Festival celebrates 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth
Embarras Film Festival activities planned Thursday through Saturday
Kayleigh Zyskowski/Activities Editor
Issue date: 11/12/09 Section: News
Today marks the beginning of this year's Embarrass Valley Film Festival.
Since 2004, the event has honored a specific person or theme connected to the Embarrass Valley.
On the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birthday, the theme for this year's festival is Lincoln, the Civil War, and Memory, said Kathryn Morice, a co-project director for the festival.
"Annually, the festival focuses on a person or a theme with ties to the area or this region and since we do have Lincoln history in Coles County it seemed to be appropriate," Morice said.
The site of the Coles County Court House is the same site Lincoln practiced law and served as a circuit lawyer; also his father and stepmother established their home south of town at the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site.
"It was also from the Charleston train station that he departed for the presidency in Washington, D.C.," Morice said.
The event will last three days beginning today and lasting until Saturday.
At 6:30 p.m. today in the Doudna Fine Arts Center Lecture Hall, John Sellers from the Library of Congress will speak.
Sellers is the historical specialist on the American Civil War and the curator for Lincoln at the Library of Congress.
Sellers has also published multiple books on Lincoln and is currently working on his next book.
After Sellers' lecture, there will be a screening of the movie "Young Mr. Lincoln" directed by John Ford.
"It's a movie about Lincoln's early years, pre-presidency." Morice said.
On Friday, the programming will begin at 10 a.m. in the Tarble Arts Center Atrium with a screenwriting workshop with Craig Titley.
Titley is an Eastern alum and have been credited as a Hollywood screenwriter for writing 20th Century Fox's "Cheaper by the Dozen" and Warner Brothers' "Scooby Doo."
"Throughout the day, there will be various sessions featuring various Eastern faculty," Morice said.
Closing Friday will be a screening of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" directed by Robert Enrico at 7 p.m. in the Doudna Fine Arts Center Lecture Hall, which won an academy award for the best short in 1962.
A screening of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" directed by Robert Enrico will close Friday's events at 7 p.m. in the Doudna Fine Arts Center Lecture Hall. The film won an academy award for the best short in 1962.
Ben Leddy and Clarie Johnson will play Civil War era music following the movie.
"On Saturday, we have programming going on all day in downtown Charleston," Maurice said.
At 10:30 a.m. in the Charleston Public Library, children activities will be offered, including scrap booking for Lincoln's birthday and a film and story telling session.
Also the Charleston Public Library at 11 a.m. will be a screening for stop motion films made by middle school students from the area.
"The General" will be shown at 2 p.m. at the Charleston Public Library.
The film "Glory" conclude the festival at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Will Rogers Theatre.
"Its about Colonel Robert Shaw, who was an officer in the Union Army who volunteered to lead the first company of African American soldiers during the Civil War," Morice said.
The Charleston connection with that film is some of the uniforms were sewn at New Columbia, which was a local uniform factory where they actually made uniforms for people who do Civil War reenactments, Morice said.
"We have award winning films and everything is free and open to the public," Morice said. "A lot of times people are unaware of how many connections there are between Eastern and the general community with the art of film making. We hope to further educate people about those connections and enrich the cultural life of this area by offering this annual festival."
For a list of events, visit http://www.eiu.edu/~evff/schedule.html.
Kayleigh Zyskowski can be reached at 581-7943 or kzyskowski@eiu.edu.
Since 2004, the event has honored a specific person or theme connected to the Embarrass Valley.
On the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birthday, the theme for this year's festival is Lincoln, the Civil War, and Memory, said Kathryn Morice, a co-project director for the festival.
"Annually, the festival focuses on a person or a theme with ties to the area or this region and since we do have Lincoln history in Coles County it seemed to be appropriate," Morice said.
The site of the Coles County Court House is the same site Lincoln practiced law and served as a circuit lawyer; also his father and stepmother established their home south of town at the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site.
"It was also from the Charleston train station that he departed for the presidency in Washington, D.C.," Morice said.
The event will last three days beginning today and lasting until Saturday.
At 6:30 p.m. today in the Doudna Fine Arts Center Lecture Hall, John Sellers from the Library of Congress will speak.
Sellers is the historical specialist on the American Civil War and the curator for Lincoln at the Library of Congress.
Sellers has also published multiple books on Lincoln and is currently working on his next book.
After Sellers' lecture, there will be a screening of the movie "Young Mr. Lincoln" directed by John Ford.
"It's a movie about Lincoln's early years, pre-presidency." Morice said.
On Friday, the programming will begin at 10 a.m. in the Tarble Arts Center Atrium with a screenwriting workshop with Craig Titley.
Titley is an Eastern alum and have been credited as a Hollywood screenwriter for writing 20th Century Fox's "Cheaper by the Dozen" and Warner Brothers' "Scooby Doo."
"Throughout the day, there will be various sessions featuring various Eastern faculty," Morice said.
Closing Friday will be a screening of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" directed by Robert Enrico at 7 p.m. in the Doudna Fine Arts Center Lecture Hall, which won an academy award for the best short in 1962.
A screening of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" directed by Robert Enrico will close Friday's events at 7 p.m. in the Doudna Fine Arts Center Lecture Hall. The film won an academy award for the best short in 1962.
Ben Leddy and Clarie Johnson will play Civil War era music following the movie.
"On Saturday, we have programming going on all day in downtown Charleston," Maurice said.
At 10:30 a.m. in the Charleston Public Library, children activities will be offered, including scrap booking for Lincoln's birthday and a film and story telling session.
Also the Charleston Public Library at 11 a.m. will be a screening for stop motion films made by middle school students from the area.
"The General" will be shown at 2 p.m. at the Charleston Public Library.
The film "Glory" conclude the festival at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Will Rogers Theatre.
"Its about Colonel Robert Shaw, who was an officer in the Union Army who volunteered to lead the first company of African American soldiers during the Civil War," Morice said.
The Charleston connection with that film is some of the uniforms were sewn at New Columbia, which was a local uniform factory where they actually made uniforms for people who do Civil War reenactments, Morice said.
"We have award winning films and everything is free and open to the public," Morice said. "A lot of times people are unaware of how many connections there are between Eastern and the general community with the art of film making. We hope to further educate people about those connections and enrich the cultural life of this area by offering this annual festival."
For a list of events, visit http://www.eiu.edu/~evff/schedule.html.
Kayleigh Zyskowski can be reached at 581-7943 or kzyskowski@eiu.edu.
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