Illinois

Subterms

    Latest story

    88 Shares179 Views

    5 Halloween Film Festivals Worth Traveling For

    by

    It’s October, and horror movie festivals scratch both the weekend getaway and scare-the-bejesus-out-of-you itch. A guide to some worth checking out.Watching weird indie horror movies at home on Tubi can be a bunch of fun. So can going to the local multiplex to see the latest scary Hollywood blockbuster with other shrieking fans.Horror film festivals offer the best of both worlds, with twists. The programming is heavy on premieres and small-budget indies, and the more ambitious festivals host events like costume contests and offer themed food and drinks to keep the party going. Some of the festivals are very kid-friendly, and others are better suited for blood-and-guts lovers.With Halloween around the corner and fall getaways calling, here’s a look at some of the noteworthy scary (and not-that-scary) film festivals happening this October.The Eerie Horror Fest is held at the Warner Theater, in Erie, Pa., an ornate movie palace that opened in 1931 and seats 2,250.Paul GibbensEerie Horror FestErie, Pa., Oct. 4 and 5Presented by the Film Society of Northwestern Pennsylvania, this festival is known for showing classic and new films along with a hearty roster of panel discussions and events. A highlight takes place on Oct. 5, when the festival presents a screening of the 1995 horror film “Tales From the Hood,” an influential horror anthology and a seminal work in both horror and Black cinema, followed by a Q. and A. with the director, Rusty Cundieff.The frosting on the cake at this festival is its home: The Warner Theater, an ornate Art Deco and French Renaissance space first opened in 1931, with 2,250 seats, a grand proscenium stage and crushed velour and gold leaf accents — the kind of elegance more associated with the likes of Cannes than “Carrie.” This year, the festival has teamed up with two local coffee purveyors — Purrista Cat Café and North Edge Craft Coffee, a roaster — for a special drink menu featuring themed concoctions like the Frankenstein’s Matcha and Killer Klownz, a blueberry cheesecake latte. There will also be displays of adoptable cats — black ones, perhaps — at the theater.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    More stories

