The Chicago Southland International Film Festival (CSIFF) presented by Governors State University announced it is shifting the schedule for main events until next spring. After a successful festival in October 2022, which saw record attendance, the sixth annual festival will be held in April 2024.
“It was great to see a boost in turnout after a sluggish return to in-person events following COVID-19,” said Joshua Young, co-founder and programming and operations manager for the festival. “We were delighted to see more filmmakers and community members coming out to support each other. We received an incredible amount of positive feedback this year.”
Despite the increase in attendance and positive feedback from filmmakers and attendees, Young and the festival committee felt that the busy fall festival scene in Chicagoland, as well as the robust fall campus events calendar, made it clear that a move was necessary.
But Young said festival organizers aren’t concerned with losing momentum.
“We saw a significant increase in community and on campus partners this year. We have a list of potential screenings to host throughout this next calendar year and have collaborators lined up to sponsor and participate,” said Young.
One such screening is an encore showing of episodes from Bruce Orenstein’s five-part documentary series “The Shame of Chicago: The Segregation of an American City” in partnership with Chicago South Side Film Festival and the Social Work Program at Governors State University.
“The Shame of Chicago” series explores the origins of the city’s wealth gap between Black and White residents.
The festival programming team is focused on showcasing films that tell local stories or are made by regional filmmakers for the Feature Film Showcase and screening series. Past films include the Oscar and Emmy nominated, Peabody Award-winning film “Minding the Gap” by Director Bing Liu of Kartemquin Films in Chicago.
More information about the festival’s schedule and programming will be released in the coming months.
For more information and updates, please visit the CSIFF website at www.govst.edu/CSIFF.