Smile Politely

Ebertfest 2017: Photos from Day Four

Back with another day of photos and words for you to enjoy from Ebertfest 2017!

Every year Ebertfests hosts a sale for local artists. In particular, they invite young artists with disabilities to participate. This is Victoria. She and her parents have turned their garage into a studio for her to create art. She is holding up a sort of decorative placemat that can be used for eating on, dog dishes, plants etc. She and I talked about making art, selling art, and Ebertfest. We also talked about how she has autism and how it affects her art. 

What does a movie goer bring to Ebertfest? Elle Scholwin let me see exactly what she brought. Wallet, loose cash for snacks, Swedish Fish for snacks, lip balm, comb to combat the wind, and two sets of keys. Why two sets? She’s here with her mother enjoying the movies. This is their year coming and they like to come to the Ebertfest because of the movie selection. 

Meet Katie Bruner. Grad student at U of I. She’s meeting a friend here to watch one of the films. I asked her about why she bought a ticket versus a pass. “It’s just that it’s out of my price range to buy a pass. And I can’t take days off of work to go see films during the day during the week.” 

John Isberg is a local filmmaker. He works for Shatterglass studio and is shooting b-roll film. This is his third Ebertfest and he’s had fun mainly because he’s got to be apart of interviews of some film legends. 

Don walks over to the near the Busey parking lot, cups his hands around his mouth, and yells, “five minutes to doors! Five minutes to doors!” The people come out of the shadows, from the bars and restaurants, marked with purple and green lanyards around their necks. They flood into the theater and all is quiet again on the street. Don sits guard as the last night of Ebertfest begins. 

The last film of the night was Being There. A film about a man gets swept up into high society and politics. There was much laughter in the crowd. 

More Articles