Mary Lynch Snowdon (BS ’86, journalism) wrote an article that was published in Newsweek recently titled “My Talented Son Has Autism. As a Mother, I Feel Like a Dual Citizen.” In the article, Snowdon writes about her experience parenting her son with autism, who is now in his mid-20s and a talented golfer.
Snowdon is a lawyer, consultant, and advocate. She currently resides in Annapolis, Maryland.
April 24, 2024
Update June 4, 2024: Congratulations to the students who presented “Exploring Period Poverty in Sierra Leone” (pictured below) for receiving an award for Outstanding Exhibit at the Undergraduate Research Symposium from the Office of Undergraduate Research! Learn more about their trip to Sierra Leone.
Students from the College of Media are participating in the annual University of Illinois Undergraduate Research Week, held April 21-27. The Undergraduate Research Symposium, the signature event held on April 24 at the Illini Union, features presentations, posters, and performances from students across campus.
Media student presentations include:
On Exhibit: Robots & Medical Technology
“Exploring Period Poverty in Sierra Leone”
CS Student Ambassadors/Research Scholars
Illinois Scholars Undergraduate Research Program Research Expo
“Comparing Human Generated Text with Machine Generated Text”
Garima Sharma, senior in CS + advertising
Poster Presentation: Social Science & Human Behavior
“Mental Health and Wellbeing Outcomes among Gender and Sexuality Diverse Individuals Raised in Fundamentalist Religious Environments: Exploratory Analyses and Study Design”
Marina Manuel, senior in media and cinema studies
Research Mentor(s): Chris Fraley and Maggie Palmiero, Department of Psychology (College of LAS)
Jenny Oyallon-Koloski, assistant professor of media and cinema studies, was the research mentor for Molly Pfeifer, senior in psychology (College of LAS) and cinema studies minor, who is presenting “Embracing Ambiguity in Low Concept Film Marketing” as part of the Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences poster presentations.
Lawrence Ingrassia (BS ’74, journalism) has written a new book, A Fatal Inheritance: How a Family Misfortune Revealed a Deadly Medical Mystery.
A Fatal Inheritance, which will be available on May 14, 2024, narrates the tale of a team of dedicated researchers who solved the medical mystery behind seemingly unrelated cancers devastating his and other families.
The book has been described as “a compelling personal chronicle of tragedy and triumph.”
Ingrassia is a former business and economics editor and deputy managing editor at the New York Times, having previously spent 25 years at the Wall Street Journal, as Boston bureau chief, London bureau chief, money and investing editor, and assistant managing editor.
He also served as managing editor of the Los Angeles Times. The coverage he directed won five Pulitzer Prizes as well as Gerald Loeb Awards and George Polk Awards.
His first book, Billion Dollar Brand Club, chronicles the rise of popular direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands and was shortlisted for several best business book awards for 2020.
April 10, 2024 | Kelly Youngblood
When Andrea Campos graduated from Illinois with a bachelor’s degree in advertising, she had no idea she’d be returning 12 years later as the alumni speaker at the 2024 College of Media Convocation ceremony.
But as an artist and creative entrepreneur whose recent career accomplishments include illustrating a New York Times-bestselling children’s book with celebrities Jimmy Fallon and Jennifer Lopez, Campos has realized life is full of happy surprises, especially if you dare to follow your dreams.
“If you would have told me in 2012 that I was going to be standing up there (on stage at Convocation), I wouldn’t believe you. I didn’t have it on my radar,” Campos said. “I never would’ve imagined it. Maybe that’s something I’ll touch on in my speech—that we all need to dream bigger, because too often, we like to count ourselves out.”
Campos, who currently resides in Los Angeles, has managed to build a successful career around spreading happiness.
“I like that I can be an island of joy or a little space of hope in an otherwise stressful world,” Campos said.
Her bright, colorful, fun illustrations can be found in children’s books like Con Pollo: A Bilingual Playtime Adventure and printed on lunchboxes and other products for children and infants.
