Hayles66 said:
Nice building. But you will have to explain. Seats, experience, what?
Sent from my new iPad using iPF
The seats were original to the building. I guess when this building was built circa 1912, people were shorter and smaller. I could not sit straight in my seat, knees forward without touching the person in front of me. So I was always having to sit slightly to the right or left but then I would be touching the person on either side me. There were over a thousand participants in the film Fest, there was only one men's toilet--three urinals, two stalls.
This is the thirteenth edition of the festival. It is named after Roger Ebert, a Chicago film critic. He instituted this festival and got the University of Illinois to cosponsor the event so that students could get credit for participation. The opening movie was Joe and the Volcano, a Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan movie. Since I had not seen it the first time it came out (back in the late 80's?), I enjoyed the movie. Afterwards, we had a little one hour chat with the director and two film critics. All three spoke monosyllabic. The film critics' questions were couched like two teenagers impressed with being in front of a lot people and talking to a famous celebrity. The questions tended to be more about what was Tom like or Meg, etc. it wasn't a bad first night, but I was not impressed.
The next day was filled with more of the same, movie and discussion with someone associated with the film and the same two critics as poorly ill prepared as the night before. The second day was tolerable, but I was starting to feel like this was a waste of time. On the third day, we drove up to the theatre and found a huge line of people circling the block. My friend and I looked at each other, evaluated the physical discomfort of the seats, the mismanagement of the programs, the trite and sophomoric film discussions, and decided to give our festival passes to someone else. And go somewhere more comfortable and better entertaining. We ended up at a casino.
In my opinion, this festival rated a two thumbs down.