    • 138 Shares149 Views

      in Television

      The Jussie Smollett Case Is Probably Far From Over, Analysts Say

      by

      The Illinois appellate court that ordered Mr. Smollett’s release from jail often takes months, even years, to rule on cases, according to experts.After serving six days of a five-month sentence, Jussie Smollett walked out of Cook County Jail on Wednesday night, flanked by supporters who shepherded him into the back seat of an SUV.Whether or not Mr. Smollett is forced to return to the jail in Chicago to complete his sentence is a question that is not likely to be answered for months — and possibly years.The appellate court in Illinois, which ordered Mr. Smollett’s release, is not built for speed, and it was the anticipated delay in hearing his appeal that led the court order that Mr. Smollett should be free while it deliberates whether he was wrongly convicted of staging a fake hate crime. Several experts said proceedings of all sorts at the court typically take about a year or two years.“This court will be unable to dispose of the instant appeal before the defendant would have served his entire sentence of incarceration,” according to the court’s order, which was signed by two of three justices on the panel.Legal experts in Illinois differed on how common it is for defendants to be released on appeal when they had been ordered to serve relatively short jail sentences and their offenses were nonviolent, such as Mr. Smollett’s.“Let’s say they reverse his conviction — he just did the 150 days for nothing,” said Gal Pissetzky, a criminal defense lawyer with experience on appellate cases.The appeals process tends to drag on because of the time it takes the court to prepare voluminous transcripts from the trial and from pretrial proceedings and requests to delay proceedings.There is also typically a backlog of cases waiting to be heard. In 2020, more than 3,300 cases were pending with the First District appellate court in Illinois, where Mr. Smollett’s case was assigned.“There are a lot of cases — it’s always been that way,” said Joseph Lopez, a criminal defense attorney who has represented high-profile defendants like Drew Peterson, who was convicted of murdering his third wife. “And because he’s not in custody, they’re not going to be in a hurry to get to it.”But experts said Mr. Smollett’s case could proceed faster than normal because it is so high profile and the special prosecutor handling the case, Dan K. Webb, is from a private law firm that is better equipped than a state prosecutor’s office to focus on a specific case and make the sort of timely filings that would accelerate a decision.Dan K. Webb, the special prosecutor in the Smollett case, after the sentencing last week.Anthony Vazquez/Chicago Sun-Times, via Associated PressThe defense’s efforts to secure Mr. Smollett’s release began immediately after Judge James Linn handed down the sentence last week in a blistering takedown of the actor that accused him of potentially undermining the credibility of true hate crime victims.Though the defense asked for an immediate suspension of the sentence pending appeal, Judge Linn swiftly denied their request, citing what he characterized as the seriousness of Mr. Smollett’s offense — staging a hoax in which two men lightly assaulted him while yelling racist and homophobic slurs.“The wheels of justice turn slowly, and sometimes the hammer of justice has to fall,” Judge Linn said in the courtroom. “And it’s falling right here, right now.”Nenye Uche, Mr. Smollett’s lead lawyer, then quickly brought the matter to the higher court, the First District Appellate Court in Illinois, and Mr. Webb’s legal team argued against Mr. Smollett’s release, writing in court papers that according to the defense’s logic, every defendant who received a relatively short sentence would be released pending appeal and that the defense was taking “advantage” of Judge Linn’s lenient jail sentence.Ultimately, judges have the discretion to decide these matters on a case-by-case basis. Experts say it is common for defendants to serve their entire sentence of incarceration before their appeal is resolved, something that critics often condemn as particularly unfair if the appellate court ends up overturning the trial court’s decision.The Smollett case has already stretched on for more than three years, starting in January 2019, when Mr. Smollett reported to the police that two men had attacked him, hurled the slurs at him and placed a rope around his neck like a noose.Two brothers, Abimbola Osundairo and Olabinjo Osundairo, testified during the trial last year that Mr. Smollett had asked them to carry out the attack and instructed them in detail on how to do it. The defense argued that the brothers were lying and seeking to protect themselves from prosecution.Judge Linn said at the sentencing hearing that Mr. Smollett’s decision to maintain his innocence on the stand was an aggravating factor that led him to hand down a sentence that included jail time, more than two years of probation, a $25,000 fine and more than $120,000 of restitution for the Chicago Police Department’s investigatory efforts. The defense argued that Mr. Smollett should not be incarcerated because his offense was the kind of low-level, nonviolent felony that often results in sentences of probation or community service.The defense’s appeal will draw from many stages of the case’s long life, from its objection to the second indictment of Mr. Smollett after the state’s attorney’s office dropped the charges against him in 2019 to the way Judge Linn handled jury selection.Two key arguments the defense is expected to make are that the appointment of a special prosecutor to reassess the case was never valid and that Mr. Smollett was subjected to double jeopardy because he surrendered his $10,000 bond and performed some community service in 2019.Mr. Webb’s office has argued in the past that it was well within the court’s authority to appoint a special prosecutor and that Mr. Smollett was not subjected to double jeopardy because the original case had been dismissed.“We’re very much looking forward to having a nonpolitical discourse with them that is intellectual, that’s understanding of the laws,” Heather Widell, one of Mr. Smollett’s lawyers, said of the appellate court at a news conference on Wednesday night.Mr. Uche said at the news conference that when he told Mr. Smollett about the court’s decision to free him for now, the actor pressed his hands up against the glass separating him and his lawyer in jail, and said, “I nearly lost hope in our constitutional system.”Mr. Uche has said that decision“says a lot about what the appellate court thinks of this case,” but, in the court’s brief order, the justices made no mention of whether they had considered the merits of the appeal in making their ruling. More