Ironically, the happiness she exudes through her artwork emerged from a time when the entire world was experiencing sadness.
In March of 2020, after nearly a decade of working as a marketing professional for companies like Gap Inc., Campos was planning to set off on a new path as a freelance photographer.
“It really felt like it was now or never,” Campos said of her decision to switch careers. “My last day at my full-time job was March 8. And then, you know, days later the world shut down.”
With every photography project canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Campos was left wondering what to do next.
Thankfully, she had saved some money so she decided to concentrate on rebuilding her creative confidence and sought out ways to relieve stress during a chaotic time.
“I decided to focus on creative activities during quarantine, simple things that would bring me joy. You know, the kind of things we used to do as kids when we were sitting at home bored,” Campos said.
She started baking, going on photo walks, and drawing, a childhood hobby she’d neglected since her high school days.
“As part of my at-home artist residency I started drawing again, and I began to notice that it not only made me feel good, but it also helped me process my emotions,” Campos said. “It’s kind of crazy to think that if it weren’t for the world coming to a halt due to the pandemic, I would have left these treasures buried deep inside of me.”
Campos used an iPad and the Procreate app, which essentially lets users sketch on digital paper, to create “playful, positive, joyful artwork.”
She started an Instagram page called @dreasdoodles to share her illustrations with family and friends she couldn’t connect with in person.
Campos said she didn’t realize it at the time, but her Instagram page, which she described as her “little pocket of the Internet where it’s always sunny,” was going to completely change her life.
Campos, who was never formally trained as an artist, gained thousands of followers over the next several months.
Eventually she started to get requests from brands and small business owners to create logos and other marketing materials.
Almost one year to the day of the inception of @dreasdoodles, Campos received an email that would change her life forever.
An art director at Macmillan Publishers reached out to ask if she’d be interested in illustrating a celebrity children’s book.
“When I got that email, my jaw was on the floor,” Campos said.
Later, Campos learned she was one of two artists being considered for the book, which included a chicken named “Pollo” as the main character.
“Even though I had zero experience, I thought to myself, ‘I am going to do everything in my power to draw the cutest, baddest little chicken the world has ever seen because I know this was meant for me,’” Campos said.
She submitted her designs in April and heard in June that she got the project.
“It was months and months of me just shaking every time I opened my email. And when I finally got that email, I just started sobbing, like straight up ugly crying,” Campos said.
Soon after, another email came inviting Campos to be a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Campos went on to do several more interviews with Fallon to help promote their book.
“That was one of those moments that was just so surreal and so special. The book launch for Con Pollo is one of those things I look back at whenever I’m having a bad day and say to myself, ‘I did that,’” Campos said.
After the whirlwind of illustrating a best-selling children’s book, Campos had to consider her next step and knew her advertising and marketing experience could help her build a sustainable art business.
“Sure, I’m not working on campaigns in the same way that I was before, while at agencies. But I am still very much in the business of telling stories through my work,” Campos said. “And that skill set undoubtedly took root right here at U of I.”
Campos said Jason P. Chambers, professor of advertising and associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion, made a big impact on her with his teaching style and the way he weaved history into the broader advertising campaigns.
Steve Hall, senior lecturer in advertising, also stood out in her mind due to his leadership in extracurricular student activities, such as the American Advertising Federation and the National Student Advertising Competition.
Campos was involved with AAF and, during her senior year, presented at the NSAC. She was awarded AAF’s Most Promising Multicultural Student in 2012, which allowed her to travel to New York for networking opportunities. There, she was able to connect with someone at Energy BBDO, who offered Campos her first advertising job after graduation.
Campos is grateful for her time at Illinois and was happy to return last fall after Hall invited her to speak to some of his advertising classes.
These days, Campos is focusing on licensing her artwork, brand collaborations, and speaking engagements, presenting workshops at companies like Google, LinkedIn, and eBay about the power of creativity and the importance of giving yourself time to play. She also is working on writing and illustrating her own picture book.
