Full Ebertfest 2023 program announced

Producer Lawrence Bender (‘Pulp Fiction’) brings ‘Fresh’ perspective to Ebertfest, along with Michael Morris with ‘To Leslie,’ and Shoah collaboration ‘My Name Is Sara’

Festival closes with empathic film ‘Forrest Gump’ with guest Mykelti Williamson

Roger Ebert’s Film Festival is pleased to announce the full lineup of films and accompanying filmmakers who will participate in the post-screening discussions at the 23^rd annual event, which runs April 19-22 at the Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign.

As this year marks the 10th anniversary of Roger Ebert’s death, the program reflects his guiding principle of empathy, said Chaz Ebert, who co-founded and hosts Ebertfest.

“In Roger’s memory, we will gather together in what Roger has called the temple of cinema to reaffirm our connections to each other,” said Chaz Ebert. 

The program for Ebertfest 2023, “Empathy at the Movies,” includes 11 films, two shorts, 20+ guests, and two musical performances:

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19

6:30 P.M.
NINE DAYS (2020)
This ultra-original American fantasy drama Nine Days considers the meaning of life as potential souls audition for the chance to be born. In the RogerEbert.com review, the film was praised for centering questions around “the eternal issues of the human condition: What does it mean to be alive? How do we appreciate life while we are here? Is it even possible?” The film won the Sundance Film Festival’s Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award in the U.S. Dramatic competition.

Guests

Director Edson Oda
After a series of award-winning short films and music videos, Japanese Brazilian writer and director Edson Oda made his film directorial debut with Nine Days. Based in Los Angeles, Oda is a BAFTA Breakthrough alum, a Sundance Screenwriters Lab alum, and a Latin Grammy-nominated director for best music video.

Producer Jason Michael Berman 
President of Mandalay Pictures, Jason Michael Berman has produced feature films that have premiered at Cannes Film Festival, SXSW, Sundance Film Festival, and others. His latest film, Air, about Michael Jordan’s partnership with Nike, will be released in April. He also helped to develop the Sundance Institute’s film financing program called Catalyst. An alum of University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, he is now an adjunct professor there. 

 

THURSDAY, APRIL 20

9:30 A.M.
TOKYO STORY (1953)
This year’s selection from the Ebertfest audience choice movie poll is Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story. In Roger Ebert’s review of the film—which he called “one of the greatest films of all time”—he wrote, “Ozu is not only a great director but a great teacher, and after you know his films, a friend. With no other director do I feel affection for every single shot. …  It ennobles the cinema. It says, yes, a movie can help us make small steps against our imperfections.”

 

2:00 P.M.
THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920)
Continuing Ebertfest’s tradition of hosting a live music performance with a silent film, the Anvil Orchestra will accompany the German Expressionist silent horror film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, directed by Robert Wiene. It depicts the story of an insane hypnotist who uses a somnambulist (a sleepwalker) to commit crimes. 

Guest

The Anvil Orchestra
Fondly named after a misspoken introduction by Roger Ebert at the Alloy Orchestra’s first Ebertfest appearance, the Anvil Orchestra is comprised of two-thirds of the Alloy Orchestra, which has since disbanded, with original member Terry Donahue and longtime member Roger Clark Miller. The multi-instrumentalists play an unusual combination of found percussion and state-of-the-art electronics. Donahue plays junk percussion, accordion, musical saw, and banjo. Miller plays synthesizer, and percussion; he also performs with the post-punk band Mission of Burma that he co-founded in 1979.

 

4:00 P.M.
MY NAME IS SARA (2019)
Sponsored by the Alliance for Inclusion and Respect
In this prize-winning docudrama, My Name Is Sara gives viewers a look into the real life of a 13-year-old Polish Jew named Sara Góralnik who flees Poland after her parents were killed by Nazis at the outset of the Holocaust. Passing as an Orthodox Christian, Sara gets hired as a nanny by a Ukrainian farmer and his wife, and must endure grueling work throughout the war all while trying to protect her true identity and discovering her employers have dark secrets of their own. 

