College of Media 11 | DEV College of Media

Helping Students Be Wise Consumers of Media

August 5, 2022 | Tom Hanlon (College of Education) with Holly Rushakoff (College of Media)

Educators at the IMEDIA media literacy workshop

Twenty-one Illinois public school educators learned how to incorporate media literacy into their curricula this summer through an IMEDIA media literacy workshop on campus, hosted by faculty from the College of Media and College of Education.

“Media literacy is especially important in light of the last presidential election and the amount of disinformation and misinformation that is pervasive in the U.S.,” said Professor Sarah McCarthey, head of the Department of Curriculum & Instruction in the College of Education. “It’s more and more critical that we equip students with the ability to discern what’s factual from what’s not.”

The workshop, attended by librarians and teachers from language arts, social studies, special education, and art, was developed by the College of Media and the College of Education. The two colleges recently jointly launched a program entitled “Initiative for Media Education Inquiry and Action (IMEDIA),” along with the cofounder of the Illinois Media Literacy Coalition, Michael Spikes of Northwestern University.

The workshop was designed to better equip teachers and students with media literacy skills to encourage mindful media consumption and production and to help teachers meet the needs of a state mandate requiring public high schools to teach media literacy beginning with the 2022-2023 school year.

“Many of us in the College of Media have been working on media literacy-related research and teaching in the last several years,” said Professor Stephanie Craft, head of the Department of Journalism. “When we heard about the new law, we wanted to be able to turn that work into action. Teaming up with curriculum and instruction experts in the College of Education seemed an ideal way to do that.”

The IMEDIA team introduced participants to key concepts in the framework for media literacy, with a focus on news media literacy. Educators were:

shown how to help students identify propaganda and see how the media have been used for social and political change throughout history,
instructed in how to use documentaries to increase media literacy, and
taught by a local Urbana High School student and undergraduate students from the College of Media how students are both creators and consumers of social media content.

The IMEDIA collaboration is working to build a robust critical media literacy curriculum in Illinois schools. Interested teachers will continue working with IMEDIA for follow up on media literacy implementation throughout the 2022-2023 school year.

“Preparing Illinois students to successfully navigate an increasingly complex media environment is vital to their well-being and ability to participate in democratic life,” Craft said.

“The end goal is quite simple,” McCarthey added. “We want all of our students to be prepared to be critical media consumers.”

Learn more about IMEDIA.

IMEDIA team members include Professor Sarah McCarthey from the College of Education; Professor Amanda Ciafone from the College of Media; Michael Spikes from Northwestern University; doctoral student Sakshi Bhalla from the College of Media; Professor Michelle Nelson from the College of Media; Professor CL Cole from the College of Media; Professor Stephanie Craft from the College of Media; and Professor Jon Hale from the College of Education.

Julie Turnock to serve as inaugural director of Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies

June 3, 2022 | Holly Rushakoff

Julie Turnock, associate professor of media and cinema studies, has been appointed to serve as the inaugural director of the Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies, which officially launches this fall.

“The College of Media is eager to celebrate Roger Ebert’s legacy through this new center that will engage scholars, students, and movie fans alike in robust conversations about film,” said Dean Tracy Sulkin. “I look forward to the energy and insight that Professor Turnock will bring to the director role.”

“I’m excited to help the center bring both more awareness of cinema and cinema studies to the campus, as well as the opportunity to bring more film-centered programming,” Turnock said.

As part of her appointment, Turnock will coordinate event programming, including the Ebert Symposium, Ebert Lecture, and a screening series; Ebert research grants and travel grants for film studies; and the Ebert Fellows Program for undergraduate students.

The first event Turnock is planning is the annual Ebert Lecture for mid-fall, which will feature a scholar of film studies.

“We will invite a prominent speaker and hopefully also have a screening, both of which will be open to the public,” she said.

Turnock’s research focuses on film, with an emphasis on special/visual effects, and she coordinates the film studies curriculum.

