Preservation

In 2024, Chicago Film Archives was awarded funding from the Avant-Garde Masters program of the National Film Preservation Foundation to photochemically preserve six short 8mm films by Chicago independent filmmaker JoAnn Elam.

In 2023, CFA photochemically preserved three short 8mm films of Chicago city scenes made circa 1940 by photographer and filmmaker Helen Balfour Morrison.

In 2023, Chicago Film Archives received funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation to preserve four films by independent filmmaker Bill Stamets. These Super-8 films reflect Stamets’ deep investment in chronicling civic life in Chicago, exposing how Chicagoans have expressed both love and hate through spectacle and collective action.

In 2022, CFA received a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation to photochemically preserve four 16mm reels from the Morrison-Shearer dance collection documenting sixteen solo dances choreographed and performed by Sybil Shearer and filmed by her creative partner Helen Morrison.

In 2021, CFA received a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation to photochemically preserve three short films from our Charles E. Krosse collection. These 35mm nitrate films depict fascinating snippets of socio-political and cultural change in the Midwest region, few artifacts of which remain. No other prints of these particular films are known to have survived. This preservation project resulted in new 35mm polyester intermediate negatives, soundtracks, and composite answer prints created by Colorlab.

In 2020, CFA received a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation to photochemically preserve four films from the JoAnn Elam Collection: Lie Back and Enjoy It (1982, 16mm), 3 Goats and a Gruff (ca. 1960s, 8mm), Chocolate Cake (ca. 1973, 8mm), and Beauty and the Beast (ca.1973, 8mm). Together, the films encapsulate Elam’s technical experimentation with form and genre, producing radically political content.

In 2021, The National Film Preservation Foundation awarded CFA a grant to photochemically preserve two experimental films from the Maurice Bailen Collection, The City (ca. 1966) and Confrontation (ca. 1968). Both films are original 16mm work prints, and no other copies are known to exist. This preservation project resulted in new 16mm polyester answer and release prints struck by Colorlab.

In 2019, CFA received a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation to photochemically preserve two short films in our collection: Warren Thompson’s Camera on Chicago (1983) and Julian Gromer’s On the Shores of Lake Michigan (1948). These unique amateur film productions seamlessly meld elements of the city symphony genre with the travelogue to document and effectively depict Chicago and the surrounding Midwest area as it developed in the 20th century.

The Film Group’s The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971) was photochemically preserved in 2017 by the UCLA Film and Television Archive, using elements deposited in their archive soon after Mike Gray’s passing in 2013. In 2019, CFA, in cooperation with UCLA, produced another 35mm preservation print of this remarkable film, now housed in our collection.

In 2018, the National Film Preservation Foundation awarded CFA a grant to photochemically preserve Kenji Kanesaka’s film Super Up (1968) and Robert Stiegler’s Capitulation (1965), two short films that are conceptually and technically innovative explorations of the urban landscape of the city of Chicago.

In 2017, CFA received a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation to photochemically preserve American Revolution 2 (1969). Helmed by filmmakers Howard Alk and Mike Gray, and produced under the auspices of the Film Group, the film aims to convey a deeper understanding of race relations in light of the 1968 student demonstrations that occurred at the Democratic Convention in Chicago.

In 2015, Chicago Film Archives received funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation to preserve three short films in CFA’s collections that highlight three innovative programs introduced within the Chicago Public School (CPS) system in the 1960s and ’70s by the Chicago Board of Education. These three films offer a picture of Chicago’s public school system in a time of transition.

In 2013 the National Film Preservation Foundation awarded CFA a grant to photochemically preserve four films reflecting the influence of the American Bauhaus movement. These four films, one made by Goldsholl Associates and three made by Goldsholl Associates employee Larry Janiak, are early and stellar expressions of the mid-century Bauhaus influence in Chicago.

These two Ruth Page performances, filmed at Ravina in Highland Park, Illinois in 1928, were restored in 2012. Both films originated on 35mm nitrate stock and were shot during the summer before Ruth Page set off for Asia on September 6, 1928 to be part of the coronation ceremonies of Japan’s emperor Hirohito.

In 2012, the National Film Preservation Foundation awarded CFA a grant to preserve two films that document the activities and social-political transformation of the Vice Lords, a street gang from Chicago’s west side.

In the summer of 2011, CFA received a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation to preserve two films from our Chuck Olin Collection: 8 Flags for 99 Cents (1970) and A Matter of Opportunity (1968).

With the generous help of the National Film Preservation Foundation, Bill Cottle and Mike Gray, CFA was able to preserve The Urban Crisis and the New Militants, a seven-part educational series that powerfully captures the political upheaval that gripped Chicago in the late 1960s.

Mi Raza: Portrait of a Family is a documentary film about a working class Mexican American family dealing with the stresses of maintaining their cultural heritage in the face of the dominant Anglo society. It was preserved by CFA with support from the National Film Preservation Foundation in 2008.

In 2008, Chicago Film Archives partnered with Valparaiso University and Colorlab to preserve and research nitrate film footage from 1902 – 1903 discovered in Valparaiso University Archives & Special Collections.

In 2007, the National Film Preservation Foundation awarded CFA funding to preserve three films made by Don B. Klugman: Nightsong, I've Got This Problem, and You're Putting Me On.

With help from the Women's Film Preservation Fund, CFA was able to preserve these three significant and unheralded amateur works by Chicago filmmaker Margaret Conneely.

An amateur Christmas film shot by Margaret Conneely, where the décor and narrative fuel the feel of a fantasy within a fantasy. Thanks to the National Film Preservation Foundation, it has been restored to its original glory.