Students from the College of Media are participating in the 16th annual University of Illinois Undergraduate Research Symposium, held Thursday, April 27, in the Illini Union. The symposium features presentations, posters, and performances from students across campus. (View the program.)
Pictured above is “Yellow Hollywood” by Alex Gallegos, a sophomore in media and cinema studies, who was a semi-finalist in the Image of Research competition. Read his description about his image, which was inspired by the film Everything Everywhere All At Once. The winners’ and semi-finalists’ images are on display as part of the symposium.
Media student poster presentations include:
“Bilingual Computational Analysis of the #nosabokid Hashtag Community on TikTok” (#89) 9:00 AM – 10:15 AM, Illini Union South Lounge
Research Mentor: Hyunseo (Violet) Yoon, Recreation, Sport & Tourism
“In A League of Their Own: A Study of Peer Attitudes Toward F-1 Visa Holders” (#62)
J. Sidney Malone, Senior, Political Science and Journalism
Research Mentor: Yujeong Yang, Political Science
“Yellow Hollywood: Disparities, Representation and Contemporary Problems of Asian/Asian Americans in the Hollywood Film Industry” 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM, Illini Union Room 217
Alex Gallegos, Sophomore, Media & Cinema Studies
Research Mentor: Rachel Kuo, Assistant Professor, Media & Cinema Studies
“International Expansion of Netflix: The Case for South Korea” (#18) 3:45 – 5:00 PM, Illini Room A
Yun Hyuk (Alex) Choi, Senior, Media & Cinema Studies
Research Mentor: Rachel Kuo, Assistant Professor, Media & Cinema Studies
As part of the Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program to assist advanced graduate students with their research projects, Nancy Zhang, a freshman in computer science + advertising, worked with research mentor Hyunseo Yoon in the Department of Recreation, Sport & Tourism.
Jenny Oyallon-Koloski, assistant professor of media and cinema studies, was the research mentor for Gehan Jia, a junior in mathematics and computer science (LAS) for their presentation on “Howl’s Moving Castle Moving.”
The American Academy of Advertising held its annual conference March 23-26 in Denver, Colorado, where five faculty from the Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising and graduate students in advertising and from the Institute of Communications Research presented papers, led panel discussions, and won awards.
Sela Sar, professor of advertising and director of the Institute of Communications Research, completed his term as president of the AAA and will remain on the executive committee until March 2024.
(Pictured at top: Professor Sela Sar, ICR doctoral student Dongchan Lee, advertising graduate student Prativa Subedi, and Associate Professor Chang-Dae Ham.)
AWARDS & HONORS
Journal of Interactive Advertising Best Article of the Year Associate Professor Chang-Dae Ham (pictured above, at right) and Ayoung Seok (advertising graduate student), along with Joonghwa Lee (University of North Dakota) and Soojung Kim (University of North Dakota), were part of a collaboration that won a “Best Article” award at the conference for “Avoidance and Acceptance of Native Advertising on Social Media: Applications of Consumer Social Intelligence, Persuasion Knowledge, and the Typology of Consumer Responses.”
Chen (Crystal) Chen (ICR doctoral student, pictured above) and ICR alumni Xiaohan (Catherine) Hu (PhD ’22), Xiaoyu (Zoe) Xu (PhD ’22), and Regina Jihea Ahn (PhD ’18) were part of collaborations that won research grants at the conference:
Chen, Hu, Xu, “Investigating the Effects of Social Presence and Perceived Autonomy in Chatbot Advertising”
Ahn and Joonghwa Lee (University of North Dakota), “Social Influence and Its Impact on Influencers’ Content Strategies on Instagram: From a Nano-Influencers”
In addition, Chen (Crystal) Chen and Olga Shabalina (ICR doctoral student) were awarded special travel grants from AAA.
PRESENTATIONS
Presentations by faculty and students included:
“Bridging Research and Practice: Advertising’s Role in Promoting Sustainability,” co-presented by Professor Sela Sar, among others
“How Neutralization Affects Subsequent Prosocial Behaviors: The Roles of Materialism and Moral Identity,” presented by WooJin Kim (ICR doctoral student) and Seo Jeong Heo (ICR doctoral student)
“Self-construal and Green Online Behavioral Advertising: The Moderating Role of Algorithmic Awareness and the Mediating Role of Self-esteem,” presented by Dongchan Lee (ICR doctoral student) and Professor Sela Sar
“Disentangling Control and Personalization: Exploring the Effects of Ad Choice and Ad Personalization in Digital Advertising Effectiveness,” co-presented by Professor Kevin Wise
“The Effects of Personalized Social Media Political Advertising on Attitude Formation: The Role of Personality and Political Orientation,” co-presented by Assistant Professor Ewa Maslowska, among others
“Constructing a ‘Metaverse’ Typology based on Affordances and Psychological Processes: A Systematic Literature Review,” presented by Professor Michelle Nelson, and ICR doctoral students Chen (Crystal) Chen, Yan (Anna) Liu, Jingyu Liu, Veranika Paltaratskaya, and Prativa Subedi (advertising graduate student)
“Computational Approaches to Advertising Research: Ongoing and Emerging Challenges and Lessons,” co-presented by Assistant Professor Ewa Maslowska, among others
“Understanding and Increasing Everyday Persuasion Knowledge about Political Advertising,” co-presented by Professor Michelle Nelson, Kirby Cook (ICR doctoral student), Associate Professor Change-Dae Ham, and Veranika Paltaratskaya (ICR doctoral student)
“The Future of Dataveillance in Advertising Theory and Practice,” moderated by Associate Professor Chang-Dae Ham and co-presented by Hari Sundaram (ICR doctoral student), among others
“Exploring Screen-Ad Congruence Effects on Visual Aesthetics and Ad Likeability in Social Media,” co-presented by Olga Shabalina (ICR doctoral student) and Professor Michelle Nelson
“Is Artificial Intelligence (AI) Superior to Human?: Rethinking the Role of Agent Knowledge in Perceived Autonomy, Superordinate Intentions, and Coping Mechanism with Influencer Marketing,” presented by Dongchan Lee (ICR doctoral student) and Associate Professor Chang-Dae Ham
Get to know some of our College of Media faculty. Josh Heuman is a teaching assistant professor in the Department of Media & Cinema Studies and the Department of Journalism. He received the 2022 College of Media Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching by a Specialized Faculty Member.
