News

April 23, 2013

Some more great news today for CFA and the Ruth Page Dance Collection…

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has awarded CFA another grant to further process the Ruth Page Collection. This means the 16mm films and videotapes in the collection will be digitized, giving the folks at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, dance scholars, historians, student dancers, and anyone who has an interest in artistic movement access to these materials....

April 9, 2013

Discovering Kodacolor at CFA

Kodacolor box found in the Chicago Academy of Sciences’ collection While processing the Chicago Academy of Sciences’ (Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum) collection, I came across an unfamiliar stock among some 1930s-40s home movies. Found on metal 100’ and 50’ spools sans box, the edge markings read “Kodacolor Safety Film” and dated from 1936. What struck me immediately was that not only...

April 4, 2013

CFA Acquires 3 Films by Larry Janiak

For the past few months we have been gathering information about the Chicago-based design firm Goldsholl Design & Film Associates for our upcoming program MEET MORT & MILLIE (Sunday, April 7th at the Chicago Cultural Center). Former employess of the firm turned out to be some of our best sources – Susan Keig, Wayne Boyer and last but not least,...

April 3, 2013

Meet Our Panelists!

For this year’s Out of the Vault program, MEET MORT & MILLIE, we’ve gathered an exciting batch of people to help shed light on the industrial films of Goldsoll Design & Film Associates. But before we get to our panelists, let’s first meet our moderator– Amy Beste! Amy recently authored a chapter on the Goldsholls in Chicago Makes Modern: How Creative Minds Changed Society,...

March 30, 2013

Martin Scorcese’s 2013 Jefferson Lecture

This year’s National Endowment for the Humanities 2013 Jefferson Lecture will be delivered by director Martin Scorsese. The annual Jefferson Lecture, sponsored by NEH, is the most prestigious honor the federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities. Mr. Scorsese, of course, needs no introduction, but a significant factor in his selection has been his advocacy and involvement...

March 25, 2013

CFA Media Mixer Updates

Last spring we asked 3 filmmakers (Kent Lambert, Jessica Bardsley, Ellen Castleberry & Andy Resek) and 3 musicians (CAVE, Tim Kinsella, Josh Abrams) to team up and make a short film using CFA footage. We then premiered their finished films at our first annual CFA MEDIA MIXER benefit. Our goal behind this creative-based project was to inspire artstic use of our incredible films and collections. The event...

March 8, 2013

Celebrating International Women’s Day (all year round) at CFA

At CFA we celebrate ladies all year long, but days like International Women’s Day give us a great excuse to further celebrate the abundance of inspiring women associated with our collections –  Katharine Bowden (an early graduate of Valporaiso University), Margaret Conneely (amateur movie-maker extraordinaire), Sylvia Davis (producer of an early 1950s Chicago WBKB-TV wrestling show), Terry Davis (international travelogue...

February 28, 2013

Willie Wright: 1 of 2 Willies Featured in IMAGINATION MUSIC

Nightsong (1964) This Saturday, Chicago Film Archives and the Black Cinema House present a film screening (IMAGINATION MUSIC: DIXON & WIRGHT) about two Chicago artists named Willie – Willie Dixon & Willie Wright. Willie Dixon is a household name in these parts, but there’s a chance you may not have heard of Willie Wright – and that’s ok! We just...

February 27, 2013

SCMS comes to Chicago!

stills from Michelle Puetz & Nathan Holmes’ program “City Symphonies” Each year members of the Society for Cinema & Media Studies (SCMS) meet up for their annual conference in cities throughout the country, and this year (March 6-10)… it just so happens to be in Chicago! The SCMS is the leading scholarly organization in the United States dedicated to promoting...

February 5, 2013

Margaret Heads to the UK!

This March, Margaret Conneely’s MISTER E heads to The Horse Hospital – a three tiered progressive arts venue in London that provides an umbrella for new media, film, fashion, literature and music. A domestic “black comedy,” MISTER E expresses some of the edgier mischief and discontent that women of the 1950s could rarely express openly. This short film narrates the revenge acted out by...