“I never met Roger Ebert, but like many people around my age, I watched the TV program Siskel and Ebert at the Movies religiously every week,” Turnock said. “Even though most of the films they reviewed weren’t playing in my northern Indiana town, it was an exposure to a wide variety of movies that I might eventually be able to rent at the video store.”

Turnock served as acting head of the Department of Media & Cinema Studies during academic year 2019-2020. At the 2019 Chaz & Roger Ebert Symposium, she moderated a panel discussion on diversity in film. She is the author of The Empire of Effects: Industrial Light and Magic and the Rendering of Realism (University of Texas Press, 2022) and Plastic Reality: Special Effects, Technology, and the Emergence of 1970s Blockbuster Aesthetics (Columbia University Press, 2015).

Rooks receives 2022 College of Media Emerging Leader Award

May 31, 2022 | Vivian La, Communications Intern

Taylor Rooks (BS ’14, journalism), sports journalist and broadcaster at Bleacher Report, is known in the field of sports journalism for her interviewing skills and for her ability to connect with athletes. She was recently nominated for a 2022 Sports Emmy Award for “Outstanding Personality/Emerging On-Air Talent.”

Rooks said her time at the University of Illinois provided the opportunity for her to ask questions and was an important foundation for her career today.

The College of Media has selected Rooks as the recipient of the 2022 Emerging Leader Award, which honors an alum for their exemplary early career achievements and engagement with the college.

“As sports media fans already know, Taylor Rooks is a talented and innovative journalist, and we are fortunate to have her share inspiring personal and career experiences with students in the College of Media,” said Dean Tracy Sulkin. “We are proud to recognize her with the Emerging Leader Award.”

Rooks has been a panelist at a 2021 Media Career Night focused on sports media; she is part of the college’s Alumni Speakers Bureau and has been a featured guest in journalism classes; and she is involved in a College of Media mentoring program that pairs alumni and students from underrepresented populations, where alumni share perspectives and advice.

“Things are so much more special when they come from places or people or institutions that you have a very deep emotional tie to, and the University of Illinois has been so important in my life and in my family’s life,” Rooks said.

Both of her parents attended Illinois, where her mother was a broadcast journalism major and her father was an Illini running back and studied political science.

From the start of Rooks’s time at Illinois, she was involved with the athletic department and applied her studies to her interests in sports media.

“Being around that environment really showed me that doing the media side of it was something that I could do, and could excel at,” she said. “And the College of Media gave me the tools.… That was the first time that I really saw how the team aspect of news is what really makes it work. And that’s something I have carried with me ever since.”

Rooks was involved with the Big Ten Network as a student, and worked for them full-time after graduating. From there, she spent two years at SportsNet New York before being hired at Bleacher Report.

At Bleacher Report, Rooks had her own web series, Take It There with Taylor Rooks, where she did longform interviews with athletes such as Jimmy Butler and DeMar DeRozan. Her episode “Inside the NBA Bubble with Taylor Rooks” was a 2021 honoree for a Webby Award in the Social, Sports (Series & Campaigns) category. Along the way, she has developed a large following on social media, with nearly 500,000 followers on Instagram and more than 240,000 followers on Twitter.

As an interviewer, she tries to engage in conversations that tell a story.

“When you have conversations with [people] on a human level and you allow them the space to tell you who they are, you have a better understanding of them completely,” Rooks said.

Rooks said she sees a lot of dehumanization of athletes in sports and it can be hard for fans to understand that these players are human beings with real emotions.

“We only see people for what they do,” Rooks said. “And it’s just really important to me to let them feel like their voice exists and that it’s important, and that when they sit in the chair, they can use their voice in whichever way they wish.”

And these emotions are often connected to identity, Rooks said. Most of the athletes she talks to want to discuss how they feel in relation to their Black identity or womanhood, for example.

“Those are all things that have to be in the conversation to get a full scope of someone’s life from a perspective, someone’s point of view,” Rooks said.

Rooks said it also helps when she shares her own experiences as a Black woman, something she did when she was inside the NBA Bubble, an isolation zone for basketball players during the final games of the 2019-2020 season and 2020 NBA playoffs, when the pandemic began.

