Dietrich Brüggemann on “Heil”
In the fall of 2014, I was covering the Chicago International Film Festival when I stumbled upon Dietrich Brüggemann’s German drama “Stations of the Cross.” It was a shattering portrait […]
Tag Archives: Chicago International Film Festival
Deniz Gamze Ergüven on “Mustang”
Watching Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s feature directorial debut, “Mustang,” at last year’s Chicago International Film Festival was the sort of experience moviegoers yearn to have every time they step foot in […]
Top 20 Films of 2015: Part I
It’s a weird time to be talking about movies. We are perched at a precarious point in the history of our species, with cultural divisions and ideological extremism threatening to […]
Valerie Weiss on “A Light Beneath Their Feet”
“By turns endearing, unsettling, and ultimately moving, ‘A Light Beneath Their Feet’ is a triumph of empathetic filmmaking. There are no heroes and villains in this story, just ordinary people […]
Rebecca Parrish on “Radical Grace”
Few films this year have left me feeling more elated and hopeful than Rebecca Parrish’s sublime documentary, “Radical Grace.” It follows three key members of the “Nuns on the Bus” […]
CIFF 2015: Eight Films to Remember
Jury duty is a term that has aggravated random citizens and demolished carefully coordinated schedules for generations. Yet in the case of my experience on the New Directors jury at […]
CIFF 2015: Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson on “Anomalisa”
“Apparently I like to have people not understand each other,” mused Charlie Kaufman during our conversation prior to the Chicago International Film Festival’s October 21st screening of his latest masterpiece, […]
Tea Time with Howard Shore
What do “The Fly,” “Big,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” “That Thing You Do!”, “High Fidelity,” “The Departed” and David Lowery’s upcoming “Pete’s Dragon” have in common? They were all […]
CIFF 2015 Preview: “Anomalisa,” “James White” and Six More
There comes a point when a film festival turns from a casual diversion and into an obsession. That happened to me last year during the Chicago International Film Festival, when […]
Indie Outlook: Third Anniversary
Nothing excites me more than discovering an artist whose work is unlike anything I’ve seen before. The third year of Indie Outlook, my labor of love devoted to covering cinema’s […]
Indie Outlook 