“Small gauge film is not larger than life, it’s part of life.”

This Wednesday, March 26th, we’re celebrating Home Movie Day in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood. Per usual, we’re inviting the community to bring their celluloid home movies (16mm, 8mm and/or Super 8mm) to have them projected in front of a live audience. Don’t have any films? Don’t fret! We also have a program of CFA home movies in store (more on that soon).

This is a very collaborative event all around. We were invited by The Post Family to help create and co-host the event. They’re a Chicago art collective with their own printmaking studio, office, and gallery space, and they’ve courageously taken over Comfort Station programming for the entire month of March (you can peek at their remaining events here). We’re also teaming up with Northwest Chicago Film Society, who will offer their wisdom & expertise by projecting these treasured celluloid films for all to see, and Logan Square International Film Series (Comfort Films), who continue to help spread the word. The Post Family has also enlisted the help of Synesthetic (Angel Elmore : piano, Joe Vajarsky : tenor saxophone, Norman Long : field recordings, Dan Godston : trumpet & Lou Ciccoteli : drums) to accompany any or all films.

JoAnn Elam in Boyers and Rhinos (8mm, 1981).

We’re using this community-fueled event as a good excuse to crack open our JoAnn Elam Collection, or more specifically, to showcase rarely screened 8mm home movies from the collection.

Just in case, some quick background:  JoAnn Elam (1949-2009) is a central figure in the history of Chicago’s experimental film community. Her short experimental and documentary films capture the spirit and ethos of a politically active, feminist, and socially conscious artist. She also happened to be a Logan Square resident, often filming her neighbors, community events, gardens, co-workers & friends with her 8mm Carena Zoomex camera.

JoAnn always thought of her films as home movies and validated them as such. These feelings were upheld in JoAnn’s “manifestette,” which she co-wrote with fellow filmmaker & friend, Chuck Kleinhans (Northwestern University, Jump Cut), for a joint show:

Small gauge film (regular 8 and Super 8 ) is low cost, technically accessible, and appropriate for small scale viewing.

Because it’s cheap and you can shoot a lot of film, filming can be flexible and spontaneous. Because the equipment is light and unobtrusive, the filming relationship can be immediate and personal.

The appropriate viewing situation is a small space with a small number of people. Therefore it invites films made for or with specific audiences. Often the filmmaker and/or people filmed are present at a screening. The filming and viewing events can be considered as part of the editing process. Editing decisions can be made before, during, and after filming and can incorporate feedback from an audience. Connections can be made between production and consumption, filmmaker and audience and subject matter.

Small gauge film is not larger than life, it’s part of life.

JoAnn Elam
Chuck Kleinhans

“Boyers & Rhinos,” 1981

The intimate Comfort Station Logan Square provides an “appropriate viewing situation” as well as a geographically meaningful space to screen JoAnn’s 8mm films. This Wednesday’s program isn’t a retrospective of JoAnn’s work, but rather a showcase of the Logan Square-centric home movies found in her collection. The selected films include scenes of Palmer Square Art Fairs, back porch lounging, a double exposed bbq and energetic black kittens. One reel, simply titled “Belden & Kimball,” documents smaller neighborhood moments – potted plants, parallel parking and youthful sidewalk shenanigans.

To compliment JoAnn’s films, we’ll also be screening very Chicago home movies from our other collections (primarily, the Rhodes Patterson Collection). These 16mm reels were all shot during or around the same time as JoAnn’s, but go beyond the neighborhood of Logan Square. Highlights include a shaky helicopter ride around the loop, a crowded lunch break at Grant Park, a trip down late 1970’s Maxwell Street Market and a panorama of Great America in 1977.

Join us from 7-9PM to celebrate home movies, small gauge cinema, Logan Square and JoAnn Elam with YOUR home movies and the following program: