Homegrown movie maker, movie critic interviewed on WILL

WILL-Channel 12's "Silver Screen" host Thomas Guback had the opportunity
recently to do more than introduce viewers to movies. Airing this month are
two half-hour interviews Guback, a professor in the Institute of
Communications Research, conducted with Urbana natives Pulitzer
Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert and producer Frederick Marx.

"Roger Ebert: One on One" will air at 9:30 p.m. Nov. 7, and "Hoop Dreams:
One on One" - with co-producer Marx - will air at 8:30 p.m. Nov. 9.

In an interview taped Oct. 13 during Ebert's visit to the UI, Ebert admits
he may rate movies a tad too high, but explains he'd rather help a film
than hurt a film.

"Maybe I'm about half a star too high," he says. "But it doesn't bother me
too much."

The Chicago Sun-Times film critic says that just as it's better for 100
guilty men to go free than for one innocent man to spend a night in jail,
"it's better really for people to see a movie that might be bad rather than
run the risk of missing a movie that might be good."

Ebert also talks about growing up in Champaign-Urbana, explains why he's
against colorization of movies, and urges those who complain about violence
on television to just turn off the set.

Guback and Ebert share many interests and experiences.

Both saw films at the original Art Theater in the late 1950s and at the
UI's Film Society, of which Guback was the president in the late 1960s.
Both also share a deep interest in films themselves.

Ebert also talks about the failure of the movie "Hoop Dreams" - to win an
Academy Award, watching movies on home video, and the success of his movie
review television show, "Siskel & Ebert."

Marx, the former University High School basketball player who grew up to
produce the acclaimed documentary "Hoop Dreams," talks about how he became
involved in the production of the film and about collecting and editing 250
hours of videotape to tell the story of two African-American teen-agers who
dream of playing professional basketball.

The television premiere of the movie "Hoop Dreams" airs on Channel 12 at 7
p.m. Nov. 15, followed at 10 p.m. by "Hoop Dreams Reunion," an update with
new footage of the two teens, William Gates and Arthur Agee.

"Hoop Dreams" began as a modest short documentary about Chicago's street
basketball. But with the discovery of Gates and Agee, the film grew in
scope to become a rich portrait of two inner-city athletes coping with
enormous odds as they pursued their dreams over five years.

The documentary was originally conceived as a public television project and
the Corporation for Public Broadcasting provided the film's first
significant production grant. CPB supported the film's release to theaters
prior to the television premiere.

Marx, along with partners Steve James and Peter Gilbert, said they wanted
people to see the families rising above some of the typical media
stereotypes about inner-city families. They also wanted to call attention
to the high school basketball scene, where strong competition results in
the recruiting of players as young as 12 and 13.

Marx, who graduated in film studies and political science from the UI in
1978, lives in Chicago and was awarded a 1995 Guggenheim Fellowship. He is
currently working on his first dramatic feature, "Nightman"; on a
documentary about the history of the Great Sphinx in Egypt; and on a black
comedy about the work of media hoax artist Joey Skaggs.