8-17-07
Black Harvest Festival Showcases Wealth of Local Talent
The Black Harvest International Festival of Film, Video and TV, the Gene Siskel Film Center’s annual showcase of filmmakers of African ancestry, boasts an unprecedented one-third of its program from Chicago this year—a testament to the city’s burgeoning independent black cinema scene.
Simeon “Simbo” Henderson and Morocco Omari both appear in multiple films at Black Harvest: Henderson in Fassytails, The Last Stain and Partyline, and Omari in Andre Royo’s Big Scene, Results, and Be The Man.
These are the upcoming Chicago films in the festival:
Faith Pennick’s documentary Silent Choices explores the stigma over discussions of abortion in the black community, and the disastrous impact of that culturally imposed silence. Aug. 26 at 5 p.m. and Aug. 28 at 8 p.m.
Derek “Pretty Boy” Dow’s Family Values features Dow, Roderick “IBN” Haygood and Ramon Anthony as two orphaned brothers and a cousin confronting their demons as they grow up together on the South Side. Aug. 25 at 8:30 p.m. and Aug. 30 at 8 p.m.
In Chris L. Griffin’s Partyline, Janet Williams plays an ad agency professional, who, through a phone dating service, gets involved with a man (Henderson) whom she learns may be connected to a series of murders. Aug. 18 at 8:30 p.m. and Aug. 22 at 3:15 p.m.
International tap dancing star Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards stars in Stacie E. Hawkins’ The Rise and Fall of Miss Thang, about a former tap prodigy who is drawn back into the dance world. Aug. 19 at 5 p.m. and Aug. 21 at 8:30 p.m.
Already screened:
Marlo Stroud, Donnell Morrow and Toya Turner star in Roxxy Cooley’s coming-of-age story Fassytails, which Cooley adapted from her own play.
Tangi Miller stars as a talk show host in Steven Ayroloomi’s romantic comedy Love & Other 4-Letter Words.
B.K. Battle and Monica Williams star in Adedapo Akisanya’s South Suburban comedy E.S.P., about a car salesman whose wife makes him over as a phone psychic.
Five local shorts screened in the Chicago Connected program: Christopher Scott Cherot’s Andre Royo’s Big Scene, about a supporting actor facing off against a heavyweight thesp on a film set; Matthew Jones’ Be The Man, about a son reconsidering his macho father as a role model; Jamal Easley’s The Last Stain, a cautionary crime drama produced through IFP/Chicago’s training program at Chicago Vocational Career Academy; Francis Polo’s Adia, about a West African girl betrothed to an older man; and Calvin Standifer’s The Immigrant, a thriller about a Nigerian cab driver drawn into a web of corruption.
The Black Harvest Festival runs through Aug. 30 at the Film Center, 164 N. State St. See siskelfilmcenter.org.
Sean Bean stars with Chris Hemsworth and Victoria Profeta in The Cache, a thriller which shoots here beginning Sept. 6. Steve Anderson is director. Billy Higgins is supervising producer. Christina Varotsis, production manager. DP, Robert Primes.
Jonathan Eliot’s screenplay Tennis With Jesus gets a staged reading courtesy of IFP/Chicago, Aug. 21 at Victory Gardens Theatre.
Tennis With Jesus follows a California tennis tournament that is visited by the “self-proclaimed second coming of Christ.” Christian Stolte, who co-starred in Eliot’s first film Crime Fiction, reads along with members of the Broken Compass Players. Eliot wrote and starred in Crime Fiction, a noir satire of the publishing industry, which screened at the Slamdance and Gen Art Film Festivals. Eliot will discuss the development of Tennis With Jesus along with producers Graham Ballou and Jonathan Cowperthwait of Crime Fiction Pictures. Aug. 21 at 7 p.m. at Victory Gardens, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. Free.
Paula Froehle’s short film Up On The Rope, which won the IFP/Chicago 2005 Production Fund grant, is being released this month by the Canadian Film Center through the Canadian Film Board. Alex Wallenda, of the Flying Wallendas, stars as a boy who spends his life suspended above the ground, in Froehle’s adaptation of the Christina Peri Rossi short story. Featuring Tino Wallenda, Natalie Beck, Lisa Dodson and Ed Westfall.
Froehle made Up On The Rope with $100,000 in in-kind equipment and services donated by local vendors through the Production Fund, which is awarded to one local short script each year. The application deadline for this year’s Production Fund is Sept. 1. See chi.ifp.org.
The 14th Annual Underground Film Festival continues through Aug. 19, featuring several local productions.
Orchard Vale, by Chicago rocker Tim Kinsella of Make Believe, Joan of Arc and Owen, opened CUFF with its world premiere tale of a family holed up in a suburban home after peak oil has brought the world to a quiet standstill. With Nate Ozark, Dean DeMatteis, Melina Paez, Cyan Walker and Joe Proulx.
Also from Chicago in CUFF:
Thax, Alex Mackenzie’s documentary portrait of rock poet Thax Douglas, Aug. 17 at 7:30 p.m., at the Chopin Theatre.
La Trinchera Luminosa del Presidente Gonzalo, is the second feature by Jim Finn. Finn, long fascinated by the various forms that Communism has taken through history, shot La Trinchera on Hi-8 video, as if it was a training video made by imprisoned members of Peru’s Maoist Shining Path guerilla movement. Music by Jim Becker of Califone and Colleen Burke of We Ragazzi. Aug. 19 at 8 p.m. at the Chopin Theatre.
Usama Alshaibi’s Baba Boom Boom depicts Alshaibi and his father playing traditional Iraqi music. Alshaibi’s feature Nice Bombs won best documentary at last year’s CUFF, and went on to a theatrical release from Seventh Art Releasing. In the A Bosom Friend program, Aug. 18 at 8:30 p.m. at Elegant Mr. Gallery.
CUFF is at the Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division St., and Elegant Mr. Gallery, 1355 N. Milwaukee Ave. See cuff.org.
Toby Ross of Hornbill Films self-released his gay romantic comedy Get A Life on DVD Aug. 4. Brian Campbell stars. The film is available on Netflix. See www.hornbillfilms.com.
Ed M. Koziarski is in post-production on the feature film The First Breath of Tengan Rei. Email edk@homesickblues.com.