What is your favorite class to teach? We’re not supposed to have favorites, like you don’t have a favorite child. Usually, we get to teach courses that we want to teach. Even when you are teaching something that you didn’t necessarily pick yourself, you find the interest in each class you teach.
I do enjoy all the courses I teach, but Creative and Information Economies (MACS 264) is probably my favorite because it’s a material that’s closest to my own work and it is always changing. This course gives a broad introduction to media industries. We take a really close look at film, music, and television industries. I think part of the fun of the course is looking at things that cut across all different kinds of media industries. So before too long in the course, we’ll talk about things like labor markets and geographies of media industries, allowing lots of interesting comparisons.
What are some other classes that you teach? I usually teach the History of American Journalism course (JOUR 205), and then this semester I’ve just started the Media Law course (JOUR 311), which is really exciting for me; that’s what I taught at other universities in the past.
What are some projects that you are involved in? The big project that I’m interested in pursuing over the long term is looking at the historical development of radio and television and writing, and especially the way that we come to the role of the radio and television writer as a professional. I think in a lot of cases, when we do look back on the history of radio and television writing, or other kinds of writing as well, we’re telling the stories of the triumph of art or the defeat of art, as if that’s what that kind of work should be.
When you go back to the beginnings of the field, they were very ambivalent about this ideal of art. I think looking more closely at how early radio and television writers imagine themselves, how they were shaped by outside forces, gives a much more complicated picture of what that role was at the time.
What are some past projects of yours? I think a lot of my projects revolve around questions of industry and regulation. By looking at television writers’ contracts and the idea of the figure of the showrunner is really interesting. This really reflects specific transformations in television. I am also interested in writers as it relates to authorship and ownership of series formats.
How do you conduct your research? I think with different projects, it works out in different ways. Usually, I find myself looking at documents from a particular time period. I’m really thinking about radio and television writing. I was just flipping through Writer’s Digest—the writer magazines with amateur writers from the ’20s through the ’60s, and just seeing what they’re saying. I was thinking about two questions: How does one do radio and then television writing? What are the characteristics of a radio or television writer and the way that that gets defined in those materials for aspiring writers?
What made you want to teach? I think going to graduate school and having the excitement of looking at these complex systems that shape our world and the interest of working within those systems was something that has always been present in my life. Media is incredibly interesting. I also think that when I was entering into graduate school was a particular moment when media and cultural studies were colliding. If you wanted to know about the world, the field of media and cultural studies was and is an especially exciting place to work. I’m really glad to be in Illinois and teaching the kind of students who are really engaged, really interested.
What is some advice you want to give to students? Be curious. Sleep well. Watch and listen and play and read as much as you can. I think we forget that part of our cultural citizenship is not watching everything, but try to watch and listen widely, you have to be in it to win it. I think too often when opportunities are put in front of us, there’s a tendency to say, “Oh, that’s not for me.”
Talk to your teachers. I feel like it doesn’t happen a lot, but if things are going wrong, better communication would help solve those problems. If things are going right, we can help you reach that next level.
Get to know some of our College of Media alumni. Steven Pratten (BS ’15, media and cinema studies) is a senior digital media manager at the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Pratten also participated in a Media Career Night alumni panel on “Digital Communication” in Spring 2023. Watch a recording of the session here.
When did you know that you wanted to study media and cinema studies? In junior high, my fascination with local TV production began. I was amazed by how networks could produce multiple shows in a day with such fast turnaround. Being from Champaign-Urbana, WCIA News was a local network that I noticed played an essential role in informing and creating a sense of community in the smaller market. This sparked my passion for media, and I even created a small news set in my basement where I forced my friends to act as reporters and anchors. Although, it may seem outdated, editing on tape gave me a solid technical foundation in media. In high school, my interest in media evolved into my affinity for horror movies. I would make 50-hour-long horror movies, about one per year, and even focused on advanced editing, which became one of my favorite things. I also started to explore graphic design and marketing by creating posters for my movies. When it was time to consider college, the media and cinema studies major in the College of Media caught my attention. I knew it was the ideal fit for me since the University of Illinois is a world-class university in my hometown. I had the opportunity to join different clubs, work at WILL/Illinois Public Media, and freelanced on the side. These experiences, along with my education, gave me the technical and theoretical skills I needed to succeed in my career after graduation.
How do you think the College of Media prepared you for your career? Through the College of Media and the media and cinema studies program, I was exposed to a wide range of media. This experience equipped me with the tools to consume media with the understanding that everything in media exists within the context of its time and its creators. The audience shapes how it’s received. This understanding prepared me for my experience in content creation, where I had to craft my messages in a way that resonated with the target audience and created an impactful experience for them.
