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Ebertfest 2009: 11th Annual Roger Ebert's Film Festival »

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• Virginia Theatre »
  203 W. Park St. Champaign, IL 61820
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How many people does it take to run an international film festival that brings between 18 and 20,000 people into the community? Quite a few, it turns out.

“I think we usually end up with about 300,” Ebertfest Associate Festival Director Mary Susan Britt said. “We rely heavily on volunteers; I don’t know what we’d do without them.”

Volunteers showed up at Gregory Hall on April 5 to prepare themselves for Ebertfest. The film festival will take place at the Virginia Theatre in Champaign from April 22 to April 26. The volunteers for Ebertfest do many different tasks pivotal to the festival running smoothly, such as crowd control, ushering and concessions. Among the topics covered at the meeting were signing up for duties for some of the 12 movies showing and instructions on acting appropriately while on the job. It seems like a lot of work for no pay, but the volunteers are still excited for the event to start.

“It’s just a lot of fun; it’s a very eclectic situation,” said Don Wauthier, a Champaign native who has volunteered at Ebertfest every year the festival has been held. “You find the actors and producers and directors that are there wander the hallways, and you get a chance to talk to them, and it’s even surprising how many of them enjoy it.”

The volunteers for the event aren’t just adults in the community — students also help out.

“I’m a big movie buff, and I’ve been a longtime fan of Roger Ebert,” freshman Zach Stein said. “I just wanted to see how the festival works.”

The volunteers for the event put in a lot more work than most people realize. Besides duties at the theater, volunteers are also assigned such tasks as picking up the guest speakers from the airport and driving them around town for the week. Volunteers also are assigned to go around town putting up posters and placing coasters in restaurants to advertise the event.

While many of the volunteers are from the Champaign-Urbana area or go to school here, others just started living here and are enthusiastic to work with Roger Ebert.

“I moved here just this year, but I’ve heard of Ebertfest,” Nikhail Melakantan said. “I’ve been following Roger Ebert’s reviews for a long time, and he’s sort of an indispensable source.”

Regardless of why people volunteered, one thing was blatantly clear: They all were excited to be helping out with the University of Illinois’s world-famous annual event.