Word: ebertfest
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...also launched the "Overlooked Film Festival" in his hometown of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, featuring films that never received the reception he believes they deserved. Ebert has referred to the event as "the best train set a boy could ever want." The 11th edition of "Ebertfest" kicks off Wednesday at the historic Virginia Theater in downtown Champaign, and will screen a dozen titles including Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg, Ramin Bahrani's Chop Shop and Courtney Hunt's Frozen River, which took home the top prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. After a long bout with thyroid cancer and complications...
...longer officially called the Overlooked, but Ebertfest. Some filmmakers demurred at having their films seem "prematurely overlooked." This year, Begging Naked doesn't yet have distribution. And the fest will be one of the few places to ever see a restored 70mm print of Baraka...
...time being treated in hospitals and recovering at home. Last month he missed his first Cannes Film Festival in, I'm guessing, 30 years. But in late April he did show up, resolute and cheerful, at the Roger Ebert Overlooked Film Festival - yes, he also runs his own Ebertfest, or uberfest - at his alma mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, flanked by his brilliant, loving attorney-wife Chaz Hammelsmith and surrounded by a thousand well-wishers. His appearance had changed, but, he wrote on his website, "I still have my brain and my typing fingers...
...last June, Roger, who has fought good fights for so many others, now had to fight for himself. The cancer that had troubled him for a few years returned, and he endured months of operations, complications, confinement. He missed the Toronto Film Festival in September, and might have skipped Ebertfest if he hadn't learned that all tickets sold out within a few days of their becoming available. His fans needed him as much as he needed to get better...
...There's no word for Roger's determination but heroism. His appearance at Ebertfest had the impact of the climax from some inspirational movie - of the triumph over daunting odds and the public display of steely humanity - except that it's still the beginning of his recuperation. It was a heartening and therapeutic event, not only for Roger and Chaz but for the audience who had learned so much from...
| 1 |