Another year has rolled
around and once again it’s time for Ebertfest. The 14th Annual Roger
Ebert’s Film Festival plays at the Virginia Theater in Champaign-Urbana,
Illinois next week April 25-29. I’ve attended five of them over the years and
hope beyond my financial considerations each year that I might attend again.
Alas this is another year that I won’t be in attendance, but as the programming
for this film festival is probably the best a cineaste can ask for, I will be
doing my best to keep up with the movies as they watch them in the Virginia
Theater next weekend.
Last year’s festival was the
first time since I attended my first Ebertfest 10 years ago that I didn’t cover
it in some way. This year I’m covering some of the movies because I’m so excited about them. As usual there are some classics, some
overlooked mainstream films, and a slew of great independents and foreign films.
The Alloy Orchestra is back to accompany a collection of silent films and there
will be guest speakers in panel discussions following each of the films.
This year’s opening movie is
the movie that has been considered for more Ebertfests than any other, yet it
never made the cut until this year. “Joe Versus the Volcano” is a surrealist
romance that was the first of three romantic collaborations between stars Tom
Hanks and Meg Ryan. Most people don’t remember it because it was a flop at the
box office. The screenplay and direction by John Patrick Shanley may have been
a little strange for mainstream audiences, but the results are purely original
cinema.
The biggest reason I’m so
exited about this year’s festival and the biggest disappointment I have about
missing it is the involvement of comedian Patton Oswalt, who was snubbed by the
Academy this year as a supporting actor for his excellent performance in the
movie “Young Adult”. Ebert invited Oswalt to this year’s festivities as a guest
for the screening of “Big Fan” in which Oswalt provides another amazing
performance as an obsessed New York Football Giants fan. This excites me as a
Giants fan, myself; but it’s also a wonderful film.
Oswalt had one condition for
attending the festival. He wanted to choose a film that he would screen for
University of Illinois film students and host a class on it. The film he chose
was the classic British murder comedy “Kind Hearts and Coronets”. I’ve never
seen the revered movie and look forward to finally experiencing it.
The other films from this
year’s festival that I’ll be screening include, the quirky comedy about high
school outcasts who form their own unique friendships “Terri”, “Higher Ground”
tells the story of a woman’s lifelong struggle with her own faith in the
directing debut of actress Vera Farmiga, Michael Shannon plays a man who may be
crazy or may be having visions of the end of the world in “Take Shelter”. I’ll
also screen the closing day film, the Orson Welles classic “Citizen Kane”, with
the DVD audio commentary by Roger Ebert himself.
As usual when I can’t be
there in person, there are several films I won’t be able to screen due to lack
of availability in a home access format. The second film of opening night will
be the Showtime documentary “Phunny Business: A Black Comedy” about Chicago’s
preeminent comedy club All Jokes Aside. The short film “The Truth About Beauty
& Blogs”, which boasts this brief description on IMDb.com, “a social media
diva is thrown off her game when her boyfriend starts acting up on the
internet,” will precede this film.
“Kinyarwanda” takes an even
closer look at the 1994 genocide in Rwanda than the 2004 film “Hotel Rwanda”.
“On Borrowed Time” is a documentary about Australian filmmaker Paul Cox, a
personal favorite of Ebert’s whose films “Innocence” and “A Man of Flowers”
have both been featured in previous Ebertfests. “Wild and Weird” features 10
innovative short silent films from 1906-1926 accompanied live by Ebertfest
favorites the Alloy Orchestra. The Oscar winner this year for Foreign Language
Film “A Separation” tells a story about an Iranian couple faced with a
difficult decision. “Patang” is a movie from India that tells about the
nation’s largest kite festival through the stories of six people.
So, there are several films
I will pine for this year, not too long for “Kinyarwanda”, which will be
released on DVD May 15. There are still several that I will get the chance to
enjoy, many for the second time, and share with you my readers. Trust me, if
it’s featured at Ebertfest, it’s a movie worth seeking out.
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