Friday, October 31, 2008 10:27 PM CDT
Movie fest features EIU alumni enjoying success in Hollywood
By NATHANIEL WEST, Staff Writer
nwest@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON — The Embarras Valley Film Festival at Eastern Illinois University increasingly is about the success of alumni in Hollywood.
Although former EIU student Joan Allen, the subject of this year’s festival, will not be on hand next week, EIU graduates and Hollywood up-and-comers Craig Titley and Luke Ryan will be present to discuss screenwriting with students.
The EVFF is Tuesday through Saturday. Most of the events are free and will be hosted in EIU’s newly expanded and renovated Doudna Fine Arts Center, although some events will be held in downtown Charleston.
Ryan, now vice president of theatrical production for the MGM Motion Picture Group, and Titley, who wrote the scripts for the “Cheaper by the Dozen” films, will present a workshop Friday morning for EIU students.
“As a screenwriter, I am especially thrilled that the festival is recognizing what I feel is the most important but often most overlooked or undervalued aspect of filmmaking — the storyteller who put the words on the page,” said Titley, a Mattoon native who graduated in 1989 from EIU. “Without those words, directors wouldn’t have anything to shoot and actors wouldn’t have anything to say.”
Ryan, also a Mattoon native and 2000 graduate of EIU, said he and Titley will conduct a seminar “that will cover the basics of the craft of screenwriting and an overview of how the business side of Hollywood works, as every aspiring screenwriter needs a firm grasp on that as well.”
Titley said the seminar will look at “Screenwriting 101 — how to craft your story idea into a viable screenplay, focusing on structure and character.”
Ryan, executive producer for the highly successful “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle,” said he and Titley also will visit with students and faculty at their alma mater.
“Both of us like to take any opportunity we can to be helpful to the local community and EIU, both of which have always been really supportive of us,” said Ryan.
Titley, also a screenwriter for “Scooby-Doo” and “See Spot Run,” praised organizers of the annual film festival, now in its fifth year, for offering the screenwriting workshop for EIU students.
“I love the idea of the Embarras Film Festival and only wish there would’ve been something like that when I was a student at Eastern,” he said.
The event was launched in 2004 as the Gregg Toland Day Festival, in recognition of the renowned cinematographer from Charleston. EIU alumnus and 1950s actor William Phipps was honored in 2005. The following year, the legendary Burl Ives, a former EIU student, was recognized. Last year, the festival took up area native and author James Jones, whose book “From Here to Eternity” was transformed into the iconic film of the same name.
Allen, who studied theatre at EIU in the 1970s before transferring to Northern Illinois University in 1976, has starred in numerous films, including the highly successful “Bourne” sequels and the memorable romance “The Notebook.”
According to Robin Murray, EIU English professor and co-chair of the EVFF Program Committee, Allen could not attend this year’s festival because of her involvement in a project in New Mexico; however, Murray said a future film festival likely will be devoted to Allen again when she can participate.
Even so, this year “Joan Allen seemed like the perfect choice because this is an election year, and she’s starred or co-starred in many political films,” Murray said.
One of these films, “The Contender,” will be presented at 7 p.m. Nov. 8 at the Will Rogers Theatre in Charleston.
Allen also was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in “The Crucible.” Her many other credits include “The Ice Storm,” “Face/Off,” “Pleasantville” and “Off the Map.”
This will be the first year that the lion’s share of the film festival events will be in Doudna. The fine arts center opened this fall for the first time in six years.
“The venue itself is just going to be so wonderful for viewing the films,” said Murray, referring to the new, state-of-the-art facilities in Doudna.
She said organizers also made a concerted effort this year to offer more instructional events for the community, such as a workshop for younger children, “Magic Picture Shows,” and a story hour the morning of Nov. 8 in the Charleston Public Library.
Charleston native and EIU alumnus Dann Gire will be the keynote speaker for a Friday evening session, with a presentation based on interviews with Joan Allen. Gire, a film critic for the Arlington Heights Daily Herald and president of the Chicago Film Critics Association, will speak in Doudna’s Lecture Hall at 7:30 p.m. Gire has contributed to the EVFF each year with presentations and film introductions.
EIU graduate Andrew Rodgers, executive director of the RiverRun International Film Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., will be among speakers during the Friday afternoon symposium, also to be held in the Lecture Hall.
Other speakers during the week will include Julia Lesage, founder and publisher of “Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media;” Chuck Kleinhans, co-editor of “Jump Cut;” and Murray Pomerance, editor for several books on film, including SUNY Press’ “Horizons of Cinema.”
The festival will conclude Nov. 8 with showings of two Joan Allen films at the Will Rogers Theatre: “Pleasantville” at 2 p.m., and “The Contender” at 7 p.m. They will be introduced by Gire and Chuck Koplinski, who reviews movies for WCIA-TV in Champaign and several newspapers, including the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette and Springfield’s Illinois Times.
Between films, a reception with a 1950s flair will be held at Miller’s Banquet Facility in downtown Charleston, featuring period food and music. Student films created during the stop-motion workshop today and by students in Effingham and Teutopolis high schools’ film production programs will be screened at the reception.
For more information, visit www.evff.net.
Contact Nathaniel West at nwest@jg-tc.com or 238-6860.
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