    • 138 Shares149 Views

      in Television

      Jussie Smollett to Be Released From Jail On Appeal, Court Orders

      by

      The appellate court ruled that he be released on bond pending his appeal of a judge’s sentence that he serve five months in jail.An Illinois appellate court ruled Wednesday that the actor Jussie Smollett be released from jail on bond pending his appeal of his conviction for falsely reporting that he had been the victim of a hate crime.Mr. Smollett was sentenced last week to five months in jail, but his lawyers quickly asked a panel of judges to stay the sentence while they appealed the conviction.Mr. Smollett’s lawyers had argued in court papers that the sentence should be stayed because his term would likely be finished before his appeal was completed and that being incarcerated threatened his health and safety.Nenye Uche, Mr. Smollett’s lead lawyer, said in a video posted to his client’s Instagram account, “They released him and that says a lot about what the appellate court thinks of this case.”In the six days since Mr. Smollett was taken into custody, his family has been pleading for him to be freed and urging the public to call the county to seek his release.“It’s absolutely ridiculous that he’s in there,” said Jocqui Smollett, one of Mr. Smollett’s brothers, in an Instagram video. “You should be terrified of the precedent this sets.”Prosecutors, who had argued at sentencing that Mr. Smollett’s offense warranted incarceration, wrote in court papers that by the defense’s logic, every short term of imprisonment would be stayed pending appeal.“That simply is not, and cannot be, the rule,” wrote Sean Wieber, one of the prosecutors.Two out of three of the justices on the appellate panel agreed that Mr. Smollett should be released from custody after he posts a $150,000 recognizance bond, agreeing with the defense’s argument about the short sentence and acknowledging that Mr. Smollett’s offense was nonviolent. One justice dissented.Mr. Smollett’s incarceration on Thursday started with his announcement in the courtroom as he was led to jail that he was not suicidal and that if anything happened to him, it would not have been by his own hand, a statement that appeared to put the authorities on notice. He also repeatedly declared his innocence.Judge James B. Linn granted his lawyers’ request for protective custody, and according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, Mr. Smollett was being kept in a private cell in the Cook County Jail with security cameras and an officer stationed at the entrance.His family had been arguing on social media that he was the target of “vicious threats” on social media and was at risk. They expressed concerns about his treatment in the jail. Jocqui Smollett said on Tuesday that his brother had been sleeping in a “restraint bed” but had recently been moved to a cell that “actually has a bed.”Mr. Smollett’s appeal is based, in part, on the idea that the actor’s recent sentence violated the legal concept of double jeopardy because he had already surrendered a $10,000 bond and performed some community service in 2019. Prosecutors have argued that those measures were voluntary and not a punishment.The case drew national attention, and Mr. Smollett was initially widely viewed as the victim who had been beaten and targeted with racial and homophobic slurs. Then the police began to question his version of events.At the trial, prosecutors told the jury that Mr. Smollett had instructed two brothers, Abimbola Osundairo and Olabinjo Osundairo, to attack him near his apartment in Chicago, where they placed a rope around his neck like a noose and yelled, “This is MAGA country.”Both brothers testified. Abimbola Osundairo, the younger of the brothers, said Mr. Smollett had asked him to “fake beat him up.”The prosecution’s evidence included video surveillance of the men meeting up for what the brothers said was the “dry run” and Instagram messages from Mr. Smollett to Abimbola Osundairo shortly before the attack in which the actor provided updates on the timing of his flight back to Chicago.The defense disputed that Mr. Smollett had planned the attack, arguing that both the messages and the footage were evidence that he had been interacting with Abimbola Osundairo because he had been providing the actor with fitness training.Mr. Smollett, 39, who in 2019 was best known for starring in the music-industry drama “Empire,” maintained his innocence during the trial.During seven hours of testimony over two days, he insisted that the attack had occurred as he described. But both prosecutors and Judge Linn had cited Mr. Smollett’s testimony as an aggravating factor that led them to pursue incarceration.Judge Linn called Mr. Smollett’s hours on the witness stand, during which he denied planning the attack, “pure perjury.”Bob Chiarito contributed reporting. More

