Eric LaRue
Synopsis
In his masterful feature debut, acclaimed actor Michael Shannon paints a riveting portrait of Janice LaRue, a middle-aged mother coming to terms with a shooting spree perpetrated by her son. Adapted from Brett Neveu’s 2002 play — which debuted at A Red Orchid Theatre in Chicago — the film follows the shell-shocked Janice (Judy Greer) as she attempts to navigate the tragedy in her small town. Some try to help; others condemn her outright. While a local pastor tries to reconcile Janice with the victims’ mothers, Janice’s feeble husband (Alexander Skarsgård) finds refuge in an upstart church led by a motivational preacher Steppenwolf’s Tracy Letts. But Janice must find her own way.
With stunning performances led by Greer’s riveting portrayal of a deeply pained yet resilient mother, Eric LaRue is a penetrating psychological drama about grief, guilt, and atonement that builds to a profound and cathartic conclusion.
Screenings & Events
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Media
Film Credits
- Sarah Green, Karl Hartman, Jina Panebianco
- Brett Neveu
- Mike Selemon
- Andrew 'Wheels' Wheeler
- Judy Greer, Alexander Skarsgard, Alison Pill, Paul Sparks, Tracy Letts
- Jonathan Mastro
- Byron Wetzel, Jeff Nichols, Declan Baldwin, JoJo Ryder, Meghan Schumacher, R Wesley Sierk, John D Straley
- Big Indie Pictures, Bracecove Productions, Caliwood Pictures
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Family Portrait
Synopsis
Spring 2020. A Texas family gathers for a reunion on their sprawling estate. When it’s time to memorialize the proceedings with a family photo, it becomes Katy’s job to wrangle everyone down by the river. Then her mother disappears, and Katy’s unwelcome task morphs into a frantic search as a trickle of news about COVID-19 spreads through the get-together. Fear begins to grip Katy, and reality appears to be tearing at the seams.
Ruminating on life, death, the nature of photography, and existence itself, the film is a brilliantly observed, often slyly humorous picture of the unwieldy chaos of a family gathering and a potent distillation of early pandemic paranoia.
Screenings & Events
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Film Credits
- Megan Pickrell, Frederic Winkler, Rob Rice
- Lucy Kerr
- Karlis Bergs
- Lidia Nikonova
- Deragh Campbell, Chris Galust, Rachel Alig, Katie Folger, Robert Salas, Veronica Cinibulk, Silvana Jakich, David McGuff, Christian Huey, Les Weiler
- Lucy Kerr, Brittany Reeber
- Insufficient Funds, Conjuring Productions
- https://www.lightsonfilm.com/familyportrait.html
Sponsors
New Directors Program Sponsors
Robert and Penelope Steiner Family Foundation
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Fingernails
Synopsis
Anna (Jessie Buckley) and Ryan (The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White) have found true love. In fact, it’s been proven by a controversial technology that tests the authenticity of romantic love between couples. While the assessment is painful — a single fingernail from each person in the relationship must be removed — a positive result is worth it for many. Entranced by this new science, Anna decides to take a job at the love institute, running workshops and testing matches. But when she meets her new colleague Amir (Riz Ahmed), it puts everything she knows empirically into question.
In his winsome and wryly surrealist English-language debut, Greek director Christos Nikou (2020 ChicagoIFF winner Apples) creates a clever, idiosyncratic allegory about our desire for certainty in love and the infallibility—and frailty—of our closest relationships.
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Film Credits
- Coco Francini, Andrew Upton, Cate Blanchett, Christos Nikou, Lucas Wiesendanger
- Christos Nikou, Sam Steiner, Stavros Raptis
- Yorgos Zafeiris
- Marcel Rév
- Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White, Luke Wilson, Annie Murphy
- Christopher Stracey
- Glen Basner, Milan Popelka, Alison Cohen, Ashley Fox, Kevin Lafferty, Jerome Duboz
- FilmNation Entertainment, Dirty Films
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Food Roots
Synopsis
Emmy Award-winning Chicago Restaurateur Billy Dec adventures through his mother’s native 7,641 Islands of the Philippines to learn recipes from his last living elders, confronting culinary and cultural treasures and family secrets.
Food Roots gives viewers the opportunity to accompany Dec by plane, boat, motorcycle, jeepney, and foot, as he searches through bustling metropolitan cities, tiny remote islands, and hidden cloud-scraping mountain villages to find his family members. He climbs a mountain to meet with a 103-year-old tribal tattoo master, where she blesses him with a tattoo related to his ancestral connection. Through the ups and downs of the trip, Dec gains a deeper understanding of his family history, along with an elevated appreciation for how food has shaped their view of the world.
Film Spotlight
Film SpotlightWe chatted with director Michele Jouse and subject Billy Dec about Food Roots, discovering one’s heritage, their favorite Chicago films, and more.
Screenings & Events
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Film Credits
- Apl.De.Ap, Ronnie del Carmen, Becky Magura, Mike McNamara,
- Marcos Durian, Chino Neri, Julian Rodriguez
- Billy Dec, Leilani Castro, Celia Bumanglag-Dec, Stacey Efstathiou, Michael Morales, Rosario Sta.Ana, Kalel Demetrio, Roberto Bumanglag, Nora Bumanglag, Lisa Leofando, Pilar Sangalang, Oscar Bumanglag, Nora Bumanglag Carasi, Apo Whang-Od
- Nathan Matthew David
- Ronnie Del Carmen, Mike McNamara, Becky Magura, Apl.de.Ap, Michele Josue
- COACT Agency
- https://www.FoodRootsFilm.com
Sponsors
Documentary Program Sponsors
Cynthia Stone Raskin
Film Sponsor
Accessibility Partner
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Accidental Athlete [short film]
Kevin Jerome Everson & Claudrena N. HaroldUnited States
Learn more...
Synopsis
Greg (Matthew Modine) is a beleaguered social worker at a Colorado juvenile correctional center with a passion for bicycle racing and a revelatory idea for rehabilitation: Rounding up an unlikely crew of incarcerated students to complete a transformative 1000-mile ride from Denver to the Grand Canyon. To achieve their goal, this determined coach and his disgruntled teenage squad will battle heat stroke, speed wobbles, mountainous inclines, and most of all each other to come together as a unified team.
Inspired by a true story and filmed amid the majestic landscapes of the Sierra Nevadas, this heartfelt, humor-filled adventure is a feel-good throwback to the coming-of-age sports dramas of the ‘80s and ‘90s, with an inspiring performance by Modine (Oppenheimer) as the devoted teacher who will never give up on his kids.
Screenings & Events
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Film Credits
- Christian Sander
- RJ Daniel Hanna, Christian Sander
- Evan Schrodek
- Mack Fisher
- Matthew Modine, Cynthia Kaye McWilliams, Leslie David Baker, Sean Astin. Jahking Guillory, Jackson Kelly, Damien Diaz, Zachary T. Robbins
- Andrew Johnson
- Scott Sander, Larry Roth
- Pensé Productions
Sponsors
Comedy Program Sponsor
Film Sponsor
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