“My biggest North Star with everything I do is being playful with a purpose and I’m trying to encourage that not only in kids but also in adults,” Campos said. “The last four years have taught me amazing things can happen if we just give ourselves the time to do something just for fun.”
As a first-generation Latina woman, part of her purpose is sharing the beautiful aspects of her Mexican heritage and culture.
When speaking to young children at schools, Campos sees firsthand how much representation matters.
“I’ve had little kids just so excited that someone who speaks Spanish is doing this,” she said. “That’s the stuff that I think will have an impact that I’ll never be able to measure and that’s what makes me so happy.”
Campos has a lot of advice to share. She encourages students to consider their priorities and to remember that growth isn’t always going to be linear.
“Your career doesn’t have to be a ladder. Chances are, it’s going to be a jungle gym,” Campos said. “It’s okay to change your mind and try different things—in fact, I think curiosity is one of the most valuable skills you can have.”
April 10, 2024 | Kelly Youngblood
The College of Media is collaborating with University of Illinois and community partners to present educational workshops to local children this spring as part of a new public engagement effort.
The collaboration between the College of Media and the Center for Social and Behavioral Science focuses on creating hands-on educational content appropriate for 3rd– and 4th-grade students in the Don Moyer Boys & Girls Club of Champaign, which is housed at the Martens Center in Champaign.
“One of the College of Media’s priorities is to enhance our activities in public engagement and access,” said Jason P. Chambers, associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and professor of advertising. “Faculty and staff were eager to sign up to share their expertise in fun, engaging ways with schoolchildren.”
College of Media faculty are leading four programs in April, offering new opportunities in education and technology and helping students understand different media topics.
“This first-time collaboration between the University and the Martens Center is not just exciting but a big game changer for community outreach and education, providing a unique opportunity for the University of Illinois to deliver transformative experiences to our community,” said Paige Duncan, community engagement specialist at the Center for Social and Behavioral Science.
Duncan said the College of Media was selected as the pilot module for the CSBS area of programming because their goal is to give elementary school students an introduction to a breadth of science learning opportunities, including different concepts from the social and behavioral sciences.
“We are excited about the College of Media’s programming because it gives children a window into the making of different types of media, which is likely to increase their media literacy. We hope they will become better consumers of media—for example, in terms of judging the veracity of advertisements and movies,” Duncan said.
Steve Hall, senior lecturer in advertising, held the first workshop, about “Advertising for Good.”
“It was a remarkable opportunity to help [the children] learn how they have the ability to positively impact the world with their ideas, creativity, and advertising,” Hall said. “The kids were super energetic, enthusiastic, always asking questions, and full of insights.”
The joint effort between the University units, the Champaign Park District, and the Boys & Girls Club is part of the Chancellor’s Call-To-Action Campus-Community Compact to Accelerate Social Justice.
The College of Media workshops include:
Advertising for Good
Steve Hall, senior lecturer in advertising
Students will learn how advertising and creativity can be used for public and social good through the power of storytelling. Plus, a fun, hands-on creative challenge will allow students to generate their own ideas to create a positive impact in their own schools and communities.
Fly Like Harry Potter: How Green Screens Work
Victor Font, lecturer in media and cinema studies and Susan Muirhead, advertising staff and adjunct faculty
This hands-on workshop teaches students about the green screen process and how this technique is used in films. Students will be able to dress up in costume, pretend to fly on a broomstick, and then watch the editing process to remove the green background creating the final effect.
Advertising Literacy
Michelle Nelson, professor and head of the Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising, and Marisa Peacock, lecturer in advertising
This session will provide students with an understanding of the purpose and fun one can have with advertising. Through discussion, brainstorming, and hands-on activities, students will create an ad promoting healthy food products.