It was the summer where protests following the murder of George Floyd were at their height, affecting many of the players inside the bubble but also Rooks herself, as a Black journalist.

Calling it the best thing she’s done in her career, Rooks said the experience taught her about her responsibilities as a journalist and how it’s necessary to tell multiple stories at once.

“Because with all these people in a place, the experiences aren’t monolithic,” she said.

There were players who wanted to leave the bubble to join the George Floyd protests, and players worried about their families getting COVID-19.

“You wanted to do right by them and tell the stories in the ways they intended for them to be told. And we all just wanted our work to reflect the duality that was happening in the bubble,” she said.

Her own identity and experiences has helped in the storytelling she does—something that Rooks encourages students to remember.

“It’s so much less about having to shy away from stories you have a personal connection to and more so about understanding how lending your voice to it actually pushes it forward,” she said.

Everyone’s lives are different, Rooks said. She advised focusing on things that can be controlled and that it’s okay to not have everything figured out as a college student.

“What you can control is working, waking up and trying to be better, looking inside to figure out the things that move you, that make you feel passionate, and you cultivate those,” she said.

Klues receives 2022 College of Media Distinguished Alumni Award

May 31, 2022 | Vivian La, Communications Intern

(Jack and Beth Klues.)

Jack Klues (BS ’77, advertising), who has led some of the largest media companies over his 35-year career, has been selected to receive the 2022 College of Media Distinguished Alumni Award.

The award honors an alum whose career accomplishments and engagement with the College of Media are exemplary.

Klues has been a major supporter of the college. In 2015, the Klues Family Foundation donated $1 million to the Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising to fund scholarships for underrepresented students with significant financial need, helping 60+ students since then. He has also participated on the James Webb Young Board, a professional advisory board for the Sandage Department of Advertising, taught an advanced media strategy class in the mid-1980s, and regularly recruited Illini talent.

“I’m just so impressed and gratified and honored to represent the college because it continues to be so forward-thinking, as it relates to instruction and education in the space,” Klues said. “That availability and that connection to the professional media industry is so powerful and yet unique to the University of Illinois.”

“Throughout his career, Jack Klues has been an advocate for the inclusion of a variety of voices and ideas, and his generous gift supports diversity in the industry by providing opportunities for advertising students in need, whether it’s financial scholarships, paid internships, or experiential learning experiences,” said Dean Tracy Sulkin. “Jack continues to drive the industry forward and we’re thankful for his commitment to higher education.”

Klues called his time at Illinois “a great launching pad for a professional career.” He began at Leo Burnett as an account executive in the media department, where he worked on planning and placement for companies like Pillsbury and Green Giant. By 1996, he was part of a management team that created a media services agency under Leo Burnett called Starcom, one of his career highlights.

“I have to put that high on my list of accomplishments—something I will always remember,” Klues said. “And it taught me that I have the right career path and choice.”

Leo Burnett merged with another media agency, DARCY, in 2000. Their media company, Mediavest, was part of a larger merger that resulted in the formation of the Starcom Mediavest Group, where Klues was the global CEO. When Starcom was acquired by Publicis Groupe in 2003, he became the global CEO for Publicis Groupe Media. From 2007 until his retirement in 2012, Klues was CEO at VivaKi, one of the first fully digitally-integrated agencies.

For more than two decades, Klues has served in a variety of leadership roles related to education. In his retirement, Klues established Mentridge, a mentoring program for college graduates entering the job market. He has been involved with Off the Street Club, Chicago’s oldest boys and girls club, for more than 25 years, including serving on the board of directors and acting as vice president of fundraising.

Learn more about Jack Klues’s career and his connection to the College of Media: Klues gift helps diversify advertising industry by opening doors for minority students

Media students present at 2022 Undergraduate Research Symposium

Update May 10, 2022:

Congratulations to Ethan Grinberg, sophomore in computer science + advertising (pictured above), for winning the Undergraduate Research Symposium’s Outstanding Award in the category of Numbers, Data, and Computation for his poster presentation on “The Mechanisms of Misinformation: Clustering Diffusion Networks of Low Credibility Sources by Topology.” His research mentor was Jacob Fisher, assistant professor of advertising.

