EVFF 2017, Continued!

Sita Sings the Blues is Champaign Urbana comic strip artist and animator Nina Paley’s inspired animated vision of the Ramayana—the ancient Indian epic of Hindu mythology—intercut with a modern-day story about the director's own failed relationship with a man who goes to work in India. The film thrillingly blends numerous visual styles, influenced by Indonesian shadow puppets, commercial Hindu iconography, and classic Hollywood animation from the likes of Max Fleischer and the UPA Studios. Jerry Beck of Cartoon brew calls it "Visually beautiful, extremely entertaining, it has so much going for it I really can't think of anything I'd change about it. Imagine Betty Boop in a Bollywood musical!” 

Directed by Chicago native Bruno Vesota, The Brain Eaters shows us strange things happening in Riverdale, Illinois. A huge, seemingly alien structure has been found jutting out of the earth. Sent to investigate the origin of the mysterious object, Senator Walter Powers discovers that parasites from the center of the earth have infiltrated the town, taking control of the authorities and workers, making communication with the outside world impossible, and leaving the responsibility of stopping the invasion up to Powers and a small group of free individuals. 

The Brain Eaters draws on 1950s Cold War hysteria, but it also had some interesting back story. Producer Ed Nelson, who also stars in the film, created the parasites himself using little wind-up toys covered with fur from an old coat and pipe cleaners for antennae. The producers of the movie were sued by Robert A. Heinlein, who claimed the plot stole several elements of his novel, The Puppet Masters. The suit was settled out of court.

These films showcase Illinois directors and demonstrate the breadth of the horror and thriller genres. 

2017 Embarras Valley Film Festival Student Contest Selections!

2017 EVFF Student Film Selections

Directions: Vote for your top 3. Circle the three films you liked the most and, if you’d like, number them 1-3, with 1 being first place, 2 begin second, and 3 being third place.

Shower Time by Bridget Johnson [HS] 3:00_____________

Unspoken by Blake Sepe [Student EHS] 1:14___________     

VARILove by Blake Sepe [Student EHS] 2:27___________     

Rain by Blake Sepe [Student EHS] 1:11_________________      

The Breakdown by Blake Sepe [Student EHS] 4:21_______________  

Through the Train Window by August Busch 2:02 (Chicago)______________           

I Feel Fine by Emily Hay [HS] 10:51______________     

Don't Touch That Dial by james Gregg [HS] 3:15___________________ 

Executing Emma by james Gregg [HS] 4:23            _______________

Broken Solitude by Robert Herbolich [HS] 4:43_______________        

Change by Abigail Karl [HS] 1:36____________

Voicemail by Abigail Karl [HS] 1:39_____________      

Mitchell Robert's House by Dakota Pruemer 31 (EIU)_____________

Michael by Jane Simonetti [HS] 3:26_______________  

The Curse Of The Sad Mummy by Natalia Nikkhoo [MS] 4:18________________         

City'Scape by Brendan Hickey [HS] 5:18______________         

The Bird Painter by David Benjamin [HS] 2:36__________________     

Solitude by Julia Bhansali [HS] 7:37____________________        

Drawn Onward by Dan O'Reilly-Rowe [HS] 3:55  

Clay by Dan O'Reilly-Rowe [HS] 4:07         

2017 Embarras Valley Film Festival Roundtable

OCT27

Horror and the Thriller Roundtable

Public

 · Hosted by EIU Embarras Valley Film Festival

Join us for a roundtable discussion about the multiple roads to horror and thrills. For my portion of the roundtable, I will be exploring our festival films through ecocinema and ecofeminist lenses.

Roundtable 2017

Perhaps the most iconic movie monster from the 1950s forward is Godzilla, a giant reptile who stars in dozens of movies from Toho Studios in Japan. As a creature of its age, beginning with its 1954 debut, Godzilla springs to life from the radiation left by nuclear testing and functions as a condemnation of the U.S. atomic attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. As Kyohei Yamane-hakase (Takashi Shimura) warns in the original film, “if we continue conducting nuclear tests, it's possible that another Godzilla might appear somewhere in the world again.” As a monstrous result of humanity’s destruction of the environment, Godzilla serves as a mixture of Maurice Yacowar’s disaster categories, embodying a traditional natural monster, but also illustrating Yacowar’s natural attack sub-genre. Godzilla also presents a cautionary symbol of the dangerous consequences of mistreating the natural world—monstrous nature on the attack. Gareth Edwards’ remake of Godzilla (2014) take this theme further, since Godzilla returns from the ocean bottom to destroy the MUTOs and restore the balance of nature, according to Dr. Ichiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe). As Serizawa declares, instead of attempting to destroy both Godzilla and the MUTOs, the Navy should “Let them fight.” For Serizawa, “The arrogance of men is thinking nature is in their control and not the other way around.”  

