A SHOUT OUT TO JACKIE TAYLOR, who after 31 years of staging more than 100 musical shows will receive a Special Award from the Jeff Awards honoring her outstanding contribution to theatre in Chicago.
Taylor, who grew up in Cabrini-Green, founded BET in 1976 with a $1,200 loan and free legal work from Lawyers for the Creative Arts and has built it into a $1.6 million-dollar cultural organization earning national recognition.
A new BET theatre breaks ground next year at 4440 N. Clark, not far from its long time location on Beacon and Montrose.
The 39th Jeff Awards take place Oct. 29 at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie.
JEFF GARLIN will host local Emmy awards Nov. 18 at NU’s Thorne Auditorium. The Chicago native and Second City alum was in town last week for the Chicago run of his comedy, “I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With.”
AMONG THE HUNDREDS OF EMMY NOMINATIONS spread over 37 densely packed pages ? only one independent producer could be found. Producer Matt Hoffman and his HMS Media are up for several Emmy nominations for their performance/dance show, “Jump Rhythm Jazz Project: Getting There,” that aired over Ch. 11.
IT’S ONLY FITTING that former Piven Workshop student Joan Cusack will present an award to Workshop co-founder Joyce Piven at WIF’s Focus Awards Oct. 16.
The gala takes place at the Ritz Carlton starting with an 11:15 a.m. reception, lunch and the presentation at noon.
PRODUCER STEVE JONES is the latest addition to the IPF Filmmakers Summit lineup, Oct. 19-21. Jones teaches a producing class at DePaul In addition to his many producing activities.
“HOOP DREAMS,” the 1995 theatrical doc, Oscar nominee and winner of 15 other top awards, was voted the number one best documentary by the International Documentary Assn.’s 3,000 members, out of 700 nominated films.
Filmmakers were Steve James (“Stevie”), Peter Gilbert (executive producer, “The Ballad of Esequiel Hernandez” and “Stevie” co-producer) and Frederick Marx (editor, “Schooled”) and produced under the Kartemquin banner. The list was created in celebration of IDA’s 25th anniversary.
FLASHPOINT’S FIRST MONTHLY INDUSTRY WORKSHOP for the public kicks off Oct. 19 with the hosting of Mesh Flinders creator of the LonelyGirl15 phenom on YouTube.com.
Flinders speaks to students and counselors during the day and in the evening to the public. Sun-Times arts and entertainment writer Mike Thomas facilitates.
For details, see our Screenings & Events column, the biggest and most complete coverage of industry activities.
FROM NORTH OF THE BORDER. Canada’s film/TV industry was affected when the Canadian dollar recently reached parity with the American currency for the first time in 31 years.
That might mean Canada could go quiet for a while, after the completion of a spate of stockpiling films in preparation for a threatened WGA strike next year.
In Toronto, overall production spending was 700 million Canadian dollars last year, a drop from a high of 1 billion in 2000.
In the province of Ontario, foreign production, mostly American, declined by 30% in the last two years alone, to $338.7 million Canadian from $486.3 million.
The industry has blamed the slide on the competitive tax incentives of other jurisdictions as well as the soaring currency.
STILL MORE. SAG, the Teamsters and several other Hollywood unions recently filed a petition with the U.S. trade representative alleging that Canadian film and TV subsidies have led to U.S. job losses.
In the past decade alone, Canada hosted more than 1,000 U.S. film and TV productions, including “Brokeback Mountain,” “Chicago” and “The Rudy Giuliani Story.”
The complaint alleges that Canadian government subsidies that target U.S. film and TV productions constitute unfair trade practices and violate Canada’s obligations under the World Trade Organization.
