Short film production and sales is a genuine revolution?an opportunity for filmmakers to exploit an enormous market for 60-second to half-hour films. This new market exists t...

The Asian American Showcase make its strongest showing yet in its 11th year, bringing a most-ever 12 features. All of them Chicago premieres and half are coming off major festiv...

Korean arts and media group Yehyang Cultural Ministry is throwing its hat into the filmmaking arena with "The Gift," an HD Christian dramatic feature that shoots this May and Ju...

"The War Tapes," the Iraq War documentary produced and edited by Steve James ("Hoop Dreams"), will have its world premiere April 30 at the Tribeca Film Festival. James, who a...

After 27 years of business, Del Hall Video will close its doors on June 1 and owners Ginger and Del Hall will transition into a smaller, more personalized phase of video product...

Elysium Films' Ed Blair and Constant Walker are going deep into Delta blues country to direct and post a series of concerts with famous blues stars. The venue is Ground Ze...

"Curb Your Enthusiasm" co-star Jeff Garlin premieres his feature directorial debut, Chicago-and-L.A.-shot "I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With," at the Tribeca Film Festival, whic...

What could have been the driest first quarter for Hollywood production has been relieved by an April shower of business. "ER" generally spends a long weekend in Chicago filmi...

A month-long technical training class ends this week for 14 Local 476 trainees, who spent the last four weeks, eight hours a day at Essanay where they learned the skills and equ...

CHICAGO'S LOSS IS PITTSBURGH'S GAIN. When the Art Institute politely declined to serve as the setting for a new TV pilot about art thieves, Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum said ...

Marc Selz follows up "The Rockville Slayer" and "Short Cut Road" with his third horror/thriller feature "Satanic Panic" set to shoot in northwest Illinois this summer. The f...

When Wisconsin's impressive film incentive package is enacted in mid-April, the Badger State will have shot up from obscurity to the top of many an L.A. studio's list of preferr...

LISA GILDHAUS on March 15 presents her feature documentary "Almost Home," about an innovative Milwaukee retirement community. St. John's on the Lake is "where residents mingl...

Repeatedly displaced by rising costs in communities they've helped popularize, Wicker Park artists, led by the Near NorthWest Arts Council, took a stand. After years of deve...

WHO SHE IS. Film and TV veteran, show producer/documentarian Barbara E. Allen of Middle Passage productions. She's an eight-time Emmy nominee and two-time winner, a.k.a. "BA."...

PATRICK READ JOHNSON of Moonwatcher Films has entered the third and final round of shooting for his feature "5-25-77." Johnson shoots the film's climactic "Star Wars" premie...

Pete Schwaba joins the growing ranks of independent filmmakers choosing self-release over unsatisfactory distribution offers, when he opens his debut feature "The Godfather of G...

If Gov. Blagojevich's bold proposed film incentives become law during the current session of the state legislature, movie and spot producers will find Illinois offers the best b...

After 14 years at the same Elmhurst location, Peter Karl Productions decided to move into the city to be closer to their clients. As they searched in an ever-widening ar...

I'm always stunned when I realize that I can be happy with something small: A frozen, rum-laden pina colada, couple of chunks of flaky, fried yucca and a small, warm tamale. ...