Introduction to Journalism and the Role of Reporters
Colleen King, director of the Richard and Leslie Frank Center for Leadership and Innovation in Media and clinical assistant professor in journalism, and Faith Lee, Mark L. Brandt Public Engagement Fellow and a junior in journalism
Following a presentation about what a journalist does, Genesis Bryant, a guard on the Illinois women’s basketball team will join the student group via Zoom for a Q&A. Using a guided worksheet, students will then write a story about the student athlete.
(Photos by Paige Duncan.)
After Party, a short film produced by alum Kat Williams (BS ’22, media and cinema studies), will be featured on Thursday, April 4, at the Knight Auditorium of Spurlock Museum, as part of the screening series presented by the Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies. This year’s Ebert Fellows, who curated the evening’s films, chose the 20-minute short to be shown before the main film screening of Portrait of a Lady on Fire.
Williams worked as producer for After Party in her first major project since graduating in 2022. Based in Chicago, Williams has held various production assistant roles in the independent movie scene.
In a recent interview, Williams described the making of the film and what her time at the University of Illinois taught her about filmmaking. Director Jonah Koslofsky also shared insights on Williams’ impact on After Party and what he hopes viewers will take away from the film.
What is After Party about?
Kat Williams: After Party is a short film about a group of college friends who haven’t seen each other in a while, coming back together post-COVID when we all started hanging out again outdoors. It looks at the changes in their relationships, their dynamics, and how they figure those out and move forward. It’s about connection. It’s about people. It’s about shenanigans.
What was the filmmaking process like?
Williams: I first met with director Jonah Koslofsky about this project in October of 2022 and then we started shooting in April of 2023. It was one week of production—we shot for five days. Before that, it was a lot of coordinating, ordering things, finding our location, finding our crew, stuff like that. Then we shot for a week and spent the next several months going through editing, color, sound, and music. This was my first time producing a project front-to-back like that, so it was very fun for me to really explore that and find out what this job is like.
In your role as producer, what did you do for this film specifically?
Williams: A producer really oversees the project from start to end. A lot of people, when they think of film production, think of just the days that you’re on set. But there’s so much more on the front end and on the back end of that. In the year that we spent working on this project, we were only on set for a week. As a producer, what I do on a day-to-day basis is start with doing a breakdown. You take the script and figure out what you need and then you have to figure out where to get things, and how much it’s going to cost. You start talking to potential crew members, people that you would trust to help you take this from page to screen. Things just kind of fall together. If you get the right people together, you can make anything happen and we were really lucky to have had a good group.
What did Kat Williams bring to the project?
Jonah Koslofsky: She provided essential feedback and encouragement as I was writing the script. Once the writing was complete, she organized and constructed the budget for the project, and then she and I coordinated the crowdfunding of said budget. She set up our Backstage page and provided valuable input throughout the casting process. She helped assemble our incredible crew and communicated with our entire team so that our shoot was able to come together. Then she found our editor, post-sound editor, and composer so that our post-production could be completed in a timely manner, and now, she’s devising our festival strategy and building our website and press materials.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of things Kat brought to the project, but more than anything else, she was a support for me and the whole movie when things became particularly stressful or uncertain. Whenever I found myself close to an edge, Kat was able to pull me back to stable ground and towards actually solving the problem. She always believed in the project, and worked day after day to make sure it did not fall apart. After Party would not exist without her.
What do you hope students take away from the film?
Koslofsky: I hope students enjoy the film! I hope that they are able to see themselves in the ensemble; I hope students recognize the experience of re-entering the world as the pandemic ended and finding oneself increasingly confused. I hope that they read into the film and draw their own conclusions—we were very particular with where certain shots start and end, how certain characters reflect each other. And I hope they laugh at the jokes.
How do you feel about something that you worked on being screened in Champaign-Urbana?
Williams: I’m so excited. I learned so much about what I do at the University of Illinois. It means a lot to me to get to share this with the campus community and to have the Ebert Fellows sharing this with Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which is one of my favorite movies and also a huge inspiration for the film. It means a lot to have this all coming together like this.
