Podtalk

CHICAGO – YIPPIE YIPPIE YIPPIE Fest it’s back, the 8th annual YippieFest is for the first time at the historic Chopin Theatre in Wicker Park. For three days – August 23rd, 24th and 25th, 2024 – the fest will present an unending variety of acts, plays, sketch and other stage performance arts. Tickets prices are for one day or all three days, so click YiPPIE FEST 2024.

CHICAGO – Tim Cameron has been known by many names, but the prolific Canadian musician has a new project, CAMERONOISE, and he has just released his sixth instrumental album under that moniker, “Songs From the Big Chore,” a pastiche and tribute to the 1980s sound. To access the album, click BIG CHORE.

CHICAGO – The “Queen of Knives” has been on tour since its release to theaters and VOD earlier this summer, and is in Chicago for a FREE screening at the AMC River East 21 Theatre on August 14th, 2024 (7pm), featuring appearances by featured actors (and real life father/daughter) Gene & Roxi Pope. For tickets/details, click here.

CHICAGO – The future is bright for Chicago comedy, as the stand-up scene keeps growing along with the improv and sketch juggernauts. Comedian Ariel Julie is organizing the upcoming Windy City Comedy Fest, set for 2025, and is hosting a benefit for that Fest at Chicago’s Den Theatre on August 8th, 2024. Click here for details/tickets.

CHICAGO – Last week, filmmakers Meezahn Senbetta & Davis Cameron Chu had their friends/family premiere of their debut short “Hand Job” … and don’t let the title lead you astray. The film is an incredibly expressive and unique journey of one man’s savior hand. They reserved their first interview for HollywoodChicago.com and Pat Über-Critic McDonald.

CHICAGO – Scheduled within the recent 2024 Chicago Critics Film Festival was “Shorts Program #2.” During that event … curated by CCFF shorts programmer Collin Souter … the Windy City was introduced to Filmmaker Sarah Lasley, with her surreal, expressive and brilliant short “Welcome to the Enclave.”

CHICAGO – Michael P. Nash is a filmmaker on a mission. As searing heat bakes the country this summer, with extreme weather like severe tornadoes and the recent Galveston floods in its wake, the realities in Nash’s prescient 2010 documentary “Climate Refugees” is coming to our own shores.

CHICAGO – The power of performance is on unique display in “Sing Sing,” expanding in theaters this August. It’s directed/co-adapted by Greg Kwedar and features the consummate Colman Domingo. The film is set in the infamous prison, as the incarcerated become a troupe of actors, and how it changes their lives.

CHICAGO – The power of performance is on unique display in “Sing Sing,” expanding in theaters this August. It’s directed/co-adapted by Greg Kwedar and features the consummate Colman Domingo. The film is set in the infamous prison, as the incarcerated become a troupe of actors, and how it changes their lives.

CHICAGO – In filmmaking, the short film is usually the medium where most potential directors do their first works or present a shorter version of what they hope will become a longer film or simply that they prefer that length of story-telling. One of the short films fests that has been around Chicago for several years is the “Big Teeth Small Shorts” presentation, and the founder of Big Teeth Productions … Gregg Jaffe …will be facilitating their Summer ’24 Live Screening on Thursday, July 18th, at FACETS Cinema in Chicago’s DePaul Neighborhood. For details and tickets, click BIG TEETH.