will be mounted over on the east side of the marquee (he is on the west side here). The fundraising continued through the weekend, as they were still $25,000 short. The fellow manning the donation box observed the reverence that the Ebertfest attendees paid to the artwork...

 

We had high-profile guests there! It was the 25^th anniversary of a couple big movies – Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing”, and Oliver Stone’s “Born on the Fourth of July”, and both were here to present the films and discuss them with the audience afterwards. I had always been impressed with “Do the Right Thing”, and it was great to see it in a big theater and screen with an appreciative crowd. For those who have not seen it, it documents a hot day on a Brooklyn block when racial tension flares into violence. The performances are legendary and feature a lot of new faces that are now a who’s who of American cinema, including the screen debuts of Martin Lawrence and Rosie Perez. Commenting on what a strong year for movies 1998 was, when Spike was asked which movie won the best movie Oscar that year, he said “Driving Miss (^%&#@!) Daisy”, a movie with a slightly calmer comment on racial relationships... “Do the Right Thing” wasn’t even nominated for Best Movie, but was nominated for original screenplay (Spike Lee) and Best Supporting Actor (Danny Aiello), though won neither...

 

I’d never seen Oliver Stone’s “Born on the Fourth of July”, based on the book by Ron Kovic and starring a young Tom Cruise. While the movie starts out as a gung-ho recruiting poster for the Vietnam War, the returning wounded veteran Kovic becomes disillusioned and comes out against the war, making Stone’s epic a powerful anti-war commentary (Stone served over a year in Vietnam). Stone’s movie WAS nominated for Best Picture, and received a total of 8 nominations, winning Stone the Best Director Oscar. Realize Stone also directed “Platoon”, based on his own experiences of the war... In the Q&A session after the movie, he noted that the movie was initially set for approval 10 years earlier, with Al Pacino (admittedly much older playing the teenager Ron Kovic than Cruise eventually did) playing the lead, but the financing fell out, the project languishing for decade until Cruise came along after “Top Gun” made him a star.

It is details like this that make the festival movie-going experience so much richer. On Thursday we saw the incredible movie “Short Term 12”, a year-old movie I’d never even heard of! It tells the story of a foster care center for at-risk teens, and the young adults who work with them, as well as work out their own personal problems. Two of the stars, Brie Larson and Keith Stanfield (shown in the left image with "Movie Mom", Nell Minow) were here and held court at the Q&A session – receiving the first extended standing ovation of the festival! The story and performances just blew everyone away – it was difficult to believe it was filmed in 10 days... The next day I ran into Keith (shown in the right image) out in front of the theater during one of the breaks between movies and I was able to chat with him for a minute or two (he liked my glasses!), and finding out what else he has coming out. He is excited to be involved with a new movie about MLK in “Selma".

While I thought nothing could dislodge “Short term 12” as my favorite movie of the festival on day 2, on day 4 we saw “Wadjda”, which changed that! Named after the central character, played by a 12-year old actress Waad Mohammed, she is a rebellious girl who more than anything else wants a bicycle to ride with her male friend. It tells her everyday struggles in school and the innovative way she goes about earning her bike. This is the first feature film made in Saudi Arabia by a female director, where women cannot drive and are segregated in public. The director, Haifaa Al-Monsour was there to receive her full 2 minute standing ovation (shown here with Sony Pictures Classics co-founder Michael Barker at the Q&A), and told the story about how she had to film exterior scenes from a van interior; get special permission from the parents for their children to act in the movie. The real-life parents of the principle actress are only going to allow her to act until she is 16 when she will be married off...

 

 We got to see another of our favorites in the Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s Oscar-winning performance in “Capote". Representing the movie was director Bennett Miller, the Q&A session turning into an impromptu celebration of Hoffman’s life, with stories, methods about his acting, and in finding the Capote inside him. Another set of excellent performances were in the 3-year-old “Young Adult” with Charlize Theron and Patton Oswalt. Charlize plays Mavis, a semi-successful author who “made it” out of the small-town prairie to the glamorous “big city” of Minneapolis, but is driven to return to steal her old boyfriend away from his wife and new baby. Oswalt had been invited to a previous Ebertfest, but his attendance fell through at the last minute so was invited to represent this film. Working today as an actor and part-time comic, he was hilarious in the intro and Q&A, and in the photo at left, he is attempting a “thumb war” with the “Golden Thumb” awards the directors and actors mentioned above were presented. The “Golden Thumb” is from an actual cast of the thumbs-up symbol Roger Ebert used to award for a worthwhile movie or performance. I should point out that all the movie introductions and the Q&As afterwards, as well as the workshops, none of which we attended on campus are on the Ebertfest Channel on YouTube – go look!

  

So it was a great time – we’re actually talking about a return to a future version. Chaz seems a credible hostess- certainly the task seems thrust upon her by the death of her namesake husband.  I like that she does not imitate the job Roger does as critic, but rather introduces other acknowledged critics or industry experts to perform introductions and lead the Q&A sessions. After 5 days, I love the Virginia theater! It has spectacular décor, and I may have a post simply about some of those details. The seats aren’t necessarily comfortable for my “wide load”, and the tiny bathrooms are inadequate for that many days of full-houses, but I accept that it is a tradition, and after the rounds of rehab it has gone through, it is a spectacular venue. It sounds like Ebertfest will continue to go on, and after our first, we’re looking forward to it again as well.