Chicago – One of the signature events for Women in Film Chicago (Wifc) is their annual Focus Awards, which will take place on Wednesday, February 22nd, 2017 (for more details and ticket purchasing information, click here). The Wifc will honor four notable women who influence Chicago-area film production, including actress Julia Sweeney, producer/activist Mary Morten, director of photography Tari Segal and CEO (of Lifeway Foods, Inc.) and film producer Julie Smolyansky.
In anticipation of the event, HollywoodChicago.com got the opportunity to interview Ms. Smolyansky. In 2002, she became CEO of Lifeway Foods, which was founded in 1976 by her father, Michael. At the age of 27, she became the youngest female CEO in history to run a publicly traded company. She has since bolstered the company’s signature Kefir yogurt line, and has increased revenues with an expanded distribution network that includes the U.S., Canada, and Great Britain. She is also a film producer of note,...
In anticipation of the event, HollywoodChicago.com got the opportunity to interview Ms. Smolyansky. In 2002, she became CEO of Lifeway Foods, which was founded in 1976 by her father, Michael. At the age of 27, she became the youngest female CEO in history to run a publicly traded company. She has since bolstered the company’s signature Kefir yogurt line, and has increased revenues with an expanded distribution network that includes the U.S., Canada, and Great Britain. She is also a film producer of note,...
- 2/21/2017
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Chicago – Local filmmaking has always gotten a boost through director Jack C. Newell. His 2015 film “Open Tables,” shot in Chicago and Paris, will get it’s digital release on Tuesday, December 6th, 2016, on iTunes and Video-On-Demand. This coincides with his art project “The Wabash Lights,” and his continued production work.
“Open Tables” features couples and groups meeting in restaurants, talking about their lives and relationships. Although the centerpiece is food, the meal is the conversation, including a story about a sojourn into Paris – shot in black and white. Newell directed the film in the improvisation style rooted in the Chicago comedy scene, much like his first narrative film, “Close Quarters,” which featured many local improvisation artists. He also takes on the lead role as Ryan, who defines himself through the adventure in Paris. The film explores and provides perspective on the elusiveness of relationships.
Jack C. Newell in a Scene...
“Open Tables” features couples and groups meeting in restaurants, talking about their lives and relationships. Although the centerpiece is food, the meal is the conversation, including a story about a sojourn into Paris – shot in black and white. Newell directed the film in the improvisation style rooted in the Chicago comedy scene, much like his first narrative film, “Close Quarters,” which featured many local improvisation artists. He also takes on the lead role as Ryan, who defines himself through the adventure in Paris. The film explores and provides perspective on the elusiveness of relationships.
Jack C. Newell in a Scene...
- 11/30/2016
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Chicago – Jack C. Newell will ride his bike when he meets you for an interview in Chicago, naturally. The locally based director is a welcome original, with credits in both documentary and narrative films. His latest feature, “Open Tables,” will screen at the 51st Chicago International Film Festival on October 20th, 2015.
“Open Tables” is operating within the “Taste of Cinema” theme at the film festival, and features couples and groups meeting in restaurants, talking about their lives and relationships. Although the centerpiece is food, the meal is the conversation, including a story about a sojourn into Paris – shot in black and white. Newell directed the film in the improvisation style rooted in the Chicago comedy scene, much like his first narrative film, “Close Quarters,” which featured many local legends in the art of improv. He also takes on the leadrole as Ryan, who defines himself through the adventure in Paris.
“Open Tables” is operating within the “Taste of Cinema” theme at the film festival, and features couples and groups meeting in restaurants, talking about their lives and relationships. Although the centerpiece is food, the meal is the conversation, including a story about a sojourn into Paris – shot in black and white. Newell directed the film in the improvisation style rooted in the Chicago comedy scene, much like his first narrative film, “Close Quarters,” which featured many local legends in the art of improv. He also takes on the leadrole as Ryan, who defines himself through the adventure in Paris.
- 10/20/2015
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Coleen Gray actress ca. 1950. Coleen Gray: Actress in early Stanley Kubrick film noir, destroyer of men in cult horror 'classic' Actress Coleen Gray, best known as the leading lady in Stanley Kubrick's film noir The Killing and – as far as B horror movie aficionados are concerned – for playing the title role in The Leech Woman, died at age 92 in Aug. 2015. This two-part article, which focuses on Gray's film career, is a revised and expanded version of the original post published at the time of her death. Born Doris Bernice Jensen on Oct. 23, 1922, in Staplehurst, Nebraska, at a young age she moved with her parents, strict Lutheran Danish farmers, to Minnesota. After getting a degree from St. Paul's Hamline University, she relocated to Southern California to be with her then fiancé, an army private. At first, she eked out a living as a waitress at a La Jolla hotel...
- 10/14/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Coleen Gray actress ca. 1950. Coleen Gray: Actress in early Stanley Kubrick film noir, destroyer of men in cult horror 'classic' Actress Coleen Gray, best known as the leading lady in Stanley Kubrick's film noir The Killing and – as far as B horror movie aficionados are concerned – for playing the title role in The Leech Woman, died at age 92 in Aug. 2015. This two-part article, which focuses on Gray's film career, is a revised and expanded version of the original post published at the time of her death. Born Doris Bernice Jensen on Oct. 23, 1922, in Staplehurst, Nebraska, at a young age she moved with her parents, strict Lutheran Danish farmers, to Minnesota. After getting a degree from St. Paul's Hamline University, she relocated to Southern California to be with her then fiancé, an army private. At first, she eked out a living as a waitress at a La Jolla hotel...