Students from each major in the College of Media are participating in the 15^th annual University of Illinois Undergraduate Research Symposium, held Thursday, April 28, in the Illini Union. The symposium features presentations, posters, and performances from students across campus.

Media student poster presentations include:

“Virtual Reality and Its Immersive Capabilities: Can It Stimulate Pro-Environmental Behavior”
9–10:15 a.m., Illini Room A—Science and Technology Session

Justin Sun, Senior, Advertising
Minghao Sun, Junior, Advertising
Henry Rose, Senior, Advertising

Research Mentors: Chen (Crystal) Chen, ICR doctoral student/Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising, and Ewa Maslowska, Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising

“Analyzing the Relationship between Fear and Election Violence”
9–10:15 a.m., Illini Room C—Social Science and Behavior Session

Billy Wojcicki, Senior, Advertising

Research Mentor: Tolgahan Dilgin, Department of Political Science

“Analyzing Life Experiences through Oral History Methods”
1:30–2:45 p.m., Illini Room A—Health and Wellness Session

Vivian La, Sophomore, Journalism

Research Mentor: Sana Saboowala, Program in Ecology, Evolution, & Conservation Biology

“Investigating the Influence of Parenting Styles on Children’s Online Language Intensity in the Context of Celebrity Worship: Emotion Regulation as a Mediator”
1:30–2:45 p.m., Illini Room C—Social Science and Behavior Session

Sherry Zhang, Senior, Media & Cinema Studies

Research Mentor: Chen (Crystal) Chen, ICR doctoral student/Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising

“The Mechanisms of Misinformation: Clustering Diffusion Networks of Low Credibility Sources by Topology”
3:15–4:30 p.m., Illini Room South Lounge—Numbers, Data, and Computation Session

Ethan Grinberg, Sophomore, Computer Science + Advertising

Research Mentor: Jacob Fisher, Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising

Ethan Grinberg, CS+advertising sophomore, was also a semi-finalist in the Image of Research competition with his submission “The Shape of Misinformation.” See his image and description.

Two Media students also participated in the Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program to assist advanced graduate students with their research projects:

Billy Wojcicki, advertising senior, worked with research mentor Tolgahan Dilgin in the Department of Political Science
Vivian La, journalism sophomore, worked with research mentor Sana Saboowala in the Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology

View the Undergraduate Research Week program .

Media faculty and TAs make list of teachers ranked as excellent

Congratulations to all of the College of Media faculty, instructors, 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 2021 semester and Winter 2021-2022. 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

ADVERTISING

BRITTANY DUFF – ADV 284

JACOB FISHER – ADV 283, 305

STEVE HALL – ADV 150

CHANG-DAE HAM – ADV 460, 587

JACQUELINE HITCHON – ADV 283

TERRY KASDAN – ADV 409

AMANDA MABRY-FLYNN – ADV 283

EWA MASLOWSKA – ADV 460

* SHACHAR MERON – ADV 498

* MARISA PEACOCK – ADV 350, 491

SELA SAR – ADV 550

LEONA YI-FAN SU – ADV 581

JOURNALISM

CHRISTOPHER BALL – JOUR 101, 451

STEPHANIE CRAFT – JOUR 505

ALISON DAVIS – JOUR 210, 340

KEN ERDEY – JOUR 217

CHRIS EVANS – JOUR 200

CAROL LOMBARDI – JOUR 220

STEPHEN WARREN – JOUR 453

MEDIA & CINEMA STUDIES

AMANDA CIAFONE – MACS 317

CL COLE – MACS 351

JOSH HEUMAN – MACS 264, 320

JON KNIPP – MACS 282

DEREK LONG – MACS 261, 503

JENNY OYALLON-KOLOSKI – MACS 203

STRATEGIC BRAND COMMUNICATION

JACQUELINE HITCHON – SBC 503

SHACHAR MERON – SBC 500

TEACHING ASSISTANTS

* A. CANO – MACS 100

C. CHEN – ADV 460

J. PYO – MACS 100

Complete slate of Ebertfest films, special guests announced

Update 4/13/2022: Comedian and actor Gilbert Gottfried was originally scheduled to be one of the headlining guests at Ebertfest, accompanying the documentary Gilbert. Because of Gottfried’s death on April 12, Ebertfest will be dedicating its 22nd annual event in his honor.

