Chicago

Gene Siskel Film Center Celebrates 50 Years of Independent Filmmaking

The Gene Siskel Film Center is celebrating its 50th anniversary

NBC Universal, Inc.

As part of their 50th anniversary celebrations, the Gene Siskel Film Center is showing a quasi-silent film, “Sister Carrie”, accompanied by a 12-piece orchestra.  

Chicago Filmmaker Daniel Nearing, who also directed the film, is a film center alumnus and offered to premiere it as a fundraiser for their anniversary. 

“We’ve got a good, long relationship with the Gene Siskel Film Center. They supported me in the very beginning,” Nearing said.

Conductor Paul Bhasin composed the live orchestral score that accompanies the film.

“Having lived here for years myself, I was always impressed with the breadth of programming, and also the role they played in the region, bringing new voices to audiences,” Bhasin said.

The Gene Siskel Film Center is a public program of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They present local, international, independent and classic cinema.

“I think years ago we were a little bit elitist," said Jean De St. Aubin, the longtime current executive director who will soon be retiring.   

“But now, I really see us as everybody’s movie theatre. Our audience is much more diverse in every way possible.”

The film center puts on five major festivals every year with over 200 filmmaker guest appearances, and was highly recommended by the late film critic Roger Ebert.

“Very graciously, Roger Ebert once said there are only 5 true cinematheque in the world, and we were one of them,” De St. Aubin said

The film center was named after Ebert’s late fellow film critic Gene Siskel when it moved to its current location on State Street almost two decades ago.

“They thought we were going to name it in honor of Gene, because Gene was famous for saying the three best things about Chicago are Michael Jordan, Mayor Daley (the old one) and the Film Center of the School of the Art Institute," De St. Aubin said.

“Sister Carrie” will be shown Friday night, and Saturday afternoon with a live orchestral score, with two additional screenings without the live score.

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