CHAMPAIGN, Illinois – Acclaimed director, producer and screenwriter
Spike Lee joins the lineup at the 16th annual Ebertfest Film
Festival in Champaign, Illinois, for a special 25th anniversary
screening of his groundbreaking film “Do The Right Thing.” The screening will
take place on Friday, April 25, at the Virginia Theatre.
Roger Ebert, one of the first major critics to applaud “Do
The Right Thing” after its release in 1989, gave the film 4 stars. He later
praised Lee’s handling of racial themes saying: “I have been given only a few
film-going experiences in my life to equal the first time I saw ‘Do the Right
Thing.’ Most movies remain up there on the screen. Only a few penetrate your
soul. In May of 1989 I walked out of the
screening at the Cannes Film Festival with tears in my eyes. Spike Lee had done
an almost impossible thing. He’d made a movie about race in America that
empathized with all the participants. He didn’t draw lines or take sides but
simply looked with sadness at one racial flashpoint that stood for many
others.”
Lee joins previously announced directors Steve James, who is
bringing his documentary about Ebert, “Life Itself,” to open the festival, and Oliver
Stone who will celebrate the 25th anniversary of “Born on the Fourth
of July,” starring Tom Cruise. Also attending is actor, producer and comedian Patton Oswalt with “Young Adult”, the 2011 Jason Reitman film in which Oswalt appeared alongside Charlize Theron and Patrick Wilson.
This will be the second Ebertfest without its co-founder and
namesake, who died last year on April 4.
“I’m honored and
thrilled to host Spike Lee, Oliver Stone, Steve James and Patton Oswalt at
Ebertfest with their amazing films’ said Chaz Ebert. “Roger wanted our film
festival to continue and he had many discussions with me and festival director
Nate Kohn about how to keep it going.
You won’t be disappointed. We have even more surprises in store.”
The complete Ebertfest lineup will be announced soon.
Festival passes are available now, and individual tickets go on sale April 1st.
Go to Ebertfest.com
for more information or to buy passes. Media
contact: Robin Beaman | 312-208-1212 | rbeaman@beamanin.com, or Shawn
Taylor | 312-371-6260 | tshawntaylor@yahoo.com.
