During the 2018 Chicago International Film Festival, the panels held during Industry Days allowed for both conversations and networking. While I was not able to get to everything I wanted to, I was able to get to a few key panels. I don’t go into these panels from the perspective of reporting on them. Instead, I attend Industry Days for the insights that the panelists offer. Improv is one of the reasons why I moved…
"Chicago Film Festival 2018: Industry Days – A Midwest Career"Month: October 2018
Art Paul of Playboy: The Man Behind The Bunny profiles the man who revolutionized the magazine industry through his role as art director. When people think of the Playboy magazine, it’s not uncommon to think of nude women or founder Hugh Hefner. The magazine started up in 1953 and would later grow into a full-blown brand in later years with the changing technology. For the era in which the magazine begun, it would play an…
"Art Paul of Playboy: The Man Behind The Bunny"![[Censored]](https://i0.wp.com/www.solzyatthemovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/CENSORED_1200x600.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1)
[Censored] is a documentary that exposes just a small amount of clips from films that that Australian Film Censorship Board censored during 1958-1971. Australian filmmaker Sari Braithwaite digs deep into the archives of some 2,000 clips from films censored. Inspired to do so following a short film about censorship battles, she becomes one of few people to see what’s inside. As a filmmaker, Braithwaite admits that some of the clips she found are “vile.” Furthermore, these…
"Chicago Film Festival 2018: [Censored]"
Sara Colangelo’s sophomore feature, The Kindergarten Teacher, takes audiences on a wild ride over the course of an hour and a half. Lisa Spinelli (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a kindergarten teacher and she seems to be at a rather boring place in her career, going as far as telling her assistant (Anna Barynishikov) “to hell with the core curriculum.” As she teaches poetry classes at night, she soon learns that one of her students, Jimmy Roy…
"The Kindergarten Teacher Takes Us On A Ride"
The City That Sold America makes for a captivating look at how innovative advertisers in Chicago would forever change the country. The original Amazon got its start in Chicago. Not the online retailer but the original mail order catalog. Without Aaron Montgomery Ward or Richard Warren Sears, history could be looking down a very different light. Their two companies changed the very foundation of the American economy for better or worse. The two school of advertising…
"Chicago Film Fest 2018: The City That Sold America"
With a love story set in the country of Kenya, Rafiki (Friend) announces the coming of Wanuri Kahiu as a filmmaker to watch. Kena (Samantha Mugatsia) and Ziki (Sheila Munyiva) have always been friends. This is in spite of their families being the Kenyan equivalent of the Capulet and Montague. While this may add some tension to their friendship, it doesn’t stop their friendship from becoming something more. The society that they live in says that they can’t…
"Chicago Film Festival 2018: Rafiki (Friend)"
Even though a health crisis is at the center of this relationship-driven dramedy, After Everything is as far from a Nicholas Sparks film as it gets. Elliott (Jeremy Allen White) works behind a sandwich counter with his roommate and best friend, Nico (DeRon Horton). It’s all fun and games for the two of them–drinking or getting high–until Elliott learns he is suffering from a rare diagnosis of Ewing’s sarcoma. There’s a lot of nitty-gritty detail…
"After Everything is no Nicholas Sparks film"
If The Sentence doesn’t have you in tears at some point, please check your tear ducts. Rudy Valdez developed a love for film because of his sister, Cindy Shank. His older sister had wanted to be a filmmaker at one point in her life and she passed along this love to her brother. Six years after the death of Cindy’s ex-boyfriend, Alex, she is sent to jail because of “the girlfriend problem.” It has something…
"The Sentence: A Riveting Documentary"
Chicago International Film Festival Artistic Director Mimi Plauché took some time to speak with Solzy at the Movies about this year’s film festival. While we spoke about some of the challenges that come with programming a festival, Mimi tells me the names of films that might be under the radar. Last year saw your first festival since the promotion from programming director to artistic director. With the promotion, you’ve become one of the very few women…
"Mimi Plauché talks Chicago Int. Film Festival"
Through the lens of its 13-year old protagonist, Sadie displays the toll that the military takes on American families while family members are on tour. Sadie (Sophia Mitri Schloss) lives at home with her mother, Rae (Melanie Lynskey), in the Shady Plains Trailer Park. Sadie patiently waits for her dad, John, to come home. He’s serving tour overseas in spite of the many promises to return home. She’s loyal to her dad in this sense and…
"Sadie: A Satire for War"