Interview

CHICAGO – In one of the most famous TV openings in the medium’s history, “identical cousins,” Patty and Cathy Lane, were introduced. Those two ends of one person were played by Patty Duke, a previous Oscar winner for “The Miracle Worker” and subsequent stellar acting career. Ironically, she also fought bipolar disorder.

CHICAGO – Last year, a documentary premiered here at the Gene Siskel Film Center, provocatively entitled “Man and His Erections.” The writer/director of the film is Rujanee Mahakanjana, an artist and designer who has been exploring filmmaking in the last five years. Her latest feature, premiering this week, is “Parallel Universe.”

CHICAGO – Back in 2006, an unprecedented film project took place in Berlin, Germany, in the infamous Bebelplatz, a plaza that once hosted Nazi book burnings. The idea was to get 112 diverse individuals together to answer 100 questions. Their answers were processed by Ralf Schmerberg, the director of the resultant film, “Problema.”

CHICAGO – Chicago is naturally a community town, based on their neighborhoods and Midwestern roots. So it was natural that Grace McPhillips, an actor in the Windy City, would found a community group for actors. The Chicago Acting in Film Meetup Group is having their annual Holiday Fundraiser and Networking Night on December 13th.

CHICAGO – The 24 year-old Lena Dunham is a new and notable voice for her generation of filmmakers, breaking in with her first feature, the memorable “Tiny Furniture.” Dunham wrote, directed and portrays the main character Aura, a newly minted film theory graduate who is going through the time honored process of what to do with her post collegiate life.

CHICAGO – The coming-of-age film has evolved over the years, from Andy Hardy to “Splendor in the Grass” to “The Graduate,” up through “American Pie.” Filmmaker Lena Dunham offers her own post-collegiate transition narrative, in the archly realistic and perversely funny “Tiny Furniture.”

CHICAGO – In the 1970s, there was a period in history when the civil rights movement began to splinter and disintegrate. Government infiltration, internal divisions and lack of direction especially hurt organizations like the Black Panthers movement, a focus of Writer/Director Tanya Hamilton’s new film, “Night Catches Us.”

CHICAGO – “Cairo Time” may be a serene and intricately nuanced romance between an American woman (Patricia Clarkson) and an Arab man (Alexander Siddig) in Cairo. But behind the cameras, the atmosphere felt more like an action movie, as filmmakers outwitted government censors by finding endless creative ways to capture their desired footage, in the midst of a bustling city that was largely out of their control.

CHICAGO – The Wizard World Chicago Comic Con was another huge success this past summer, gathering together comic and pop culture fans. One of the highlights of the event was the reunion of Adam West (Batman), Burt Ward (Robin) and Julie Newmar (Catwoman) from the 1960s Batman TV show.

CHICAGO – The subject of global warming is not going away, both from an environmental standpoint and as a debate. The argument that crystallized with Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” has effected politics, science and the thoughts of all world citizens. Academic Bjorn Lomborg contributes his point of view in the new documentary, “Cool It.”