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Before the Fire is a tense and personal portrait of life during a pandemic for our heroine, Ava. It is currently available to rent from the FACETS Virtual Cinema until August 27.  In March, when the COVID-19 induced stay-at-home orders began, two distinct groups of people emerged: those who watched Contagion immediately, and those who avoided it like the plague (pun intended).  Other pandemic films came before it, sure, but Steven Soderbergh’s meticulous 2011 epic seems to have eerily predicted the coronavirus pandemic about a decade in advance, leading to its go-to status for many Americans. It explores the global political implications

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Sunless Shadows shows, in intimate detail, the daily lives and struggles of young Iranian women in a juvenile detention center who have been convicted of murdering older male relatives. You can rent this poignant documentary from the FACETS Virtual Cinema until 8/20. Every young woman’s story in Sunless Shadow has the same heartbreaking cause, domestic violence. Filmmaker Mehrdad Oskouei’s deft touch with such sensitive subject matter is handled with the utmost care, as the voyeuristic details that are the bedrock of many crime documentaries are not included.  The film follows the inmates through their daily lives, which often includes video letters to

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With the nationwide COVID-19 related shutdowns and stay-at-home order in place since mid-March, filmmaking has mostly taken a pause in America. The film industry has adjusted to the work-from-home lifestyle, as many notable filmmakers are completing their projects under their own roofs. For example, the new Michael Jordan Docuseries, The Last Dance, premiered in April. Upon initial release, the series had not been fully edited and director Jason Hehir coordinated his team remotely to finish the documentary. Unfortunately, other productions were halted entirely, including season four of the critically acclaimed crime show Fargo which had to suspend shooting due to COVID-19. Even

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While the passing of FACETS' Founder Milos Stehlik is still fresh within the community, we can still share his vision through the Film Literacy Manifesto. Through his written word, Milos continues to teach film consumers how to actively engage in film and use it as a vehicle to expand ones point of view and explore a range of cultures far and wide. A year ago, on July 6, 2019, FACETS’ Founder Milos Stehlik passed away after a six-month battle with lung cancer. We celebrate his legacy by sharing Milos’s Film Literacy Manifesto, originally presented at the University of Chicago’s International Educators Conference.  Film literacy was at

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Imagine going to a crowded theater for a highly anticipated film (those were the days, right?) and it exceeds everyone’s high expectations. As people file out of the theater, they are likely raving about the actors’ performances or how well the film was directed. While these filmmaking roles might dominate the press cycle, they don’t even begin to scratch the surface of what makes a film great.  Simply put, some areas of filmmaking are underappreciated. When a film is announced, all the press cares about are the director and stars. It wasn’t a news story when Christopher Nolan picked Jennifer Lame

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Juneteenth is a holiday that commemorates news of the Emancipation Proclamation finally reaching Galveston, Texas in 1865, officially ending slavery in the United States. Facets’ program director, Charles Coleman, has put together a watchlist of essential Black Cinema to celebrate with this year.  The history of African American Cinema is a timeline of racism, repression and struggle contrasted with film scenes of joy, hope and artistic spirit. The prevailing idea is that the emergence of African American cinema was a strong response to the racial representation prevalent in mainstream films.  After years of struggling to fit into roles Hollywood deemed acceptable to

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The fourth and final installment in our 45th anniversary spotlight focuses on one of our great success stories: Kristóf Deák’s journey from a first prize win at Facets’ Chicago International Children’s Film Festival in 2016 to an Academy Award win for his short film Sing. As the oldest children’s film festival in the Western Hemisphere and one of two Oscar-qualifying kid’s fest in the world, Facets’ Chicago International Children’s Film Festival has been bringing exciting new cinema to Chicago and beyond since 1983. Emerging and established directors have had films screen at the festival and go on to receive all kinds

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In the third installment of our special 45th Anniversary series, Facets Film Program Director, Charles Coleman, tells the story of acquiring Krzysztof Kieślowski’s The Decalogue (1988). Transcript In honor of Facets’ 45th anniversary, we thought it would be great to hear our program director Charles Coleman discuss one of the most formative moments in Facets’ history: the acquisition and screening of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s The Decalogue. Emma Greenleaf If you want to start with the process of acquiring the film for the screening. Charles Coleman  0:24  Yeah, well what happened was … I was a huge fan of Krzysztof Kieślowski  I admired many of the films he

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Pulled deep from the archives, check out this film made over 20 years ago at Facets Summer Camps. This post is part of our special 45th Anniversary series where we look back at exciting moments in Facets’ history. Read part one here and submit your own favorite Facets moments here. https://youtu.be/NagVAk_DxrA The Picky Person at the Potluck Party is an absurdly delightful comedy that could be a great double feature with Luis Buñuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972). At an eccentric millionaire’s potluck, a guest has her tastes challenged by the dinner options, which include squid Jell-O, boiled fish heads, and

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Watching The Wolf House is a strange, singular experience, but film history is full of surreal animation. So we’ve put together a watchlist featuring films that influenced The Wolf House for you to check out after seeing the film. Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña’s feat of animation and political filmmaking, The Wolf House (2018), was shot entirely at art galleries and museums, allowing patrons to witness the creation of this surrealist masterpiece. The anti-colonialist allegory is fully realized by the young directors through its unique blend of artistic mediums. (Learn more about the filmmakers’ process in this free Q&A hosted by the