News

Chicago – It’s time to get some “Wizdom”! In the World Premiere at the same Chicago studio (CineCity) where it was filmed, the completed short will premiere on Friday, September 20th (6pm), and that screening will be facilitated by Producer/Co-Writer/Lead Actor Ashton Swinford and Producer/Director Layne Marie Williams.

Ashton Swinford is Eos, a futuristic thief and outlier living in a dystopian time to come. She lives with her sibling Vayle (Simone Brazzini) and seeks to disrupt the controlling power of “Wizdom,” a corporation who has blotted the world in permanent darkness and uses brain-attached devices to assure the population that all is well. When Eos steals a powerful hallucinatory drug, what she experiences on that drug’s trip is a threat to the power, represented and discovered by Carbon (Elizabeth Laidlaw).

Wizdom

Photo credit: Poster by Jillian Adel, Studio of Earthly Delights for Paragram Productions

Actor/Producer...

Chicago – The made-in-Chicago film “Relative” … written and directed by Michael Glover Smith … will get its city/Midwest premiere at (appropriately) the Midwest Film Festival on April 5th, 2022. The sold out show at the Gene Siskel Film Center will also have a Q&a, moderated by Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com. One of the vital credits on any film is Music Supervisor, and that role on “Relative” was filled by Cait Rappel, a veteran film scorer in her feature film debut.

“Relative” is a film about transition, as a family gathers for the youngest son/brother’s college graduation. Each individual family member is dealing with a situational crossroads, and the family togetherness both modifies and challenges them. The film features Wendy Robie, Francis Guinan, Cameron Scott Roberts, Keith D. Gallagher, Emily Lape, Melissa DuPrey, Elizabeth Stam and Clare Cooney.

’Relative’ at the Midwest Film Festival, Music Supervision by Cait Rappel (inset)

Photo credit: MidwestFilm.

Chicago – In a sure sign that production is ramping up in Chicago once again, the pilot sci-fi film “Wizdom” – the first step in a larger project – will film in the city the week of February 21st, 2022. “Wizdom” is co-created and co-written by Ashton Swinford, who also will portray the lead role.

In a future where daylight is scarce,“Wizdom” follows Eos and Vayle, two professional thieves who live on the outskirts of a neon-lit colony ordered and dominated by the biotech corporation Wizdom. Using bionic enhancements and other posthuman biotechnologies, Eos and Vayle steal raw materials from Wizdom in order to cook up a drug that is rumored to show users visions of the future. Will the drug permanently enhance their vision and extrasensory powers? Will they survive the first dose?

Ashton Swinford for ‘Wizdom’

Photo credit: Ashton Swinford

Ashton Swinford co-created and wrote “Wizdom” with Zack Sievers, with additional...

Chicago – When we last checked in with actor and filmmaker Ashton Swinford, she had just completed her hilarious web series ”Miss Information”. She is back with a new short film, equally funny, in the white privilege satire “Basic Witches.”

“Witches” is a snapshot featuring Swinford and Sarah Aló as twentysomething city dwellers expounding on the source of their magic luck. When a fellow traveler (Vik Pandya) points out that their “magic” is a result of their social status, an incident is sure to follow. Shot in the pre-pandemic world, Ashton Swinford hesitated releasing it, realizing that the world had changed a bit, but the message remains clear.

Actor/Director Ashton Swinton (left) and Sarah Aló in ‘Basic Witches’

Photo credit: Ashton Swinford

In “Miss Information,” Swinford is a former beauty pageant queen attempting to cling to relevancy in a pandemic-era world. She is joined by Reginald Wilkins (Whitman Johnson), a golden retriever in human form,...

Chicago – Filmmaking is a collaborative art, the melding of technical skill and creative energy. Proving that collaboration on a very high level is the new film “Rendezvous in Chicago,” written and directed by Michael Glover Smith. This passion project, shot in eight days, brought together a production crew and cast who perfectly meshed to create the “romance-in-the-Windy-City movie the world has been waiting for.” For the rest of the 5-Star review from HollywoodChicago.com, click here.

On Monday, February 11th, 2019, “Rendezvous in Chicago” was screened at the Gene Siskel Film Center on State Street in its hometown. Patrick McDonald of this outlet was the moderator for an audience Q&A afterward. with a cast member (represented by Rashaad Hall) and the production crew, producer Layne Marie Williams, cinematographer Alex Halstead, production designer Haley McCormick, editor Eric Marsh and writer/director Michael Glover Smith. The main feature was preceded by the short film “Dancer,...

Chicago – Filmmaker and Artist Lonnie Edwards keeps evolving upward with his career, but also keeps honoring his Chicago roots and his fellow artists. Edwards, and director Layne Marie Williams of “Women of the Now,” have co-curated a special night of short films under the title umbrella “Now That We Have Your Attention.” The program will take place on July 21st, 2018 (7:30pm), at the new Chicago Filmmakers center. For details, the line-up of films and tickets, click here.

The “attention” in the title refers to the slate of films, which are all directed by African Americans and women, two groups still struggling within the movie business, but also evolving upward. The shorts line-up includes “An Atramentous Mind,” which was co-directed by Lonnie Edwards and Layne Marie Williams and “Runner,” directed by Chicagoan Clare Clooney (who was profiled by HollywoodChicago.com here).

’An Atramentous Mind’ Will Be Part of the Program...

Chicago – What happens when one of the more prominent filmmakers in Chicago of the last five years meets a up-and-coming female director? They get together to make a statement in a short film. “An Atramentous Mind” will have its Midwest Premiere at the Black Harvest Film Festival on August 27th, 2017, as part of their “Chicago Shorts” series. The 23rd edition of this vital Chicago festival runs through August 31st at the downtown Gene Siskel Film Center.

“An Atramentous Mind” is a ten minute in-the-moment short film that illustrates a situation that has dominated the headlines in the last couple of years. The issue of law enforcement treatment of African Americans has been an ongoing discussion before and since the incident in Ferguson, Missouri, and continues to define the relationships of the police and black communities in America. Williams and Edwards created a confrontation between a white cop and a black woman,...

Chicago – When we last talked to filmmaker and activist Layne Marie Williams, she was premiering her short work, “Dollface,” to universal acclaim. Besides her many upcoming film projects, Ms. Williams is also striking a blow for countering the negative aspects of the Donald Trump fear-mongering, with an event called “Women of the Now Presents: The Rise of the Femme Pyre.” This activist party and fundraiser will be at Camera Ambassador (Embassy Studios) within the Pilsen neighborhood in Chicago on March 4th, 2017. For details and ticket information, click here.

Wotn Presents: Rise of the Femme Pyre on March 4th, 2017

Photo credit: Women of the Now

Layne Marie Williams hails from Alabama, studied drama in Philadelphia, and has lived in Chicago for about a year. She moved here to amplify her arts career, and immediately made a splash with the avant-garde film, “Dollface.” Williams founded “Women of the Now” (Wotn) in Philadelphia...