The new Siskel Theater in the neighborhood

or maybe the old Fine Arts or the defunct Piper's Alley

11/09/2011 0:38 AM

By Bonnie McGrath

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I had the most pleasant evening tonight. I went to see a screening of the film The Interrupters at Daystar Center at 16th and State. Daystar is becoming a true blue community center--complete with a school, a church, all kinds of classes for everyone in the family, small not for profit offices, a coffeehouse called Overflow Coffee Bar--and most importantly, a good sized auditorium. When the wooden beams of the building that once housed the Wicklander Printing operation pre-Daystar are "softened" in the large gathering space (as Amanda Neely of Overflow explains), we are going to have ourselves a true blue locale for the showing of indie art films.


I hope Daystar sees things the way I do. I was most impressed with the movie shown tonight--it's about former gang bangers (including Jeff Fort's daughter, Ameena Matthews) who have built solid careers by being on-call 24 hours a day to quell gang violence wherever and whenever that is needed. They understand the gangs, the drugs, the dysfunctional family histories, the guns, the macho tempers and the violent deaths. And they save lives. It was a great documentary about the UIC-backed CeaseFire program.

Let's face it--where there's one good documentary, there should be more to follow. And other artsy feature films, too. Foreign and domestic. And I trust Daystar to get this idea on the back burner. And the front burner. The coffee house in the front of the house will be great for movie snacks and drinks. (Yes, they can install a popcorn machine like they have at Siskel.) The surrounding tables and chairs are great for after-movie discussions, as they were tonight. One of the prominent interrupters in the movie, Ricardo "Cobe" Wiliams joined the movie-goers for an after-movie discussion, too.

All in all, we have a diamond in the rough--actually, it's already a beautiful cubic zirconia--and our very own South Loop indie film house that should rival Siskel, Music Box, the Landmark Century and others past (such as the Fine Arts and Piper's Alley) that show the really good films that we all want to see.


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