‘The Last Dance’ ends a beautiful, impactful run for Roger Ebert’s Film Festival

Born and raised in Urbana-Champaign, Roger Ebert left his mark everywhere — as a sportswriter for The News-Gazette when he was 15, at Urbana High School as senior class president and co-editor of The Echo student newspaper, and on to the University of Illinois and The Daily Illini at the time of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, where Ebert later became the editor-in-chief. He then went to work at the Chicago Sun-Times, became the paper’s film critic and was honored with a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism — the first for film — in 1975, achieving national and international recognition.  

Installed in front of the Virginia Theatre in Champaign, IL, “C-U at the Movies” by Rick Harney is a bronze sculpture of film critic and Urbana native Roger Ebert that was unveiled in 2014.

Yet when he, along with wife Chaz Ebert and Nate Kohn, brought Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival (now affectionately known as Ebertfest) to the Virginia Theatre in Champaign in 1999, little did anyone know at the time what a truly indelible impact there would be on the film world, but particularly on his hometown in the middle of the corn and bean fields of east-central Illinois. Acclaimed actors, writers, directors, producers, film critics and movie lovers would continue to gather in Champaign-Urbana for a handful of days every year, except in 2020 when it was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), for 26 years — long after even Ebert himself lasted on this earth, sadly. They would interact with local, everyday people, and spark conversations of mutual interest in art, storytelling, the human condition and life itself.

This festival that they built transformed our community for the better.

And now, the last of the festivals — “The Last Dance”— is being held April 17-18 at the time-honored Virginia Theatre and will provide a fitting end to a beautiful run.

The memories, and the lessons, will remain — just as the statue of Ebert will remain, offering his signature thumbs-up from a movie theater seat in front of the Virginia — to remind us of the life-altering power and cultivated empathy of film by immersing viewers in both familiar and unfamiliar perspectives.

As Ebert once said, “Of all the arts, movies are the most powerful aid to empathy, and good ones make us into better people.”

Would that we all continue to see many good movies.

I saw a lot of them through the years at Ebertfest — not just the overlooked — and many with Ebert’s own skilled, critical perspective in mind as the movies were screened. I’ve also appreciated the panels and audience questions, learning from each festival that would transform into a classroom. After experiencing the movies and the panels and the audience Q-and-As as one united community, there are the breaks — the entr’actes — between screenings to meet friends, old and new, from the area and from around the country and the world. They provide an opportunity to take part in an improvisational public square, enjoying the company of different people and learning about different lives and perspectives.

Like many who have volunteered, worked or attended every Ebertfest since the beginning, I am rather nostalgic and hate to see the end of Ebertfest. It’s hard to believe that it was 27 years ago when I saw “Shiloh,” starring Scott Wilson, whom I later hosted along with his wife, Heavenly, when they came back with another film. And it was bittersweet when I saw Heavenly again a few years later, this time along with Polish actress Maja Komorowska (and her grandson, Jerzy Tyszkiewicz, as her translator) who came to Ebertfest for the Scott Wilson film she was in, “A Year of the Quiet Sun,” after he had passed away.

But I guess over the course of 27 years, we are all bound to experience pain and loss, as well as the joy. That is part of life. And this year, I will remember it all with gratitude — not only the people, like Roger Ebert, Scott Wilson, Kris Kristofferson, Kaylie Jones, Paul Cox, Dusty Kohl, Norman Lear and many others, but also the fun, the stories and, of course, the movies.

This year’s final lineup of films and guests will no doubt be special. Chaz Ebert and Nate Kohn have continued Roger’s legacy with love and honor.

May this “Last Dance” finale for Ebertfest, that Roger Ebert graciously brought to our community, be a celebratory, full-house, love-fest thank-you from all of us.