Guests

Executive Producer Mickey Shapiro
Mickey Shapiro, the eldest son of Holocaust survivors Sara Góralnik Shapiro and Asa Shapiro, escaped to the U.S. by boat with his parents in 1949, at nearly two years old. Shapiro is owner and principal of M. Shapiro Real Estate Group, one of the nation’s largest property management companies. He produced My Name Is Sara in association with the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation: The Institute for Visual History and Education, founded by Steven Spielberg to videotape and preserve interviews with survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust.

Shapiro is a longtime member of the USC Shoah Foundation Board of Councilors Executive Committee and recently established the Mickey Shapiro Endowed Chair in Holocaust Education. He was previously appointed by President George W. Bush to be a council member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and is a former director of the Michigan Holocaust Memorial Center.

Director Steven Oritt
Steven Oritt, who got his start directing music videos for bands such as the Foo Fighters and OneRepublic, focuses on documentary and true-life, character-driven stories, including American Native and Accidental Climber. My Name Is Sara is Oritt’s directorial debut of a feature film.

 

9:00 P.M.
AMERICAN FOLK (2017)
American Folk follows Elliott and Joni, both folk musicians, on a road trip from Los Angeles to New York City in the days following 9/11. Both folk singers in real life, Joe Purdy and Amber Rubarth portray the two strangers who forge a bond over several days through their love of music, encounters with memorable people, and a shared mission to “bring back the folk.” 

Guests

Director David Heinz
For the last decade, David Heinz has been working in cutting rooms on both independent and studio pictures alike. He has edited Adult World with John Cusack, which was released theatrically by IFC in 2014. In 2011 he served as the additional editor of This Means War for Fox as well as several other recent independent features. Heinz recently contributed as the visual effects editor to The Jungle Book, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and Live Free or Die Hard, to name a few. American Folk marks his feature directorial debut.

Singer/Actress Amber Rubarth
Amber Rubarth is an award-winning singer-songwriter who has toured the world alongside such artists as Emmylou Harris, Richie Havens, and Ralph Stanley. A winner of the prestigious NPR’s Mountain Stage New Song Contest, Rubarth’s album Wildflowers in the Graveyard features a song heavily featured in the film. American Folk also marks Rubarth’s big screen debut.

 

FRIDAY, APRIL 21

10:00 A.M.
TO LESLIE (2022)
In To Leslie, a drama inspired by true events, Andrea Riseborough plays Leslie, a struggling single mom living in Texas who wins the lottery only to waste it all on alcohol and drugs, much to the dismay of friends and family, including her only son. Years later, Leslie attempts to get her life back on track but the path to redemption may be more difficult than she can handle. For her portrayal of Leslie, Riseborough was nominated for Best Actress at this year’s Academy Awards. 

Guest

Director Michael Morris 
With recent credits as executive producer of the final season of Better Call Saul, Michael Morris’s directorial feature film debut To Leslie was selected by the National Board of Review as one of the top 10 independent films of 2022. His roots in theatre began as director of the Old Vic in London. In the new Apple TV+ series Extrapolations, he directs the finale episode.

 

2:30 P.M.
MARIAN ANDERSON: THE WHOLE WORLD IN HER HANDS (2022)
Directed by Peabody and Emmy Award-winner Rita Coburn, Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands explores the life of the African American singer and civil rights pioneer, who died in 1993 at the age of 96. The film highlights Anderson’s career, art, and legacy as a Black classical singer with a breathtaking and rare vocal range as well as her work to further civil rights. The film allows viewers to hear Anderson’s own voice and point of view through archival interview recordings, photographs, and personal correspondence with family and friends, including Martin Luther King Jr., Josephine Baker, and Langston Hughes. 

Guests

Director Rita Coburn 
Rita Coburn is the co-director/co-producer of Peabody Award-winning Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise, the first feature documentary on Maya Angelou, which screened at Ebertfest 2019. Coburn’s work has also earned three Emmys for the documentaries Curators of Culture, Remembering 47th Street, and African Roots American Soil. Coburn is the owner of RCW Media Productions, Inc., a multi-media production company.

Producer Brenda Robinson 
Brenda Robinson, producer and entertainment attorney, is involved with numerous film, television, and music projects, most recently as a financier on the Academy Award-winning documentary Icarus as well as Won’t You Be My Neighbor and Step. Robinson is currently head of film finance and inclusion strategies for HiddenLight Productions, a global studio founded by Hillary Clinton, Sam Branson, and Chelsea Clinton. She is also a member of Impact Partners, which is dedicated to funding independent documentaries that focus on social issues.

