UPDATE: Chicago’s Music Box Theatre & Gene Siskel Film Center Continue At-Home Screenings

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CHICAGO – Both the Music Box Theatre and the Gene Siskel Film Center have continued their at-home screenings, due to the physical theaters having to close during the pandemic quarantine. Below are the updates to their current offerings.

StarMusic Box Theatre Presents CHICAGOLAND SHORTS VOL. 6, ALICE, DEERSKIN, STRAIGHT UP, LUCKY GRANDMA and MAGNOLIA PICTURES DOCUMENTARIES

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Chicagoland Shorts Vol 6
Photo credit: MusicBoxTheatre.com

The Music Box Theatre will get a percentage of the proceeds from any screening. Click site link below for details.

Scheduled: Now until the theater re-opens.

Description: CHICAGOLAND SHORTS VOL 6 is the annual Windy City overview of local short films works, presented by Full Spectrum Productions. See the Music Box website for a list of the films.

ALICE Emilie Piponnier is the perfect wife and mother, living happily with her husband Francois and their son in an apartment in Paris. When her credit cards are declined one day while shopping, Alice discovers that Francois has been living a secret life, spending all of their money at a high-end escort service and leaving them completely bankrupt. Even worse is that Francois has suddenly abandoned them, leaving Alice and their son to fend for themselves. In a twist, Alice decides to explore the escort service that Francois frequented, and starts working them, finding a strange empowerment and independent. Directed by Josephine Mackerras.

DEERSKIN Academy Award winner Jean Dujardin (“The Artist”) is a recent divorcee who becomes obsessed with a vintage fringed deerskin jacket that begins to exert an uncanny hold on him. Set in a sleepy French alpine village, he falls into the guise of an independent filmmaker and befriends a trusting bartender and aspiring editor (Adèle Haenel, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”) who becomes his collaborator on a movie that will document a surprising new goal he sets himself. A black comedy directed by Quentin Deupieux

STRAIGHT UP Todd is a hyper-articulate, obsessive compulsive gay twentysomething whose fear of dying alone leads him to a baffling conclusion: he might not be gay after all. When he meets Rory, a whip-smart struggling actress with her own set of insecurities, the two forge a relationship that’s all talk and no sex. Writer-director-star James Sweeney delivers an unusual rom-com.

LUCKY GRANDMA In the heart of Chinatown, New York, an ornery, chain-smoking, newly widowed 80-year-old Grandma (Tsai Chin) is eager to live life as an independent woman, despite the worry of her family. When a local fortuneteller (Wai Ching Ho) predicts a most auspicious day in her future, Grandma decides to head to the casino and goes all in, only to land herself on the wrong side of luck… suddenly attracting the attention of some local gangsters.

MAGNOLIA PICTURES: A FEW OF OUR FAVORITE DOCS This will be a series of four FIVE STAR documentaries (see interview links below) with Q&As attached. Currently, RBG (a doc on Ruth Bader Ginsburg) is in the spotlight, with directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen on a live interview on May 20th. On May 27th, Chaz Ebert and director Steve James will discuss the Roger Ebert bio LIFE ITSELF (opening May 22nd). BLACKFISH, the doc that brought down Sea World, will premiere on May 27th, with a Q&A with director Gabriela Cowperthwaite on June 3rd. Finally, the wild HAIL SATAN? will open on June 10th with director Penny Lane participating in a Q&A on the same date.

Web Link: Click on MusicBoxTheatre.com.

For an interview with directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen of “RBG” with Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com, click here.

For an interview with Chaz Ebert and director Steve James of “LIFE ITSELF” with Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com, click here.

For an interview with director Gabriela Cowperthwaite of “BLACKFISH” with Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com, click here.

For an interview with director Penny Lane of “HAIL SATAN?” with Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com, click here.

StarGene Siskel Film Center Presents FILM CENTER FROM YOUR SOFA

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Lucky Grandma
Photo credit: SiskelFilmCenter.org

The FILM CENTER FROM YOUR SOFA is a partnership between the Gene Siskel Film Center and their regular distributors to provide screenings of the films that were scheduled before the closings. Prices vary, but “none of the prices are more than what you would pay for a single movie ticket.”

Scheduled: Now until the theater re-opens.

Description: Continuing films are UP FROM THE STREETS (through May 28th).

Opening this week are DIANA KENNEDY: NOTHING FANCY (May 22nd-28th), THE PAINTER AND THE THIEF (same), CARO DIARIO (same), MR. JONES (same) ALICE (same), LUCKY GRANDMA (MAY 29th-June 4th), PAPICHA (May 29th-June 11th) and YOURSELF AND YOURS (June 5th-11th).

Web Link: Click on SiskelFilmCenter.org/FilmCenterFromYourSofa. There will also be several online Q&As, click SiskelFilmCenter.org/ScreenToScreen for more information.

The Music Box Theatre is located at 3733 North Southport Avenue, Chicago Click here for more information. The Gene Siskel Film Center is located at 164 North State Street, Chicago. Click here for more information.

HollywoodChicago.com senior staff writer Patrick McDonald

By PATRICK McDONALD
Editor and Film Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

© 2020 Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

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