Writing for Film and Television with Virgil Williams at Chicago Cultural Center

Writing for Film and Television with Virgil Williams at Chicago Cultural Center

Join award-winning screenwriter and playwright Virgil Williams (The Piano Lesson, Mudbound) in a Master Class on writing for film and television. Moderated by screenwriter Tracey Scott Wilson (The Americans, Respect). Networking event to follow (with cash bar).

A veteran television writer and producer, Williams’ extensive credits include last year’s critically acclaimed adaptation of The Piano Lesson. Other credits include ground-breaking dramas ER and 24, as well as six seasons of CBS’s long-running procedural drama Criminal Minds. In November of 2017, Williams celebrated the release of his feature film debut, Mudbound. He also served as Executive Producer and originally adapted the script from the novel by Hilary Jordan. The critically acclaimed film was named the ‘Best Film of 2017’ by the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post and has earned numerous awards and accolades, including an Academy Award Nomination for Williams and cowriter/director Dee Rees for Best Adapted Screenplay. He also adapted Pulitzer Prize-winner Dana Canedy’s bestselling memoir A Journal for Jordan for director Denzel Washington and starring Michael B. Jordan. Williams was born and raised in Chicago, and his scripts often draw from his experiences growing up as a bi-racial kid in a city with a long history of racial tension.

Moderator
headshot: Tracey Scott WilsonTracey Scott Wilson wrote the teleplay for MGM’s film Respect; served as a co-executive producer and writer on Fosse/Verdon; and was a co-executive producer on FX’s award-winning series The Americans, where she wrote for five seasons and received two WGAE awards, two Peabody awards, and a Golden Globe. Tracey is also a renowned playwright (Buzzer, The Good Negro, The Story), and has received several distinctions, including the 2003 AT&T Onstage Award, the 2007 Weissberger Playwriting Award as well as the 2007 Time Warner Storytelling Fellowship. Currently, she is the Barbara Berlanti Professor in LGBTQ Writing for the Stage and Screen in the Department of Radio/Television/Film at Northwestern University.

Please note the film following the talk will not feature captions.

Accessibility: captions for the discussion only

https://www.chicagofilmfestival.com/event/cixlab-virgilwilliams/

Hard Done By: Contemporary Irish Trans Films at FACETS

On Friday, February 7, Full Spectrum Features presents a selection of contemporary trans short films from Ireland presented in person by Dublin-based curator James Hudson: from an artist’s self-destructive spiral to giallo-inspired rape revenge by way of a surreal techno-horror, to a multidimensional dramedy starring an up-and-coming stand-up comedian and more.

James Hudson is a Dublin-based programmer at the forefront of trans Irish cinema, both showcasing international trans filmmaking in Ireland and bringing Irish-made trans films to the world stage. He is traveling to Chicago specifically for this one-night-only event, part one of a trans cinema cultural exchange between Chicago and Dublin.

The shorts program will be followed by a post-screening discussion with curator James Hudson, moderated by Henry Hanson.

Accessibility: All films will be presented with open captions.  The post-screening Q&A will have live CART captioning.

Note on wheelchair accessibility: The building and theater are accessible via ramps. The bathrooms are accessible via a heavy door, have a larger stall with grab bars, but are not fully wheelchair accessible.

https://facets.org/programs/hard-done-by-contemporary-irish-trans-films/

Kaneza Schaal, KLII

KLII exorcizes the ghost of King Leopold II, the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908, in a mytho-biographical performance by theater-maker Kaneza Schaal. By exploring the invisible historic roots of society’s demons—racism, misogyny, and misinformation—Schaal searches for ways of handling these everyday threats in the present.

Designed and co-directed by Christopher Myers, KLII draws on Mark Twain’s King Leopold’s Soliloquy published in 1905, a fictional monologue written after Twain’s visit to Congo Free State, and Patrice Lumumba’s 1960 independence speech in Congo. Working with East African musicians and African American opera singers, the hybrid, operatic, and intensifying sound design takes inspiration from La Muette de Portici, the opera that played a role in Belgium’s 1830 revolution. Together, both the visual and sound design combine to consider the residue of colonialism in our everyday lives.

A reclamation of history and canon, Schaal and Myers propose an exorcism in theater, starring one of the villains of the 19th century whose actions resonate through the present day. KLII explores the nature of evil and what is required to unroot legacies of catastrophic events.

Martin O’Brien Lecture

Martin O’Brien Lecture

Visiting Artist Program

Presented in partnership with SAIC’s Wellness Center.

This event will be live captioned by Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) services. The auditorium is wheelchair accessible and hearing assisted devices are available. For additional access requests, visit saic.edu/access.

Join us for a lecture by artist Martin O’Brien followed by an audience Q & A.

Doors open at 5:45 p.m. Free and open to the public. Registration is not required. Explore the Visiting Artists Program homepage for visitor information, recordings of past events, and more.

Martin O’Brien is an artist and zombie. He works across performance, writing, and video art. O’Brien has cystic fibrosis and all of his work and writing draws upon this experience. His work uses long durational actions, short speculative texts, critical rants, and performance processes in order to explore death and dying, what it means to be born with a life-shortening disease, and the philosophical implications of living longer than expected. He has shown work throughout the UK, Europe, the US, and Canada and is well known for his solo performances and collaborations with the legendary LA artist and dominatrix Sheree Rose. His most recent works were at Tate Britain in 2020 and the ICA London in 2021, and he was Writer in Residence at Whitechapel Gallery in 2023. He is the winner of the Philip Leverhulme Prize for Visual and Performing Arts 2022. In 2018, the book Survival of the Sickest: The Art of Martin O’Brien was published by Live Art Development Agency. His work has been featured on BBC radio and Sky Arts television and as a double-page spread in The Guardian. He is currently senior lecturer in Live Art at Queen Mary University of London.