The 22nd Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, co-founded and hosted by Chaz Ebert and also known as Ebertfest, announced additional actors and musicians who will appear as guests, as well as a bonus film, at this year’s festival, to be held April 20-23 at The Virginia Theatre.

Actors Thora Birch and Betsy Sodaro join a large group of filmmakers already announced for this year’s festival.

Acting since age 4, Birch’s credits include iconic roles in movies such as Ghost World, which is featured in this year’s Ebertfest; American Beauty, Now and Then, and Hocus Pocus. Birch has won SAG Awards and multiple Young Artist Awards, and has been nominated for Golden Globe, Emmy, and BAFTA awards.

Sodaro achieved stardom in the 2015 TV series Clipped and in the small screen’s Disjointed from 2017-18, among many other roles in her career. An actor in the Ebertfest film Golden Arm, Sodaro joins other guests from the movie including actor Olivia Stambouliah; writers Ann Marie Allison and Jenna Milly; and producer Brigid Brakefield.

The movie Soy Cubana will be followed by a musical performance from a band of current and former University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Latin Jazz Combo musicians, featuring guest vocalist Stephanie Woods Machado and musical director Tito Carrillo. The band will perform rhythms inspired by the movie’s Afro-Cuban music.

An additional special guest attending Ebertfest this year is executive producer Chris Kelly. Associated with acclaimed independent films including Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Olive, and Once Upon a Time in Queens, Kelly also is a co-owner of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. He will moderate the discussion after the screening of the movie Gilbert, about Gilbert Gottfried, which highlights the everyday life of the highly influential and incomparable comedian.

A short movie, Lifeline, and a 13th feature-length film will be included in the schedule this year, instead of panel discussions. The Phantom of the Open tells the remarkable true story of Maurice Flitcroft, a crane operator and optimistic dreamer who, with the support of his family and friends, managed to gain entry to the 1976 British Open qualifier despite never playing a round of golf before.

View the 22nd annual festival program lineup at http://www.ebertfest.com/film-schedule.

Passes to see all 13 films cost $200, including all processing fees. Four passes purchased together are $700. Also available are a small number of University of Illinois student passes priced at $150 each. Passes and individual movie tickets–$20 for the general public or $15 for U of I students—may be purchased through the festival website or at the Virginia Theatre box office, 203 W. Park Ave., Champaign, 217-356-9063. Updates will be posted on the festival website.

Roger Ebert’s Film Festival is a special event of Chaz Ebert and the College of Media at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. For additional information, visit http://www.ebertfest.com.

View original press release from the University of Illinois News Bureau.

Previous press releases:

College of Media faculty appointed to Associate Dean positions

April 8, 2022 | Holly Rushakoff

Two faculty from the College of Media have been appointed by Dean Tracy Sulkin to associate dean positions starting August 16.

Announced in January, Stephanie Craft, currently professor and head of the Department of Journalism, will serve as the College of Media’s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.

Announced in March, Jason P. Chambers, currently associate professor and associate head of the Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising, and Dean’s Fellow for Diversity and Inclusion, will serve as the College of Media’s inaugural Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

“I am pleased to welcome Professors Chambers and Craft to their important new roles, and I look forward to working closely with them,” Sulkin said. “Their strong administrative skills, commitment to the college and our mission, and consultative approach to decision-making make them both excellent additions to the College of Media leadership team.”

Craft, a scholar of news literacy and journalism ethics, joined the Illinois faculty in 2013. She has taught courses such as History of American Journalism, Introduction to Journalism, and Journalism Ethics & Diversity. She has served as head of the Department of Journalism from August 2018 until January 2022. Last summer, the third edition of her book Principles of American Journalism: An Introduction, coauthored with Charles N. Davis, was published.

