Out of Nowhere: Champaign Music Scene Documentary

A Haunting at Bachelor's Grove

2017 · ★ 10

A looking at the famous cemetery

Memorial Stadium: True Illini Spirit

2008

Documentary traces the history of Memorial Stadium at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Covers the earliest days of football at the university, to early concepts for a stadium, World War I, honoring the true Fighting Illini and the first games at the arena built in the early 1920's. Historical film and photographs are mixed with interviews from noted Illinois football players, architects, historians, contractors, veterans and their families, college marching band directors, newspaper reporters and broadcasters.

The Illinois Parables

2016 · ★ 6.7

From dreamy aerial opening shots, we are sent on an expedition through the storied land of our fifth most populous state, Illinois, often called a miniature version of America. Deborah Stratman’s experimental documentary explores how physical landscapes and human politics can each re-interpret historical events. Eleven parables relay histories of settlement, removal, technological breakthrough, violence, messianism, and resistance. Who gets to write history—physical monuments, official news accounts, or personal spoken-word memories?

Terror in the Skies

2019 · ★ 6.5

A journey to the heartland of the Midwest for an in-depth look at an ongoing phenomenon: one of the most recent and popular stories has been an ongoing wave of sightings of a red-eyed, shapeless creature dubbed the Chicago Mothman.

Mysteries of the Driftless

2013

What strange forces saved one isolated section along the Upper Mississippi River from the repeated crushing and scouring effects of glaciers during the last two million years? And what pre-Ice Age throwbacks survived here in this unique geologic refuge that holds more Native American effigy mounds, petroglyph caves, strange geological features, and rare species than anywhere in the Midwest? These questions and more are answered in this captivating new documentary. A team of scientists embarks on a journey of exploration to expose both the science and threats behind three unique features of the zone - rare plants and animals, odd geological phenomenon, and striking remnants of a Native American pilgrimage like no other.

Nine Miles West

Separated by just a few stops on the green line, nine miles west of the bustling financial epicenter of the Chicago Loop is Austin, one of the most impoverished and underserved neighborhoods in the city. Surrounded by violence, gangs, guns and drugs in his daily life, a graduating high school senior reflects on his experience growing up in this neighborhood and how the traumas associated with it shaped his life.

The Beneficent Reprobate

1938

The negative affects from ingesting "The Spirit of Wine" are demonstrated here through experiments on the Students of Northwestern University Medical School.

Legacy

1993 · ★ 7

A portrayal of the early Latter-day Saints' joys, sacrifices, hopes, and trials; their epic journey to the Salt Lake Valley; and their legacy of faith in Jesus Christ.

Circuit

2001 · ★ 5.8

The hunky John is a closeted small-town cop who moves to L.A., where he is quickly seduced into the gay life of workouts and dusk-to-dawn parties. With actual circuit party footage and mounds of glistening and chiseled flesh, the pulsating Circuit is bound to get your juices flowing.

Falling to Earth

The the small town of Marah, Illinoisis hit with the worst tornado in U.S. history, that leaves many residents injured and levels almost the entire town. Paul Graves and his family are the only exception to the devastation and they must deal with the growing hostility around them.

Avoiding Forever

2012

A soon to be high school graduate questions the path his parents have laid out for him, after leaving town in a desperate attempt to escape, a friend forces him to come to the realization that life doesn't have an answer.

Best in Show

2000 · ★ 6.9

The tension is palpable, the excitement is mounting and the heady scent of competition is in the air as hundreds of eager contestants from across America prepare to take part in what is undoubtedly one of the greatest events of their lives -- the Mayflower Dog Show. The canine contestants and their owners are as wondrously diverse as the great country that has bred them.