Viveca Richards
Following the screening will be a live performance by Viveca Richards, an opera soprano student from the University of Illinois Lyric Theatre. 

 

7:30 P.M.
DEREK DELGAUDIO’S IN & OF ITSELF (2020)
This biography explores identity and illusion while the storyteller and magician Derek DelGaudio attempts to answer, “Who am I?” In & Of Itself originated as a play written and performed by DelGaudio and directed by Frank Oz, which ran Off-Broadway for 72 weeks. 

Guests

Director Frank Oz 
Emmy Award-winning Frank Oz is known for creating and performing many beloved characters on The Muppet Show (Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal) and Sesame Street (Cookie Monster, Bert, Grover), as well as bringing to life Yoda in the Star Wars series. He has directed numerous films over the past four decades, including The Muppets Take Manhattan, Little Shop of Horrors, What About Bob?, and The Stepford Wives.

Derek DelGaudio 
An acclaimed and accomplished writer, performer, and magician, Derek DelGaudio wrote and co-starred in the avant-garde magic theater show Nothing to Hide, directed by Neil Patrick Harris, a few years before In & Of Itself began its Off-Broadway run. DelGaudio became the Artist in Residence for Walt Disney Imagineering in 2014 and was named Magician of the Year in 2016 from the Academy of Magical Arts. His memoir, Amoralman: A True Story and Other Lies, was published in 2021. 

Producer Vanessa Lauren
Vanessa Lauren is a producer of a diverse range of arts and entertainment projects. She produced both the Off-Broadway show and the film In & Of Itself. Her previous projects include Low in the Water, MST3K, Super Troopers 2, and Zappa.

Producer Jake Friedman
Jake Friedman has produced In & Of Itself and was executive producer of the TV special Neal Brennan: Blocks.

Janet Pierson
Janet Pierson, director emeritus of SXSW Film Festival, has spent the last 45 years of her career supporting independent films and filmmakers in various capacities. Pierson was named to The Guardian’s Film Power 100 list in 2010 and the Indiewire Influencers in 2013. A regular panelist at film festivals, Pierson is a member of the advisory board for the Austin Film Society, founded by filmmaker Richard Linklater, and the University of Texas Press Advisory Board. 

 

SATURDAY, APRIL 22

 

9:00 A.M. [SHORT FILM PROGRAM] 
CLUB ALLI (2020)
In just under nine minutes, brothers Julien and Justen Turner, who have made nearly a dozen short films, direct a sci-fi drama about America and the ever-present socio-economic divide in Club Alli, which won the CU International Film Festival. The duo, who have been featured on CNN and in the New York Times, say they wrote the short “to play around with the mirage of a free society. Our goal is to change the way that people think.” 

Guests

Writers/Directors Justen and Julien Turner
Filmmaker brothers Justen and Julien Turner, who run Dreadhead Films, are the youngest filmmakers to have been commissioned to produce a short film for Sesame Street for its 2018-19 season, at ages 15 and 19. They have produced numerous short films that have been honored at national film festivals.

Max Libman
Max Libman is the teenage founder and director of the CU International Film Festival that debuted in October in Urbana and featured eight short films, one of which was produced by the Turner brothers. In his young career, Libman has also been honored for his screenwriting. 

 

TEAM DREAM (2022)
Audience members will be reminded it’s never too late to make a dream come true in the short documentary film Team Dream. Luchina Fisher directs this 17-minute film, which features two female friends, Ann and Madeline, preparing to swim in the National Senior Games held in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The two women also discuss what it was like growing up in Chicago during times of segregation and their experience after joining Team Dream, an organization that trains women of color in swimming, biking, and triathlons. 

Guests

Director Luchina Fisher
Luchina Fisher, director, writer, and producer of the short documentary Team Dream, is an award-winning filmmaker and journalist who works at the intersection of race, gender, and identity. Team Dream, executive produced by Queen Latifah, won the Audience Choice Award at the 2022 Chicago International Film Festival and aired on BET on March 24.