“I have appreciated the opportunity to help my department colleagues work toward their goals but am now looking forward to the chance the associate dean role offers to take a broader view of the work we do in the college and how it connects to the rest of campus and beyond,” Craft said.

While on sabbatical this semester, Craft has continued her work to create a news literacy scale, and has been developing a summer media literacy workshop for high school teachers along with other faculty in the College of Media and the College of Education. She has also begun a new research project.

“The new project involves delving into the archives of one of the first major journalistic collaborations, called the Arizona Project,” Craft said. “I’m hoping to get a better sense of how the collaboration worked and how it set the stage (or didn’t) for future large-scale projects involving journalists from competing news organizations.

In her new position, Craft will facilitate college-level promotion and tenure processes; mentor Dean’s Fellows; liaise with campus offices on college participation in strategic initiatives; facilitate policy discussions among unit leadership; and coordinate professional development programming for junior and midcareer faculty; among other responsibilities.

“I am eager to work on the college’s professional education initiatives and think about how we can serve a variety of different kinds of students, both on campus and online,” Craft added.

Chambers joined the Sandage Department of Advertising faculty in 2001 and the Institute of Communications Research faculty in 2003. He is a scholar of advertising history, particularly the contributions of African Americans to the industry. He has taught courses including Classic Campaigns, Advertising History, and Multicultural Advertising.

In his new position, Chambers is excited about working with his colleagues “to drive change and link our faculty, staff, and students to all of the opportunities that diversity provides.”

Over the past several years, the College of Media has prioritized expanding its programming in the area of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the projects that Chambers facilitated during his two-year term as Dean’s Fellow for Diversity and Inclusion will continue to be part of his portfolio. The Alumni Mentoring Program, which connects students with accomplished alumni to share perspectives and advice, will continue to grow. The pilot focused on Black students and Black alumni, and then expanded to Latinx students and alumni. Chambers will also continue his involvement in the New Voices Internship Program, which provides opportunities for first-generation students and those from underrepresented groups to work with College of Media faculty and staff on communications projects.

He will also work with colleagues across the college and on campus to coordinate workshops on diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism that are relevant to Media faculty, students, and staff, and will seek ways to further the college’s capacity in this area.

“Leadership at the department, college, and campus levels have put real resources behind diversity initiatives,” Chambers said. “I want to ensure that the College of Media continues to take advantage of all the grants and other funding sources that the campus is making available for diversity-related topics.”

Chambers’s latest book Positive Realism: The Life of Advertising Pioneer Thomas J. Burrell has been submitted to the publisher for final review, with an expected publication date of 2023. He is also the author of Madison Avenue and the Color Line: African Americans in the Advertising Industry and Building the Black Metropolis: African American Entrepreneurship in Chicago.

Film and television producer Feder to speak at 2022 Media Convocation

April 4, 2022 | Vivian La, Communications Intern

Alumnus Stephen Feder with BB-8 in the Lucasfilm Offices at the Walt Disney Studios.

Stephen Feder (BS ’02, media studies) believes that with a little persistence and dedication to the things they love to learn about, students can accomplish anything.

“I think if people can harness that, there’s no telling how far they can go,” he said.

Feder, a film and television producer at T-Street Productions, will be this year’s alumni speaker for the College of Media Convocation. Because previous ceremonies had been postponed due to the pandemic, the May 2022 convocation will honor graduates from Fall 2019 through Spring 2022.

Looking back at his time at the University of Illinois, Feder said he learned a lot about himself both personally and professionally.

“Illinois gave me such incredible opportunities, not just inside the classroom, but outside the classroom,” he said. “That helped shape me as a human and taught me a lot about what my limitations were and the things that I needed to work on.”

He is driven by the people who have helped him get to where he is, especially past professors at the College of Media.

“I think it’s really important to pay homage to how you got somewhere. Understand that it’s because of your own drive, but also because people are willing to help you,” Feder said.

