Adult Children
Synopsis
Tasked with writing an essay for her college application, high school senior Morgan (Ella Rubin) is at a loss. With no real sense of who she is or what she wants, the 17-year-old is hopeful that her much-older half-siblings will provide some inspiration. But after their mother heads off to Europe on a long overdue vacation, the sheltered teen quickly realizes that they might be even more off balance as she is. Charged with keeping brother Josh (Thomas Sadoski) from going off the deep end yet again, Morgan and sisters Lisa (Betsy Brandt) and Dahlia (Aya Cash)—each with their own issues and secrets—struggle to maintain equilibrium as the misadventures mount.
In this endearing Chicago-made dramedy, director Rich Newey and writer Annika Marks (Killing Eleanor) paint a humorous and touching portrait of coming of age at all ages. Featuring winning performances from Brandt (Breaking Bad), Sadoski (Life in Pieces), and Cash (The Boys), and an especially sympathetic turn from newcomer Rubin (Anora, The Idea of You), Adult Children is richly drawn, deeply felt, and warmly amusing.
Screenings & Events
Screening
Sun, Oct 19 @ 5:15pm
at AMC NEWCITY 14, Screen 06
Venue information...
Director Rich Newey, writer/producer Annika Marks & producer Angie Gaffney
Screening
Mon, Oct 20 @ 2:00pm
at AMC NEWCITY 14, Screen 13
Venue information...
Director Rich Newey, writer/producer Annika Marks & producer Angie Gaffney
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Media
Film Credits
- Angie Gaffney, Thomas Sadoski, Annika Marks, Rich Newey
- Annika Marks
- Ken Mowe
- Jessica Young
- Betsy Brandt, Aya Cash, Ella Rubin, Thomas Sadoski, and Mimi Rogers
- The Co-Stars
- Kelly Aisthorpe Waller, Michele Girgis, Ted Reilly, Markie Glassgow
- Chicago Media Angels, 521 Films, Let's Try One Productions
- https://www.521films.com/adultchildren
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Anything That Moves
Synopsis
From the twisted mind behind All Jacked Up and Full of Worms comes a raucous, Chicago-set riff on ’70s sexploitation films. Writer-director Alex Phillips returns to the Festival with this stunning 16mm thriller following Liam, an unassuming bike-courier and sex worker in Chicago delivering whatever will satisfy his clients’ appetites—until they start turning up dead. A trail of taboo encounters and gruesome crime scenes paint Liam as the primary suspect, making him wanted in more ways than he’d anticipated. Framed by a serial killer and pursued by a pair of deranged cops, all while trying to maintain his lascivious livelihood, Liam’s simple life of on-demand pleasure turns into a conspiratorial nightmare.
Playful and gory yet full of heart, Anything That Moves blends salacious sex and social critique into a thrilling exploration of the darker sides of desire.
Screenings & Events
Screening
Sat, Oct 25 @ 10:00pm
at AMC NEWCITY 14, Screen 06
Venue information...
Director Alex Phillips & actor Hal Baum
Screening
Sun, Oct 26 @ 8:00pm
at AMC NEWCITY 14, Screen 06
Venue information...
Director Alex Phillips & actor Hal Baum
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Media
Film Credits
- Spencer Parsons, Georgia Bernstein, Liane Cunje
- Alex Phillips
- Alex Phillips, Troy Lewis
- Hunter Zimny
- Hal Baum, Jiana Nicole, Ginger Lynn Allen, Nina Hartley,
- Cue Shop
- Joe Rubin, Ryan Emerson, Ralph Stevens, Ian Stone, Eddie Linker, Stephen Lanus, Amar Gupta
- Vinegar Syndrome, Missing Link
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The Beauty of the Donkey La Beauté de l'Âne
Synopsis
Award-winning Swiss Albanian filmmaker Dea Gjinovci (2020’s Wake Up on Mars) returns to the bucolic Kosovo town of her father’s youth—a place he hasn’t seen in 60 years—for this lyrical journey into the past at once wistful and tragic. Together, they recreate his childhood memories, making sets that resemble his former home and with scenes acted out by the local villagers. Through this collective creative project, 1950s Kosovo springs to life in a series of beautifully realized vignettes that prompt Gjinovci’s father to reflect on times of innocence, of violence (when the country persecuted the Albanian population), and of loss, enabling him to finally reckon with the disappearance of his mother decades before.