Readings of the horror film showcase the roots of such a monster: human and nonhuman nature. Such environmental approaches draw on class struggles, evolution, human ecology, and gendered bodies. What connects these seemingly divergent approaches?: a human cause and a biotic solution. Humanity may contribute to the malevolent elements of nature on the big screen. But these films also suggest that embracing interdependent relationships with nonhuman nature may save us all.

I read the films we’re watching this week through a variety of monstrous nature lenses. The Brain Eaters is obviously parasite horror, but it also draws on a (tragic) evolutionary narratives. This evolutionary view is most evident in films highlighting humanity’s creation of deadly natural monsters like the parasite. While biologists would agree that parasites are a necessary part of our biosphere, the general public tends to view parasites as complicated, dangerous, and deadly. The Brain Eaters lines up with films like The Thaw, which connects the horror genre with possible consequences of climate change and human exploitation of the environment in the Anthropocene Age. In the film, parasites have reawakened only because human activity has warmed the earth and melted the ice, so the film’s irresponsible scientist Dr. Kruipen (Val Kilmer) decides to unleash them on populations in the United States, infecting enough humans to “make a real difference.” Through biological eco-terrorism, Kruipen hopes to change the minds of climate change cynics, even if it means he and many others may die.

Sita Sings the Blues and The Exorcist, on the other hand, call for an ecofeminist reading that sees women’s bodies as “frontiers” or the woman (especially the adolescent woman) as monster. Such an approach amplifies the relationship between consuming, exploiting, and raping the body and consuming the land by drawing on what Annette Kolodny calls “America’s oldest and most cherished fantasy” grounded in “an experience of the land as feminine…enclosing the individual in an environment of receptivity, repose, and painless integral satisfaction” (The Lay of the Land 4).  This feminization of nature draws on gender stereotypes. For Kolodny, “men sought sexual and filial gratification from the land, while women sought there the gratifications of home and family relations” (The Land Before Her 12). As ecofeminist Jytte Nhanenge argues, “there is an interconnection between the domination of women and poor people, and the domination of nature” (xxvii). All of the films viewed this week demonstrate ways monster and nature can merge.

Embarras Valley Film Festival, October 25-28, 2017

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS: 

All on the Campus of Eastern Illinois University

Wednesday, October 25 in Coleman Auditorium
7:00 The Brain Eaters (Dir. Bruno Vesota, 1958) with costume contest*

In The Brain Eaters, strange things are happening in Riverdale, Illinois. A huge, seemingly alien structure has been found jutting out of the earth. Sent to investigate the origin of the mysterious object, Senator Walter Powers discovers that parasites from the center of the earth have infiltrated the town, taking control of the authorities and workers, making communication with the outside world impossible, and leaving the responsibility of stopping the invasion up to Powers and a small group of free individuals. 

*The costume contest will be held prior to the viewing of The Brain Eaters. Audience members are encouraged to participate to win prizes. We ask all contestants to arrive 15 minutes early to the auditorium stage to register. The contest will begin at 7:00 and prizes awarded to our top three contestants. Costumes will be judged on their creativity, quality, and crowd appeal. 

Thursday, October 26 in Coleman Auditorium
3:30 Sita Sings the Blues (Dir. Nina Paley, 2008)

Sita Sings the Blues is an animated version of the epic Indian tale of Ramayana set to the 1920s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw. Sita, the Hindu Goddess from the epic Ramayana accompanies Lord Rama on a fourteen-year exile, but is abducted by a revenge-seeking Ravana, the ruler of Lanka. The film intertwines thrilling tales of torment with memoir sketches that connect the past with the present day.

Friday, October 27 in the English Conference Room
4:30 Horror and the Thriller Roundtable

With Kevin Anderson, Political Science; Robin L. Murray, English; Carrie Wilson Brown, Communication Studies

In Coleman Auditorium
7:00 The Exorcist (Dir. William Friedkin, 1973)

In The Exorcist something beyond evil is happening in teen Regan’s (Linda Blair) bedroom. Regan has brutally changed both in the way she looks and the way she acts, with violent outbursts on everyone who comes in contact with her. Her worried mother (Ellen Burstyn) gets in contact with a priest who comes to the conclusion that Regan is possessed with a demon that must be exorcised. 

