Reel life: Oakton Pop-Up film fest earns a sequel

• Oakton Community College's first Pop-Up Film Festival last year proved to be popular enough to warrant a sequel. So, here comes the Second Annual Pop-Up Film Festival, hitting the screen at the school's Footlik Theater (Room 1344), at 1600 E. Golf Road, Des Plaines, from Tuesday, Dec. 1, through Friday, Dec. 4. The public can attend with free admission to the festival's four films, each followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers and Oakton humanities professors acting as moderators.

The festival, or P.U.F.F., is the brainchild of Oakton instructor and filmmaker Michael Glover Smith, who clearly invested a lot of time and energy in launching an impressive set of titles for a newbie fest.

"I am particularly excited about the screening of Robert Greene's 'Actress' because I got a grant from Oakton that will allow me to fly in both the director and the subject, actress Brandy Burre, who starred in two seasons of HBO's 'The Wire'," Smith wrote me in an email.

"Actress" screens at 2 p.m. Dec. 1. Also on the schedule are Stephen Cone's "Black Box" (12:30 p.m. Dec. 2), Kevin B. Lee's "Transformers: The Premake" (2 p.m. Dec. 3), and Smith's own "Cool Apocalypse" (12:30 p.m. Dec. 4). Go to bit.ly/1NqhHUR for details.

• There is no try - "Star Wars" we do! Join me and novelist/film historian Raymond Benson as we present a special "Star Wars" tribute at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 3, at the Schaumburg Township District Library, 130 S. Roselle Road, Schaumburg. schaumburglibrary.org. Free admission!

Film clips from both the good trilogy and the less-good one, with a preview of J.J. Abrams' anticipated "The Force Awakens" out Dec. 18. (No spoilers, we promise!) Come in costume if the Force compels you.

• The Midwest Independent Film Festival presents "The Best of the Midwest Awards" at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 1, at Rockit, 22 W. Hubbard St., Chicago. Cocktail reception at 7 p.m. with an after-show party at 9 p.m. $50 donations accepted. midwestfilm.com.