Feder’s love of movies was “cultivated at [the College of Media] just by proximity to the idea of Roger Ebert.” When he was a student, Feder met Ebert, a Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic and Illinois journalism alum who created Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, known as “Ebertfest.” During Ebertfest, Feder had the chance to have lunch with Ebert.

“Our conversation and just his presence, interest, and care in us as students gave us a boost in confidence that our goals were well within our reach,” Feder said. “He probably never understood the impact he had on all of us—but his passion for movies, his intellect, and his success always was a driving force of motivation for me. I miss him.”

About a decade later, Feder’s documentary Kumaré was screened at Ebertfest 2013. Feder was executive producer for the film, featuring a man who impersonates an Indian guru and builds a following. “Kumare seems to establish that a guru can be a complete fraud and nevertheless do a certain amount of good,” Ebert wrote, “because what matters is not the sincerity of the guru but that of his followers.”

Feder said it was a full-circle moment and meant everything to him.

“The fact that he selected it to be part of Ebertfest among the last group of movies he handpicked before passing away is an honor I’ll never forget,” Feder said.

It was his work on Kumaré, which received a SXSW Audience Award, that led to Feder’s time at Annapurna Studios. As senior vice president of production and development, Feder worked on films such as Everybody Wants Some!!, which was also an Ebertfest selection, as well as Where’d You Go, Bernadette, both directed by Richard Linklater; Spring Breakers, directed by Harmony Korine; and The Grandmaster, directed by Wong Kar-Wai.

“I had always been inclined to want to tell stories that had a broad reach,” Feder said. Growing up, he was inspired by movies like Back to the Future, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Star Wars—movies that he shares with his kids.

Feder eventually got the chance to work on Star Wars, describing the feeling of walking onto set “a life-affirming moment.”

“It was a reminder of the power of one’s imagination—and how if you could dream it, you could make it a reality,” he said. “I never wanted to hear the word ‘cut’ and still don’t.”

He became vice president of film development at Lucasfilm in 2016, working on Solo: A Star Wars Story and other projects. He served as the Lucasfilm production executive on location/set for filming, and was a member of the Lucasfilm Story Group, which keeps track of the Star Wars canon to assist writers and directors in the development of new stories.

Feder is currently a producer at Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman’s T-Street Productions, responsible for the film Knives Out. He works with his producing partner, Kiri Hart, to help amplify artistic voices.

Feder said the professional relationships that have helped him throughout his career inspires him to pay it forward to the next generation of filmmakers. He has been a panelist at the college’s Media Career Nights to share advice on working in the entertainment industry.

“I’m only here by the grace of other people believing [in me] and I also have to be willing to do the same for others,” he said.

Above all, he recognizes that the industry and the world is forever changed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As streaming makes content more accessible, Feder considered the next challenge that the media industry needs to address.

“We as filmmakers have to be malleable; we can’t firmly entrench ourselves in the past,” Feder said. “We have to think about how we’re going to reach a future generation of moviegoers, and TV goers, and content consumers. It’s our responsibility to innovate ways both to tell stories and also to make them feel new.”

Feder also hopes he can provide some comfort to Media students who are feeling unsure about their futures.

“If you have been able to get through what you’ve done the last few years and come out of it, I think that there’s a lot of promise ahead,” Feder said.

Challenges can be seen as opportunities, he said.

“I understand the world is really scary at the moment and challenging, but it needs us. It needs us to make changes,” Feder said.

“So we can’t retreat. We have to push forward.”

From Gottfried to ‘Golden Arm,’ Ebertfest back in full swing

The 22nd annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, co-founded and hosted by Chaz Ebert and also known as “Ebertfest,” has announced its full slate of films for the April 20-23 event. The list announced today includes an appearance by comedian Gilbert Gottfried to discuss his film Gilbert; another movie that introduces us to women arm-wrestlers; and an appearance by a pair of filmmakers to discuss the topic of identity.

The festival also announced the itinerary for opening night.

With Oscar-winning directors, comedians, and musicians, augmented by many independent movie gems, this year’s lineup takes the festival back to the roots established by late co-founder Roger Ebert, an Urbana native and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign journalism alumnus who gained a wide following as a film critic until his death in 2013.