- 10/14/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Los Angeles, CA (February 19, 2013) – Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment today introduced 23 new films to its manufacture-on-demand (Mod) series, Fox Cinema Archives. Designed for true collectors and film aficionados, Fox Cinema Archives goes deep into the studio’s vault each month to bring classic films featuring some of the biggest stars of the twentieth century to DVD for the first time. Launched in 2012, Fox Cinema Archives has seen the release of more than 140 films from the Studio’s library. Movie lovers can purchase previously released and new films from the Fox Cinema Archives series at major online retailers and at www.foxconnect.com. New titles available today include: Warlock (1959), 122 min. The town of Warlock is plagued by a gang of thugs, leading the inhabitants to hire Clay Blaisdell, a famous gunman, to act as marshal. Clive of India (1935), 94 min. In the mid-1700′s the East India Company has power over commerce...
- 2/22/2013
- by ComicMix Staff
- Comicmix.com
Documentaries became a box office factor with the rise of such films as "Hoop Dreams" and "Roger & Me." Before then, there were hit music documentaries like "Woodstock" but most other nonfiction films could expect short runs in few theaters before dutiful audiences. What a small but growing minority of Friday night moviegoers is beginning to discover is that there's a good chance the movie they might enjoy most at the multiplex is a doc.
In alphabetical order, these were the best documentaries I saw in 2010:
"45365" is the zip code of Sidney, Ohio. The brothers Bill and Turner Ross were born there perhaps 30 years ago. They knew everybody in town, and when they spent seven months of 2007 filming its daily life, their presence must have become commonplace. Their film evokes what Winesburg, Ohio might have looked like as a documentary.
The film is privileged. No one is filmed with a hidden camera.
In alphabetical order, these were the best documentaries I saw in 2010:
"45365" is the zip code of Sidney, Ohio. The brothers Bill and Turner Ross were born there perhaps 30 years ago. They knew everybody in town, and when they spent seven months of 2007 filming its daily life, their presence must have become commonplace. Their film evokes what Winesburg, Ohio might have looked like as a documentary.
The film is privileged. No one is filmed with a hidden camera.
- 1/14/2011
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
'Something very bad has happened to America — and this is at the end of the movie,' director reveals of scenes being shot in Chicago.
By Eric Ditzian
Michael Bay
Photo: Dr. Billy Ingram/WireImage
Michael Bay has been utterly destroying Chicago, blowing up cars, demolishing streets, leaving mangled steel and crumbled concrete across entire blocks. That's just what it's going to take to make "Transformers 3" a kick-ass flick and erase from our memories last year's decidedly so-so second installment in the franchise.
In a new interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Bay revealed just how the Chicago footage will fit into the new movie. The sequence, he said, "comes at the very end of the movie and the city is under alien attack, so it's very critical and important to the film's climax."
While overall plot details remain tightly guarded, we do know the film dives into the space...
By Eric Ditzian
Michael Bay
Photo: Dr. Billy Ingram/WireImage
Michael Bay has been utterly destroying Chicago, blowing up cars, demolishing streets, leaving mangled steel and crumbled concrete across entire blocks. That's just what it's going to take to make "Transformers 3" a kick-ass flick and erase from our memories last year's decidedly so-so second installment in the franchise.
In a new interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Bay revealed just how the Chicago footage will fit into the new movie. The sequence, he said, "comes at the very end of the movie and the city is under alien attack, so it's very critical and important to the film's climax."
While overall plot details remain tightly guarded, we do know the film dives into the space...
- 7/22/2010
- MTV Movie News
'Something very bad has happened to America — and this is at the end of the movie,' director reveals of scenes being shot in Chicago.
By Eric Ditzian
Michael Bay
Photo: Dr. Billy Ingram/WireImage
Michael Bay has been utterly destroying Chicago, blowing up cars, demolishing streets, leaving mangled steel and crumbled concrete across entire blocks. That's just what it's going to take to make "Transformers 3" a kick-ass flick and erase from our memories last year's decidedly so-so second installment in the franchise.
In a new interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Bay revealed just how the Chicago footage will fit into the new movie. The sequence, he said, "comes at the very end of the movie and the city is under alien attack, so it's very critical and important to the film's climax."
While overall plot details remain tightly guarded, we do know the film dives into the space...
By Eric Ditzian
Michael Bay
Photo: Dr. Billy Ingram/WireImage
Michael Bay has been utterly destroying Chicago, blowing up cars, demolishing streets, leaving mangled steel and crumbled concrete across entire blocks. That's just what it's going to take to make "Transformers 3" a kick-ass flick and erase from our memories last year's decidedly so-so second installment in the franchise.
In a new interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Bay revealed just how the Chicago footage will fit into the new movie. The sequence, he said, "comes at the very end of the movie and the city is under alien attack, so it's very critical and important to the film's climax."
While overall plot details remain tightly guarded, we do know the film dives into the space...
- 7/22/2010
- MTV Music News
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