Cornfed Film Fest article in The Voice

by on March 24, 2012 in Cornfed Film Fest, Press

Two featured films to fit festival’s “Firsts” theme

The McDonough County Voice - Posted Mar 22, 2012 @ 11:12 AM

Macomb, Ill. –Two exciting new films will be part of the upcoming Cornfed Film Fest set for April 13-15 in Macomb.

In keeping with the festival’s theme of “A Festival of Firsts,” “Fever Year” and “Zielinski” are both first films by their filmmakers. Also, both are documentaries offering insights into two complex, but very different, men.

Cornfed Film Fest

“Fever Year,” a film by Xan Aranda, comes to west-central Illinois on a wave of interest that’s been growing throughout the country and now worldwide.

This “feature-length concert documentary film” presents a look into the creative process of acclaimed singer-songwriter Andrew Bird. Filmed during months of Bird’s most rigorous year of touring, the motion picture sees him cross the December finish line in his hometown of Chicago – feverish and on crutches from an onstage injury.

“Fever Year” features live performances at Milwaukee’s Pabst Theater (with collaborators Martin Dosh, Jeremy Ylvisaker, Michael Lewis and Annie Clark of St. Vincent) and is the first to capture Bird’s precarious multi-instrumental looping technique.

The film premiered at the Lincoln Center in New York as part of the prestigious New York Film Festival in October.

Since then it’s been well received at film festivals around the country, with several international premieres forthcoming. Described by the Film Society of Lincoln Center as “a cunning hybrid of documentary and concert film,” “Fever Year” will show at the Cornfed Film Fest at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 14.

“Zielinski” brings home the work of Macomb native Ryan Walker.

The first film of Walker and Chase Thompson, the documentary brings to the screen “the rise and fall of John Zielinski, the most blacklisted author in the history of Iowa.”

The genesis for the film is described as: “John Zielinski walked into Columbia Access Television holding a huge, muddy VHS camera. It was just the three of us. He said, ‘There’s a tape stuck in here that will bring down the U.S. government. Can you help me?’ This jarring first impression kick-started an investigation (that) went much deeper than expected.”

“Zielinski” premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, in January 2011 and has been screened at multiple festivals throughout the country.

Described by Variety as “both a profile and a provocation,” this movie brings a portrait of a complex and unforgettable character to life. See “Zielinski” — and chat with filmmaker Ryan Walker — at the Cornfed Film Fest at 1 p.m. Saturday April 14.

Cornfed Film Fest is down-to-earth while providing a strong and healthy serving of films.
It nourishes with well-crafted film and engaging conversation and is made strong by the region’s enthusiasm for film.

The festival will bring first films by well-known directors of various genres as well as films that represent a “first” or innovation in filmmaking.

The festival is also dedicated to cultivating an audience for talented first-time filmmakers, both young adults and emerging professionals, and providing them with much-needed support and encouragement.

The festival brings to the region a broad range of movies that are not typically available on a large screen.

Festivals provide a unique viewing experience where people can watch a movie together and have an engaging dialogue.

Cornfed Film Fest brings a well-considered program to the community that builds appreciation and understanding of film as well as the field of filmmaking.

The festival will be a weekend long event beginning on Friday, April 13 with a welcoming reception and a screening of famous directors’ short films.

Saturday has a full schedule of firsts, beginning with student films and ending with full-length feature films.

The festival winds down with a Sunday brunch, awards and a family feature.

For more information on Cornfed Film Fest, go to www.cornfedfilmfest.net or email info@cornfedfilmfest.net. Ticket sales will begin soon.

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John Makes Headlines

by on January 16, 2012 in From John, Press

Columbia residents remember personal connections to Martin Luther King Jr.

Columbia residents share stories of Martin Luther King Jr. as a real man who touched their lives
MISSOURIAN –  Sunday, January 15, 2012 | 6:40 p.m. CST

Martin Luther King Jr. poses for a photograph before speaking at a rally near downtown Chicago on July 24, 1966.   ¦  PHOTO BY JOHN ZIELINSKI

COLUMBIA — As Columbia and the rest of the country take time Monday to reflect on the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., three Columbia residents shared their personal remembrances of the late civil rights leader.

