Chicago – Using Chicago as a backdrop has rarely been as kinetic and exciting as under the direction of Marie Ullrich. Expanding upon a short film she produced in 2010 called “Faster,” about a bike messenger in the Windy City, Ullrich went for a grittier and more emotional look at that world in “The Alley Cat” in 2014. The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on August 16th, 2016.
“The Alley Cat” evolves the story of Jasper (Jenny Strubin), the protagonist in the previous short film “Faster.” In “The Alley Cat,” Jasper is participating in a nighttime bike race/rally through Chicago, with her bike messenger colleagues. At the same time she is having family issues, including a relationship confrontation with her sister. Everything is coming to a resolution on race night, as fast as a lightweight bike on flat pavement. The film uses the available light of the streets, and is told...
“The Alley Cat” evolves the story of Jasper (Jenny Strubin), the protagonist in the previous short film “Faster.” In “The Alley Cat,” Jasper is participating in a nighttime bike race/rally through Chicago, with her bike messenger colleagues. At the same time she is having family issues, including a relationship confrontation with her sister. Everything is coming to a resolution on race night, as fast as a lightweight bike on flat pavement. The film uses the available light of the streets, and is told...
- 8/18/2016
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
The Alley Cat
Directed by Marie Ullrich
Written by Marie Ullrich
USA, 2014
The bicycle is by far the most existential vehicular choice when making a road film about a character in a state of mental cross roads. Unlike the car, the bike is solely powered by the human and it’s capabilities are dictated by the rider’s. Anyone can press a pedal and go 100 mph, but with a bicycle the wheels are only an extension of the human drive to move forward. In Marie Ullrich’s The Alley Cat, this sense of propulsion collides with the main character’s struggle to move forward mentally. Jasper was a mother but gave her child up to her sister, with the deal that her little girl can never know who her real mom is. It’s during a wild, late-night bike race through Chicago’s south loop that she reassesses her priorities...
Directed by Marie Ullrich
Written by Marie Ullrich
USA, 2014
The bicycle is by far the most existential vehicular choice when making a road film about a character in a state of mental cross roads. Unlike the car, the bike is solely powered by the human and it’s capabilities are dictated by the rider’s. Anyone can press a pedal and go 100 mph, but with a bicycle the wheels are only an extension of the human drive to move forward. In Marie Ullrich’s The Alley Cat, this sense of propulsion collides with the main character’s struggle to move forward mentally. Jasper was a mother but gave her child up to her sister, with the deal that her little girl can never know who her real mom is. It’s during a wild, late-night bike race through Chicago’s south loop that she reassesses her priorities...
- 10/25/2014
- by Jae K. Renfrow
- SoundOnSight
Chicago – The 50th Chicago International Film Festival announced its award winners in a ceremony at the city’s Sofitel Chicago Water Tower on October 17th. The Gold Hugo for “Best Film” went to “The President,” a dark satire from Georgia, France, UK, and Germany. This year’s jury members for the international feature film competition included Oscar-nominated actress Kathleen Turner and renowned German director Margarethe von Trotta.
This festival also marked the introduction of its “Roger Ebert Award,” a celebration of rising new directors, which went to director Jorge Pérez Solano for his film “La Tirisia.”
Honored films include Niels Arden Oplev’s coming-of-age story “Speed Walking,” Abderrahmane Sissako’s luminous film “Timbuktu,” William H. Macy’s directorial debut “Rudderless,” Chicagoan Marie Ullrich’s “The Alley Cat,” and more.
International Feature Film Competition
’The President’
Photo Credit: © Chicago International Film Festival
Gold Hugo for Best Film: “The President” (Georgia, France,...
This festival also marked the introduction of its “Roger Ebert Award,” a celebration of rising new directors, which went to director Jorge Pérez Solano for his film “La Tirisia.”
Honored films include Niels Arden Oplev’s coming-of-age story “Speed Walking,” Abderrahmane Sissako’s luminous film “Timbuktu,” William H. Macy’s directorial debut “Rudderless,” Chicagoan Marie Ullrich’s “The Alley Cat,” and more.
International Feature Film Competition
’The President’
Photo Credit: © Chicago International Film Festival
Gold Hugo for Best Film: “The President” (Georgia, France,...
- 10/18/2014
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
There’s so much going on at the Chicago International Film Festival, it’s difficult to determine just five movies I’m excited to see. The list could just as easily be 20 or 30 films, and probably more as it seems each time I dig into the program I find something else of interest that I didn’t see the dozen times before. While I’m not a fan of making lists (I’m what you’d call an “all-inclusionist”), the good news is that the festival begins in a few days, and the anticipation will turn into experience and there will be no limits on writing about that. So here are just five, in no particular order of importance.
1. Words With Gods (USA)
At a time when science is being treated like a religion to be blindly believed in – not constantly questioned, which is the entire point of scientific discovery...
1. Words With Gods (USA)
At a time when science is being treated like a religion to be blindly believed in – not constantly questioned, which is the entire point of scientific discovery...
- 10/6/2014
- by Jae K. Renfrow
- SoundOnSight
Chicago – The short film, once considered the lesser cousin of features, and seen mostly in obscurity, has had a major revival and influence in the age of YouTube. At the 2010 Chicago International Film Festival, the Illinois Short Filmmaker night brought out the best of locally produced film shorts on October 11th.
HollywoodChicago.com caught up with seven of the participating filmmakers that night, as they spoke about their particular film shorts.
Illinois Short Filmmakers at the Chicago International Film Festival, October 11th, 2010
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com
Wenhwa Ts’ao, Director of “Arithmetic Lessons”
Arithmetic Lessons is a devastating study of a Chinese family in crisis, as the mother is dying and her daughter is trapped in an abuse situation with her female caregiver.
‘Arithmetic Lessons,’ Directed by Wenhwa Ts’ao
Photo credit: Chicago International Film Festival
HollywoodChicago.com: Typically, the Chinese culture is seen as a somewhat repressed patriarchal society,...
HollywoodChicago.com caught up with seven of the participating filmmakers that night, as they spoke about their particular film shorts.
Illinois Short Filmmakers at the Chicago International Film Festival, October 11th, 2010
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com
Wenhwa Ts’ao, Director of “Arithmetic Lessons”
Arithmetic Lessons is a devastating study of a Chinese family in crisis, as the mother is dying and her daughter is trapped in an abuse situation with her female caregiver.
‘Arithmetic Lessons,’ Directed by Wenhwa Ts’ao
Photo credit: Chicago International Film Festival
HollywoodChicago.com: Typically, the Chinese culture is seen as a somewhat repressed patriarchal society,...
- 10/21/2010
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
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