Doc about troubled arts center plays Cultural Center

Director Kelly Luchtman

ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE, a documentary by producer/director Kelly Luchtman and coproducer, DP and editor Thomas C. Gaunt, about the troubled history of the Acme Artists Community in Bucktown, screens April 19 at the Cultural Center and has its broadcast premiere May 6 on Ch. 11.

Started as an effort to provide affordable housing as a co-op for owner-artists, the Artists Community was beset by construction problems and internal strife. 

The Acme-affiliated Wicker Park Arts Center — both run by the Near Northwest Arts Council — a past venue for CIMMfest, among numerous other events, has its own troubles now, as it faces eviction from St. Paul’s Community Church, which is being sold to the Love Holy Trinity Blessed Mission.

Danny Alpert of the Kindling Group is executive producer.  NNWAC executive director Laura Weathered and Acme residents David and Batya Hernandez will hold a discussion after the screening.

At the Cultural Center’s Claudia Cassidy Theatre, 77 E. Washington, 6:30 p.m. Free and open to all. 

Katherine Cunningham and Nick CardiffTWO DAYS IN FEBRUARY, the fifth feature by writer/director Michael P. Noens, about a young man lost in the memories of his past relationships while struggling to decide if his withering long-distance relationship is worth the fight, screens April 17 at Stage 773.

Starring Chicago actors Nick Cardiff, Courtney Rioux and Katherine Cunningham.

Noens shot in Chicago and northwest suburbs on a $100,000 budget. Erica Lynn Schmeck, Jonathan C. Legat and Tricia Noens produced.  DP was Danny Crook; production designer, Lori Bohner. Original score by Christopher Joye, Tom Haigh edited sound at ARU.

Two of Noens’ earlier features, Coasting and Darren & Abbey, were 2010 festival award-winners. 

At 1225 W. Belmont; 6:15 and 8 p.m.

Billy TaylorMEDIA PROCESS GROUP WRAPPED PRODUCTION on The Billy Taylor Story, about the former University of Michigan All-American tailback who spent years on the streets of Detroit before founding an addiction rehab clinic.

MPG’s Bob Hercules co-directed with Dan Chace; Keith Walker and Mike Swanson shot.  Ryan Mayers edited. 

Hercules is also directing a series of web videos for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  Walker is shooting Steve James’s documentary, Head Games, about head injuries in sports.

AN AUDITION for MDB Productions’ film Baby Momma, will be held April 14, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at Vocational Career Academy, 8600 S. Chappell Ave.  Men and women 18-30 and boys 7-10 are invited to perform a one-minute monologue.

DIRECTOR WENDY JO CARLTON hosts an April 26 screening of her 2011 musical romantic comedy Jamie and Jessie Are Not Together, in a benefit for Howard Brown Health Center’s Lesbian Community Care Project.

Jacqui Jackson and Jessica London-Shields star as actor roommates whose romantic tension simmers as one prepares to move to New York.

At the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport, 8 p.m. 

ACTOR AND MOVIE BEAT radio host Rex Sikes is directing the short film Serum, about a young medical test subject experiencing side effects that include “nausea, schizophrenia, temporary death…”  Sikes is producing with screenwriter Sam Kozel.

ED KOZIARSKI AND WIFE JUNKO KAJINO are currently back in Japan capturing the second year of Japan’s nuclear crisis for their documentary Uncanny Terrain.

Tax deductible contributions may be made to their IndieGoGo campaign, which runs through May.