"Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival"
(April 2006)
Online Copy

It is a film festival only five days long, with just twelve carefully chosen movies. All the screenings are at one theater, a restored old-fashioned cinema, and the extras like interviews and panel discussions are only a short drive away. Many of the works are old, foreign, or independent – vaguely recognized or remembered. But that’s the point.

Ebertfest, running from April 26th-30th at the Virginia Theater in downtown Champaign, is different than other film festivals. It is not a mass scouting session for corporate studios to find upcoming talent. Nor is it a great pedestal for debuts and trial runs of major works. Rather, Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival is one critic’s public perusal of forgotten and ignored art. It is a social second look of honest and thoughtful movies displaced from the collective memory.

Ebert, an Urbana native, University alumnus, and current film critic for the Chicago Sun Times, created the festival and chooses its lineup. He explained the motivation for an overlooked festival in an e-mail interview saying, “As a movie critic, I see a lot of films I believe deserve wider audiences. Also, I am interested in older films, and in formats such as silent films and 70mm widescreen.”

He added that, “I thought such a festival would be an ideal way to draw attention to them. It would be a conflict of interest for me to ask studios for their new or unreleased films, but this way there is no conflict: Just a love of good movies.”

The Overlooked is a five-day discussion between a critic, the audience, and guest filmmakers. The schedule is exhausting, but set up so one person may attend all that is available. There is a breadth of activities, including a book signing at the Illini Union Bookstore and academic panel discussions at the Union.

The majority of the events and screenings are on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, with only one film each on Wednesday and Sunday. Ebert described that, in addition, “We have fairly extensive question-and-answer sessions after the movies, instead of perfunctory ones. We encourage guests to stay for the whole festival and get to know one another.”

Ebert is as integral to the long weekend as the films. When asked why other venues like nearby Boardman’s Art Theater are not used for concurrent screenings, the critic replied that, “Audiences apparently expect me to introduce every film and do the question-and-answer afterwards, and I can’t be in two places at once.”

Ebert continued: “The current schedule seems to work well but is time-consuming enough for those attending all of the films that I think we have found the correct length. Then, too, I have a day job.”

The movies are a mix of genres, periods, and styles. Ebert chooses a silent film, a musical, a family film, undistributed independent works, foreign cinema and others. On his selections, he said that, “I pick them purely by my feelings about them.” There are no committees or objective criteria, just one experienced critic’s personal taste.

Actors, directors, writers, and other filmmakers of each selection are typically present for subsequent discussions. Also, certain features have become annual customs, like a Saturday, family matinee and a closing musical on Sunday. Also, the famously eclectic Alloy Orchestra accompanies the silent films.

Yet, the idea of “overlooked” is applied in different ways. For instance, this year’s opening work was My Fair Lady, hardly an ignored movie. However, festival guest Marni Nixon’s contribution to the film was literally unseen – her singing was dubbed over for Audrey Hepburn’s Eliza Doolittle character. Nixon will be a festival guest, conversing about her career in Hollywood, both on- and off-screen.

Some of the other choices are recent, widely-released productions like the lewd Bad Santa, David Mamet’s thriller Spartan, or Danny Boyle’s Millions, a story of two British boys’ serendipitous discovery of countless cash. The foreign and musical feature is U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha, a South African adaptation of Bizet’s Carmen.

The silent film is The Eagle, starring the legendary Rudolph Valentino. There is also a documentary: Man Push Cart, about a Pakistani rock star-turned-street vendor. The rest of the lineup is composed of contemporary and unheralded works like Junebug, about small town life, and Claire Dolan, centering on a New York City prostitute. Additionally, there are Somebodies, an observation of life for young African-Americans, Ripley’s Game, in which John Malkovich portrays the famous literary criminal, Tom Ripley, and Duane Hopwood, featuring David Schwimmer as a tragic alcoholic father.

Now in its eighth year, Ebert commented on the increasing regard for the Overlooked. He said that filmmakers and others are bringing many suggestions to him. Also, the eponymous critic added: “I am pleased by how many filmmakers and actors are willing to attend, and the fact that many of them stay for the whole time and are even willing to come back. This year, for example, will be the third for the wonderful actor Scott Wilson and the fifth or sixth for Michael Barker, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics.”

Ebertfest is a significant event for Champaign and Urbana, attracting out-of-town attendees and a glut of downtown activity for five consecutive days. But, despite the Virginia’s proximity to campus – only a mile away – student attendance is mediocre. Ebert wondered: “I wish there were more students. The tickets and passes are not expensive. Are students so grade and goal-oriented that they can’t spare the time for the festival?”

He said it plain: “We hold the festival, we bring the films and filmmakers, and the students can come if they want to. We do get a good number of students, but I wish we got more.”

In comparing C-U’s current cinema scene to that of his youth, Ebert explained that there were many more theaters, including three on campus, one in downtown Urbana, and five in downtown Champaign. In addition to those venues, the University had two large film societies, the Campus Film Society and Cinema Internationale.

He also pointed out that, “The theaters were booked with the knowledge that it was a college town. Now, the multiplexes seem to be booked with no awareness of the University, and the film societies have fallen victim to home video. Students were, in those days, very aware of classic and foreign films. Not so much today.”

Even if students are too busy or disinterested, the festival still draws a full house – the all-week passes sold out months ago. Luckily, patrons can also purchase a limited number of walk-up tickets before each showing.

The Overlooked Film Festival is more than a consideration of one critic’s personal favorites. It is also a rediscovery of this community’s passion for cinema and participation in the arts. This five-day gathering is like looking at one’s bookshelf and pulling out that dusty, unopened volume. It is finding something new by researching the past. Even by attending just one screening, it can be a celebration of film in a pop society that often ignores its own culture.


©2009 Tim Peters/All rights reserved