Koslofsky: Screening in Urbana is a huge honor. I love Champaign-Urbana, and I’m so excited to bring the film to the audience here. While the film is set in Chicago, it’s packed with Urbana DNA—in addition to Williams and myself, our director of photography Ella Lubienski is also an Urbana native. It’s a movie made by Urbana people, so it really makes sense to show it to Urbana people.
Are there any particular classes or experiences at the College of Media that helped you for this role?
Williams: I took MACS 100 with Dr. Amanda Ciafone, and realized I’m supposed to be studying movies and making them. That changed everything for me. I really loved all those MACS classes, and all of the professors were fantastic. Victor Font was also a huge help with teaching theory, and learning how to apply that on set, learning what all these positions are, what all the equipment is, and how to function on a set. I was also able to get a minor in critical film production, a minor in creative writing, and I got a certificate in international global studies. All of that has really come together in a way that I’m having a lot of fun with now and I get to use those skills all the time, which is exciting.
What advice do you have for MACS and College of Media students?
Williams: I think the biggest thing is just talking to people—find your people, use your network, make friends. And just have fun with it. Because for me, the whole reason that I started doing this was because I wanted work to be fun and I wanted to enjoy what I’m doing and have something beautiful at the end of it that I can show people.
—Vivian La, Communications Intern
April 2, 2024 | NPR Illinois
There are biases in AI in how it works, biases in the data that we feed to the AI to train them, there are biases in the way in which AI is being used and implemented, and then there are also biases and psychological processes at the psychological level that we bring naturally when we interact with AI technology.
Mike Yao, Professor of Digital Media
Mike Yao, professor of digital media in the Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising and director of the Institute of Communications Research, explained to NPR’s Community Voices how AI bias is generated by humans and reflects back what it learns from inputs humans provide it. He also discussed how AI can be helpful when designed with human needs in mind.
March 29, 2024 | Kelly Youngblood
(Photos by Charles “Stretch” Ledford.)
A group of journalism students heard harrowing stories from the local women they interviewed while filming a documentary about period poverty in Sierra Leone, West Africa, over spring break.
“Girls talked of being bullied at school when they got their period. Mothers talked about the struggle to have enough money to feed their children,” said Alison Davis, a lecturer in journalism who co-led the trip with Charles “Stretch” Ledford, associate professor of journalism.
While difficult to hear, students hope sharing these stories will shed light on a widespread global issue known as period poverty, which refers to a substantial negative impact on one’s quality of life due to shame, economic destitution, and/or religious and cultural taboos associated with menstruation.
“All women have periods, but not all women have access to period products,” said Elena Cleary, a junior in agricultural communications. “It is my privilege to be able to share the stories of the most amazing, resilient, and kind-hearted women I have ever met.”
The forthcoming documentary, From Shame to Celebration: Sierra Leonean Women Reframe the Culture of Menstruation, focuses on a local woman-led grassroots organization called Uman Tok, which employs 18 women at a living wage to provide sustainable feminine health kits to women and girls around the country. In addition to making tangible progress to alleviate period poverty and menstrual exclusion, Uman Tok is educating a generation of girls and boys on sexual and reproductive health awareness.
The film will feature interviews with a nurse midwife, the headmistress of a small semi-private school just outside of Freetown, and girls at the school who speak about the challenges they face as young women.
The reporting trip is part of a new pilot class in the Department of Journalism, led by Davis and Ledford. They hope the class, “Globally Focused Advanced Documentary Filmmaking,” will be offered by the journalism department each spring semester.
The spring 2024 pilot class was executed in collaboration with Dr. Sophie King-Hill of the University of Birmingham (UK) and Dr. Francis Sowa of Fourah Bay College in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Ledford originally conceptualized the class as a research and learning lab where advanced journalism students would develop and apply their skills as documentary filmmakers and multimedia backpack journalists to report on issues of pressing international concern, especially in the Global South. Davis, who has over 25 years of experience producing nationally distributed documentaries, is mentoring the students in the process of creating their first long-form video story.