“We will present films that will make you laugh, and make you cry, and some filled with so much music you will want to dance,” Chaz Ebert said. “But, most of all, we will enjoy being back together, in person, to celebrate cinema in a joyous way on the big screen as a community.”

The festival had previously announced Oscar-winning or nominated films and directors like Guillermo del Toro (Nightmare Alley in black and white), Ramin Bahrani (The White Tiger), Terry Zwigoff (Ghost World), Azazel Jacobs (French Exit), and the late Alfred Hitchcock (The 39 Steps). Ebertfest is adding other films that did not get the audiences they deserved because the theaters were closed during the pandemic.

“Some of the small theaters that showed independent and art movies, including the Art Theater in Champaign, which was one of Roger’s favorite cinemas, will never open again,” Chaz Ebert said. “So, we have carefully curated a selection of independent films, especially chosen for our Ebertfest family of movie lovers, to come to our big screen at the beautifully renovated movie palace, the Virginia Theatre.”

The “overlooked” films of this year’s Ebertfest include Gottfried’s appearance to discuss his film, which gives an intimate look behind the scenes in the life of a comedian. The festival also will welcome Krisha Fairchild to discuss her movie Krisha, which is about life, alcoholism, and recovery, but mostly about family. Golden Arm is a movie that brings a slice of life, both comic and dramatic, from a world not many know about—women arm wrestlers. The festival will award many of Golden Arms cast and crew the coveted Golden Thumb. Ebertfest will also discuss the nature of identity with Jason Delane Lee and Yvonne Huff Lee after the paired showing of their short film Lifeline and a second film that they executive-produced, the BAFTA-nominated and Spirit Awards-winning film Passing, directed by Rebecca Hall.

The opening night fare will include diverse voices starting with alt-country artist Clem Snide performing the song “Roger Ebert.” Also slated for April 20 is the Oscar-winning documentary Summer of Soul, followed by acclaimed jazz and torch singer Tammy McCann performing with Champaign’s own Aplustrodamus and Ther’Up.Y (pronounced “Therapy”). The band’s leader emphasizes the therapeutic nature music has for us, especially in these perilous times.

Other scheduled musically related films and events include Soy Cubana, by Jeremy and Robin Ungar, about the “Vocal Vidas”—Cuban singers considered national treasures.

Renee Baker and her 10-piece orchestra will be back by popular demand to accompany and interpret the silent film Siren of the Tropics. The film stars the late Josephine Baker, who in 2021 made history, 46 years after her death, by becoming the first American—and the first Black woman—inducted into the Pantheon in Paris, which is a monument reserved for French national heroes. Born in St. Louis, Baker became a French citizen in 1937. She is buried in Monaco. Previous inductees include Voltaire, Victor Hugo, and Marie Curie. Her induction ceremony was presided over by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Ebertfest has taken extra precautions, going beyond local measures to make audiences feel comfortable. The festival is introducing reserved ticketing for the first time to reduce capacity and provide ample spacing between groups. And the Virginia Theatre has installed a new state-of-the-art ventilation system.

The festival will announce additional filmmaker guests in the coming weeks.

Ebertfest will be held at the Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign, with related talks and panel discussions at the Hyatt Place in Champaign and at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Passes are available for $200, including all processing fees. Four passes purchased together are $700. Also available are a small number of University of Illinois student passes priced at $150 each. Individual movie tickets will be available April 1 at $20 for the general public or $15 for University of Illinois students. Passes and tickets may be purchased through the festival website or at the Virginia Theatre box office, 203 W. Park Ave., Champaign, 217-356-9063. Updates will be posted on the festival website. Depending on available seating, tickets for individual movies may be available April 1.

Roger Ebert’s Film Festival is a special event of Chaz Ebert and the College of Media at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. For additional information, visit http://www.ebertfest.com.

Editor’s note: Anyone interested in supporting the event as a festival sponsor may contact Andy Hall, the festival’s project coordinator, at amhall2@illinois.edu.

View original press release from the University of Illinois News Bureau.