NIU Today

Cast and crew of “The $30,000 Bequest: The Movie” work on location in an 1880s-era house in Sycamore earlier this month. “Lights  . . . camera . . . action.” Those three words are ringing through NIU’s DeKalb campus by a production team of students and faculty members who are shooting the independent film “The...

Applications are still being accepted to NIU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences External Programming 2011 Academic Summer Camps. 2011 Academic Residential Camps Creative Writing Camp, June 19 to 24, for students entering grades 9, 10, 11 or 12. STEM Career Investigations Camp, June 19 to 24, for students entering grades 9, 10, 11 or 12. Film...

NIU Media Studies graduate assistant Matthew Zingale will premier his new documentary film, “Product of Society [the film],” at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 16, at The House Café in downtown DeKalb. “Product of Society [the film]” follows the progress of independent comic book writer Jon Michael Lennon as he struggles with finishing a new publication...

NIU’s Institute for the Study of the Environment, Sustainability and Energy will host its first environmental film festival Tuesday, April 19, and Wednesday, April 20, at the Egyptian Theatre, 135 N. 2nd St. “Is Change a ‘Dirty’ Word?” is the theme of this year’s festival, which will feature four environmental documentaries, an environmental art exhibit and a...

The NIU Department of Communication has announced this year’s Reality Bytes Independent Student Film Festival, which will take place Tuesday, April 5, through Thursday, April 7, on the NIU campus. The 10th annual festival is free and open to the public, and anyone with an interest in film is encouraged to attend. It was originally started...

NIU communication professor Laura Vazquez this week will screen her award-winning documentary on homelessness, titled “on the edge,” before an audience that will include members of Congress. Vazquez spent four years working with Diane Nilan, a nationally known advocate for the homeless, to tell the stories of seven women and their children struggling to find...

NIU alum Mike Disa, director and co-writer of soon-to-be-released animated film “Hoodwinked Too: Hood vs. Evil,” will return to campus next week to speak about his life and work in the Hollywood movie business. Disa, who graduated from NIU School of Art in 1987 with a bachelor’s of fine arts degree in art and computer...

NIU’s Center for Latino and Latin American Studies is hosting a film festival this week. All events are free and open to the public. For more information, call (815) 753-1531. Tuesday, Feb. 22, 7:30 p.m. Latino Center, 515 Garden Road Documentary screening and discussion, “Which Way Home”  (in Spanish with English subtitles) “Which Way Home” is a...

From “Kirstie Alley’s Big Life” to “The Biggest Loser” to “Dance Your Ass Off,” popular media seems obsessed with achieving a certain idealized body type. In the midst of this weight-obsessed culture, how does one build a positive body image? Is it possible to take ownership of a typically negative label such as “fat” and...

Far from the stereotypes many people envision, the most common faces of homelessness in the United States belong to women and children. And NIU communication professor Laura Vazquez, partnering with nationally known homeless advocate Diane Nilan, has spent the last four years working to tell their stories. The result is “on the edge,” a powerful...

The Women’s Resource Center will host the second annual NIU LUNAFEST from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 20, in the Carl Sandburg Auditorium at Holmes Student Center on NIU’s DeKalb campus. LUNAFEST is a fundraising film festival that seeks to promote women filmmakers, raise awareness for women’s issues and support worthy women’s non-profit organizations....

This weekend downtown DeKalb will be a live music and art scene. The city is hosting Middlewest Fest, beginning today and running through Saturday evening, Sept. 11. Middlewest Fest will offer a variety of music entertainment, along with local art shows, and an independent film festival.  Local bands Chris Dertz and State Champs along with national acts...