NIU Communication Department presents
'Reality Bytes' documentary film festival

The NIU Department of Communication and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will host the Reality Bytes Documentary Film Festival from Tuesday through Friday. Admission is free and open to the public for all events. Click here for a complete calendar of events.

Festival entries are student-produced short documentaries. Entries will be screened from 7:55 to 10 p.m. Tuesday and from 8:50 to 10 p.m. Wednesday in Diversions Lounge at the Holmes Student Center.

Documentary festival winners will be selected from three genres: historical, biographical and social issue. The winning films will be screened at 5 p.m. Friday, March 28, in Diversions Lounge. The Best of Festival winner will be announced at the awards presentation Friday evening in the University Suite of Holmes Student Center. Refreshments will be served, and the NIU Jazz Ensemble will perform from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

In addition to festival entries, several documentaries produced by Department of Communication students will be featured throughout the week at Diversions Lounge. "Ghost Stories: Out of the Corner of Your Eye," a 12-minute film by Paul Butler, Chris Johnston, Lindsey Katz and P.J. Stiltz, will be shown at 7 p.m. Tuesday. That will be followed by a 7:15 p.m. showing of "Comfort & Joy," a 20-minute film by Tory Norquist and Laura Blake.

Paul Butler's film, "Save Them! The Life of Paul Rader, Christian Radio Pioneer," will screen at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Diversions. "Wade in the Water," a documentary by former graduate student James Macon, will begin at 8 p.m. Macon's documentary gives an in-depth account of the Underground Railroad that once ran through DeKalb County.

CAB will co-sponsor a presentation from NIU media alumni - Bill Weinman, Wil Hernandez and Robert Katz - at 7 p.m. Thursday in Diversions Lounge. The three alums are actively involved in the Los Angeles production scene.

Weinman was a film editor on "Beyond the Glory," "Nash Bridges," and "VH1 Behind the Music," and editor/producer on two feature-length music documentaries, "The String Cheese Incident" and "Pura Vida & Evolution." Hernandez is a free-lance editor who is currently working on "Beyond the Glory" for Fox Sport Net. Katz just completed production on the new Gary Ross film "Seabiscuit," featuring Tobey Maguire. Previously Katz worked as an associate producer on the 2002 film, "One Hour Photo" featuring Robin Williams, and he is producer of the soon-to-be-released film, "The Wedding Contract."

On Friday, film scholar Judith Mayne of Ohio State Univeristy will speak from 3 to 4:45 p.m. in Gable Hall's Cavan Auditorium. Mayne is an expert in the field of film and women's studies. Her lecture, "Marlene Dietrich and Hollywood's Representation of the Aging Female Star," will present her recent studies into how film and popular culture merge into our cultural reading of gender roles.

Visit the festival Web site at www.niu.edu/comm/realitybytes for more information.

3-24-2003