LAKE COUNTY, IL (September 15, 2020) Returning for its 10th year, Lake County Film Festival (LCFF) will run virtually at lakecountyfilmfestival.org from November 4th-16th, and for two special in-person engagements at The Gorton Center in Lake Forest. The festival will be its biggest yet with over 20 features and almost 100 short films.
“2020 has presented the entire world with new challenges”, said Festival Director Nat Dykeman, “but for film festivals, it has also opened up new opportunities.” LCFF’s virtual festival will be open to anyone logging in from a device in Illinois or Wisconsin, which opens the festival up to an audience outside its immediate area. Additionally, since the festival will be doing remote Q&A events, and have a 24/7 chat room, the festival expects even more interaction between filmmakers and audience members.
In addition to the full slate of films offered virtually, festival partner Gorton Center will be hosting a double feature on Saturday, November 14th, at their location in Lake Forest. “We’re thrilled to welcome the Lake County Film Festival back to the John and Nancy Hughes Theater at Gorton Center,” said Rebecca Fons, Director Of Film, “Seeing a movie again on the big screen with an audience is a great feeling.”
Jack C. Newell’s narrative feature Monuments will be playing at Gorton Center. Monuments is about Ted, who at the urging of her deceased wife’s ghost, steals her ashes and her family’s pickup truck to travel across the country to scatter her ashes at the Field Museum. Jack C. Newell is a multi-alumni from the LCFF’s previous festivals, who has been consistently putting out films over the last decade, including the cooking documentary 42 Grams, and the Award-Winning narrative Open Tables. “When we shot this film, we intended it to be seen on the big screen”, said director Newell, “so being able to share it in it’s intended format is a dream come true for us!”
Gorton Center will also host a screening of the documentary feature Insert Coin, which chronicles the rise, fall, and eventual bankruptcy of Chicago-based Midway Games. “Midway Games pioneered the technology of motion capture in games, and went on to publish some of the most influential and successful games of all time, including NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat, Terminator 2, and my personal favorite, Smash TV,” said Festival Director Dykeman.
While the festival lineup is still being finalized, some of the exciting narratives include: Cabarete, a drama from the Dominican Republic about a young man who wants to compete in kite-surfing, and Seven Short Films About (Our) Marriage, a romantic drama made up of seven vignettes that chronicles the better and worse, the turmoil and tenderness during fourteen years of two people trying to make their interracial marriage last.
On the documentary side, there’s We Don’t Deserve Dogs, a meditative exploration of man’s relationship with his best friend around the world, and Where She Lies, an investigative true-crime film about a woman who suspects her newborn baby was stolen from her and incorrectly declared deceased.
This year’s festival features an immense 21 programs of short films. Running about 45 minutes each, they cover such topics as religion, photography, women in the workplace, guns, and Ukraine, as well as broad genres like Action, Science-Fiction, & Experimental. There is even a short film program about Nazis receiving their just deserts.
For more information about the festival, visit lakecountyfilmfestival.org
