ParaNorman
Chazen Museum of Art 750 University Ave., Madison, Wisconsin 53706
press release: USA | 2012 | 35mm | 92 min.
Director: Chris Butler, Sam Fell
Cast: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck
In the troubled small town of Blithe Hollow, young Norman Babcock has developed a, shall we say, sixth sense that allows him to communicate with the dead. Norman, teamed with a small group of friends, sets out to face ghosts and zombies in order to lift a centuries-old curse on his village. Stop-motion animation studio Laika followed-up their debut feature hit Coraline with this equally spooky and funny visual feast. Preceded by Betty Boop in the Fleischer Studios classic Minnie the Moocher (1932, 8 min.).
Chicago Film Society Presents!
Founded in January 2011 by Becca Hall, Julian Antos, and Kyle Westphal, three Chicago based projectionists and programmers, the Chicago Film Society was created to “to promote the preservation of film in context.” The CFS’s successful regular screening series at Northeastern Illinois University, the Music Box Theatre, and other locations in Chicago, was, according to their mission statement, launched out of a conviction that “films capture the past uniquely. They hold the stories told by feature films, but also the stories of the industries that produced them, the places where they were exhibited, and the people who watched them. We believe that all of this history–not just of film, but of 20th century industry, labor, recreation, and culture–is more intelligible when it’s grounded in unsimulated experience: seeing a film in a theater, with an audience, and projected from film stock.” The CFS has also established a significant and eclectic archive of 35mm and 16mm film prints that we have drawn upon for the purposes of this series tribute to the Society’s cinephilic accomplishments. Our Sunday Cinematheque at the Chazen series from September through December will present an international selection of 15 feature films and several shorts from throughout film history, all on 35mm, from the collection of the Chicago Film Society! Additionally, Julian Antos and Becca Hall will appear in person on September 28 at our regular Vilas Hall venue to present a CFS restoration of Hal Hartley’s American indie classic Trust.