George Farris

Related Media

  • Martin Luther King Jr. addresses a crowd of approximately 125 people in downtown Chicago on July 24, 1966.

Martin Luther King Jr. liked the greens they served at his parents’ table. That’s one thing George Farris, 86, remembers about King.

Farris’ brother, Isaac, married King’s sister, Christine. The two families would visit each other in Missouri and Atlanta. Once, King came to the Farris family farm in Eolia, and his mother cooked them a homegrown meal.

“They had regular greens that they raised in the garden and Kentucky Wonder Beans and peas. They had other food like potatoes fresh out of the garden,” Farris said.

They had dandelion greens, too, though they called it spinach. Farris said King really enjoyed the way his mother cooked, and King commented on the greens.

Farris said he often discussed issues of the day with King.

“He would just talk to me like a brother,” he said. “We’d sit down sometimes and talk maybe half an hour or an hour. He’d bring up something and I’d bring up something and he’d say, ‘Well you know why that is, don’t you?’”

Then King would give the historical or economic context for a certain social issue, Farris said.

King was down-to-earth, Farris said. “He didn’t act like he was any different than me.”

Farris respected King as a leader.

“He just wanted everybody to have a chance to give their expression,” Farris said. “Just because a person is a different color or different religion doesn’t mean you can mistreat them and think you’re right, because that’s not the way the Lord looks at it.”

John Zielinski

It was pure chance that John Zielinski came face-to-face with King that sweltering day in Chicago.

Zielinski is a professional photographer now living in Columbia. But on July 24, 1966, he was a college student with a summer job in Chicago who took his girlfriend’s 35mm Praktica camera to a shop downtown to find new lenses.

A police officer approached him on the street while he was taking pictures, Zielinski said, and warned him that King would be speaking later and there could be a riot, so he should stay away.

Instead, Zielinski said he went straight to the site of the rally.

The temperature was in the 90s. King, who looked exhausted, pulled up in a large truck with several other speakers, Zielinski said.

“I was impressed that as hot as it was, he was there in a black suit,” he said.

Just as a crowd of about 125 pressed toward the stage, a man moved his hands and parted the crowd like Moses.

“He split those people in two to let me take those photos,” Zielinski said.

Zielinski never thought he would get to see King except on TV. He stepped to the edge of the platform, about four to six feet away from King, and snapped a photo head-on.

“I had been there at an important moment in history,” he said.

When people look at the photos these days, Zielinski said, he hopes they come away with “a warm remembrance of the man.”

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True/False 2011 Interview by Scott Johnson

by on December 21, 2011 in True/False 2011


During True/False, on one of our many walks up and down the streets of Columbia we met Scott Johnson. Well not really. I’d met him at some party at Mojo’s a year or so before. He was wearing huge ski boots and a flowing scarf. I had to say hello. Ryan and I kept running into Scott at the parties and at the films. Mostly the parties. He had this awesome set up in the basement of the Regency Hotel (soon to be demolished). The basement was full of mirrors and he had brought a ton of gear and lights to get interviews with filmmakers that had a film in the festival. He showed us the space one night and we were like, “Sure. We’ll let you interview us.” We scheduled a time to meet the following day and it was done. Well… not really. We woke Scott up in his Regency room at 5pm the next day. He had just got in from the night before. A true rock star. He was in rough shape but found the energy to shoot our interview. We helped him set up and he went from looking hungover to consummate professional at the press of the record button. His enthusiasm for our film was contagious. Sadly we were one of the only interviews captured in the soon to be destroyed Regency Hotel. Please take a moment of silence before you hit play to pay your respects to all the good times that have been had in the Regency.

Click to Play

Thanks to Erika Adair for editing this piece and thanks again to our boy Scott Johnson for not flaking out.

