Iowa

CHICAGO – The family farm is fast becoming extinct, and the people who continue to try and keep those farms are under tremendous pressure, financially and otherwise. This theme plays out in the documentary “Greener Pastures,” produced by Ian Robertson Kibbe and produced/directed by Sam Mirpoorian.

CHICAGO – The evolution of the “local filmmaker” always seems to be defined through where that person is. Jack C. Newell appears to not be measured by time and place, but as a filmmaker of artistic vision with a basis in love. His latest film, “Monuments,” opens June 4th, 2021, through the Gene Siskel Film Center virtual cinema.

CHICAGO – In the early years of film and filmmaking, from approximately 1890 through 1930, an astounding 75% of films produced are considered “lost,” with no surviving reels, never to be seen again. Recently, an Iowa man named Michael Zahs finally convinced the University of Iowa to research and archive the Frank Brinton Collection, a cache of early films that barnstormer Brinton would show all over Iowa in the 1890s, on through the early decades of the 20th Century. What was found in that Collection is the subject of “Saving Brinton,” co-directed by Tommy Haines and Andrew Sherburne.

CHICAGO – Another new voice has emerged on the film scene, and she is ready for her close-up. The director and co-writer (with Tyson Stock) of “Saints Rest” is Noga Ashkenazi, a filmmaker who grew up in Tel Aviv (Israel), but studied at Grinnell College in Iowa. Her new film is set in Grinnell, and will make its Midwest Premiere at the Midwest Independent Film Festival in Chicago on Tuesday, June 5th, 2018. For more information, including ticket purchasing, click here.

CHICAGO – When Rebecca Fons, the former Education Manager of the Chicago International Film Festival, was getting married to Jack C. Newell – a prominent Chicago film director – her mother Marianne told her something that would change the course of their lives. Fons’ hometown movie theater, the “Iowa,” was about to offered for sale. In the equivalent of the recent Matt Damon family film favorite, Rebecca and Marianne Fons was about to star in their version of “We Bought a Movie Theater.”

CHICAGO – The age-old problem of bullying has reached epidemic proportions. Or is it simply more openly discussed? It seems that for once a light is being pointed at the dark corners of this punishing coercion, and the perpetrators and enablers involved – the bully, his parents, school administrators – are scurrying from that light. The new film “Bully” is an illumination.

CHICAGO – It is great to witness a star being born. Ed Helms, who so memorably stole the show in “The Hangover,” breaks out even further with a career defining performance as Tim Lippe in the warm and funny new comedy, “Cedar Rapids.” John C. Reilly, Anne Heche, Sigourney Weaver and Isiah Whitlock Jr. lend essential support.

CHICAGO – Ed Helms is one hot rising star. After a breakthrough in “The Hangover” in 2009, he continues his climb with the excellent “Cedar Rapids,” co-starring John C. Reilly. All this while playing the affable Andy on TV’s “The Office.”