LeVar Burton Headlines at the 21st Chicago International Children’s Film Festival

Two-time Emmy Award winner LeVar Burton, star of Roots and beloved host of “Reading Rainbow,” will be making a special guest appearance at the 21st Annual CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S FILM FESTIVAL, which runs October 21st – 31st.

Burton will attend the festival to screen his directorial feature film debut Blizzard. Featuring Whoopi Goldberg (as the voice of Blizzard), Christopher Plummer, and Kevin Pollak, the film will be screened at 10:45 a.m., Friday, October 22nd at the AMC City North 14 and Saturday, October 23rd at 1:00 p.m. at the Burnham Village Theatre. Burton will attend both screenings and speak with the audience following the show.

Burton will also be Master of Ceremonies for the Opening Night Gala featuring a tribute to Shel Silverstein with the world premier of a never-before-seen iconographic animation of Silverstein’s unforgettable tale, Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back. The tribute is the highlight of the CICFF’s Opening Night Gala, on Thursday, October 21st at the Thorne Auditorium on the downtown campus of Northwestern University, 375 East Chicago Avenue. The reception starts at 6 p.m. followed by a screening of the film to be shown at 7:15 p.m.

In addition to his success with “Reading Rainbow” and the Roots miniseries, Burton has starred in numerous television movies including Dummy, The Guyana Tragedy; Yesterday’s Target; and Firestorm. He is internationally known for his portrayal as Lt. Commander Geordi LaForge in the television series “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Burton’s other successes include a Grammy Award for his narration of the book The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, and a presidential appointment in 1995 as a Commissioner of the National Commission on Library and Information Sciences, a panel of experts who advise the President on policy for the storage, retrieval and dissemination of information in America. He is currently the co-chair with First Lady Laura Bush of PBS’s literacy campaign, Share a Story.

The Chicago International Children's Film Festival is the largest festival of films for children in North America and features over 200 animated and live action films from 35 countries. The Festival welcomes over 24,000 Chicago area children, adults, and educators to the screenings, and over 100 filmmakers, media professionals & celebrities attend the Festival to lead interactive workshops with kids.