The Chuck Olin Collection is comprised of films, videotapes and ephemera made by Chuck Olin from his work at two Chicago area film production companies from the mid-60s to the late 1990s: first with the Film Group/Mike Gray Associates and after 1974 with his own Chuck Olin Associates. Included are political documentaries made by the Film Group on the 1968 Democratic National Convention; television commercials for a variety of clients including Sears, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and politicians running for election; sponsored films for the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Medical Association, and Eli Lilly; educational films for Encyclopaedia Britannica; and a documentary by Olin on the Jewish Brigade in World War II.

Series I: Subseries III contains prints of the Film Group’s seven part educational film series Urban Crisis and the New Militants from 1969. These films are described individually in the finding aid for the Film Group Collection also at Chicago Film Archives. Also included in this subseries are two trailers for the two feature length documentaries made by the Film Group: American Revolution II and The Murder of Fred Hampton. Neither trailer is found on the recent commercial DVD releases of the films. Please note that CFA's Film Group Collection contains additional 16mm prints as well as streaming media for the entire Urban Crisis and the New Militants series.