‘Hoop Dreams’ director to kick off AfterImage Film Festival in St. Charles

Those who attend the opening night of the AfterImage Film Festival at Classic Cinemas Charlestowne 18 Theatre in St. Charles on Thursday will have the chance to meet the director of the beloved documentary “Hoop Dreams.”

The festival will feature a screening at 7:30 p.m. of Steve James’ latest documentary, “A Compassionate Spy,” which premiered at the 2022 Venice Film Festival and went on to screen at the Telluride Film Festival. Following the screening, James will participate in a post-screening Q&A.

The night will kick off at 6 p.m. with an open bar and a selection of small plates. Tickets for opening night are $45, available at afterimagefilmfestival.com.

“During the Q&A, I’m sure we’ll touch on his decades-long career and sort of how his past projects have informed his current projects,” AfterImage Director Andrew Carlin said. “But really I think the focus will be on this new film of his because it is really exciting. Steve is a filmmaker who I have been greatly inspired by.”

“Hoop Dreams” tells the true story of Chicago students who dream of becoming pro basketball players. “A Compassionate Spy” tells the story of Manhattan Project scientist Ted Hall, who shared classified nuclear secrets with Russia.

Ticket sales for the festival have been going well, Carlin said. He expects many people will purchase tickets at the last minute.

“We rely quite a bit on walk up sales on the day of,” Carlin said on Tuesday. “Ticket sales are looking pretty good.”

The festival, which runs though Sunday, has already sold a good number of all access badges.

“For a set price, you get this cool badge and you can kind of see whatever you want, whenever you want,” Carlin said. ‘We’ve sold quite a few of those, which is really great. That helped us get a gauge on attendance and interest well before the festival. We’re trying to build momentum post-COVID. It’s tricky, but I think we really all believe in what we’re doing. We’re just excited to be back at it. We’ve got a really strong slate of films this year.”

The AfterImage Film Festival premiered in 2019. The festival had to go on hiatus in 2020 because of the pandemic.

Many of the films that are part of this year’s festival premiered at some of the world’s most prestigious film festivals, including Sundance, SXSW, Venice, Cannes and others.

“We don’t have a very large slate of movies, but the movies that we do have are all excellent,” Carlin said. “There isn’t a bad one in the bunch. We do spend so much time combing through these films and picking the ones we feel are the best and that will resonate the most with our audience out here.”

The festival will feature both full-length films and short films. Many filmmakers will be coming to the festival to talk about their short films.

“We have more filmmakers coming out this year than any previous year,” Carlin said. “Any short film block that you attend, you’re going to see a Q&A with at least one if not two filmmakers, which we’re really excited about. We’ve got I think seven filmmakers coming out and presenting their films this year. In the case of the documentaries, some of the subjects of the documentaries are going to be coming out, so that’s very exciting.”

That includes Geneva-based filmmaker Rosa SanMarchi, writer and star of the short film “Undecided.” She will be part of a Q&A session following the 5:30 p.m. screening of her movie on Saturday.

“We’re really excited to have her come out to talk about her short film,” Carlin said.

He is happy with this year’s lineup of films.

“It’s particularly strong,” Carlin said. “We’re doing one screening of a film called ‘Joyland,’ which was the 2023 Independent Spirit Award winner for best international film. And this is a film that opens theatrically in Chicago on April 28. People are going to get to see this film out in the suburbs before literally anybody else, outside of New York City. So that’s pretty cool.”

For tickets and more information, go to the festival’s website at afterimagefilmfestival.com.