Author name: Kasey Martin

We are delighted to host Irish filmmaker and journalist Sinead O’Shea along with her film Pray For Our Sinners. The documentary mixes personal storytelling with political exposé, where O’Shea returns to her small hometown to confront historical abuse and neglect in the Catholic Church. More specifically, she delves into the harm caused to women and children in “mother and baby” homes (where unwed mothers were sent to deliver their newborns) and the corresponding resistance against it.  

The documentary covers a fairly intense subject, was creating it an emotional process for you given how close it is to your home and history?[…]

Preceding the 58th Chicago International Film Festival, which begins on October 12th, Cinema/Chicago is hosting a CineConcert screening of L’Inferno to celebrate the centenary. The 1911 Italian silent film was directed by Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, and Giuseppe De Liguoro. More information about the screening can be found here. 

L’Inferno was the very first feature-length film produced in Italy at 68 minutes. The film interprets Inferno, the first part of the Divine Comedy, a fourteenth-century epic poem by Dante Alighieri depicting the journey Dante takes through Hell, as he strays from righteousness and discovers sin.[…]

German filmmaker and photo artist Franziska Stünkel’s film The Last Execution (Nahschuss) is a historical drama telling the story of Werner Teske, a scientist-turned Stasi spy who became the last person executed in East Germany. Stünkel is in Chicago for the international premiere of her gripping film — don’t miss the next screening on Thursday Oct. 21 at 5:15pm, with a special Q&A following the film.

We’re thrilled to host Stünkel in Chicago, and we sat down with her to ask her some questions about being back in the theatre and her favorite filmmakers.[…]

Filmmaker magazine named Isidore Bethel one of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film” last year. We’re honored to host him in Chicago this week for a special screening of his new film Acts of Love, a docu-fiction hybrid story about make sexuality he co-directed with Francis Leplay. The Hollywood Reporter called Acts of Love, which was shot in Chicago, an “exciting, genre-bending film” that “stands out in its exploration of attraction, desire, sex and intimacy.”

Get your tickets now to see this innovative film, as well as a live Q&A with Bethel and actor Ed Sanderson following the screening, on Tuesday Oct.[…]