St. Charles movie theater to host AfterImage Film Fest

ST. CHARLES – The AfterImage Film Festival returns April 13-16 to the Charlestowne 18 Cinema in St. Charles.

More than 20 films will be featured in the festival’s third year, many of which premiered at some of the world’s most prestigious film festivals including Sundance, SXSW, Venice and Cannes, according to a news release.

“We’re thrilled to announce that Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve James will join us to present his brilliant new documentary ‘A Compassionate Spy’ for opening night of the festival,” AfterImage Director Andrew Carlin said in the release. “Steve’s contributions to documentary cinema over the past 30 years are truly incalculable and we’re honored to host him.”

“A Compassionate Spy” premiered at the 2022 Venice Film Festival and went on to screen at the Telluride Film Festival.

James will participate in a Q&A with the audience after the film is shown.

Other spotlight selections include “Joyland,” which won Best International Film at the 2023 Independent Spirit Awards. “Joyland” is about the Ranas – a happily patriarchal joint family – who yearn for the birth of a baby boy to continue the family line.

Also to be shown is “Murina,” which won the Golden Bear Award at the Cannes Film Festival and premiered there in 2021.

Among the feature length documentaries to be shown:

• “After Antartica” is about lifelong explorer Will Steger and five other men – six men from six countries. They set out on a seven-month-long expedition in 1989, traveling 4,000 miles across Antarctica on a mission to defend and protect it from the exploitation it faced. Almost 30 years later, Steger is still exploring. At 75, he sets out on a solo expedition to the Arctic Circle, where two stories unfold in parallel.

• “An Eternity of Me and You” is a touching and humorous tale of gender roles and two people’s struggle to fulfill their dream of having a child, with director Sanne This serving as the female subject of her own film.

Among the anniversary screenings:

• The 15th anniversary of “Man On Wire” about a young Frenchman named Philippe Petit who stepped out on a wire illegally rigged between New York’s twin towers on Aug. 7, 1974. After nearly an hour dancing on the wire, he was arrested, taken for psychological evaluation and brought to jail before he was finally released.

• The 25th anniversary of “Everest IMAX,” which invites audiences to revisit the inspiring ascent of the world’s tallest mountain with a team of four international climbers who find hope, beauty and triumph in the wake of tragedy.

The AfterImage Film Festival is an annual event serving the Fox Valley and strives to be one of the premier film festivals in the Midwest, according to the release.

The third edition of the festival will include a wide range of programming of both feature length and short films, narratives and documentaries, American independents and foreign language titles.

Additional programming announcements will be made in the coming weeks. Tickets are available exclusively through Classic Cinemas’ website, www.classiccinemas.com. The theater is located at 3740 E. Main St. in St. Charles.

Information is available online at www.afterimagefilmfestival.com.