Results tagged “chicagointernationaldocumentaryfestival”

Thanks in part to huge voter turnout partially driven by bonafide grassroots excitement, Barack Obama cruised to victory in Iowa, and is expected to do well again today in New Hampshire. Yet the Siskel Film Center has quietly cancelled screenings of the new documentary Senator Obama Goes To Africa, which were scheduled for later this month. Why? We just told you why.

As the weather has gotten a bit warmer, we've noticed there are more and more things going on. This weekend we've decided to do some nerdy things before we sit at a bar for the Final Four and embellish to our friends how we were so good at basketball in High School but, had to give it up due to . The knee is healing nicely, thanks. We thought we would make it to Facet's...

One of our favorite writers, Dawn Powell, once wrote, "Satire is people as they are; romanticism, people as they would like to be; realism, people as they seem with their insides left out." This explains why the documentaries of Frederick Wiseman, some of which are screening at the Chicago International Documentary Festival starting this weekend, often feel so scathing. They show people as they are, not how we usually see them, and in doing so...

The death of storytelling has been predicted at least since the dawn of the Industrial Age. And in 1936, philosopher Walter Benjamin declared, "the art of storytelling is reaching its end." It's nonsense, of course; even if storytelling itself has taken on some "new" forms, it's still as prevalent as ever, perhaps even more so with the rise of the blogosphere and the millions of people unfurling their own personal narratives.

Last night Chicagoist was on the phone with a producer of an upcoming short film festival and she was lamenting how difficult it is to mount a new festival since there’s already so many. Gee, we hadn’t noticed.