Moreover, being involved in the College of Media provided me with various opportunities, including participating in Ebertfest, joining different RSOs, and serving as a student ambassador. It gave me insight to all the different paths I could pursue in my career. It was a very well-rounded program that had plenty of specific things you would take away, while giving you the opportunity to mold it into your own experience.
What are one or two skills that you think a Media student needs to be successful? The media industry is a rapidly evolving field, not just in terms of technical advancement in camera or platforms, but also in the changing channels of consumption, audience preferences, and shifting demographics. Therefore, the ability to learn and adapt is crucial, and it’s more important than simply possessing knowledge. Instead, you should look ahead and think about what will make yourself, your work, or your organization stand out. As the competition for audience attention increases, having a forward-thinking outlook on the future is becoming increasingly necessary.
What are your responsibilities as senior digital media manager? I’m responsible for ensuring that the Gies College of Business produces high quality, pedagogically sound video content for our global audience of learners. I manage a group of video producers and graphic designers that make that content and ensure that it is up to the standards of Illinois Gies College of Business. Ultimately, our goal is to make sure our videos teach and educate people. We create dynamic and engaging video content while maintaining its educational value.
Apart from this, I also handle typical aspects of the media industry such as ensuring projects hit crucial milestones and forecasting potential issues. If a milestone is missed, we evaluate how we can work through any constraints to produce high-quality content.
Project management is another big part of my job. I place great value on supporting our staff by providing them with the necessary resources and tools to reach their full potential and bring their best work to the table.
In addition, a significant portion of my attention is focused on the development of a new production building, Steven S. Wymer Hall. This building will have two 40-by-40 production sound stages, and we are designing them in a way that will enhance our content and expand its capabilities. It’s exciting to build a future workplace that my team is eager to be a part of.
What advice would you give to students who are graduating soon from the College of Media? Graduation is an exciting time, but it can also bring about anxiety. It marks the beginning of a new chapter in your life. My advice is to allow your interests to guide you to your first job or jobs. It’s easy to become fixated on job titles, salaries, or locations, but true fulfillment and success come from having a genuine interest in your work. Allowing your interests to guide your career choices will set you up for sustainable success throughout your professional life. Don’t be afraid to take on unknown roles, as you never know where they may take you. Use your internal passion as a compass as you embark on your professional journey!
Update 5/10/2023: The MACS Student Showcase program is now available to watch online:
See Program, Credits, and Timestamps
MACS 150: Intro to Digital Media Production 00:00:18 – Alma (Ethan Hill, Kara Yoo, and Ben Shlau) 00:04:33 – The Radio Doctor (Eleni Sakas, Caroline Tadla, Roderick Carbins, and Juliana Chang) 00:11:25 – The Indelible Goodbye (Andrew Stover, Ryan Pasterz, and Raegan Gooding) 00:16:07 – Strawberry (Paul Duarte-Noe, Jiyayi Jing, Yuhan Zhou, and Nick Chan) 00:20:33 – Drink of Fate (Gavin Schroeder, Joey Chan, and Emily Kunst) 00:24:23 – Specter’s Market (Jasper Chang, Miles Gregory, Amy Bradu, and Sierra McKeiver)
MACS 199: Documentary and Social Change 00:29:21 – One Big Midwestern University: “Anti-Transgender Hate Speech” (Ryan Boyd-Sharpe)
MACS 205: Introduction to Documentary 00:44:47 – Romanian Communist Propaganda – A Personal and Archival Perspective (Francesca Dumitrescu)
MACS 260: Film Production 00:55:43 – Ready Set Action (Mike Besler) 01:04:53 – The Bookkeeper (Mara Smith and Mark Magallanes) 01:13:05 – The Sharpie, the Sheet, and the Sapphic (Michelle Wang) 01:20:12 – Crumbs of Deception (Max Szykowny and Akkhiel Nambbiar) 01:26:34 – Still Damp (Jake Vanoss)
MACS 284: Animated Media from Mickey to GIFs 01:56:31 – How to Make a Song Out of Clay (Matt Fanelli) 01:58:27 – Fossils (Sam Fisher)
MACS 485: Making Video Essays 02:01:23 – Howl’s Moving Castle Moving (Nancy Jia) 02:05:21 – [Un]Framing Movement: [Non]Action Cinema of King Hu (Tingyu Chen)
MACS 370: Cinematography and Sound 02:08:49 – Time to Remember…Time to Forget (Cameron Taylor and Samarth Taneja) 02:19:08 – Life is No Picnic (Michelle Husain)
MACS 480: Advanced Filmmaking 02:31:49 – St. Anthony’s Fire (Michelle Husain, Mark Magallanes, Mara Smith, and Cameron Taylor)
The Department of Media & Cinema Studies presents the inaugural MACS Student Showcase, featuring faculty-curated work created by students in MACS classes throughout the academic year.
The event, which celebrates student media production, will be held on Saturday, May 6, at 7 p.m. in the Knight Auditorium of Spurlock Museum. The showcase will screen more than a dozen film projects and a podcast excerpt representing eight different MACS courses, all produced by both individual and groups of students.
Derek Long, assistant professor of media and cinema studies, said the idea for the event originated from faculty discussions about the “sheer amount of excellent student work” coming out of the program.
“MACS faculty wanted to celebrate all the amazing experiential work that our students are doing in our program,” Long said. “As faculty, we wanted to put on an event showing off our students’ impressive work to a bigger audience than just their instructor and class.”
The showcase is also an opportunity to share the world premiere of the MACS 480: Advanced Filmmaking short St. Anthony’s Fire. Advanced Filmmaking, taught by Victor Font, lecturer of media and cinema studies, is one of the capstone production courses where students work as a production team for an entire semester to produce a professional 27-minute short film.
