Podtalk

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.

CHICAGO – One month after John Lennon made his iconic walk across Abbey Road for that classic album cover, he got a call from Canadian promoter Johnny Brower. Would Lennon play at a Toronto rock show? The answer to that question is told in the recently released rock doc “REVIVAL69: The Concert That Rocked the World.”

CHICAGO – Singer/songwriter Richard Knight Jr. believes that “Love is Possible,” so that is the title of his latest album. He will be performing selections from that album and more as he appears at SPACE in Evanston, Illinois, on Monday July 15th, along with Gerald Dowd. For tickets and details, click SPACE.

CHICAGO – Writer/director Brittani Ward is bringing her made-in-Chicagoland feature, “Single Car Crashes” back home to the Gene Siskel Film Center for a special screening run on July 12th-14th & 16th, 2024, after the festival circuit with Cinequest (New Vision Award) and the Midwest Film Fest. For tickets and details, click SCC SISKEL.

CHICAGO – It’s been an exciting year so far for the gem of film exhibition, FACETS Cinema in Chicago’s DePaul Neighborhood. And spearheading that excitement is Executive Director Karen Cardarelli, who began in that position in the pandemic year of 2020 and has shepherded FACET’s growth and new programming, in addition to becoming a leader in Chicago’s film scene.