I gotta go to this every year!

We have finally seen all of our Chicago International Film Festival films. I have to say it was an amazing experience.

First and foremost, it was great to have the chance to see films we might not otherwise get to see. I have no idea how many of the films shown will get a regular theater release in the United States. Three of the films we saw were foreign, and who's to say we would get another chance to see them on the big screen. One was so new that it didn't even have a print with English subtitles yet. There were German subtitles, with an English translation projected onto the top of the screen.

My favorite part, though, was that there were Q and A sessions after two of the films we went to see. One included a writer, the other the director. We got to learn so much more about each film, decisions that were made in the process, inspiration, etc.

We have decided we are going to renew our membership next year. I can't believe I never went to this festival before. Now I plan on going every year.

Chicago International Film Festival

Every year I have good intentions to see at least one film that is part of the Chicago International Film Festival, but every year I fail. Not this year, though. Thanks to one of the graduations presents I received, I am a member this year and got some free passes. We are going to four films, the first of which is tonight.

We spent a lot of time looking at the descriptions of all of the films, weeding out the ones we really wanted to see. With one exception, we excluded American films, especially those with Hollywood stars in them, with the idea that there is a good chance we might get to see some of those another time. I saw that a film from this one Iranian director I like a lot a showing, so that had to be one of the films we chose. We're seeing that one tomorrow. We also chose to see the only anime film next weekend. With the exception of the Iranian film, the other films we chose are animated: One is American, one is French, and the anime, which is obviously from Japan.

I'm really excited to have the chance to see these films on the big screen. I'm also hoping this jumpstarts my love of film again. Before I wrote my dissertation I watched movies all the time. We went to the movies a lot. I miss it. It seems like anything that requires an attention span fell by the wayside as I started writing my dissertation. First, I felt like I couldn't commit to something for that long. If I had to take a break, it was to watch a shorter television show. Second, after all of that work my brain needed a break. The sorts of films I like to watch made me think for far too long. I stopped reading books as well. I'm starting to get back into the swing of those things. It's about time.

One Year

I started seeing these in The Loop yesterday. At least I didn't notice any on Wednesday. This one was taken at the corner of State and Washington.