• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • Champaign Park District
  • Donate
  • My Account
  • Buy Tickets
The Virginia Theatre

The Virginia Theatre

Official Site

  • EVENTS
    • Events & Tickets
      • Events & Tickets
      • Events Calendar
      • Group Sales
      • News
      • Refund Policy
      • Ticket Insurance
      • Ticketing Options
    • Season Subscriptions
      • Benefits
      • How To Subscribe
      • VT Series Shows
    • Featured Event
        • Tue. May 16, 2023

          Whose Live Anyway?
  • VENUE
    • Plan Your Visit
      • Area Dining
      • Bar Service
      • Concessions
      • Directions
      • Frequently-Asked Questions
      • Hotels and Lodging
      • Parking
      • Transportation
    • Theatre Rentals
      • Area Caterers
      • How To Rent the Virginia
      • Insurance
      • Spaces
      • Rental Rates
      • Technical Specifications
      • Weddings
    • About
      • Box Office Hours
      • Donations Program
      • Facility Policies
      • Gallery
      • Health and Safety
      • History
      • Mission
      • Seating Chart
      • Sustainability
      • Tours
  • GENERAL
      • Accessibility
        • Accessible Seating
        • Hearing Assist Devices
        • Sign Language
        • Interpretation
        • Transfer Seating
      • ENewsletter
      • Volunteer
        • Opportunities
        • Volunteer Form
      • Champaign Park District
        • Champaign Park District
        • Champaign Parks Foundation
        • Donate
      • Contact Us
        • Address
        • Email Form
        • Hours of Operation
        • Map
        • Phone Number
        • Staff

ARETHA FRANKLIN CONCERT FILM ‘AMAZING GRACE’ TO OPEN EBERT FILM FEST

March 15, 2019

3/14/2019
CONTACT: Craig Chamberlain, Social Sciences Editor, 217-333-2894

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Aretha Franklin died last August, but she’ll be lighting up the big screen at the 21st annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, or “Ebertfest,” coming April 10-13 to Champaign-Urbana and the University of Illinois.


The Franklin concert film “Amazing Grace,” shot nearly 50 years ago but stored in a vault for decades and now restored and released, will kick off this year’s festival – followed by a live performance by a community choir.

The live performance will come from the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Choir of Champaign-Urbana, directed by Noah Brown, Audrey Mock and Terry Napper. The choir was founded 34 years ago and sings annually at celebrations of MLK Day.

Following the choir’s performance will be an onstage Q&A with “Amazing Grace” producers Elliott and Tirrell D. Whittley.

“Most years our opening night film has been a 70 mm celluloid. This year it will be 70 mm of soul,” said festival co-founder and host Chaz Ebert. “Instead of ending this year’s Ebertfest with a musical, as per tradition, we are opening it on a glorious, gospel-infused high note, thanks to Alan Elliott’s pristine restoration of a Sydney Pollack-directed film chronicling the gospel performance of the ‘Queen of Soul’ over two days in Los Angeles in 1972.”

Film critic Odie Henderson, in a four-star review of “Amazing Grace” for Rogerebert.com, called the film “a powerful love letter to the black church, offering a soul-shaking introduction for the unfamiliar and a grandmotherly yank of the arm for those who know – it drags you from the theater straight into the pews.”

Previously announced for this year’s festival was “A Year of the Quiet Sun” (1984), a post-World War II romance starring the late Scott Wilson, who had been a frequent Ebertfest guest. Organizers also announced that this year’s festival will celebrate the on-air partnership of Roger Ebert and Chicago Sun-Times film critic Richard Roeper in “Ebert & Roeper” and also involve Roeper in the selection of two films.

Other films and the screening schedule will be announced in coming weeks.

Source: Illinois News Bureau

Click here for more information about the 21st Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival schedule.

Filed Under: News

Footer

Location

203 W Park Ave
Champaign, IL 61820

Contact

217-356-9063

Box Office Hours

10 AM – 5 PM (M-F)
and two hours before every show

Mobile Copyright/Credits

Site by ThirdSide
© 2022 Virginia Theatre. All Rights Reserved.

Shows & Tickets

Box Office

Theatre Rentals
About

Seating Chart

Parking
Account Login

Contact

Directions

The Virginia Theatre is proudly owned and operated by the Champaign Park District with support from donations to the Champaign Parks Foundation.


Site by ThirdSide

© 2023 Virginia Theatre. All Rights Reserved. | Privacy Policy

Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to enhance your experience. By continuing to visit this site you agree to our use of cookies
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}