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Newcity Film Review

by on December 16, 2011 in Press, Screenings

Review: Zielinski
by Ray Pride
Published 30 Nov 2011 in Newcity Film

RECOMMENDED

“Pedophilia owns this nation!” Like a distressed thumbprint, “Zielinski” is a formal conniption. Decades before any “Occupy,” talented photographer John M. Zielinski, published in Life magazine and the New York Times, had studded his mind with hashtags referring to vast corridors of connections and collusion and conspiracy. Happening onto public-access cable television, Zielinski began to chronicle crusades against all manner of corruption, cover-ups and turpitude, imagined or real about human trafficking and other black crimes. Chase Thompson and Ryan Walker’s portrait of  ”the most blacklisted author in the history of Iowa,” a conspiracy theorist par excellence, the engagingly fractured, blackly comic “Zielinski” debuted at Slamdance 2011 and played the True/False documentary festival a few months later, in Columbia, Missouri, where Zielinski now lives. Its myth of madness keeps you wondering how much this now-old man is on the ball. 66m. Also: Jay Rosenblatt’s “The D Train” (5m).

[“Zielinski” plays 8pm Friday at Chicago Filmmakers. Co-director Walker and Zane L. Zielinski, Chicago attorney and son of John M. Zielinski will appear.]

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The Chicago Tribune’s take on ZiELiNSKi

by on November 30, 2011 in Press, Screenings

‘ZIELINSKI’ SHOWS A MOST UNFORGETTABLE CHARACTER

written by Nina Metz
Chicago Closeup
November 30, 2011
Chicago Tribune

When charges against former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky first surfaced last month, many of us wondered how allegations of sexual abuse had gone uninvestigated for so long.

Filmmaker Ryan Walker had this to say about the subject on his blog not so long ago: “To those who have seen ‘Zielinski’” — Walker’s new documentary (made with partner Chase Thompson) about an obscure conspiracy theorist named John Zielinski — “this whole story sounds very familiar.”

For decades Zielinski has claimed that the CIA is running a child sex ring, among other crimes. Taken at face value, his wild stories of government-sanctioned pedophilia sound bonkers. “Not since the Kennedy assassination has there been such a coverup involving child slavery, drugs and murder!” reads the text from one of Zielinski’s ’80s-era video manifestoes included in the film. He also claims that there are injustices involving “CIA money laundering, mixed with North American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) money, child prostitution, child slavery, satanism mingled with political figures, both state and federal.”

Zielinski’s story is a peculiar one, and the film paints an incomplete if fascinating picture. Not much is disclosed about his mental state during the first half of his life. A photojournalist based for many years in Iowa, Zielinski was on the road to a promising career in the 1960s and ’70s, getting his work published in Life magazine and the New York Times, as well as in the pages of the Tribune. During Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1966 trip to Chicago, Zielinski took a remarkable photo of the civil rights leader that hangs in Zane’s office.

A court case that Zielinski lost in the early 1980s (involving a dispute with his book printer) seems to be the fork in the road, but why this particular event knocked him off course remains unclear.

For the past 30 years he has been dismissed by pretty much everyone as nut case. Zielinski all but presented himself as a film subject two years ago when he wandered into a public access television station in Columbia, Mo., where Walker and Thompson were working. “We were the only ones there, and this guy walks in with a cruddy VHS camera that was covered in a wasp nest and he said: ‘I have a tape stuck in here that will bring down the U.S. government, I need your help!’” Zielinski made several return trips to the TV station, and the idea for the documentary was born.

“I had some concerns that they wouldn’t be empathetic,” Zane said. “I think they get maybe 60 or 70 percent right. There’s still huge holes (in the film) — there are so many funnier stories that I can tell that don’t make it in the movie.”

Zane was upbeat during our chat, but his demeanor belied a complicated family situation. “I was born in ’73; my parents got divorced in ’79 but they didn’t tell me until ’83.” He has an older brother with severe autism, and it is in these portions of the film that Zielinski seems most stable — a patient father with his son. Zane disagrees with how his father is portrayed (and is currently not on speaking terms with his mother, who he feels was untruthful in the film). He is also, in some ways, his father’s son — a touch eccentric (he calls his father John), and is eager to talk your ear off while remaining vague when comes to the nitty gritty. “As far as I know, he is still in Columbia,” he said when asked where his father lives these days.

“Zielinski” screens at 8 p.m. Friday at Chicago Filmmakers. Co-director Ryan Walker and Zielinski’s son Zane will be in attendance for a post-show Q&A. For more info go to chicagofilmmakers.org.

nmetz@tribune.com
@NinaMetzNews

 

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Paul and Hannie

by on November 28, 2011 in Uncategorized

Much love to our Amsterdam connection. Paul Pollmann created the text and poster for ZiELiNSKi film. He also made this sweet poster to celebrate he and his wife’s 50th birthday. So if you are in Amsterdam, buy ‘em a drink!


