Starting Friday, the Gene Siskel Film Center will close its doors for a month to renovate its two theaters. This effort marks the organization’s first extensive renovation since it started operating at its State Street location in 2001. All the seats in the two theaters will be replaced, as will the wiring; the latter renovation is to improve hearing for patrons with cochlear implants. The carpeting between the two theaters will also be replaced. Per executive director Jean de St. Aubin, these changes won’t impact the Film Center’s ticket prices, which will remain $11 for general admission, $7 for students and children, $6 for Film Center members, and $5 Art Institute of Chicago staff and SAIC faculty, staff and students when the theaters reopen on January 5.
On Thursday, December 7, at 7 PM, the Film Center will partner with the Gorton Community Center in Lake Forest to screen Swim Team. The feature is a documentary about a New Jersey competitive swim team consisting of young men with autism spectrum disorders; it had its Chicago premiere at the Film Center in July. Director Lara Stolman delivers a profile of autism as well as competitive swimming, displaying sympathy on both fronts. “At its most effective,” Ben Kenigsberg wrote in the New York Times, “Swim Team treats its subjects as would any sports movie attuned to character and drama.” The film reflects the Film Center’s commitment to socially conscious works, a stance reflected by some of the movies playing at the State Street location this week, Bill Nye: Science Guy and The Divine Order.
