For me, the second day of the Film Fest began with Roger Ebert at the University Bookstore. It was a pleasant little gathering on the lower level, in a bit of floorspace borrowed from the textbooks.

There was no set topic on which he was to lecture us. Rather, he asked those assembled what movies they had seen and liked recently. There was a back-and-forth dialogue on what made these movies resonate with us as viewers, and how our connections with certain films can change over time.

He highlighted the fact that the experience of watching a film is a personal one, and that movie reviews were subjective. The best a reviewer can do, he said, is to tell you what they thought of the movie and why. It is a mistake for a reviewer to think that his or her opinion is the last word on the subject.

I didn't get to hear all of his talk. The noon event started a little bit late, as Ebert was waylaid for a television interview on the way in. I had a movie starting at 1:30 at the Bartell, and so had to leave the discussion around 1, so as to make it up State Street and past the Square with enough time to meet M and get a good seat. However, it was very difficult to pull myself away. He is an engaging personality and I really enjoyed hearing what he had to say.