Illinois students partnered with four honors broadcast journalism students from Fourah Bay College to shoot primary footage for the film.
Ledford said he hoped the experience would be as beneficial for the Sierra Leonean students as it was for those from Illinois.
Fourah Bay student Hannah Yankson described her experience as amazing as well as enlightening.
“As a media practitioner, I have been reporting on issues in the country, but this experience is one I will never forget,” Yankson said. “We got the chance to know about their classes at [the University of Illinois] and how journalism is practiced on their side, and they also learned from our side as to how our university operates.”
Stella Bangura, also a Fourah Bay student, said learning how to use the equipment was somewhat difficult, but the Illinois team was helpful.
“This was really an important exposure and experience for us,” she said. “It was highly meaningful as we enriched ourselves with [new] ideas and different knowledge.”
Illinois students left for Sierra Leone on March 6 and returned March 16. For five days they worked on production of the film, conducting interviews, and shooting B-roll in Freetown and nearby Allen Town. They also took a day to tour Bunce Island, a major transit point for West Africans who had been imprisoned and were destined for slavery in the Americas.
Ledford, who has worked in nearly 60 countries in the last 40 years, said traveling to a developing country can present numerous issues and this experience was no different.
“The challenges were myriad and nearly unceasing. Everything from powering our equipment to finding quiet places to interview our subjects in a crowded, cacophonous city; from dealing with lack of Internet connectivity to keeping our team fed and hydrated over many hours in the field; not to mention the abundance of various fauna unfamiliar to our students,” he said.
While the work was stressful and exhausting, with students and instructors working up to 20 hours a day, Ledford said it was also rewarding and infused with laughter and tears of both joy and utter sadness.
“Time will tell the true impact the assignment had on them,” Ledford said.
Maggie Knutte, a junior in journalism, said the experience left a lasting impression on her.
“The subjects we were interviewing and working with were some of the most amazing women I have ever had the privilege of meeting,” Knutte said. “Now after coming home, I feel so honored that I am able to help tell their stories to the world. They are some of the kindest people I have ever met, despite living with hardships I could not imagine.”
For Faith Lee, a junior in journalism, the trip was the most fulfilling week of her life.
“Being a part of this project has not only made me a better storyteller and journalist, but a better human being,” Lee said. “I hope our work will show that period poverty is not just a Sierra Leonean issue, but a global issue.”
Davis said the week abroad was one of the most rewarding weeks of her teaching career and praised the work ethic and talent of the Illinois and Fourah Bay students who had to put their classroom knowledge to the test, making quick decisions under pressure, working in an uncontrolled environment, and dealing with the physical challenges of 90+ degree heat with no air conditioning.
She said the students also had to get comfortable asking extremely hard questions and then processing the sometimes-difficult information they gathered.
“These women shared their stories because of the foundation of trust our students built with them. This is probably what I am most proud of—that our students, including those from Fourah Bay College, conducted these hard interviews with grace,” Davis said.
Davis and Ledford intend to build on their relationship with Fourah Bay College faculty and students and continue to tell the story of Sierra Leonians working locally to mitigate the impact of the global problem of period poverty, and of other woman-led solutions to issues as framed by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
A chapter of the documentary, From Shame to Celebration: Sierra Leonian Women Reframe the Culture of Menstruation, will premiere on the web on May 28, 2024, which is recognized worldwide as Menstrual Hygiene Day. Their goal is for the full feature to be seen locally and nationally on PBS member stations, the BBC, and broadcast in Sierra Leone.
The project is funded by:
See more photos from the class’s visit to Sierra Leone.
March 29, 2024
Roger Ebert’s Film Festival is pleased to announce its full program, with the additions of the documentary Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi, the Audience Choice film Cookie’s Fortune, the indie cult classic Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and a panel with the Little Indian Girl Collective.
