Category: Movie Feature

Movie theaters may not be an issue as detrimental as the inequalities that divide Chicago’s communities, but the waning of their presence mirrors larger issues of economic opportunity in the city, community investment, and access to recreation and culture throughout Chicago.

As the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival celebrates its 40th year, festival program director Deidre Searcy wants people to know it offers something for everyone.

If rats can’t get fair treatment in the court of public opinion, they can at least get justice from the next best judicial institutions: Hollywood movie studios, where people treat each other right.

Vera Drew has described the film as a coming-of-age story with parallels to her own, and while the people’s Joker needed to escape Smallville, Drew sought refuge in Chicago.

The Chicago Underground Film Festival is back, and the longest-running fest devoted to the subculture of movies has quite a variety of attractions.

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.

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.

“A String of Pearls: The Films of Camille Billops & James Hatch” is a complete retrospective of their film work, the first-ever in Chicago.