The Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies

Past Events

Ebert Symposium 2023

Documentary, Violence and the Media
The 2023 Ebert Symposium is set to take place from April 18-19, 2023.

In September 2022, Chaz Ebert’s beloved grandson, Joseph London Smith was tragically and unintentionally the victim of gun violence in Atlanta, GA. The upcoming Ebert Symposium is dedicated to his memory as we use this occasion to interrogate the power of cinema to mediate violence and ask: how does cinema intervene in this conversation?

The keynote speaker for 2023’s Ebert Symposium is Amir George, Artistic Director, Kartemquin Films Chicago.

Amir George

Watch George’s keynote, “To be radical,” here.


Panelists for the morning roundtable discussion, Cinema and Media Interventions into Violence, include:

  • Rachel Kuo, Assistant Professor of Media & Cinema Studies
  • Denise Zaccardi, Executive Director and Founder, Community TV Network (CTVN)
  • Melita Garza, Associate Professor and Tom and June Netzel Sleeman Scholar in Business Journalism

The afternoon roundtable discussion is on the theme Cinema and Violence in Changing Times, and will include the panelists:

  • Edson Oda, Director of Nine Days (2020), opening film of the Ebert Festival
  • Max Libman, founder and programmer of CU International Film Festival, Champaign-Urbana, IL
  • Brenda Robinson, producer of Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands (2022)
  • Jason Michael Berman, Producer, President of Mandalay Pictures

Click here for the full schedule.

Roger Ebert Lecture 2022

The 2022 Roger Ebert Lecture took place on October 28, 2022, at the Knight Auditorium in Spurlock Museum with its theme: Re-Enchanting Our Relationship to Film and Media History: A Brief Survey of the Media Ecology Project.

The opening remarks of the lecture were provided by Chaz Ebert, which was followed by a video message from filmmaker and Roger Ebert’s friend, Martin Scorsese. The inaugural lecture was presented by Mark Roberts, a University of Illinois alum (BA ’78 LAS), Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies at Dartmouth College and Director of the Media Ecology Project. The lecture was followed by a Q&A session and a 45-minute screening of films that featured shorts from the Civil Rights Newsfilm collection (1950-1980) and other films in the Media Ecology Project.

Above: the inaugural Roger Ebert Lecture, including opening remarks by Chaz Ebert and a video message by Martin Scorsese.
Watch legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese in this video message on the Rogert Ebert Center for Film Studies.