 

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Gaper’s Block interview

by on November 28, 2011 in Press, Screenings

from GAPERS BLOCK
FILM  MON  NOV 28 2011
Interview: Ryan Walker
By Jordan Larson

A documentary about “the most blacklisted author in the history of Iowa,” Zielinski toes the line between black comedy, government conspiracy theory, and poignant portrait of the artist as an old man. The film’s directors, Ryan Walker and Chase Thompson, embarked upon the film after meeting John M. Zielinski in Columbia, Missouri. I caught up with Ryan to find out more about public access television, conspiracy’s funny side, and the man behind the rhetoric.

Zielinski-Film1.jpg

So how did you and Chase meet? And how did you get into public access television?

We met through music. We both used to be more into music than film, really, and we played in a couple bands together. He was making a show on public access that was really popular in Columbia, and he was kind of the first one to make local music videos, about five or six years ago. It was pretty popular, and I got involved with that, and we both started learning through CAT [Columbia Access Television] and working at CAT and being on the Board of Directors. Then I was full-time staff there for three years and he was the Board President, so we were really involved with that and still collaborating on things and giving each other feedback. Before public access, there really didn’t seem like there was any chance to make anything, let alone a film. I couldn’t afford a camera, couldn’t afford software, the door was closed completely. I was on the outside looking in. Public access really opened the door.

How did you get interested in Zielinski?

John Zielinski came in and tried to join [CAT]. Well, first, he walked in and was holding this big, muddy VHS camera and said, “there’s a tape in here that will bring down the U.S. government. Can you help me?” So that kinda made us laugh, and Chase helped get this tape unstuck from the camera, and it was actually Conspiracy of Silence, the tape that was stuck in there, and that finally made it into the film.

That’s how we met him, and he kept coming in, and he comes on really strong when you meet him, but since it’s public access we’re sort of forced to listen to him. And we got through the first few layers and sooner or later we’re just looking at each other like, are you listening to this guy? He’s really entertaining to listen to and he’s saying all these bizarre things and bringing in great photographs. There’s just so much great material there. So we set out to make just a short, five, ten-minute thing, but after a while realized there was much more to the story than we [initially] realized, so we went on to make a feature.

What are you hoping to achieve with the film?

We just wanted to share him. He wanted us to make an exposé on human trafficking and all this stuff, and he wanted it to be a real cause film, and that never really interested us. Although, those causes are important and they’re serious, but we were interested with him, and just thought he was a fascinating guy and really entertaining to watch. So we just tried to tell his story and we think there’s a lot of neat photos and neat videos that he brought in. To us, there’s a lot of funny scenes in it. There’s some serious stuff, but we laugh when we watch it. We hope that people see the humor and are interested by his story.

Why did you structure the film the way you did? The way you unfold the story isn’t entirely conventional.

Well, that was a long time in the making. That went through a lot of different structures. It took us a long time to really figure out what the facts were. So we eventually tried to do a chronological story just to make sense of it, and then we realized that wasn’t very dramatic. It wasn’t as interesting when it was all laid out one thing after the other. Eventually we decided to structure it the way we experienced it. It starts off really jarring, with John in your face, kinda shouting at you, and saying all these, I don’t know what you want to call them, conspiracies about human trafficking, and “pedophilia owns this nation,” and stuff like that.

So we keep peeling layers away and find out more and more about him, and there’s way more to him than that, even though that’s all he wants to talk about. So that’s want we finally decided on, to structure it the way that we found him.

What have audience and critical reactions been like so far?

Very positive. All the screenings we’ve had, people have been really engaged by it and we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback. Some people want it to be more of a cause film. We package it as a conspiracy theory type of thing, but that was just the hook to get people interested. Some people want it to be more this or more that. We played at Flame Dance and True/False [film festivals], and probably 1500 people or so have seen it in screenings and we’ve gotten some positive reviews. A lot of the footage is old, we didn’t shoot it in HD, it’s not very gimmicky or anything like that. It’s not a glamorous film. I think it’s going to be a slow burn for people to catch on and build it by word of mouth. We’re happy with what it’s done so far. It’s done a lot better than we expected, really.