Saturday, October 28 in Coleman Auditorium

2:00 Student Film Festival Winners
4:00 Film Festival Horror and Thriller in Illinois Selections

Eastern Illinois Writing Project Institute Day

Eastern Illinois Writing Project Fall Institute Day

Friday, October 13, 2017 from 8:30-1:30

Approximately 120 teachers, administrators and interested students attended the Eastern Illinois Writing Project Fall Institute Day on Friday, October 13, 2017, on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. Five CPDH's and lunch were also provided. The Eastern Illinois Writing Project presented the annual Institute Day, titled “Argument in the Real World” from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Doudna Fine Arts Center. 

This year’s Institute Day focused on argument in the real world and highlight teaching authentic argument reading and writing across disciplines and the English Language Arts Common Core Standards. Teachers from across disciplines and grade levels will share teaching ideas in multiple breakout sessions, maintaining a “teachers teaching teachers” model to creatively meet the Common Core Standards.

To highlight this interdisciplinarity across grade levels, the keynote speaker was Dr. Troy Hicks, co-author of Argument in the Real World. His workshop will highlight new ways of approaching argument that consider the digital information inundating students on their devices and provide ways to craft and analyze arguments in a digital world.

In Argument in the Real World, Kristen Hawley Turner and Troy Hicks draw from real world texts and samples of student work to share a wealth of insights and practical strategies in teaching students the logic of argument. Whether arguments are streaming in through a Twitter feed, a Facebook wall, viral videos, internet memes, or links to other blogs or websites, in this workshop Hicks will guide you—and your students— in how to engage with and create digital arguments.

Dr. Troy Hicks is an associate professor of English at Central Michigan University and focuses his work on the teaching of writing, literacy and technology, and teacher education and professional development. A former middle school teacher, he collaborates with K–12 colleagues and explores how they implement newer literacies in their classrooms. Hicks also directs CMU's Chippewa River Writing Project.

Iris Poem

My mother grew a circle of irises

dividing a koi pond from the rose garden,

bearded blond heads bobbing like fish hooks,

their reflections prismed into Greek goddess robes,

(messengers, I know, using flowing rainbows

as bridges between earth and the heavens,

I thought they’d turn to gold by seven,

melanin changing one iris from blue to tan

Dina’s heterochromia iridium charming bartenders, disc jockeys

and the entire Columbus Clipper baseball team

her bi-colored eyes blending way too smoothly

into exotic berry wine coolers in the

back of a maroon Escort, looking rosy

from the rear-view mirror before a smell

like Jim’s skunked Australian shepherd washed in

tomato juice, baking soda, and hydrogen peroxide

opened my doors)—the bronzed lower petals

grow fuzzy from rhizomes, purging the liver;

behind the cornea their tinted apertures open

like symbols of passion planted on graves.

New Book Forthcoming from Routledge: Ecocinema in the City

Ecocinema in the City

By Robin L. Murray, Joseph K. Heumann

© 2017 – Routledge

208 pages | 20 B/W Illus.

• Description
• Reviews
• Contents
• Authors
• Series
• Subjects

Description

In Ecocinema in the City, Murray and Heumann argue that urban ecocinema both reveals and critiques visions of urban environmentalism. The book emphasizes the increasingly transformative power of nature in urban settings, explored in both documentaries and fictional films such as Children Underground, White Dog, Hatari! and Lives Worth Living. The first two sections—"Evolutionary Myths Under the City" and "Urban Eco-trauma"—take more traditional ecocinema approaches and emphasize the city as a dangerous constructed space. The last two sections—"Urban Nature and Interdependence" and "The Sustainable City"—however, bring to life the vibrant relationships between human and nonhuman nature. Ecocinema in the City provides a space to explore these relationships, revealing how ecocinema shows that both human and nonhuman nature can interact sustainably and thrive.

Reviews

"In an era of increasing dispute about the effects of climate and science in our daily lives, Murray and Heumann offer a carefully nuanced addition to the field of ecocinema studies. The city, for them, is not just a dangerous space, but also a site of possible relationships between humans and nonhuman nature. Few scholars have the record of Murray and Heumann for serious engagement with the topic of ecology in cinema over such a broad range of critical works." – Charles J. Stivale, Wayne State University, USA

"Our environmental imagination often frames cities as doomed spaces, removed from nonhuman nature. Instead of replicating this view, Ecocinema and the City reverses the perspective: highlighting the transformative power of nature in urban settings explored in film, it offers a timely and innovative take on urban environments. With engaging close readings and cultural examples off the beaten path, the book addresses a whole array of relevant themes, from urban biodiversity to urban farming to questions of sustainability, and is required reading for environmentalists across disciplines." – Christopher Schliephake, University of Augsburg, Germany