“As you can imagine, the students who have been working on St. Anthony’s Fire for months and months are very excited about being able to share their film with friends, family, and the general public for the first time,” Long said.
Faculty chose the best student-produced work received in their classes from last fall and this spring, aiming to showcase a variety of work, including projects that exemplified excellent technical and aesthetical aspects as well as a compelling subject or theme. Long said they also tried to represent a diverse range of genres, approaches, and student voices.
“Cutting all the work we receive in an academic year down to a selection of just over two hours was a big challenge,” he said. “There was lots of excellent student work that we just didn’t have time to include.”
Long said they hope to be able to include more podcast and digital media work in future showcases.
Jill Wine-Banks (BS ’64, journalism), MSNBC legal analyst, author, and podcast co-host, is excited to return to the University of Illinois to serve as the alumni speaker at the College of Media Convocation ceremony on Sunday, May 14—marking her first visit back to campus in 44 years.
“Obviously the University has changed a good deal since 1979 and so I’m very much looking forward to seeing the physical campus, walking around to see what’s happened to my sorority house, to the library, Kam’s, and Greg Hall, of course,” Wine-Banks said. “But mostly I remember my friends and professors.”
She also plans to visit Krannert Center for the Performing Arts as well as the Alma Mater statue and the Quad, just a few of the many landmarks that come to mind when she recalls her time on campus.
“Those are the kind of things that I think of, but I also think of all the doors that the University opened for me,” Wine-Banks said. “If it hadn’t been for a good education at UIUC, I wouldn’t have gotten into an Ivy League law school, I wouldn’t have become a journalist now, or a lawyer before that. I’m grateful for the education I got.”
Wine-Banks says after graduation, gender discrimination was prevalent in journalism, and she was only offered jobs to write for the “women’s pages,” so she decided to attend the prestigious Columbia Law School in New York to improve her chances of being considered for more hard news opportunities.
“I ended up in law school to get a better job in journalism, and it worked 50 years later,” she said.
Wine-Banks started her notable law career as the first woman to serve as an organized crime prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Less than five years later, she was named one of the three Assistant Watergate Special Prosecutors, and the only woman, for the obstruction of justice trial against President Nixon’s top aides. She became a major player in the Watergate tapes hearing that preceded the trial, cross-examining Rose Mary Woods, President Nixon’s secretary, about the 18 ½-minute gap in a key White House recording.
She also had a couple of female role models who inspired her, including an early pioneer in television journalism, Nancy Hanschman Dickerson, whom she heard speak during her freshman year at the University of Illinois. A couple of years later Wine-Banks represented her sorority Iota Alpha Pi at a national convention in New York and visited the United Nations where she saw UN correspondent Pauline Frederick. Seeing these two women excelling in their exciting careers had a big impact on Wine-Banks.
“I’d have to say that both of those women influenced me, as did [Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and New York Times columnist] Anthony Lewis,” she said.
Her legal career also includes service as the first female General Counsel of the U.S. Army where she helped integrate women into the Regulate Army by eliminating the Women’s Army Corps, and into West Point; as the first Solicitor General of Illinois where she argued in the U.S. Supreme Court and first female Deputy Attorney General; and as the executive vice president and chief operating officer of the American Bar Association, the only woman to have held that position.
In addition to her post at MSNBC, Wine-Banks is also co-host of two Politicon podcasts: #SistersInLaw with three other MSNBC contributors discussing the hottest legal issues of the week, and iGen Politics with a 21-year-old college junior bringing an intergenerational approach to political issues, interviewing leading politicians, cabinet officers, activists, and journalists.
She describes her podcast iGen Politics as a dream come true because “anybody who I can think of [to interview] I can call, and they say yes.” Some of her most memorable interviewees include former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof, along with numerous senators and Congress members.
Wine-Banks is also the author of a memoir, The Watergate Girl, that was optioned by Katie Holmes to become a movie, and is beginning work on a second book that looks at the Trump administration through her pins, a tradition with its own hashtag: #JillsPins.
“I have always loved brooches as accessories. You will see in my high school yearbook, I’m wearing a pin. If you look carefully at the Watergate pictures [taken during the trial], I’m wearing pins,” Wine-Banks said.
During her first appearance on MSNBC to discuss an op-ed piece she wrote, she donned a pin of an eagle holding a shield.
Viewers went to Twitter, which was new to her at the time, to ask about the pin and Wine-Banks realized simply wearing the pin had the power to send a message. Now she finds pins at flea markets, antique shows, Etsy, and frequently receives them as gifts from her followers.
For the Media convocation ceremony, Wine-Banks has already set aside an “Illinois” pin to wear.
Congratulations to all of the College of Media faculty and teaching assistants who were ranked as excellent by their students!
This list is based on Instructor and Course Evaluation System (ICES) questionnaire forms completed by students during the Fall 2022 semester. Only those instructors who distributed ICES forms at least once during this time period and who released their data for publication are included in the list. View the complete list.
Note: * denotes that the instructor ratings were outstanding.
Producer Lawrence Bender (‘Pulp Fiction’) brings ‘Fresh’ perspective to Ebertfest, along with Michael Morris with ‘To Leslie,’ and Shoah collaboration ‘My Name Is Sara’
Festival closes with empathic film ‘Forrest Gump’ with guest Mykelti Williamson
Roger Ebert’s Film Festival is pleased to announce the full lineup of films and accompanying filmmakers who will participate in the post-screening discussions at the 23rd annual event, which runs April 19-22 at the Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign.
