Ed M. Koziarski Archives · Page 2 of 20 · | Reel Chicago - At the intersection of Chicago Advertising, Entertainment, Media and Production

Kartemquin’s biggest year ever for doc production

by Ed M. Koziarski Sep 2, 2014

Kartemquin Films has 15 films in progress and is completing six others this year, making 2014 the acclaimed nonprofit production company’s busiest year ever in nearly a half...

IFP revival: Fall Conference set, new director aboard

By Ed M. Koziarski Aug 29, 2014

IFP/Chicago’s annual Filmmaker Conference will return to its longtime home at Columbia College’s Film Row Cinema on Oct. 10-11 after being dormant for several years, before ...

INDIE CINEMA

Webb back at Reeling fest helm after hiatus to retool

by Ed M. Koziarski Aug 19, 2014

FOUNDER BRENDA WEBB is back at the helm of Reeling: Chicago LGBT International Film Festival, after she took it on hiatus in 2012 to retool and focus on development work, whic...

INDIE CINEMA

Lending receives $1.1 mm PBS grant to complete doc

by Ed M. Koziarski Aug 14, 2014

OSCAR-NOMINATED FILMMAKER Tod Lending’s documentary, All the Difference, five years in the making, has received a $1.1 million grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcast...

Adman/filmmaker Schulze’s film bows at Black Harvest

By Ed M. Koziarski Aug 5, 2014

Hugh Schulze, the CEO of West Loop marketing communications agency recently turned filmmaker, returned to his home town of Detroit in 2012 to direct his debut dramatic feature...

Siskel’s Black Harvest, Aug. 1-28, best ever at 20

By Ed M. Koziarski Jul 31, 2014

It was 20 years ago that Gene Siskel Film Center director of programming, Barbara Scharres, first launched the Black Harvest Film Festival that continues to be the main theatr...

INDIE CINEMA

Euro punk musicians co-star in Leyser’s new feature

by Ed M Koziarski Jul 23, 2014

WRITER/DIRECTOR YONY LEYSER, whose 2010 debut feature documentary William S. Burroughs: A Man Within was released by Oscilloscope Pictures and broadcast nationally on PBS, is m...

INDIE CINEMA

Nearing’s period mystery premieres at Black Harvest

by Ed M. Koziarski Jul 1, 2014

WRITER/DIRECTOR DANIEL NEARING’S murder mystery, Hogtown, with a multi-racial cast of 70, filmed in black-and-white and set in post WWI Chicago, premieres at the Gene Siskel...

INDIE CINEMA

Grant directing feature drama for Two 9 Productions

by Ed M. Koziarski Jun 23, 2014

JULIAN GRANT (Sweet Leaf) wrote and is directing Finding Hope, a drama about a man fighting to win back his wife after a tragic accident, produced by Two 9 Productions and curr...

Billy Zane heads cast for indie comedy’s fall shoot

by Ed M. Koziarski Jun 19, 2014

Billy Zane (Titanic) has signed on to the already strong cast of Duane Edward’s indie comedy Supreme Ruler, planned to shoot here this fall. A Chicago native and current res...

New rental stages aim to serve as “a creative Hub”

by Ed M. Koziarski Jun 15, 2014

Hub studios’ owners, real estate developer Denis Kulich and producer/director Mark Cwiakala, officially opened their new 10,000-sq. ft. shooting stage recently in Ukranian Vi...

Indiana CD creates, directs dark, Dunes-set TV pilot

by Ed M. Koziarski Jun 10, 2014

Thad Donovan, president/creative director and producer Carly Smith of Northwest Indiana’s Smith Donovan Marketing Communications, make their first film this summer, Alexis Ro...

INDIE CINEMA

12 accept $100K in grants for social change projects

By Ed M. Koziarski Jun 3, 2014

TWELVE WORTHY FILMMAKERS were awarded $100,000 in grants from The Chicago Digital Media Production Fund, in amounts ranging from $3,850 to $10,000, for projects designed to adv...

Hellmann heads new Cast Station office here

by Ed M. Koziarski Jun 1, 2014

Since opening an office here in January, “the reception has been wonderful, wildly surpassing our expectations,” says Robin Hellmann, Chicago casting director for Texas-ba...

Comedy Film Fest nets vast viewers via digital deal

by Ed M. Koziarski Jun 1, 2014

A new partnership with leading YouTube network Collective Digital Studio (CDS) puts a vast new audience within reach for the four-year-old Chicago Comedy Film Festival (CCF...

INDIE CINEMA

Cone’s new horror film ‘Black Box’ screens at Siskel

by Ed M. Koziarski May 29, 2014

AWARD-WINNING WRITER/DIRECTOR STEPHEN CONE (The Wise Kids) returns to his coming-of-age territory with his latest feature Black Box, which starts its theatrical run May 3...

Central Illinois film facility will be an area boon

by Ed M. Koziarski May 11, 2014

Central Illinois will boast the largest and best-equipped production facility outside of Chicago when Heroic Age Studios opens in Mount Zion next year – one that will “att...

2013 film revenues of $358 million set a new record

by Ed M. Koziarski Jan 21, 2014

Film production last year was an exception year, says Chicago Film Office director Rich Moskal. “The busiest we’ve ever seen” and the biggest – with estimated revenues a...

INDIE CINEMA

Sam Macon helms “Sign Painters,” Radar’s first feature

by Ed M. Koziarski Oct 1, 2013

RADAR STUDIOS FIRST FEATURE, the hit documentary Sign Painters, directed by Radar’s Sam Macon and artist/photographer/filmmaker Faythe Levine, adapted from their 2012 book abo...

Davies, Zehme to produce Johnny Carson mini-series

by Ed M. Koziarski Sep 27, 2013

NBC is developing a scripted mini-series based on Chicago writer Bill Zehme’s Carson the Magnificent: An Intimate Portrait, a biography of Johnny Carson, legendary host of The...