Illinois(e)Makers program showcases 11 films

The Illinois(e)Makers program of six locally made features — showcasing the best features, documentaries and short films with their roots in our home state ? figures prominently at the Chicago International Film Festival.

Illinois(e)Makers plays at various times throughout the 46th festival, which starts screening Thursday, at the AMC River East multiplex, through Oct. 21.

Here’s the program:

The Defiled, directed by Julian Grant, a Columbia College assistant professor with 29 features to his credit, is a zombie movie seen through fresh eyes: those of the zombie.

In a plague-ravaged near future, a virus-infected, flesh-eating man comes into possession of a newborn baby. He must take up with a vulnerable, uninfected woman to protect the child from other post-apocalyptic horrors and an unfeeling paramilitary group patrolling the ruins.

Drunkboat, is an autobiographical coming-of-age story by writer/directed Bob Meyer.

A cast of misfits collide in this off-kilter character study. Mort (John Malkovich), a Vietnam veteran using alcohol to salve his survivor’s guilt; Fletcher (John Goodman), a used-boat salesman as corrupt as he is jocular; and Mort’s nephew Abe, a naive suburban teen pursuing his dream of buying a boat and sailing the world, while keeping his mother (Dana Delany) in the dark.