February 1, 2013

Romanticizing Decay

Every so often we run across a reel of film that has been damaged by the elements (water, heat, humidity, etc). Sometimes this deterioration results in beautiful yet horrifying effects. Hypnotic visuals like these are often utilized by New York-based filmmaker Bill Morrison (Chicago born!), who is most well known for his experimental collage film DECASIA (2002). Since our vaults...

January 30, 2013

Out of the Shadows

Left: Sybil Shearer (image courtesy of the Morrison Shearer Foundation); Right: John Neumeier Slowly, slowly modernist dancer and choreographer Sybil Shearer is emerging from the shadows.  After a successful dance premiere at Carnegie Hall in 1941, Shearer decided to come to Chicago to develop her art in the open landscapes of the Midwest.  She built a studio in Northbrook, IL...

January 28, 2013

A Spotlight on Mort & Millie Goldsholl

Full cover and spine of CHICAGO MAKES MODERN At the turn of the new year, University of Chicago Press and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago published the anthology Chicago Makes Modern: How Creative Minds Changed Society. This much-needed scholarship, co-edited by Mary Jane Jacob (School of the Art Institute of Chicago) & Jacquelyn Baas (University of California...

January 17, 2013

Chicago Academy of Sciences: Sidney Downey

Since November I have had the privilege to work on an expansive collection of 16mm films belonging to the Chicago Academy of Sciences. The Chicago Academy of Sciences, dubbed “the first Museum in the West,” was founded in 1857 to give scientists and nature aficionados a place to study and share the specimens they collected. Over the years, the Academy has...

January 11, 2013

8 FLAGS FOR 99 CENTS Restoration

Yesterday we received a newly struck restoration print of Chuck Olin’s 8 FLAGS FOR 99 CENTS (1970) – a rarely seen documentary about a blue-collar community’s growing unease with the Vietnam War. 8 FLAGS FOR 99 CENTS was produced in response to President Nixon’s famous November, 1969 speech when he contrasted the unlawful and vocal anti-war protesters to the respectful “silent...

January 9, 2013

DeWitt Beall Collection Update

About a year ago, CFA went on a quest to find the film materials for LORD THING (1971), a documentary on the Conservative Vice Lords made by Chicago filmmaker and adman Dewitt Beall. Soon after our search began, film researcher Bucky Grimm found the film materials with Elina Katsioula-Beall, who then donated the films to CFA. Elina cared for her...

January 4, 2013

An Early Peek at the Ruth Page Collection!

BOLERO at Ravinia (HIghland Park, IL), 1928 Dancing with the Ravinia Opera as early as 1926, Ruth Page (herself only 26 years old) was also given the chance to choreograph large-scale performances at Ravinia’s north of Chicago outdoor venue. Last year CFA discovered several 35mm nitrate film elements in the Page Collection. As a result of a grant from the...

December 28, 2012

BIG THANKS!

…to so many people. CFA has kept its doors open, the back room chilled, the bench occupied and the telecine humming because of your decisions to support us. We are creating a massive 20th century Midwest/Chicago moving image time capsule that is built by each CFA customer, each CFA donor, and each foundation and agency that supports our work. Thank...

September 28, 2012

Ty Segall Promo w/ CFA Footage!

Super excited to see our footage being used in new shape and forms, including this new commercial for Ty Segall‘s upcoming release on Drag City Records. Video assembly by Kent Lambert, who previously collaborated with CFA & CAVE (another Drag City affiliated entity) during our first annual CFA Media Mixer. (and no, we do not have any copies of WHITE...

August 27, 2012

CFA Media Mixer (in review)

For our first annual CFA Media Mixer benefit at the Hideout, we asked 3 (well, technically 4) local video artists and 3 local musicians to team up and create 3 video pieces made up of CFA footage. These commissioned pieces premiered at the August 17th event to a packed house. We realize some of you couldn’t make it, so here...