Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/385207
photography by ollie photography, onasis odelmo, and airdography (idonije); anjali pinto (harris); bogdan nastase (murray); billy rood (soho house) Follow me on Twitter at @JP_ Anderson and at michiganavemag.com. Ready for his close-up: at Soho House with film director Jason Knade, one of the talented subjects of this month's men's feature. j.p. anderson Some boyS dream of growing up to be firemen, doctors, or pro athletes. Me? I wanted to be Roger Ebert. I was a movie fanatic from the time Star Wars hit the big screen, and in my mind the always-colorful Chicago film critic— even more so than his comparatively staid At the Movies sparring partner, Gene Siskel—was the ultimate Hollywood authority. By the time I was 13, I was toting a spiral-bound notebook to the Roxy Cinemas in Ottawa, Illinois, scribbling notes during matinees of Back to the Future and Pretty in Pink, and writing up reviews when I went home, just as I imagined Ebert did. Those movies weren't just entertainment for me—they were art and magic, and they showed me a world of exciting possibilities beyond my small town. That passion for cinema is some- thing shared by each of the subjects of this issue's centerpiece story, "Chicago's Movie Men." From Oscar nominees like actor Michael Shannon and documentarian Steve James— whose latest project was the moving Ebert homage Life Itself—to emerging talents like directors Joe Swanberg and Carlos Jimenez Flores, movies drive these men to create and explore the world around them, all while staying firmly rooted in Chicago. One man whose commitment to film and to Chicago has never wavered is Michael Kutza, the founder of the Chicago International Film Festival, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this month. Kutza was just a young buck when the first fest was held in 1964; now CIFF is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America, and Kutza is still at the helm. From October 9 to 23, Kutza's team will present more than 100 feature films from all over the world at Streeterville's AMC River East 21—and you can bet I'll be there, still scribbling mental notes and reveling in the magic of cinema. from left: Celebrating An Evening with the Israel Idonije Foundation with the former Chicago Bear himself; with Jon Harris and Bill Rancic after our lunchtime chat at RPM Steak, one of the city's hottest new restaurants; and talking tennis with Kamau Murray of XS Tennis and Education Foundation at the group's event with Lacoste at Water Tower Place. 26 michiganavemag.com Letter from the editor-in-Chief