Oak Parkers played their parts in the 53rd Chicago International Film Festival. Social justice and resistance linked them to the event.
Documentary filmmaker Steve James was the executive producer of Laura Checkoway’s award-winning “Edith + Eddie,” America’s oldest interracial newlyweds, ages 96 and 95, who found their happy union threatened by a family feud. His company, Kartemquin Films, also produced “’63 Boycott” by Gordon Quinn and Trayce Matthews, which chronicles the Chicago Public School Boycott of Oct. 22, 1963, when more than 200,000 Chicagoans, mostly students, marched to protest segregationist policies. As a young Charles S. Deneen student, I participated in this boycott, much to Mom’s chagrin. It was my first act of civil disobedience and challenge to white supremacy, but not my last.
Casting agent Donna Watts, who co-founded the Oak Park International Film Festival with Yves Hughes Jr. and me, participated in Jerod Haynes’ co-production of “Blueprint,” directed by Daryl Wein.
Bruce Sheridan, the former Columbia College Film Department chair and New Zealand TV producer, was a Jury Award judge for the film festival. That award went to Princess Cyd, directed by Stephen Cone. The entire cast plays a substantial role in bringing a subtle delicacy to this coming-of-age story, set against an intimate Chicago backdrop.
State Rep. La Shawn Ford (D-Oak Park/Chicago) was seen at the festival’s red carpet opening of Marshall, directed by Reginald Hudlin. Most school kids know Thurgood Marshall was the first black U.S. Supreme Court Justice. What many don’t know is “for 25 years prior to joining the high court, Marshall was “the most important advocate for America” said his colleague Justice William J. Brennan, referring to Marshall’s 29 winning arguments before the Supreme Court — a record that remains unmatched by any lawyer, black or white.
The film is currently showing at the Lake Theatre.
Stan West
Oak Park