About this Event
Presented in conjuncton with the Block Museum's exhibition this program highlights local filmmakers and cityscapes during a decade that saw an explosion in Chicago artist films and independent documentary production. People were taking to the streets using democratized small gauge film and video formats to engage with city life, architecture, sport, and community. These works range from casual, gestural portraits in miniature to rigorous structural puzzle-boxes. Some of these works are established classics by well known stalwarts of the local scene, and some are newly rediscovered rarities.
Zora Lathan's AERIAL 1975 & AMERICAN PIE & THE BUMP & TRIP OR I'M LATE I'M LATE (1975, 11 min) is a gorgeous quartet of black-and-white miniatures of domestic life, romance, traffic, and joy. Lathan made these films as a student at University of Illinois and they were recently preserved by the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Robert Fulton was a daring arial cinematographer and documentarian who was brought to the School of the Art Institute to make order out of the chaos of the nascent film department. Fulton makes use of his bold camerawork and sharp eye to create a portrait of the things human and otherwise rolling and stomping over Chicago asphalt in STREET FILM PART 1 (1976, 20 min). An SAIC student who later went on to a career in social services and public art, Ruth Klassen made a number of bold and at times abrasive films. Klassen's CHICAGO GIRLS (1976, 3 min) is a bouncing vibrant camera roll of the titular folks commanding the streets. JoAnn Elam was known to all Chicago filmmakers for decades as a letter carrier, accountant, gardener, and advocate and practitioner of small gauge filmmaking. Elam's FRONT PORCH (1976, 3 min) is a delicate portrait of her neighborhood through the fertile domesticity of her front window. A beloved longtime Northwestern professor, Chuck Kleinhans was also co-founder of the influential media journal Jump Cut. His PEDESTRIAN WAVELENGTH (1979, 9 min) is a humorous riff on the Michael Snow classic where Chuck himself is the mechanism propelling the Super 8 camera through his house and out his window to his Logan Square neighborhood below. Eleanor Boyer is a film and video maker, organizer, and community advocate who has made vital and immediate documentaries of Chicago life for decades. Boyer's RUGBY WOMEN (1978, 15 min) shows the Lake Shore Ale Wives, a newly formed rugby team, gleefully chugging beer in celebration and walloping the snot out of each other on the field. After studying at SAIC, Dan Barnett has had a successful teaching career and has made some classic experimental film exploring his philosophical interests and unique post production techniques. Barnett's THE OGRE (1970, 11 min) is a rigorous student film featuring small pedestrian street views hiding a visual riddle. Founded in 1971, Community Film Workshop of Chicago has been educating and showcasing local black imagemakers for decades. Some of their earliest works, JIVE/COME TOGETHER (1971, 6 min), is a pair of slice-of-life riffs showing conversation and community on the southside. Tony Phillips is well regarded as a painter and longtime professor at SAIC who made a handful of truly unique films over a short period of time. Phillips' THRESHOLD OF DOUBT (1976, 5 min) is an absurd joyful self portrait in front of his Pilsen home.
Films Screened:
AERIAL 1975; AMERICAN PIE; BUMP & TRIP OR I'M LATE I'M LATE
(Zora Lathan, 1975, 11 min, 16mm)
STREET FILM PART 1
(Robert Fulton, 1976, 20 min, 16mm-to-digital)
CHICAGO GIRLS
(Ruth Klassen, 1976, 3 min, 16mm-to-digital)
FRONT PORCH
(JoAnn Elam, 1976, 3 min, Super 8-to-digital)
PEDESTRIAN WAVELENGTH
(Chuck Kleinhans, 1979, 9 min, Super 8-to-digital)
RUGBY WOMEN
(Eleanor Boyer, 1978, 15 min, video)
THE OGRE
(Dan Barnett, 1970, 11 min, 16mm)
JIVE/COME TOGETHER
(Community Film Workshop of Chicago, 1971, 6 min, 16mm-to-digital)
THRESHOLD OF DOUBT
(Tony Phillips, 1976, 5 min, 16mm)
Total runtime: approx. 83 min.
Event venue & nearby stays
Block Cinema - Northwestern University, 40 Arts Circle, Evanston, United States
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