Molly Schlich frequently travels from her home
in Springfield to theaters in Champaign, Decatur, and St. Louis to
see independent films. But for the next few months Schlich will be
able to sink into a seat at a hometown theater for a series of
under-the-radar films at a festival she began hosting 15 years ago.
Springfield’s Film Festival, which
started as a purely cultural endeavor, has blossomed into a viable
fundraiser for the Michael Victor II Art Library of the Springfield
Art Association and Springfield Area Arts Council. The festival
features films ranging from Turtles Can
Fly, the first film made in Iraq after
Saddam Hussein’s ouster, to Duma, a story of the bond between a child and his
unconventional pet. “It’s funny. Picking films to
please people is very difficult,” says Schlich, who serves as
the festival’s chairwoman in addition to being its founder.
She attributes the difficulty to the wide-ranging interests of the
audience — a picture that satisfies a film aficionado tends
to be different from one chosen for the traditional fan looking for
a happy ending. Luckily, she doesn’t have to make the
choices alone. Schlich has assembled a selection committee of
representatives from the State
Journal-Register, Illinois Times, SAA, the SAAC,
and Lincoln Library to narrow down the choices from her initial
list of 15 to the final six. Before the members of the panel get their
hands on her list, Schlich must present it to representatives of
Springfield-based Kerasotes ShowPlace Theatres so that they may
pluck from the list any titles they want to show in their own
theaters. This year, Schlich says, Kerasotes eliminated just three
titles. Schlich started hosting the festival at the Kerasotes-owned
White Oaks Cinema when she wanted to move from the dark 16mm reels
shown at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine
amphitheatre, where the festival originated, to a more professional
35mm. Schlich’s labor of love has has turned
out to be a profitable fundraiser. Each title costs the festival
between $400 and $700, and an estimated 1,200 people attended the
festival last year. As for the film selections, Schlich says that
she likes them all, but she particularly enjoyed the six-hour
Italian TV miniseries The Best of Youth, which she saw at a theater in St. Louis. “When I got to the Arch, I was still
choked up [by the film],” Schlich says. Here are this year’s festival offerings:
Jan. 15 & 17
Junebug [2005;
R] A bittersweet comedy about family and a Chicago
transplant’s return to North Carolina with his worldly wife in tow. Phil Morrison directs.
Jan. 29 & 31
Duma [2005;
PG] An smart film about the bond between a child and his pet, a
cheetah. The strong connection takes the boy through the beautiful
landscape of South Africa as he tries to find a habitat fit for
both a young boy and a nearly full-grown predator. Carroll Ballard
directs.
Feb. 12 & 14 (part 1) Feb. 19 & 21 (part 2)
The Best of Youth [2003; R] An epic that chronicles the life and times of
two Italian brothers and the colorful characters they encounter
during 40 years of their lives. Marco Tullio Giordana directs. Italian with English subtitles.
Feb. 26 & 28
Paradise Now [2005;
PG-13] A gripping tale of the last 48 hours of two Palestinians
before they are scheduled to strike Tel Aviv as suicide bombers.
The two best friends, determined to perish together, are separated
at the Israeli border. Hany Abu-Assad directs. Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles.
March 12 & 14
Look at Me [2004; PG-13] The story of a
young girl, Lolita, trying desperately to attract the attention of
her self-absorbed book-publisher father. The film pokes fun at the
literary world, but with a subtlety that makes the
character’s flaws touching. Agnès Jaoui directs. French with English subtitles.
March 26 & 28
Turtles Can Fly [2004;
not rated] The wrenching tale of a Kurdish refugee camp on the
night before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Bahman Ghobadi
directs. Kurdish with English subtitles.
Films are shown at 1 and 4 p.m. Sunday and 7
p.m. Tuesday, with the exception of the two parts of The Best of Youth, which
will be shown only at 2 p.m. Sunday and 7 p.m. Tuesday. Tickets are
$7 for a single film ($4 with student ID) or $35 for all six
feature films. To purchase tickets, call SAA at 217-523-2631 or the
SAAC at 217-753-3519. For more info on the festival, visit
www.kerasotes.com/2006.
This article appears in Jan 12-18, 2006.
