Everyone ought to watch Sonnie Wooden’s GUILLOTINE twice to absorb all of the information being juxtaposed into a horrifying collage of abject hyperreality. On first viewing, Wooden presents a somewhat comedic and biting satire, which serves as a discourse on race and media. Upon second viewing, GUILLOTINE opens further, and makes us consider various rhetorics of protest.

Wooden begins his critique with the “Youtube monologue” of a middle-aged white man, a poster child for the antithesis of progress. This absurd monologue does not just examine race, but duality of identity and its context. GUILLOTINE flirts with the idea of reconcilement, and seemingly contrasts ideas of Black pessimism. Letting a white man narrate the film, as he realizes his own bias, suggests the possibility of his counterparts realizing too. The hyperrealism that Sonnie Wooden depicts is archival, experiential, and at times, a mockery of the real, a flattening or oversimplifying that some may find off-putting if it were not for Sonnie’s ability to use the cinematic artifice as a means of satire and horror. Wooden’s own authorship is in the GUILLOTINE: the splicer and that which doles at justice.

The GUILLOTINE, in that sense, is a form of retribution, and sometimes, of a need for revenge against an institution. Wooden’s GUILLOTINE splices together these awful and sardonic truths of a human hive mind steeped in narcissism and a lack of self-consciousness, attempting to surpass irony while depicting the midst of racist nihilism. And in this critique of distinctly USA-cultivated horror and kitsch, Wooden is not making any simple statements, or general attacks. Instead, his erudite juxtaposition of these elements invites a post-screening conversation. There is no answer. The figure of Kanye appears and explains that he is speechless and unable to find resolve. GUILLOTINE acknowledges this lack and does not shy away from keeping its audience within the ambiguities of the emptiness in our reflections and the media we use to reflect.

By Cenìnye Harris

Trailer for GUILLOTINE by Sonnie Wooden.

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RUSSELL BANKS: I WRITE IN ORDER TO BE A BETTER PERSON | IN-PERSON (10/10)

$10.00

Saturday, October 10, 7:00 PM

Chicago Filmmakers (1326 W. Hollywood Ave)

Denis Mueller and Ilko Davidov | 2026 | 86 min | Digital Projection

Directors Denis Mueller and Ilko Davidov in Person!

Russell Banks: I Write in Order to Be a Better Person examines the life and work of the renowned American writer, author of the acclaimed novels Affliction, Continental Drift, Book of Jamaica, The Sweet Hereafter, and Rule of the Bone, focusing on his ability to use fiction to question his own life and to confront the biases and cultural assumptions, thus allowing him to become a better person. This drive to become a better person through literature allowed Banks to develop the empathy and compassion necessary to recognize the full, shared humanity of those with backgrounds and outlooks different from his own.

“A thoughtful, literary look at the works and life of one of the best US storytellers in the last fifty years” - Ron Jacobs, CounterPunch

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LEGALLY DRUGGED | IN-PERSON (10/23)

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Friday, October 23, 7:00 PM

Chicago Filmmakers (1326 W. Hollywood Ave)

Vagabond Beaumont | 2026 | 117 min | Digital Projection

Director Vagabond Beaumont and Co-Executive Producer Floyd Webb in Person!

Legally Drugged is the story of a Brooklyn boy who becomes a successful real estate investor but not without some major obstacles along the way. Richard Schneeberg tells his own harrowing yet ultimately triumphant true story. When Schneeberg is hospitalized for depression/insomnia and malaise, he is given antidepressants, which cause him to hallucinate, become manic, and even become suicidal.

He loses his marriage and custody of his child. A former teacher, his hospitalizations also left him jobless and homeless. But through shrewd business investments he becomes a multimillionaire, owning some of the most desirable real estate in the country. It’s a story of one man’s journey “from the nuthouse to the penthouse.”

An outspoken advocate of non-drug therapies for the mentally ill, Schneeberg makes a case that antidepressant medications are overused and points out that they can sometimes cause more problems than they solve.

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READING THE WORLD | IN-PERSON (10/30)

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Co-Presented by HotHouse

Friday, October 30, 7:00 PM

Chicago Filmmakers (1326 W. Hollywood Ave)

Catherine Murphy and Iris de Oliveira | 2025 | 70 min | Digital Projection

In 1963, global icon Paulo Freire led an experimental project teaching hundreds of rural farmers to read, write and vote in Brazil, until he was arrested and forced into exile during a U.S.-backed coup d'état.

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