Ebertfest, celebrating its 25th anniversary, will be held from Wednesday, April 17, through Saturday, April 20, 2024, at the Virginia Theatre, 203 W. Park, in downtown Champaign. Individual tickets are now on sale.
Kaoru Ishibashi, renowned singer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter who performs under the name Kishi Bashi will join Ebertfest to discuss a documentary he co-directed, Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi. When a media interview links the Muslim ban and the immigration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border with the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during WWII, he goes on a journey to learn about this history and its relevance to better understand his own identity as a bi-cultural American.
After polling Ebertfest fans, this year’s Audience Choice film winner is Cookie’s Fortune, a 1999 American noir comedy film directed by Robert Altman and starring Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Liv Tyler, Patricia Neal, Charles S. Dutton, and Chris O’Donnell. The award-winning film, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 1999, follows a dysfunctional family in small-town Mississippi and the conflicts that arise after the death of their wealthy aunt. Roger Ebert described the film as the “kind of comedy with a lot of laughs, and even more smiles.”
The Little Indian Girl Collective will present a panel on “Women Who Embody Revolution Through Storytelling.” In the midst of the climate crisis, fast-paced news, social media, and increasing disconnection, hope is found in community-driven stories. Little Indian Girl, a new storytelling collective, discusses the future of storytelling and the power of narrative sovereignty with women, Indigenous and two-spirit artists, and Earth guardians who embody revolution through art. A song featuring Indian and Intuit throat singing traditions will be performed.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), an American science fiction, romantic drama film directed by Michel Gondry, will be screened at this year’s festival. The film, which stars Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, follows two individuals who undergo a procedure to erase each other from their memories following the dissolution of their relationship. Based on Charlie Kaufman’s screenplay, and a story by Michel Gondry, Kaufman, and Pierre Bismuth, Roger Ebert gave the film high praise with 4 stars. “The wisdom in Eternal Sunshine is how it illuminates the way memory interacts with love. We more readily recall pleasure than pain,” Ebert wrote. Bismuth, Gondry, and Kaufman won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, and Winslet received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. A cult classic, it’s considered by many critics to be one of the best films of the 2000s. Kaufman was a past Ebertfest guest in 2010 with the first film he directed, Synecdoche, New York.
Matthew Singer, author of Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever, will also be a special guest at the festival and will sign copies of his book.
This year’s festival will be dedicated to film historian David Bordwell, a past Ebertfest guest and the Jacques Ledoux Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and to Ebertfest’s namesake, Roger Ebert, on this milestone occasion of the festival’s 25th anniversary. Bordwell, who passed away on February 29, 2024, wrote the foreword for two of Ebert’s books, Awake in the Dark and The Great Movies III.
Please see previous 2024 press releases and ebertfest.com to get additional information about the filmmakers and musicians attending, including Michael Barker, Eric Roberts, Renee Elise Goldsberry , Lynn Whitfield, Malcolm D. Lee, Andrew Davis, Lisa Cortes, Christine Swanson, Michael Swanson, Larry Karazewski, Scott Alexander, Diane Moore, Rana Segal, Roderick Cox, Gingger Shankar, Richie Davis, and many more.
The final program schedule is:
Wednesday, April 17
6:30 p.m.—Star 80
Thursday, April 18
9:30 a.m.—Little Indian Girl Collective Panel
11 a.m.—Conducting Life / The Light of Truth: Richard Hunt’s Monument to Ida B. Wells (double short film presentation)
3 p.m.—Stony Island
8 p.m.—The Teachers’ Lounge
Friday, April 19
9 a.m.—Cookie’s Fortune
1:30 p.m.—Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
4:30 p.m.—Little Richard: I Am Everything
9:30 p.m.—The Best Man
Saturday, April 20
9:30 a.m.—Blackmail featuring the Anvil Orchestra
1 p.m.—Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi
4 p.m.—Albany Road
9 p.m.—Man on the Moon
Ebertfest passes are currently available to purchase online or by calling the box office at 217-356-9063. Individual festival passes to see all films cost $200, which includes reserved seating. New this year are 4-film passes for $70: choose between an Evening Pass or a Saturday Pass.
