CIFF is barely a memory and CUFF just wrapped up yesterday. Have we room for another film festival in Chicago? Of course! And this one isn't an acronym for a change. The 27th incarnation of Reeling, the second-oldest LGBT film festival in the world, runs November 6-16 and features approximately 70 movies. Opening the festival is Breakfast with Scot, starring Tom Cavanagh and Ben Shenkman. Documentaries, experimental films, feature-length narratives and shorts are all part of the lineup. New this year is "Rock Reeling," two evenings of music videos giving recognition to the indie queer music frontier. more ›

Kanye's new video for "Homecoming" is out, featuring the silhouette of Chris Martin super-imposed over some strange corncob looking buildings. Kidding! Check it out. more ›

If you were at last night's Estrojam (warning: makes noise) opening-night Panty Party at Funky Buddha, it's likely you're familiar with the festival. You're also probably a) hungover from all the $1 beers and mango vodka shots, and b) searching for your face on Last Night's Party, hoping for a new MySpace photo. The five-year-old, woman-centric music and culture festival continues all over the city this week with a bevy of concerts, films, workshops and... more ›

At least since Warhol began displaying boxes of soup cans and Brillo pads in gallery settings, the concept of the “found” object as art has been a primary component of our culture. In other words, there’s a very good reason why “America’s Funniest Home Videos” has been on the air since 1989 (hint: it’s not Bob Saget). We’ve become a voyeuristic culture, with an appetite for spying-as-entertainment as an antidote to the increasingly formulamatic output... more ›

It's been over two decades since Tipper Gore's PMRC started censoring music with parental advisory stickers and other politicians jumped on the bandwagon equating music with the downfall of youth in America. Yesterday, the University of Chicago Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture released the findings of their survey regarding hip-hop culture primarily focusing on Black youth's attitudes towards sex, music, and even (gasp) politics. Rap and hip-hop have been used to... more ›

Anyone expecting to get their usual dose of local music videos via JBTV was sorely disappointed, as the show was pre-empted on WJYS Channel 62 for one of the many ministries broadcast on the station (though it did air on its sister station WEDE Channel 34). Then today we saw this on JBTV’s MySpace blog: more ›

Picture if you will a world without iPod or YouTube, a world where a superfast connection means 56K, and google is just another numeric term and not a verb. A world without Chicagoist. We know -- too terrible to imagine! That world was 1996, the year that RESFEST was inaugurated to celebrate the possibilities of film and digital media. In 1996 the first DV cameras and affordable desktop video-editing systems were just making their way... more ›

Last month, the Midwest Independent Film Festival premiered the feature-length drama, . It was a very good -- but heavy -- drama done here in the city. more ›

Lily Allen is coming to Double Door on October 16! more ›

As if 130 bands, overpriced food, kids’ shows, an art exhibit, and people watching weren’t enough, Lollapalooza 2006 will serve up afternoons of interactive entertainment on the Mindfield Stage. Good to see three local comedy offerings on the bill but, with all due respect, they’re pretty much the opening act everyone’s sitting through to get to the headliner. To any of our readers coughing up $60 or more just to see Chicago comedy in Grant... more ›

Though Chicago has plenty of venues that nurture independent film (Chicago Filmmakers, Block Cinema, and Facets to name a few), there aren't as many resources available to help you get the damn thing made in the first place. more ›

While Chicago isn’t quite the moviemaking mecca that Los Angeles is, there’s no shortage of opportunities for indie filmmakers who want to show their work. One of our favorite film fests is Fast Forward (say that three times fast). Every few months or so, the guys at Fast Forward hold a filmmaking competition wherein participants are given 24 hours to make a film on a given theme (like childhood or alternative endings). The results are... more ›

If you were to compare the museums of Chicago with people you went to high school with then The Museum of Contemporary Art would be the kid in black clothes who mutters “This is bullshit” under his or her breath during pep rallies. You know, the one who always made it a point to mention oppressive CIA-supported regimes whenever you discussed the American Revolution in your U.S. Government classes. But here’s the thing: you needed... more ›

Some people never live down a truly awful hairstyle, especially if they’ve made the mistake of posing for photographs with it. Chicagoist has rocked some ill-advised coiffures in its earlier days but was smart enough to stay away from cameras, video or otherwise. In R. Kelly’s case (literally), one of the most famous bad haircuts of all time may be his undoing. And it’s not even his. In a preliminary hearing yesterday, the best friend... more ›

With apologies to Noah Baumbach: Chicagoist is too nostalgic, we admit it. This week’s European and Irish film fests had us nostalgic for last October, which was similarly chockablock full of fests. Then yesterday Maia Entertainment announced May 7th as the date for the 2nd Annual Chicago “Really” Short Film Fest at the Abbey Pub, which made us nostalgic for a Guinness we had last night. Once we came out of our misty water-colored... more ›

If you're a guy and you can shake your jelly, Destiny's Child is looking for you. They'll be scouring the country looking for 25 of the hottest male dancers to help promote their new album through tour performances, TV appearances and music videos. more ›