News

Chicago – Two notable entertainers have recently died, and Joe Arce of HollywoodChicago.com photographed them during a point in their lives. Actor Jay North was famous in the late 1950s/early ‘60s for his TV role as comic strip icon “Dennis the Menace.” He was 73 years old at his passing. Musician/soul singer and later Chicago politician Jerry “The Iceman” Butler was 85 years old.

Jerry “The Iceman” Butler

Jerry Butler was called “The Iceman” for his smooth and unflappable singing style with the doo-wop group “The Impressions” and his solo career, and that nickname took on a deeper meaning when he served on the Cook County Board of Supervisors in Chicago in a later reinvention. Butler passed away on February 20th, 2025.

Butler was born in Mississippi, and moved with his parents to Chicago during the Great Migration. Like many soul singers of the era, he began in the gospel sound.

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Art

1341 Frames of Love and War (Yes Docu)

In celebrating the work of acclaimed Israeli war photographer Micha Bar-Am, director Ran Tal’s 1341 Frames of Love and War offers a meditation on photography, political violence and identity through an exclusive (and exhaustive) deep dive into Bar-Am’s expansive artistic archives over the past five decades.

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Neon)

Laura Poitras (an Oscar winner for 2014’s Citizenfour) directs this portrait of renowned photographer Nan Goldin, one that offers intimate access to her suburban upbringing and experiences living among marginalized communities and artistic scenes in New York City. It also depicts the downfall of the Sackler family, a target of Goldin’s activism and whose company Purdue Pharma created and marketed OxyContin — the root cause of the American opioid epidemic.

Art & Krimes by Krimes (MTV Documentary Films)

While serving a six-year prison sentence for drug possession,...

The International Documentary Association (IDA) has announced the full program for its annual screening series, including the 10 films that have been chosen for its Awards Campaign Access Initiative (Acai).

The program will open with Netflix’s “Descendant,” a film produced by the Obamas’ company Higher Ground Productions. The documentary sees director Margaret Brown return to her hometown of Mobile, Alabama to document the search for The Clotilda, the last known ship to arrive in the United States, illegally carrying enslaved Africans, and the ramifications its discovery has on the community.

What will follow is a showcase of 43 feature-length documentary films that are eligible for consideration for the upcoming Academy Awards; 20 films will be screened both in-person and online, and 35 will be available for virtual viewing only.

The films selected for the Acai, a program meant to support independent filmmakers from historically excluded communities currently pursuing a film awards campaign, are:

Beba | Dir.

Former President Barack Obama has sent out a cease and desist letter telling a pro-President Donald Trump group to stop airing an attack ad that uses Obama’s voice to misrepresent his position on Joe Biden.

The ad, running on South Carolina TV stations, is aimed at voters considering Obama’s former Vice President as the Democratic presidential nominee in the state’s upcoming primary.

“Joe Biden promised to help our community. It was a lie. Here’s President Obama,” the ad says. It then uses an audio clip from Obama’s 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father, to indicate that Biden supports “plantation politics.” South Carolina has a large black population and their support is considered a key to reviving Biden’s hopes to be the Democratic victor in the primary.

The ad concludes with the message, “Enough. Joe Biden won’t represent us, defend us, or help us. Don...

Almost 57 years later, James Herndon can still remember the first time he appeared on TV. On June 9th, 1963, the singer-pianist made his television debut on Chicago’s Jubilee Showcase as a member of influential gospel group the Caravans. Many artists of that era can say the same thing: The half-hour program, hosted by civil-rights activist Sid Ordower, aired on local television in Chicago for more than 20 years and provided a staging ground for some of the most exciting gospel collaboration and artistry in the genre’s post-war history.

“It was real exciting,...

Previous | Image 1 of 6 | NextChance the Rapper portrays Dax in ‘Slice.’

Chicago – One of Chicago’s biggest celebrities and greatest ambassadors was a high school student in 2011. Chancelor Jonathan Bennett, better known as Chance the Rapper, has had a meteoric rise from that Chi-town high school to become one of music’s brightest stars. And besides the fame, he has made it his mission to help others, both with his time, donations and charitable events. And he has just made his debut in a movie, the appropriately titled “Slice.”

“Slice” is a B-movie take off, about a small town mystery in which pizza delivery boys are being slain on the job. Two daring survivors set out to catch the culprits behind the crime spree, that also involves a known werewolf (Chance as Dax) and a pizza restaurant built on a gateway to hell. Fellow cast members Zazie Beetz, Paul Scheer, Rae Gray...