Madeline Murphy Rabb
Madeline Murphy Rabb is president of Murphy Rabb, Inc., a fine arts advisory firm she founded in Chicago in 1992. She is nationally renowned for her expertise in identifying and showcasing artwork created by African American artists, both emerging and established. Rabb has provided guidance to major art collectors, corporations, and institutions across the nation.

 

10:30 A.M.
FRESH (1994)
Samuel L. Jackson stars in the Sundance Film Festival Winner Fresh, an urban crime thriller Roger Ebert described as “a story of depth and power, in which the dangerous streets are seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old who reacts with the objectivity he has learned from chess, and the anger taught to him by his life.” Fresh (Sean Nelson), a young drug runner living in New York, is fed up with the violence and death he encounters in his daily life. Using chess lessons he learned from his alcoholic father, played by Jackson, Fresh devises a plan to free himself and his drug-addicted sister from the corrupt system. 

Guest

Producer Lawrence Bender
Lawrence Bender has produced well-known films over the past 30 years, many award-nominated, from Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, the Kill Bill series, and Inglourious Basterds, to the Academy Award-winning documentary on climate change An Inconvenient Truth and Good Will Hunting. 

 

3:00 P.M.
WINGS OF DESIRE (1987)
The German cinematic masterpiece Wings of Desire made director Wim Wenders’s name synonymous with film art. “You’re seduced into the spell of this movie,” wrote Roger Ebert in his original review. The film, which was shot in black and white, and color, features Bruno Ganz as Damiel, an angel who is willing to give up his perch high over Berlin, his ability to hear thoughts, as well as his immortality to return to Earth after falling in love with a trapeze artist. Created shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Ebert wrote that “the film is like music or a landscape: It clears a space in my mind, and in that space I can consider questions. Some of them are asked in the film: ‘Why am I me and why not you? Why am I here and why not there? When did time begin and where does space end?’”

Guest

Michael Barker
Michael Barker, co-president and co-founder of Sony Pictures Classics with Tom Bernard, has distributed, and often produced, some of the finest independent movies over the past 40 years. Barker’s films have received nearly 200 Academy Award nominations and more than 40 wins, including several for Best Picture, Best Documentary Feature, and Best Foreign Language Film. He and his colleagues have also restored and theatrically reissued some of the great films of the past. In 2022, Barker and Bernard received the Game Changer Award from the Zurich Film Festival, in recognition of their services to film culture.

 

8:30 P.M.
FORREST GUMP (1994)
Roger Ebert described Forrest Gump, the six-time Oscar winning comedy drama starring Tom Hanks, as a “magical movie.” Ebert wrote, “I've never met anyone like Forrest Gump in a movie before, and for that matter I've never seen a movie quite like Forrest Gump." The film follows the life of the slow-witted but good-natured Gump, from a young boy in the 1950s with braces on his legs to a father in the 1980s. Although born with a low IQ, Gump’s mental impairments don’t prevent him from being a part of extraordinary moments in history or falling in love and eventually marrying his childhood sweetheart. 

Guest

Actor Mykelti Williamson
In addition to playing the memorable shrimp-loving character “Bubba” in the Academy Award-winning Forrest Gump, actor Mykelti Williamson has also starred in the Academy Award-nominated film Fences and Con Air, as well as the TV series Law & Order: Organized Crime and Chicago P.D., among other movies and TV shows. He has also recently directed episodes of Sweet Magnolias, Chicago Med, and Chicago P.D. 

 

Other guests throughout Ebertfest include film critics:

• Nick Allen
• Matt Fagerholm
• Al Lerner
• Linda Lerner
• Nell Minow
• Michael Phillips
• Brian Tallerico
• Matt Zoller-Seitz

Please note that filmmaker guest appearances are subject to change, which may include adding a surprise guest to the program.

Passes to see all films with reserved seating are available to purchase online or at the Virginia Theatre box office, 203 W. Park Ave., Champaign, 217-356-9063. Individual movie tickets will go on sale on April 3. 

Roger Ebert was a Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic, University of Illinois journalism alumnus, and Urbana native. Ebertfest is sponsored by the University of Illinois College of Media and Chaz Ebert.

Anyone interested in supporting the event as a festival sponsor may contact Molly Cornyn, the festival’s project coordinator, at mcornyn2@illinois.edu.