    • 125 Shares169 Views

      in Television

      Prosecutors: Jussie Smollett Faked Attack After Real Threat Was Ignored

      by

      During opening arguments in the actor’s trial, the prosecution said Mr. Smollett staged a hate crime because his workplace did not take a death threat seriously enough.The actor Jussie Smollett made himself the victim of a staged hate crime in 2019 to draw the attention of his colleagues on the television show “Empire” after he decided they had failed to take an earlier written threat seriously, a prosecutor said in a Chicago court on Monday. Dan K. Webb, the special prosecutor, laid out what he saw as Mr. Smollett’s motive in opening arguments of the actor’s trial on criminal charges that he lied to the police when he reported he had been the victim of a racist and homophobic attack.In January 2019, Mr. Webb said, Mr. Smollett received an anonymous “actual hate letter,” which included a homophobic slur and a drawing of a stick figure hanging from a tree. The letter included the acronym “MAGA” made of cutout newspaper and magazine letters, he said, a reference to former President Donald J. Trump’s campaign slogan. Law enforcement has not been able to determine who sent the letter, Mr. Webb said.“Therefore, he devised this fake hate crime to take place so that the ‘Empire’ studio would take this more seriously,” he said of Mr. Smollett, “because this fake hate crime would get media attention.”Nearly three years ago, when Mr. Smollett reported that he had been assaulted, he was primarily known for “Empire,” a drama in which he played a son vying for control of his father’s music empire. He later lost that role after being indicted on charges that he had lied to the police, who concluded that he had paid two brothers to stage the attack. After a drawn-out and tumultuous legal process, the trial began at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Chicago with the selection of 12 jurors and three alternates. Mr. Smollett arrived at the courthouse Monday morning, clutching the arm of his mother, Janet Smollett, and sat with several family members as the opening arguments began.Mr. Smollett is standing trial on six counts of felony disorderly conduct associated with the reports he had made to the police. The grand-jury indictment asserts he had “no reasonable ground for believing that such an offense had been committed.”When his account of being attacked on a late-night run to pick up a tuna sandwich became public it struck a chord in a politically divided nation confronting the persistent threat of racism. The actor told the police his attackers poured bleach on him, placed a rope around his neck and yelled, “This is MAGA country.”Lawmakers, activists and celebrities reacted furiously to the incident, but the dialogue shifted abruptly in February 2019, when the police told the public that Mr. Smollett had paid two men $3,500 to stage the attack. The police said they had a copy of the check as well as phone records showing that Mr. Smollett spoke to the brothers before and after the alleged attack took place.Comedians used the story as a punchline. Mr. Trump said it was a smear on his supporters, while liberal politicians condemned it as a disservice to victims of hate crimes.“I’m sad, frustrated and disappointed,” Vice President Kamala Harris, who was a senator and presidential candidate at the time, wrote on Twitter. “When anyone makes false claims to police, it not only diverts resources away from serious investigations but it makes it more difficult for other victims of crime to come forward.”But Mr. Smollett has maintained his innocence, pleading not guilty to the charges and insisting the attack happened just as he described.“They won’t let this go,” Mr. Smollett said in an Instagram interview last year. “There is an example being made, and the sad part is that there’s an example being made of someone that did not do what they’re being accused of.”Initially, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office dropped the felony charges against the actor, saying that Mr. Smollett had forfeited his $10,000 bond and explaining that he was not a threat to public safety and had a record of service to the community. Chicago’s police superintendent at the time, Eddie Johnson, and its mayor, Rahm Emanuel, suggested Mr. Smollett was getting special treatment because of his celebrity status.Kim Foxx, Chicago’s top prosecutor, stood by the decision.“Yes, falsely reporting a hate crime makes me angry, and anyone who does that deserves the community’s outrage,” Ms. Foxx wrote in a Chicago Tribune op-ed after her office dropped the charges. “But, as I’ve said since before I was elected, we must separate the people at whom we are angry from the people of whom we are afraid.”In the months that followed, much of the discussion surrounding the case focused on how prosecutors had handled it.Ms. Foxx had recused herself from overseeing the case to avoid any perception that she had a conflict of interest after disclosing that she had communicated with Mr. Smollett’s representatives when he was still considered a victim. She delegated it to a deputy, but text messages later showed that Ms. Foxx had remained closely engaged with the case, expressing concern to a colleague that the office was treating the actor too harshly.Later in 2019, a judge appointed Mr. Webb as a special prosecutor to review whether Mr. Smollett should be recharged and to assess whether there had been any misconduct in the way the case was managed by the state’s attorney’s office.Mr. Webb renewed charges against Mr. Smollett in February 2020. He later determined that the state’s attorney’s office had not violated the law, but did abuse its discretion in deciding to drop charges and put out false or misleading public statements about why it did so.Understand the Jussie Smollett TrialCard 1 of 5A staged hate crime? More