WRESTLERS GO TO THE MAP
Chicago film focuses on neighborhoods little seen on screen
For director Jennifer Reeder, making films in Chicago is clearly a passion. The filmmaker, who moved to the city in 1994 to attend the School of the Art Institute, has stayed and worked here, “unlike a lot of the people I went to school with, who felt they had to leave and go to one of the coasts to work.
“The funny thing, I don’t even know if some of them are still working in the film industry.”
Reeder’s new film, “Signature Moves,” opens Friday at the Music Box Theatre, after a premiere screening Thursday evening with actress Shabana Azmi in attendance.
Tackling the material in Lisa Donato and Fawzia Mirza’s script was a big challenge for Reeder. She explained that the producing team, which included Brian and Jan Hieggelke ( from the New City weekly, who made this movie the first from their Chicago Film Project), “wanted to put as many women behind the camera as in front of the camera.” That made sense, because the story is about a Pakistani- American lesbian lawyer falling in love with a Mexican- American woman who owns a bookstore. A big part of the storyline focuses on the relationship between the lawyer ( played by Mirza) and her very conservative Pakistani mother, who she hasn’t told she’s gay.
The director especially enjoyed filming the scenes involving the main character Zaynab’s lessons in female Mexican lucha librestyle wrestling. “Obviously, that was a big learning curve for me, but I loved shooting all that,” said Reeder.
Being an adopted Chicagoan of long standing, Reeder also knew how to make “a micro- budget indie like this” in the city’s various neighborhoods.
“It was important to give the film a strong Chicago feel. We shot in Rogers Park along Devon Avenue, which is definitely the heart of the city’s South Asian community. We also shot in Pilsen, Humboldt Park and Little Village. These are all strong, vibrant and long- standing Chicago neighborhoods for those communities. These are not the first neighborhoods you typically see in a film about Chicago — places like Wrigleyville, the lakefront or Division Street on the Gold Coast.
“We wanted to use very authentic Chicago neighborhoods, but areas that are very radically underused for Chicago filming, for the most part.”
Equally key to Reeder was “to make the film in English, obviously, but also use a lot of Spanish and Urdu [ spoken between Zaynab and her mother, played by Azmi]. Beyond all the other issues and themes in our movie, I know many people in the audience, who come from immigrant families, will understand this. It is very authentic. It’s how children of immigrants communicate with their parents. There is constant switching back and forth. Here it is between English and Urdu, and English and Spanish.”
Why we love ‘ all things naughty’
At the mere mention of Chicago to Eddie Izzard, the actor and comedian’s face really lit up. “Ah yes,” said the entertainer, taking the time to slowly enunciate Our Town’s moniker as “Chi-cawwww- goh.”
“Your city is such a great place. There’s the one coast in America and then the other — New York and L. A. — but in the middle of that great nothingness there’s that wondrous Chicago! It’s a great beating heart in the middle of America. I’ve played it many times and am so looking forward to coming back. ...
“Because Chicagoans have been exposed to so much great comedy, I think it’s made them among the most sophisticated audiences of comedy I have ever seen.
“You also have that great lake that sits there going, ‘ Hi! I’m a huge lake!’ Plus, Chicago is connected to so many wild things: Prohibition, the gangster stuff from the 1920s. … I think that’s why Chicago has such appreciation for all things naughty!”
In his new film role in “Victoria and Abdul” ( opening Friday), Izzard plays the Prince of Wales, known for most of his life as Bertie, who would succeed his mother Queen Victoria as King Edward VII. In the film, the long- serving queen is played by Judi Dench.
Izzard’s prince does not come off as being very appealing, as the film focuses on his well- known reputation as a playboy, excluded by his mother and her ministers from matters of state. However, Izzard clearly has a soft spot for the man who spent nearly 60 years waiting to become king.
“Look,” Izzard said. “He saw his mother and father from birth until he was a young man only 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening. That’s not love. He was not allowed to mix with other boys, so he had no real friends as a child. … No wonder he went off the rails a bit!”
‘ This Is Us’ actor coming to fest
Sterling K. Brown, who just won his second Emmy ( this time for the hit NBC series “This Is Us”), will join his fellow “Marshall” cast members Chadwick Boseman and Josh Gad — plus director Reginald Hudlin and producer Paula Wagner — at the 53rd Chicago International Film Festival.
“Marshall” opens the festival at the AMC River East 21 multiplex on Oct. 12.