EBERTFEST 2024 FULL PROGRAM ANNOUNCED, INCLUDING ‘OMOIYARI: A SONG FILM BY KISHI BASHI’

Ebertfest is an annual film festival held every April in Champaign, Ill., named for legendary film critic, Robert Ebert.

CHAMPAIGN, ILL., UNITED STATES, March 28, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Roger Ebert’s Film Festival is pleased to announce its full program, with the additions of the documentary Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi, the Audience Choice film Cookie’s Fortune, the indie cult classic Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and a panel with the Little Indian Girl Collective.

Ebertfest, celebrating its 25th anniversary, will be held from Wednesday, April 17, through Saturday, April 20, 2024, at the Virginia Theatre, 203 W. Park, in downtown Champaign.

Kaoru Ishibashi, renowned singer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter who performs under the name Kishi Bashi will join Ebertfest to discuss a documentary he co-directed, Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi. When a media interview links the Muslim ban and the immigration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border with the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during WWII, he goes on a journey to learn about this history and its relevance to better understand his own identity as a bi-cultural American.

After polling Ebertfest fans, this year’s Audience Choice film winner is Cookie’s Fortune, a 1999 American noir comedy film directed by Robert Altman and starring Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Liv Tyler, Patricia Neal, Charles S. Dutton, and Chris O'Donnell. The award-winning film, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 1999, follows a dysfunctional family in small-town Mississippi and the conflicts that arise after the death of their wealthy aunt. Roger Ebert described the film as the “kind of comedy with a lot of laughs, and even more smiles.”

The Little Indian Girl Collective will present a panel on “Women Who Embody Revolution Through Storytelling.” In the midst of the climate crisis, fast-paced news, social media, and increasing disconnection, hope is found in community-driven stories. Little Indian Girl, a new storytelling collective, discusses the future of storytelling and the power of narrative sovereignty with women, Indigenous and two-spirit artists, and Earth guardians who embody revolution through art. A song featuring Indian and Intuit throat singing traditions will be performed.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), an American science fiction, romantic drama film directed by Michel Gondry, will be screened at this year’s festival. The film, which stars Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, follows two individuals who undergo a procedure to erase each other from their memories following the dissolution of their relationship. Roger Ebert gave the film high praise with 4 stars. “The wisdom in Eternal Sunshine is how it illuminates the way memory interacts with love. We more readily recall pleasure than pain,” Ebert wrote. A cult classic, it’s considered by many critics to be one of the best films of the 2000s.

Matthew Singer, author of Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever, will also be a special guest at the festival and will sign copies of his book.

This year’s festival will be dedicated to film historian David Bordwell and to Ebertfest’s namesake, Roger Ebert, on this milestone occasion of the festival’s 25th anniversary.

Individual tickets will go on sale April 1. The final program schedule is:

Wednesday, April 17
6:30 p.m.—Star 80

Thursday, April 18
9:30 a.m.—Little Indian Girls Collective Panel
11 a.m.—Conducting Life / The Light of Truth: Richard Hunt’s Monument to Ida B. Wells (double short film presentation)
3 p.m.—Stony Island
8 p.m.—The Teachers’ Lounge

Friday, April 19
9 a.m.—Cookie’s Fortune
1:30 p.m.—Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
4:30 p.m.—Little Richard: I Am Everything
9:30 p.m.—The Best Man

Saturday, April 20
9:30 a.m.—Blackmail featuring the Anvil Orchestra
1 p.m.—Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi
4 p.m.—Albany Road
9 p.m.—Man on the Moon

Ebertfest passes are currently available to purchase online or by calling the box office at 217-356-9063.

For additional information, please visit ebertfest.com and follow @Ebertfest on social media.
To become a supporting Festival Sponsor please contact Molly Cornyn, the Festival Coordinator, at mcornyn2@illinois.edu.

Molly Cornyn
University of Illinois
+1 217-333-1590
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