CFA is teaming up with the Logan Square art space, Comfort Station, for a new 16mm screening series! Join us the last Tuesday of every month for rarely screened oddities and gems from the vault.
First up… two after school specials starring the 1980′s teen heartthrob Scott Baio! Watch the Happy Days and Charles in Charge star grow from a teen playing a kid on the streets to a young man playing a stoned & confused teenager. Will Scott Baio ever learn his lesson? Will You?
Full disclosure: our west coast friends over at Oddball Films inspired this particular program (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?!)
LUKE WAS THERE (1976), Color (faded), Sound, presented in 16mm., 32 min. (print from the Chicago Public Library Collection)
an NBC Special Treat and one of the first credits on young Baio’s resume. The 16 year-old plays Julius, a boy forced to live in a group home after his mother is hospitalized. Julius has a hard time fitting in, until counselor Luke helps him out of his angry shell. But when Luke has to attend to his own ailing mother, Julius hits the streets and tries to make it as a petty thief. He soon learns that the streets are no place for little kids. As the tagline reads, “tough kids need love too.” (description courtesy of Oddball Films/CFA)
STONED: AN ANTI-DRUG FILM (1980), Color, Sound, presented in 16mm., 50 min. (print from the Chicago Public Library Collection)
an ABC Afterschool Special, the now 20 year-old Baio plays sophomore Jack Melon, who’s tired of being an invisible nerd and finds some new friends, self-confidence and a great sense of humor when he starts smoking pot. But after a freak accident, we ask ourselves…is it all worth it?! (description courtesy of Oddball Films/CFA)
These two prints come from Chicago Film Archives’ Chicago Public Library film collection – CFA’s founding collection. CFA formed in order to care for this collection of about 5,000 16mm films that the library could no longer keep. The collection contains a broad sweep of genres. A large number of films are educational and travel films, but there are also silent films, foreign and American-made theatrical films, documentaries, industrials, newsreels, sports events and children’s films. Together these films comprise a rich snapshot of an educational and cultural pathway the City of Chicago built for its citizens during the mid twentieth century.