USA
Director: Chinonye Chukwu

alaskaLand tells the story of Chukwuma, an Alaska-raised Nigerian struggling to balance his cultural heritage with the pressures of the larger world around him. After a family tragedy forces a two-year estrangement from his younger sister Chidinma, the siblings reconnect in their hometown. Although their time apart has created new frictions, they find their reconciliation bringing them closer to each other and to their roots in this gorgeous, knowing debut film.

English, 75 min

A founding member of Chicago’s celebrated Steppenwolf
Theatre Company, Joan Allen has been dazzling audiences on both stage and screen throughout her remarkable career. She has shone equally in art house dramas such as Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm and Gary Ross’s Pleasantville as well as in blockbusters like the Bourne series and John Woo’s Face/Off. Her accolades include a Tony for her performance in Burn This and an Obie for her role in The Marriage of Bette & Boo as well as three Oscar® nominations for her unforgettable portrayal of Pat Nixon in Oliver Stone’s Nixon, her role as Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible, and her stunning performance of wily vice presidential candidate Laine Hansen in The Contender. Join us for a discussion of her craft, her career and her Illinois roots.

6:00 pm Red carpet arrival
6:30 pm Tribute and presentation of the Career Achievement Award
8:30 pm Reception PUBLIC Chicago (1301 N. State Pkwy)

90 min

USA
Director: Landon Zakheim

A wolf in sheep’s clothing thinks he is a sheep … True character is revealed in this truthful portrait of the fading echoes of a relationship.

Part of: Shorts 7: Chaos Theory

English, 13 min

Canada / USA
Director: Brandon Cronenberg

An audacious sci-fi thriller, Antiviral tells the gripping story of Syd March, an employee at a clinic catering to celebrity fetishists by selling them diseases extracted from their heroes’ bodies. Syd, who smuggles them onto the black market through his own body, infects himself with the mysterious virus that killed superstar Hannah Geist. Chased on all sides by those who want the disease, Syd realizes he must uncover an antidote before he succumbs.

English, 110 min

USA
Director: Travis Fine

In the late 1970s, when a mentally handicapped teenager is abandoned, a gay couple - a drag performer (Alan Cumming) and a closeted attorney (Garret Dillahunt) - takes him in and becomes the family he’s never had. But, once the unconventional living arrangement is discovered by authorities, the men must fight a biased legal system to adopt the child they have come to care for as their own in this gripping testament to love and family.

English, 97 min