As this year marks the 10th anniversary of Roger Ebert’s death, the program reflects his guiding principle of empathy, said Chaz Ebert, who co-founded and hosts Ebertfest.
“In Roger’s memory, we will gather together in what Roger has called the temple of cinema to reaffirm our connections to each other,” said Chaz Ebert.
The program for Ebertfest 2023, “Empathy at the Movies,” includes 11 films, two shorts, 20+ guests, and two musical performances:
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19
6:30 P.M. NINE DAYS (2020) This ultra-original American fantasy drama Nine Days considers the meaning of life as potential souls audition for the chance to be born. In the RogerEbert.com review, the film was praised for centering questions around “the eternal issues of the human condition: What does it mean to be alive? How do we appreciate life while we are here? Is it even possible?” The film won the Sundance Film Festival’s Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award in the U.S. Dramatic competition.
Guests
Director Edson Oda After a series of award-winning short films and music videos, Japanese Brazilian writer and director Edson Oda made his film directorial debut with Nine Days. Based in Los Angeles, Oda is a BAFTA Breakthrough alum, a Sundance Screenwriters Lab alum, and a Latin Grammy-nominated director for best music video.
Producer Jason Michael Berman President of Mandalay Pictures, Jason Michael Berman has produced feature films that have premiered at Cannes Film Festival, SXSW, Sundance Film Festival, and others. His latest film, Air, about Michael Jordan’s partnership with Nike, will be released in April. He also helped to develop the Sundance Institute’s film financing program called Catalyst. An alum of University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, he is now an adjunct professor there.
THURSDAY, APRIL 20
9:30 A.M. TOKYO STORY (1953) This year’s selection from the Ebertfest audience choice movie poll is Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story. In Roger Ebert’s review of the film—which he called “one of the greatest films of all time”—he wrote, “Ozu is not only a great director but a great teacher, and after you know his films, a friend. With no other director do I feel affection for every single shot. … It ennobles the cinema. It says, yes, a movie can help us make small steps against our imperfections.”
2:00 P.M. THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920) Continuing Ebertfest’s tradition of hosting a live music performance with a silent film, the Anvil Orchestra will accompany the German Expressionist silent horror film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, directed by Robert Wiene. It depicts the story of an insane hypnotist who uses a somnambulist (a sleepwalker) to commit crimes.
Guest
The Anvil Orchestra Fondly named after a misspoken introduction by Roger Ebert at the Alloy Orchestra’s first Ebertfest appearance, the Anvil Orchestra is comprised of two-thirds of the Alloy Orchestra, which has since disbanded, with original member Terry Donahue and longtime member Roger Clark Miller. The multi-instrumentalists play an unusual combination of found percussion and state-of-the-art electronics. Donahue plays junk percussion, accordion, musical saw, and banjo. Miller plays synthesizer, and percussion; he also performs with the post-punk band Mission of Burma that he co-founded in 1979.
4:00 P.M. MY NAME IS SARA (2019) Sponsored by the Alliance for Inclusion and Respect In this prize-winning docudrama, My Name Is Sara gives viewers a look into the real life of a 13-year-old Polish Jew named Sara Góralnik who flees Poland after her parents were killed by Nazis at the outset of the Holocaust. Passing as an Orthodox Christian, Sara gets hired as a nanny by a Ukrainian farmer and his wife, and must endure grueling work throughout the war all while trying to protect her true identity and discovering her employers have dark secrets of their own.
Guests
Executive Producer Mickey Shapiro Mickey Shapiro, the eldest son of Holocaust survivors Sara Góralnik Shapiro and Asa Shapiro, escaped to the U.S. by boat with his parents in 1949, at nearly two years old. Shapiro is owner and principal of M. Shapiro Real Estate Group, one of the nation’s largest property management companies. He produced My Name Is Sara in association with the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation: The Institute for Visual History and Education, founded by Steven Spielberg to videotape and preserve interviews with survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust.
Shapiro is a longtime member of the USC Shoah Foundation Board of Councilors Executive Committee and recently established the Mickey Shapiro Endowed Chair in Holocaust Education. He was previously appointed by President George W. Bush to be a council member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and is a former director of the Michigan Holocaust Memorial Center.
Director Steven Oritt Steven Oritt, who got his start directing music videos for bands such as the Foo Fighters and OneRepublic, focuses on documentary and true-life, character-driven stories, including American Native and Accidental Climber.My Name Is Sara is Oritt’s directorial debut of a feature film.
9:00 P.M. AMERICAN FOLK (2017) American Folk follows Elliott and Joni, both folk musicians, on a road trip from Los Angeles to New York City in the days following 9/11. Both folk singers in real life, Joe Purdy and Amber Rubarth portray the two strangers who forge a bond over several days through their love of music, encounters with memorable people, and a shared mission to “bring back the folk.”
Guests
Director David Heinz For the last decade, David Heinz has been working in cutting rooms on both independent and studio pictures alike. He has edited Adult World with John Cusack, which was released theatrically by IFC in 2014. In 2011 he served as the additional editor of This Means War for Fox as well as several other recent independent features. Heinz recently contributed as the visual effects editor to The Jungle Book, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and Live Free or Die Hard, to name a few. American Folk marks his feature directorial debut.
Singer/Actress Amber Rubarth Amber Rubarth is an award-winning singer-songwriter who has toured the world alongside such artists as Emmylou Harris, Richie Havens, and Ralph Stanley. A winner of the prestigious NPR’s Mountain Stage New Song Contest, Rubarth’s album Wildflowers in the Graveyard features a song heavily featured in the film. American Folk also marks Rubarth’s big screen debut.
FRIDAY, APRIL 21
10:00 A.M. TO LESLIE (2022) In To Leslie, a drama inspired by true events, Andrea Riseborough plays Leslie, a struggling single mom living in Texas who wins the lottery only to waste it all on alcohol and drugs, much to the dismay of friends and family, including her only son. Years later, Leslie attempts to get her life back on track but the path to redemption may be more difficult than she can handle. For her portrayal of Leslie, Riseborough was nominated for Best Actress at this year’s Academy Awards.
Guest
Director Michael Morris With recent credits as executive producer of the final season of Better Call Saul, Michael Morris’s directorial feature film debut To Leslie was selected by the National Board of Review as one of the top 10 independent films of 2022. His roots in theatre began as director of the Old Vic in London. In the new Apple TV+ series Extrapolations, he directs the finale episode.
2:30 P.M. MARIAN ANDERSON: THE WHOLE WORLD IN HER HANDS (2022) Directed by Peabody and Emmy Award-winner Rita Coburn, Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands explores the life of the African American singer and civil rights pioneer, who died in 1993 at the age of 96. The film highlights Anderson’s career, art, and legacy as a Black classical singer with a breathtaking and rare vocal range as well as her work to further civil rights. The film allows viewers to hear Anderson’s own voice and point of view through archival interview recordings, photographs, and personal correspondence with family and friends, including Martin Luther King Jr., Josephine Baker, and Langston Hughes.
Guests
Director Rita Coburn Rita Coburn is the co-director/co-producer of Peabody Award-winning Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise, the first feature documentary on Maya Angelou, which screened at Ebertfest 2019. Coburn’s work has also earned three Emmys for the documentaries Curators of Culture, Remembering 47th Street, and African Roots American Soil. Coburn is the owner of RCW Media Productions, Inc., a multi-media production company.
Producer Brenda Robinson Brenda Robinson, producer and entertainment attorney, is involved with numerous film, television, and music projects, most recently as a financier on the Academy Award-winning documentary Icarus as well as Won’t You Be My Neighbor and Step. Robinson is currently head of film finance and inclusion strategies for HiddenLight Productions, a global studio founded by Hillary Clinton, Sam Branson, and Chelsea Clinton. She is also a member of Impact Partners, which is dedicated to funding independent documentaries that focus on social issues.
Viveca Richards Following the screening will be a live performance by Viveca Richards, an opera soprano student from the University of Illinois Lyric Theatre.
7:30 P.M. DEREK DELGAUDIO’S IN & OF ITSELF (2020) This biography explores identity and illusion while the storyteller and magician Derek DelGaudio attempts to answer, “Who am I?” In & Of Itself originated as a play written and performed by DelGaudio and directed by Frank Oz, which ran Off-Broadway for 72 weeks.
Guests
Director Frank Oz Emmy Award-winning Frank Oz is known for creating and performing many beloved characters on The Muppet Show (Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal) and Sesame Street (Cookie Monster, Bert, Grover), as well as bringing to life Yoda in the Star Wars series. He has directed numerous films over the past four decades, including The Muppets Take Manhattan, Little Shop of Horrors, What About Bob?, and The Stepford Wives.
Derek DelGaudio An acclaimed and accomplished writer, performer, and magician, Derek DelGaudio wrote and co-starred in the avant-garde magic theater show Nothing to Hide, directed by Neil Patrick Harris, a few years before In & Of Itself began its Off-Broadway run. DelGaudio became the Artist in Residence for Walt Disney Imagineering in 2014 and was named Magician of the Year in 2016 from the Academy of Magical Arts. His memoir, Amoralman: A True Story and Other Lies, was published in 2021.
Producer Vanessa Lauren Vanessa Lauren is a producer of a diverse range of arts and entertainment projects. She produced both the Off-Broadway show and the film In & Of Itself. Her previous projects include Low in the Water, MST3K, Super Troopers 2, and Zappa.
Producer Jake Friedman Jake Friedman has produced In & Of Itself and was executive producer of the TV special Neal Brennan: Blocks.
Janet Pierson Janet Pierson, director emeritus of SXSW Film Festival, has spent the last 45 years of her career supporting independent films and filmmakers in various capacities. Pierson was named to The Guardian’s Film Power 100 list in 2010 and the Indiewire Influencers in 2013. A regular panelist at film festivals, Pierson is a member of the advisory board for the Austin Film Society, founded by filmmaker Richard Linklater, and the University of Texas Press Advisory Board.
SATURDAY, APRIL 22
9:00 A.M. [SHORT FILM PROGRAM] CLUB ALLI (2020) In just under nine minutes, brothers Julien and Justen Turner, who have made nearly a dozen short films, direct a sci-fi drama about America and the ever-present socio-economic divide in Club Alli, which won the CU International Film Festival. The duo, who have been featured on CNN and in the New York Times, say they wrote the short “to play around with the mirage of a free society. Our goal is to change the way that people think.”
Guests
Writers/Directors Justen and Julien Turner Filmmaker brothers Justen and Julien Turner, who run Dreadhead Films, are the youngest filmmakers to have been commissioned to produce a short film for Sesame Street for its 2018-19 season, at ages 15 and 19. They have produced numerous short films that have been honored at national film festivals.
Max Libman Max Libman is the teenage founder and director of the CU International Film Festival that debuted in October in Urbana and featured eight short films, one of which was produced by the Turner brothers. In his young career, Libman has also been honored for his screenwriting.
TEAM DREAM (2022) Audience members will be reminded it’s never too late to make a dream come true in the short documentary film Team Dream. Luchina Fisher directs this 17-minute film, which features two female friends, Ann and Madeline, preparing to swim in the National Senior Games held in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The two women also discuss what it was like growing up in Chicago during times of segregation and their experience after joining Team Dream, an organization that trains women of color in swimming, biking, and triathlons.
Guests
Director Luchina Fisher Luchina Fisher, director, writer, and producer of the short documentary Team Dream, is an award-winning filmmaker and journalist who works at the intersection of race, gender, and identity. Team Dream, executive produced by Queen Latifah, won the Audience Choice Award at the 2022 Chicago International Film Festival and aired on BET on March 24.
Madeline Murphy Rabb Madeline Murphy Rabb is president of Murphy Rabb, Inc., a fine arts advisory firm she founded in Chicago in 1992. She is nationally renowned for her expertise in identifying and showcasing artwork created by African American artists, both emerging and established. Rabb has provided guidance to major art collectors, corporations, and institutions across the nation.
10:30 A.M. FRESH (1994) Samuel L. Jackson stars in the Sundance Film Festival Winner Fresh, an urban crime thriller Roger Ebert described as “a story of depth and power, in which the dangerous streets are seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old who reacts with the objectivity he has learned from chess, and the anger taught to him by his life.” Fresh (Sean Nelson), a young drug runner living in New York, is fed up with the violence and death he encounters in his daily life. Using chess lessons he learned from his alcoholic father, played by Jackson, Fresh devises a plan to free himself and his drug-addicted sister from the corrupt system.
Guest
Producer Lawrence Bender Lawrence Bender has produced well-known films over the past 30 years, many award-nominated, from Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, the Kill Bill series, and Inglourious Basterds, to the Academy Award-winning documentary on climate change An Inconvenient Truth and Good Will Hunting.
3:00 P.M. WINGS OF DESIRE (1987) The German cinematic masterpiece Wings of Desire made director Wim Wenders’s name synonymous with film art. “You’re seduced into the spell of this movie,” wrote Roger Ebert in his original review. The film, which was shot in black and white, and color, features Bruno Ganz as Damiel, an angel who is willing to give up his perch high over Berlin, his ability to hear thoughts, as well as his immortality to return to Earth after falling in love with a trapeze artist. Created shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Ebert wrote that “the film is like music or a landscape: It clears a space in my mind, and in that space I can consider questions. Some of them are asked in the film: ‘Why am I me and why not you? Why am I here and why not there? When did time begin and where does space end?’”
Guest
Michael Barker Michael Barker, co-president and co-founder of Sony Pictures Classics with Tom Bernard, has distributed, and often produced, some of the finest independent movies over the past 40 years. Barker’s films have received nearly 200 Academy Award nominations and more than 40 wins, including several for Best Picture, Best Documentary Feature, and Best Foreign Language Film. He and his colleagues have also restored and theatrically reissued some of the great films of the past. In 2022, Barker and Bernard received the Game Changer Award from the Zurich Film Festival, in recognition of their services to film culture.
8:30 P.M. FORREST GUMP (1994) Roger Ebert described Forrest Gump, the six-time Oscar winning comedy drama starring Tom Hanks, as a “magical movie.” Ebert wrote, “I’ve never met anyone like Forrest Gump in a movie before, and for that matter I’ve never seen a movie quite like Forrest Gump.” The film follows the life of the slow-witted but good-natured Gump, from a young boy in the 1950s with braces on his legs to a father in the 1980s. Although born with a low IQ, Gump’s mental impairments don’t prevent him from being a part of extraordinary moments in history or falling in love and eventually marrying his childhood sweetheart.
Guest
Actor Mykelti Williamson In addition to playing the memorable shrimp-loving character “Bubba” in the Academy Award-winning Forrest Gump, actor Mykelti Williamson has also starred in the Academy Award-nominated film Fences and Con Air, as well as the TV series Law & Order: Organized Crime and Chicago P.D., among other movies and TV shows. He has also recently directed episodes of Sweet Magnolias, Chicago Med, and Chicago P.D.
Other guests throughout Ebertfest include film critics:
Nick Allen
Matt Fagerholm
Al Lerner
Linda Lerner
Nell Minow
Michael Phillips
Brian Tallerico
Matt Zoller-Seitz
Please note that filmmaker guest appearances are subject to change, which may include adding a surprise guest to the program.
Passes to see all films with reserved seating are available to purchase online or at the Virginia Theatre box office, 203 W. Park Ave., Champaign, 217-356-9063. Individual movie tickets will go on sale on April 3.
Roger Ebert was a Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic, University of Illinois journalism alumnus, and Urbana native. Ebertfest is sponsored by the University of Illinois College of Media and Chaz Ebert.
Anyone interested in supporting the event as a festival sponsor may contact Molly Cornyn, the festival’s project coordinator, at mcornyn2@illinois.edu.
The Illini Media Company will honor 10 inductees into the Illini Media Hall of Fame Class of 2023 during a ceremony on Saturday, April 29, in Chicago. Five of the inductees are journalism alumni from the College of Media. Illini Media, which oversees The Daily Illini student newspaper, WPGU 107.1 FM radio station, and the Illio yearbook, aims to recognize the distinguished careers and contributions of alumni through the annual Hall of Fame award.
The College of Media inductees include:
Anita Banerji (BS ’98, news-editorial journalism), senior program director for media and tech at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Andrea Darlas (BS ’94, broadcast journalism), award-winning anchor and reporter at WGN Radio and WGN-TV in Chicago, and currently senior director of constituent engagement for the University of Illinois; Darlas will also be the emcee at the Hall of Fame luncheon event
Ed Epstein (BS ’74, journalism), journalist for various news outlets including the Chicago Sun-Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Washington and Capitol Hill correspondent
Kyung Lah (BS ’93, broadcast journalism), CNN senior national correspondent based in Los Angeles
Erika Rosenberg (BS ’91, news-editorial journalism), president and CEO of the nonprofit Center for Governmental Research
Mike VanBlaricum with some of the Ian Fleming Foundation’s vehicles on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum in LA. (Photo by Christina Gandolfo for the UI Alumni Association.)
It’s a toss-up for Mike VanBlaricum on which he loves more—anything related to James Bond and the fictional character’s creator, Ian Fleming, or his beloved Alma Mater, the University of Illinois. Luckily, he’s rarely had to choose.
In fact, VanBlaricum has found opportunities over the years to combine his passion for both, benefitting several different entities at the University, including the College of Media and its students.
VanBlaricum, who graduated with three degrees in electrical engineering (BS ’72, MS ’74, and PhD ’76), is the president of the Ian Fleming Foundation. He was the driving force behind the creation of the Ian Fleming Foundation Undergraduate Research Scholarship for media students nearly a decade ago. He says there were several reasons for creating this scholarship.
It was a way for the Ian Fleming Foundation, formed in 1992 by VanBlaricum and two friends, to fulfill one of its main purposes—education. It also enabled them to honor the late Ian Fleming and highlight his journalistic endeavors.
“We wanted to make students aware that Ian Fleming was a journalist, a book reviewer, and a travel writer, as well as being a novelist and short story writer,” VanBlaricum said. “That’s why his books are so well written—he is trained as a journalist.”
The scholarship is also a nod to the late film critic and journalism alum Roger Ebert (BS ’64), since it was designed to provide incentive and support to outstanding undergraduate students participating in research around film. Plus, the fact that Ian Fleming and Roger Ebert started their careers as journalists seemed like a “wonderful match.”
The origin of the scholarship may be multi-faceted, but the goal is more singular—to get undergraduate students involved with research at an early phase of their educational careers.
Undergraduate students in every College of Media major—advertising, computer science + advertising, journalism, or media and cinema studies—from freshmen to seniors, are eligible to apply if they are participating in research (either their own or with faculty) or an independent study project with a Media faculty member. The research can cover any area of film history or criticism, advertising in film, contemporary film production including the areas of film merchandising/memorabilia, travel writing, or history, and evolution of print journalism.
“I think for undergraduates in the College of Media, who are going to be writing and producing as they get older, doing research as freshmen and sophomores is pretty cool. I wish I had done stuff like that when I was that age,” VanBlaricum said.
VanBlaricum is somewhat of an expert when it comes to research. His career in research and program management spans more than 35 years, and much of that time was spent at Toyon Research Corporation based in California, which specializes in technology development and defense systems analysis. He retired from Toyon Research Corporation in 2010 but still serves as president emeritus of the company.
His “Bondiana” collection, a term VanBlaricum coined himself, began in his 30s and required a talent and dedication only a true researcher could possess. Over the years, the self-professed “collector at heart” has amassed over 10,000 items, ranging from Fleming’s literary works and related books to merchandise such as toys, games, records, posters, and other ephemera. The Ian Fleming Foundation owns over 40 vehicles featured in James Bond movies, including a helicopter and submarine, which they loan to museums and charity events.
Lately, he spends much of his time organizing and preserving his collection. He is currently in the process of donating a portion of his Ian Fleming/James Bond collection to the University of Illinois Rare Book and Manuscript Library. To date, he has already donated over 800 items.
VanBlaricum and his wife, Pam, who also earned three engineering degrees at Illinois, currently reside in California but come back to visit Illinois often. They own a home in Urbana that they purchased when their two daughters were attending the University of Illinois.
Mike VanBlaricum holds a British first edition of Ian Fleming’s first book, Casino Royale, published 70 years ago in April 1953, at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library. (Photo by L. Brian Stauffer.)
In the fall, they enjoy going to Illini football games as well as various Lyric Theatre and other School of Music presentations. In the spring, they look forward to coming back for Ebertfest. Along with the camaraderie and the possibility of running into old friends, VanBlaricum likes to “see movies on the big screen with an astute audience and to hear people explain and critique the films.”
VanBlaricum, a faithful volunteer at the University of Illinois since he was a student and co-chaired Engineering Open House in 1972 with his wife, continues to be an involved alum.
He has served as president for the Electrical & Computer Engineering Alumni Board, for the Spurlock Museum Board of Advisors, and for the Illinois Music Advisory Council. In addition, he was the creator and a lead developer for the Illinois Distributed Museum, which highlights innovations at the University of Illinois. He’s also a generous donor, giving to many units, including his major home Grainger Engineering, the Spurlock Museum, the School of Music, and the University Library.
VanBlaricum’s enthusiasm for the University of Illinois and his Bond/Fleming collection doesn’t seem to be waning anytime soon; however, he unfortunately had to choose between Ebertfest and Bond this year.
He and his wife will be in London during Ebertfest weekend, attending the 70th anniversary of the publication of Fleming’s first book, Casino Royale. The Fleming estate is having an event to commemorate the anniversary and is launching a new re-booted series of Bond novels.
“As my wife, Pam, says, nothing new can come out without me having to buy the whole set,” said VanBlaricum, who is excited to add another item to his collection.
Congratulations to all of the College of Media faculty and teaching assistants who were ranked as excellent by their students!
