Enjoying Ebertfest

Facets' Susan Doll reports on Ebertfest, which was held in Champaign, Illinois from April 21 - 25!


Originally called the Overlooked Film Festival, this small but extremely popular film fest programmed by Chicago’s high-profile movie critic has been dubbed Ebertfest in recent years. The fest takes place at the historic Virginia Theater in Champaign, Illinois, where Roger Ebert attended the University of Illinois. Ebert’s idea for his festival was to showcase movies he felt had been overlooked or not given a fair shake in distribution and exhibition, a major problem in today’s film industry. The festival still retains a taste of that original idea; this year, Michael Tolkin’s The New Age, Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York, and James Mottern’s Trucker all fit that agenda. But, over the years, the event has expanded to be a celebration of films by a community of Midwesterners who appreciate good movies of all types. As Ebert wrote in the festival booklet, “I don’t have a set of criteria in my selections. It’s more that I see a film and am seized with the desire to share it with the Ebertfest family.” The entire line-up included: Pink Floyd The Wall, You, the Living, Munyurangabo, The New Age, Apocalypse Now Redux, Departures, Man with a Movie Camera, Synecoche, New York, I Capture the Castle, Vincent: A Life in Color, Trucker, Barfly, and Song Sung Blue.

Though programmed by one man, and reflective of his tastes, the fest keeps in mind its audience by featuring a variety of films—classic and contemporary, studio films and indies, domestic and foreign, narrative and documentary. Quite a diverse selection for a five-day event of 13 films.

Remarkably, three of the 13 films had played exclusively at Facets’ cinematheque last year—Munyurangabo (directed by Lee Isaac Chung and shot in Rwanda), You, the Living (Roy Andersson, Sweden), and Trucker (James Mottern, USA). Hats off to our programmer Charles Coleman for finding some amazing films on a broken-shoestring budget. I am always annoyed when people who are fed up with Hollywood’s dismal adolescent-driven drivel complain, “There are no good movies in the theaters anymore.” There are indeed good films to see; they just don’t have 8-figure marketing budgets to beat you over the head with ads and promos. Actually, Charles’ cinematheque schedule is akin to a 364-day, year-round film festival (Facets is closed on Christmas.)

Highlights of Ebertfest for me included watching a restored Apocalypse Now Redux on the Virginia Theater’s mammoth screen with a packed house of 1500 in attendance. The colors were vivid and the sound extraordinary thanks to the restoration efforts of director Francis Coppola, cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, and editor Walter Murch. Running a close second was the screening of Man with a Movie Camera by Soviet silent filmmaker Dziga Vertov. Though made in 1929, the film looks and feels contemporary because of Vertov’s mastery of montage editing. As Ebert pointed out in the festival booklet, the film has an average shot length of 2.3 seconds—the same as the shot length in Michael Bay’s Armageddon. While Bay and Paul Greengrass are often credited with something called “post-classical editing,” as though their rapid, nonlinear editing is a new technique, it really is a variation of Soviet montage—except in Bay’s case, it’s done with such a lack of talent or intelligence that it gives this type of editing a bad name. I haven’t even gotten to the best part of Man with the Movie Camera—the Alloy Orchestra, which offered live accompaniment to the film with a specially written score consisting of drums, percussion, and sound effects.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed Charlie Kaufman’s first directorial effort, Synecdoche, New York—a profound mediation on the complexities of living life. The film speaks to artistic types who are given to prolonged self reflection. It’s a film that should be seen several times, and depending on where you are in your life, it will mean something different to you. Other films I watched included Barfly, Trucker, and a short film called The Plastic Bag by Ramin Bahrani, who directed the highly acclaimed Chop Shop a few years ago. The story of a plastic grocery bag told from the perspective of the bag, the short made for an effective environmental message without preaching. The bag was voiced by Werner Herzog, who met Bahrani at Ebertfest a couple of years ago. Their meeting resulted in their collaboration on this project.

Each film was followed by a panel discussion that included reviewers, scholars, and some of the cast or crew. The most useful and informative panels were those in which the director participated; it’s helpful to understand film as an art form when the director talks about his thoughts and artistic perspective. Even if you don’t like the film, you can appreciate the efforts of the director trying express his/her vision. I heard the directors of Trucker (Mottern), Synecdoche, New York (Kaufman), and Barfly (Barbet Schroeder) speak passionately, humbly, and intelligently about their ideas and work. I didn’t care for Barfly, but I could appreciate Schroeder’s talents and perspective after hearing him talk about it.

The least useful panel members were movie reviewers, who tended to be opinionated rather than informed and egotistical rather than gracious, in addition to Ebert’s “Far Flung Correspondents,” who are young movie buffs from around the world that have corresponded with the critic over the years. He invites them to attend and participate in the panels, which is a nice gesture, but they add very little insight into the proceedings. The best panel moderator and participant bar none was David Bordwell, retired professor of film from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of several textbooks. Straightforward and down to earth, Professor Bordwell proved adept at relaying insights and tidbits about the films that truly helped the audience’s understanding and appreciation.

This was my first year attending Ebertfest, and I highly recommend it. Not only does it include something for everyone, it is affordable, relaxing, well organized, and attended by film lovers as opposed to film snobs. The festival employees and volunteers are friendly and helpful; the town of Champaign is incredibly easy to get around in, and the locals are pleasant to outsiders. In other words, it is everything the Chicago International Film Festival is not.


*Virginia Theatre photo shamelessly stolen from the internet. If it's yours and you'd like us to remove it, please let us know.