Roger Ebert was a Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, University of Illinois journalism alumnus, and Urbana native. Ebertfest is a collaboration between his widow, Ebert Digital CEO Chaz Ebert, and the University of Illinois College of Media.
For additional information, please visit ebertfest.com and follow Ebertfest on social media:
To become a supporting Festival Sponsor please contact Molly Cornyn, the Festival Coordinator, at mcornyn2@illinois.edu.
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PRESS CONTACTS:
Molly Cornyn, mcornyn2@illinois.edu, 217-333-1590
March 27, 2024 | Kelly Youngblood
A group of College of Media students participated in a spring break media tour in Chicago, meeting Illinois alumni and visiting various industry sites including advertising agencies, news organizations, and a film studio.
Led by faculty members Victor Font, lecturer in media and cinema studies, and Margaret Ng, assistant professor in journalism, seven students attended the three-day trip, held March 10-12.
The inaugural trip was an experiential learning opportunity for students to discover more about media-related careers firsthand.
Bekah Douglas, a junior in media and cinema studies, described the trip as a “once-in-a-lifetime journey” and credits her family and College of Media donors for making the trip possible.
“I was so lucky to attend the College of Media’s spring break trip and have the chance to meet with the artists that make Chicago (and the world) a better place. The opportunity to travel outside of the classroom, to network, to explore the possibilities of media is priceless,” Douglas said.
For Douglas, visiting the Lyric Opera of Chicago to participate in a press announcement for the 2024 season with Holly Gilson and her PR staff and touring the opera house, was her favorite memory.
“I have been a devoted opera fan for many years, so getting to learn the history behind the building and hearing from the artists who make the shows possible was very emotional for me,” Douglas said.
Ng also enjoyed the opera house, where students had the chance to sit on stage alongside professional journalists and watch brief vocal performances that previewed the upcoming season.
“Witnessing the opera house’s level of preparation was a captivating experience. Additionally, observing reporters at work during a press conference taught us a great deal about media coverage of the arts,” Ng said.
Students also met alumna Judy Hsu (BS ’93, journalism), ABC7 evening news anchor, along with other anchors and hosts, and watched a live news broadcast (pictured at right).
“We were right behind the camera, watching the entire hour-long program unfold,” said Ng. “[The anchors] interacted with the students during the short off-camera intervals. They were so friendly and easygoing, yet they could swiftly transition back to delivering news concisely and professionally within a few seconds. I was deeply impressed by their focus and professionalism.”
Gavin Schroeder, a senior in media and cinema studies, said the trip was not only fun but informative. He enjoyed meeting other Media students and talking with professionals in their respective fields.
“[The trip] opened my mind to the similarities that people in the workforce experience. What I took away most was the advice on how to assert yourself and stand out, along with knowing how to work in a team environment,” he said.
Schroeder said meeting with communications staff and touring McDonald’s International Headquarters was impressive. As an aspiring filmmaker, the highlight of the trip for him was a meet and greet with Gordon Quinn, founder of Kartemquin Films (pictured at right).
Penny Bradford, a junior in journalism, was also inspired by a visit to the production studio. She said Quinn’s dedication to public media and storytelling allowed her to see a career she had not yet considered.
“Overall, the trip brought unique experiences and allowed us to connect with [alumni] of the University, along with others that are currently in positions we may want to see ourselves [in],” Bradford said.
Payton Jarzyna, a senior in advertising, said the trip sparked excitement as she will soon enter the workforce.
“I learned about a lot of fields I didn’t even realize I could go into. I also learned more about the job application process, and how to stand out as a candidate,” Jarzyna said. “The businesses we visited and the people we talked to were super knowledgeable and helpful.”
The itinerary also included conversations with:
In addition, students were invited behind the scenes to see: