Facets co-founder Milos Stehlik dies at 70

In the days before you could watch movies on YouTube or your phone, Milos Stehlik was bringing gorgeous, thought-provoking films to Chicago from Senegal to the Soviet Union.

In 1975, he co-founded the nonprofit cinema center known as Facets on the North Side. One of its first locations was at a former church – Grace Lutheran at 555 W. Belden – “a true temple of film,” said Chaz Ebert, the wife of Mr. Stehlik’s friend Roger Ebert, the late Sun-Times movie critic.

Two years later, Facets moved to 1517 W. Fullerton, where it became a mecca for cinephiles who wanted to see the latest art and foreign films from around the globe.

Mr. Stehlik, who had lung cancer, died Saturday at his home in Lincoln Park, according to Facets and the Chicago Film Critics Association. He was 70.

His center continues to screen films by independent, indigenous and women directors; silent classics; revivals and retrospectives of French, German and Italian cinema; and new releases – some from countries that weren’t on maps or in textbooks a few decades ago.

Facets also helped pioneer DVD rental by mail. It hosts the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, billed as the oldest, biggest kids’ film fest in North America. It offers rentals and access to more than 50,000 DVDs, Blu-ray discs and VHS tapes. And it distributes an estimated 2,000 movies via streaming.

“Milos was highly thought of in the film world and especially at festivals like Telluride, Cannes, Berlin and Karlovy Vary,” Chaz Ebert said.

He also was a contributor to WBEZ.

Young Milos left his native Czechoslovakia in the early 1960s. He started screening films as a 20-something owner of a bookstore near Halsted and Webster. When he learned a neighboring theater company – the Drama Shelter – was having trouble filling seats, he decided to try and help, using a 16mm projector and a bedsheet.

“So I finally said, ‘Well, you know what, why don’t we show films on your dark night, whatever, and I want no money for it, we’ll just do it,’” Mr. Stehlik told the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library.

Roger Ebert wrote about meeting Mr. Stehlik around that time: “He was showing Werner Herzog films on a 16mm projector in a deconsecrated church (patrons were advised to bring their own pillows, as the pews were hardwood).” Eventually, Ebert said, because Facets became “the largest single source of specialist, foreign, art and silent video [in] the world, he [was] being courted by the Bravo/IFC people as a consultant and collaborator on their new Foreign Film Channel.”

Mr. Stehlik returned Roger Ebert’s admiration. When the Roman Catholic Church criticized Jean-Luc Godard’s 1985 “Hail Mary,” he “defended our right to show it” even though he didn’t think it was a good movie, Mr. Stehlik said in a tribute after Ebert’s 2013 death. “For me, Roger defined what was most beautiful about America. He lived Voltaire’s statement, ‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it.’”

In 2000, when author Susan Sontag was in Chicago for a two-day visit, she stopped at Facets for a screening she’d arranged of “Travelers,” an Iranian feature.

One of his most exciting projects was the app developed for children’s films from the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, Chaz Ebert said. “He was practical enough to recognize how influential the internet could be and knew that for children in small towns this may be their only way to access some of these excellent films.”

“He was a pioneer,” said Chicago documentary filmmaker Tom Palazzolo, “certainly in starting to distribute films, first on VHS and DVDs. He was very helpful to filmmakers. He produced a compilation of my work for Facets.”

Mr. Stehlik hosted lively parties with his wife Elizabeth Najda. “One night I was invited for dinner and was puzzled to see a group of people peering through his blinds to get a glimpse inside. The surprise guest turned out to be a very handsome, very charismatic top actor from Poland,” Chaz Ebert said. “I’m not sure how word of his presence got around, but Milos allowed the guest to excuse himself long enough to sign a few autographs and leave some hearts aflutter.”

“When Roger was sick, Milos used to bring his dog by to visit because he knew how much Roger liked dogs,” she said. “While the dog sat at Roger’s feet, Milos would regale Roger with news of the film world. Milos was always patient and thoughtful like that. He was truly a treasure.”

Roger Ebert said Mr. Stehlik was linked to some of his favorite film memories. In his 2002 anthology on “The Great Movies,” he said, “The first time I saw Gates of Heaven, Milos Stehlik of Facets Multimedia in Chicago called me up and said he had a film I had to see and he would not tell me what it was about. That mysterious masterpiece has suffered all its life because people think they don’t want to see a documentary about a pet cemetery.”

As recently as May 11, Mr. Stehlik co-hosted a “Master Class with Werner Herzog” at Facets, where the German director discussed his work.

He was forthright about his film opinions. After “Green Book” won the Academy Award this year for best picture, he told WBEZ, “It’s a travesty.”

In 1986, when a colorized version of “It’s a Wonderful Life” was being marketed, he called it “Total nonsense.”

”I’m not a purist, but if (these) directors had wanted color, they would have used it,” he said.

And when a string of old movies were being remade around 2002, he told the Sun-Times, “The whole culture of remakes is really like the end of civilization.”

”It’s like everyone is bereft of ideas, and we are condemned to watching the same thing – just a slightly different version – over and over again.”

Paul Gonter, a Facets spokesman, said, “For almost five decades, Milos and Facets have pioneered film and media education for kids and teens, provided a public forum for some of the most brilliant filmmakers of our time, and established the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, the largest film festival of children in North America. Most importantly, Milos and Facets have been uncompromising in their belief that film has the power to change lives, no matter age, race, gender, identity, or economic status.”