Events
A COSMIC CHRISTMAS
16mm Holiday Treasures from the Chicago Film Archives
Wednesday, December 13th 2006, 7pm
The Chicago Cultural Center, Claudia Cassidy Theater
78 East Washington Street, Chicago IL 60601
Admission is free
Take a break from the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping and treat yourself
to the cinematic equivalent of hot toddys and roasted chestnuts - the Chicago
Film Archives' program of 16mm holiday treats and treasures. Creepy Santas,
naughty children, and rebellious toys abound! See an outlaw Santa break
into a department store to steal presents for all of the good little girls
and boys, Watch Santa convince skeptical children and their perky dog that
he is real by describing monkey family Christmases complete with their own
"Monkey Claus"!, Think that sounds weird?!?!? Well, that's only
the tip of the dirty-snow downtown iceberg - watch out for rambunctious
kids in 1960's Christmas home movies, educational film actors in Roman-era
wigs and sheet-costumes, Norman McLaren animated delights, and Margaret
Conneely's amazing and recently preserved amateur film tale of a Christmas
doll come to life. Films screened will include:
CHRISTMAS THRU THE AGES (1954, 14m)
We open tonight's program with a historical primer of sorts - a seemingly
typical educational presentation of the story of Christmas from the Roman
era to the present (the 1950's present that is). Watch out for some stiff
acting and bed sheet-togas, and learn something to impress the family with
this Christmas Eve.
SANTA CLAUS STORY (1940's, 10m)
A Castle Films title from the 1940's, this bizarre portrait of a bucolic
Chrismas Eve in Everyman's town, USA, gets weird when Santa arrives, puts
little Tommy and Suzie on his knee, and tells them the story of monkey Christmas.
Keep an eye out for the numerous Fido reaction shots.
THE CHRISTMAS DEER (1958, 14m)
This story of a hermit woodcutter who helps a lost little boy out of the
forest, gives the boy a stick of wood as a present, and then realizes that
he can no longer carve the baby Jesus for the manger scene he's been working
on. Huh? The hermit looks a lot like Santa, that's your first hint. There's
a deer in there too, and some sleigh bells ringling, that's your second
hint.
Commercial for Kramer's department store (1960's, 2m)
Okay, there's enough amazing vintage menswear in this commercial for the
now-extinct Kramer's department store to make any styling man drool, but
forget the images. What's the deal with the creepy Santa voice-over? Why
is he whispering to us? Wait a second, is he drunk? We're all having nightmares
about this Santa tonight . . .
A CHRISTMAS CRACKER (dir. Norman McLaren, 9m, 1963)
Nominated for an Academy award for best short subject in 1965 and co-directed
by Grant Munro, Jeff Hale, and Gerald Potterton, these four animations are
bound together by shots of a creepy Christmas mime waving his hands around
in the air! What's he doing? Look out for cool jazz soundtracks, outerspace
voyages, and tin toys come to life. A National Film Board of Canada production.
THE FAIRY PRINCESS (dir. Margaret Conneely, 1955, 7m)
Restored by the National Film Preservation Foundation in 2005, this amazing
PSA "top ten" film by award winning amateur filmmaker Margaret
Conneely mixes live action with stop-motion animation in order to illustrate
the fantasies of a little girl on Christmas.
SANTA CLAUS SUIT (dir. Martin Stevens, 1953, 10m)
Okay, this film is pretty creepy too - maybe the most uncomfortable of all!
An extremely rare print (perhaps the only existent 16mm copy in the United
States), this marionette-puppet animation is, on the surface, a musing on
the power of belief in the unseen, faith, and trust. But scratch beneath
the surface, and the two puppet principles, Spot and Stripe, transcend the
moralism of the narrative and become a spectacle unto themselves.
All films screening are 16mm sound, approximate running time 66 minutes.
For more information, please visit: www.chicagofilmarchives.org, email
info@chicagofilmarchives.org, or call 773-478-3799
