Chaz Ebert, CEO of RogerEbert.com
Today, my guest is Chaz Ebert, the CEO of Ebert Digital LLC, publisher of the preeminent movie review site RogerEbert.com and Author of “Its Time to Give a Feck.” She is also a legal adviser and television and movie producer at Ebert Productions.
For twenty-four years, she shared a life with Pulitzer Prize winner Roger Ebert. In their work to foster empathy through cinema and around the globe, they established the Ebertfest Film Festival and the Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies at the University of Illinois.
Chaz has passionately continued to lead all established events, while endeavoring to nurture the next generation of film journalists, critics, filmmakers, and technologists through the Roger Ebert Fellowship, launched in 2014 by Sundance Institute founder Robert Redford, and the year-round Roger Ebert Fellowship program established at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the College of Media. She also continues to award the Golden Thumb and Ebert Humanitarian Awards at Ebertfest and at the Toronto and Chicago International Film Festivals to filmmakers who exhibit an unusually compassionate view of the world.
In this candid conversation, Chaz shared the real stories behind her initial meeting with Roger Ebert, the raw filming of his documentary, and her mission to elevate humanity through her own writing.
1. An Unlikely Meeting. Chaz revealed that she first met Roger at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, where he had brought advice columnist Ann Landers. Struck by Chaz’s beauty, Roger purposely pushed a chair into the aisle so she would sit next to him. Although she admitted she actually preferred his co-host Gene Siskel on television at the time, Roger cleverly pretended to need legal advice just to get her business card, sparking a deep connection over their shared love of theater, books, and opera.
2. A Documentary “Warts and All.” Discussing the documentary Life Itself, Chaz explained that Roger originally agreed to the project because of his immense respect for director Steve James. As Roger’s health declined, he insisted the film not be a “puff piece,” believing society spends too much time hiding illness. In fact, Roger deliberately waited for Chaz to go out of town before inviting the crew to film a harsh medical procedure, knowing full well she would never have allowed it on camera.
3. The Empathy Machine. Chaz’s recent book builds upon Roger’s core belief that movies act as an “empathy machine”. However, she realized that simply putting yourself in someone else’s shoes is not enough to alleviate their suffering. She expanded the concept to include compassion and acts of kindness, eventually adding forgiveness to the equation after an insightful conversation with Archbishop Desmond Tutu about his historic work with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa.
4. Time to Give a FECK. When it came time to title her book, Chaz embraced an edgy acronym for her core principles: It’s Time to Give a FECK (Forgiveness, Empathy, Compassion, and Kindness). She noted the provocative title even made her nervous to say out loud to a Catholic priest at a recent dinner party, though she ultimately defended it by explaining that it is simply a “four-letter word like love”. Despite her initial hesitations about publishing her lifelong private writings, she successfully pushed forward to honor Roger’s wish that she continue speaking to audiences and sharing her valuable ideas with the world.
