What You're Probably Missing On The Independent Film Channel
April 15, 1996|By Steve Johnson, Tribune Television Critic.
Jodie Foster will be on television tonight, talking about her
experience and philosophy of making movies.  But Jodie Foster
will not, in all likelihood, be on your television tonight.
This is not said to taunt or tease, merely to introduce a
philosophical question prompted by one more example of the
wealth of good cable programming that almost nobody gets. That
question: If a satellite beams a signal to Earth and nobody
receives it, does that signal exist?  The low-key, interview-
format program, "Real Filmmakers: Jodie Foster," is a production
of the Independent Film Channel, a 19-month-old service
available on just 3.5 million cable homes nationwide (out of 62
million) and only on Multimedia Cable systems in the Chicago
area, though it is available through the home-satellite service
DirecTV.  IFC, a sister operation to the established Bravo arts
channel and American Movie Classics chann