This evocative mix of memory and reenactment allows father and daughter to uncover shocking truths about their family history and to come to terms with a legacy of oppression. A touching narrative of resilience and catharsis, The Beauty of the Donkey is also a sensitive and bittersweet testament to the power of stories to bring back people and places that history and political strife have tried to erase.
Screenings & Events
Screening
Sun, Oct 19 @ 2:45pm
at AMC NEWCITY 14, Screen 01
Venue information...
Director Dea Gjinovci
Screening
Mon, Oct 20 @ 2:00pm
at Gene Siskel Film Center, Screen 2
Venue information...
Director Dea Gjinovci
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Media
Film Credits
- Dea Gjinovci, Palmyre Badinier
- Dea Gjinovci
- Lizi Gelber
- Maxime Kathari
- Asllan Gjinovci, Leart Gjinovci
- Gael Kyriakidis
- Maida Lynn
- Astrae Productions
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Bouchra
Synopsis
Bouchra, a coyote, is a queer Moroccan filmmaker based in New York City, navigating love and work in a world populated by other animal friends and family, including her hot ex-girlfriend, a cow, her best friend, a lizard, and her mom, Aicha, a coyote who lives back home in Casablanca. While Bouchra is finding her way in Manhattan, she has never resolved her mother’s lack of acceptance of her sexuality. It’s not that Bouchra has never come out; it’s that despite their closeness, her mom simply refuses to talk about it.
Brought to life in 3D animation, filmmaking team Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani, known for their 2020 lockdown art sensation 2 Lizards, have crafted a unique animated docu-fiction hybrid that is profoundly intimate, light-hearted, and touching, with a quirky surrealist edge. So what if they’re cool animals? Bouchra is a universal story of immigrant life, family conflict, and queer identity.
Screenings & Events
Screening
Thu, Oct 16 @ 7:45pm
at AMC NEWCITY 14, Screen 01
Venue information...
Director Orian Barki
Screening
Fri, Oct 17 @ 2:45pm
at Gene Siskel Film Center, Screen 2
Venue information...
Director Orian Barki
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Media
Film Credits
- 2 Lizards
- Orian Barki, Meriem Bennani, Ayla Mrabet
- Orian Barki, Meriem Bennani
- John Michael Boling
- Meriem Bennani, Yto Barrada, Orian Barki, Ariana Faye Allensworth, Salima Dhaibi
- Flavien Berger
- Orian Barki, Meriem Bennani, Max Brun, Hi Production, Cécile Winckler, Octavia Peissel, Ella Bishop, Pau Suris, Jake Cheetham
- 2 Lizards Production, Hi Production, Fondazione Prada
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A Brief History of Chasing Storms
Synopsis
From The Wizard of Oz to the Twister movies, the tornado has become an iconic American symbol. In A Brief History of Chasing Storms, Chicago filmmaker Curtis Miller takes us on a road-trip through “tornado alley”—an ever-widening region that extends from Texas and Oklahoma across the Great Plains and up into Wisconsin and Minnesota. Along the way, he reflects on the multifaceted myths and histories around the famously destructive weather events, recounted by those who have been impacted as well as by opportunists looking to profit.
From a guide at the Twister Museum to the owner of a company that builds tornado shelters and a team of intrepid storm chasers, tornado-philes of all stripes are featured as the film traverses the U.S., capturing the landscape in carefully staged tableaux. Through an evocative series of vignettes, quirky yet swirling with meaning in a world increasingly reshaped by environmental catastrophe, this thoughtful cinematic essay maps out the ways in which history, inequality, climate, colonization, and capitalism are entwined with these natural disasters.
Screenings & Events
Screening
Sat, Oct 18 @ 11:30am
at Chicago History Museum
Venue information...
Director Curtis Miller
Screening
Sat, Oct 25 @ 12:00pm
at Gene Siskel Film Center, Screen 1
Venue information...
Director Curtis Miller
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Media
Film Credits
- Curtis Miller
- M Sage
- Midwest Exegesis
- https://www.abriefhistory.online/
212 W Van Buren St., Suite 400