What did you learn from making the film? Is this going to lead to more filmmaking?

Well, we kind of started from scratch. Coming from public access, we didn’t go to film school, we just kind of figured this stuff out on the fly. You can even watch the technique evolve as the film goes on. A lot of the early interviews are pretty crude. We really came from nowhere to make the movie we made. And it goes back four years, when we started making it. So now it’s really going from no knowledge at all to now we’re starting new projects and using better equipment and going through the process of editing we learned so much about how to structure a film and made so many mistakes that we’re starting our next project in a totally different place. We’re both starting new documentaries. I’m making one actually set in Western Illinois, called The Bootlegger, and Chase is working on several projects. So we’re gonna keep going on.

Zielinski will be screened at Chicago Filmmakers, 5243 N. Clark St., Friday, Dec. 2 at 8pm. For more information about the film, click here.

 

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“Pedophilia owns this nation.” – J. Zielinski, 1991

by on November 15, 2011 in From John

So last night I happened to catch the Bob Costas interview with Jerry Sandusky – the man at the center of the Penn State situation.

To those who have seen ZiELiNSKi, this whole story sounds VERY familiar. John has been trying to expose powerful pedophiles for over 25 years, especially in the state of Iowa. Today he considers himself a political exile from Iowa and a blacklisted author.

John Zielinski: I hope you are following State College. University of Iowa had much more occult and pedophile activity than State College. You see how well defended it has been.

In Nov 1992, I completed and published a newspaper in which one of the lead front page stories was NAMBLA influence on the University campus. While I did not have evidence to stand up in court I had heard from women whose children had been sexually abused. The Daily Iowan rather than identify me as an idiot and street person chose a different route “there is a newspaper circulating on this campus that suggest there is an organization that targets little boys for sexual purposes. We want to tell you that it is all a myth no such organization exists.” Three months later Reader’s Digest had a major expose of NAMBLA.

A nurse after reading my story on what happened to Kitty Krause and her daughter came to me with the story of how the head of the Child Psychiatric Hospital and scout master had gotten her son and three other boys drug on creme de men-the then molested them. She went to the University Hospital and they stonewalled her. Six month later that psychiatrist moved to another hospital and I traced his movements for years–he faced no charges–unlike what is happening now in State College Pa. You see now why there such a hard line about exposing the film in Iowa.

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Winner – Golden Reel Award

by on November 7, 2011 in Awards

We just got word that ZiELiNSKi will receive a Golden Reel Award at the Nevada Film Festival in the Documentary Film Competition! The festival will be held December 2nd and 3rd, 2011 at the “Rampart Casino at the Resort in Summerlin” in Las Vegas, Nevada.

John Zielinski in Las Vegas – February 2011.

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Expect Resistance Pt.1 – Doing Time with John Zielinski

by on October 24, 2011 in Uncategorized

We will be posting John’s emails that discuss his weekend in jail. Part 1 begins… now.

I just got out of jail after spending Saturday and Sunday at Boone County Correctional Facility.  City Court neglected to withdrawn the warrant that should have been withdrawn in August.  I am contacting the media Ch 8, 13, 17 about doing something on this not me particular but the awful conditions inside these walls.   This morning I was handcuffed and leg chained to go see a judge–when someone from City got thru to them after I talked to Carolyn Mathews about the arrest warrant that was supposed to have been squelched in August.  One of the deputies let slip that false arrest or arrest made after the warrant had been cancelled happen frequently.
Steel beds with a pad less than an inch thick.  I had to crawl up the side of double bunk because the lower’s were all taken.  Lights go on a four in the morning, despite the fact that they do not feed us until seven.  A lock-down occurred yesterday delaying lunch by two hours.  Recreation is practically nil.  Food not sufficient to sustain anyone and half the bay were given regular medication. I expect to have a real fight to get inside and film, therefore, I am trying to get the major media interested first.  Failing that I will try with CAT camera to interview the sheriff, etc.
Expect resistance, and the attitude: “They are criminals why should we give them any better treatment.
-John Zielinski
October 24th, 2011
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