ALWAYS BUSY GEORGE ELDER of Luminair wrapped the Chicago shoot for the seventh season of “Mexico: One Plate at a Time.”
The half-hour TV shows are shot in Chicago at the home of restaurateur Rick Bayless, owner of top-rated Topo Lobampo, and in warm, sunny Mexico, where Elder, Bayless and crew will be headed in January.
FILM WISCONSIN: A cast and crew of 150 are filming “Road to Emmaus,” a drama based on a Bible story, Ozaukee County filming(northeast of Milwaukee).
The story is being told on film for the first time by five-time Emmy-winners Boettcher/Trinklein Inc. (“The Pioneers of Television”). Producer/director Steve Boettcher said the script alone was a four-year project.
Starring is veteran actor Bruce Marchiano, who has made a career of appearing as important characters in biblical dramas (“Faith Happens,” “The Visual Bible”).
APPLAUSE FOR STEPPENWOLF THEATRE COMPANY for being tapped to receive $1.075 million over 5 years to create programs aimed at younger audiences and create models for other arts groups to follow. The largesse came from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Steppenwolf, was the only Illinois arts group out of ten being honored, one of 10 arts groups, and the only one from Illinois, to be so honored.
NOT-SO-GOOD SIGN OF THE TIMES. The Oct. 25, 2008 IWOC Writer’s Conference has been canceled, “due to “the current economic climate contributing to a record low turnout,” according to the organizers. The conference plans to resume next spring when, hopefully, the economy has improved.
IFP IS THRILLED by the $30,000-plus generated by its second annual fund-raiser at Primitive last month. Funds will go into a general operating fund, says executive director Lynn Steadman.
MENTORSHIP PAYS OFF. CAN TV/Ch. 19 will devote almost two hours to screen ALL the IFP Mentorship films from the past four years, along with a few docs and student interviews, on Oct. 18 at 5:30 p.m. and Oct. 25 at noon.
“These kids have created some incredible stories and definitely deserve their two recent National Emmy awards,” notes John Mossman, Summer Mentorship Program Producer.
This just in: IFP film produced by kids at the Chicago Vocational Career Academy took top prize at the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival’s High School Competition.
SPEAKING OF WINNERS. For the third consecutive year (an achievement by itself) the National Roofing Contractors Assn. won a Certificate of Merit at INTERCOM, the non-theatrical wing of CIFF.
Funded by an OSHA grant, the winning video is about the caught-inbetween hazards in the roofing industry. Producer/director was Peter Greenbaum, NRCA’s education and training media director.
MEDIA GODDESS LAURIE SCHEER comes to town Nov. 5 on behalf of Media Bistro, to share secrets of “How to Write for (and Pitch to) Women’s TV Networks” at the Theatre Building.
Scheer really knows her stuff, having been a former VP/programming for WE: Women’s Entertainment, and also worked in various capacities for some of the most powerful media conglomerates, like ABC, Viacom and Showtime. To top it off, she currently teaches at Yale. See
