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PROFESSIONAL |
AMATEUR
(4,531 titles)
Chicago Film Archives incorporated on December 13, 2004 in order
to house and care for its first acquisition of 16mm films from the
Chicago Public Library. The CPL collection contains a broad sweep
of genres. A large number of films are educational and travel films,
but also there are a great number of b/w silent films, foreign and
American-made theatrical films, documentaries, industrials, newsreels,
sports events and children’s films. Also a few student films
from Chicago film competitions in the late ‘70s are tucked
away in the stacks. Within this collection are rare 16mm film prints.
Some of these are:
Paracelsus by GW Pabst (very rare as 16mm print)
American Shoeshine by Sparky Greene (Academy Film Archives
has a print)
The New World of Stainless Steel by Republic Steel and Wilding
Studios
Siege by Julian Bryan
The Santa Claus Suit by Martin Stevens
Because this collection was created over four decades in order to
educate Chicago communities, we believe this collection to be illustrative
of Chicago’s public sensibility from the 1950s to 1990 and
therefore quite important as a part of our regional film archive.
(103 titles and elements)
Jack Behrend was a professional industrial filmmaker working in
Chicago from the 1950s until the 1990s. He also owned a film equipment
rental house and hosted informal seminars for Chicago filmmakers
on Friday evenings at his establishment. He has an extensive knowledge
of Chicago film history and has donated his collection of films
to CFA. Within this collection are films of Gordon Weisenborn, a
Chicago filmmaker who gave prints (10 and an interneg) and rights
to Jack Behrend before he died. Among Jack’s films are reels
(13) of raw footage from an unfinished documentary of historical
inns of America and time lapse footage of Grant Park, the Equitable
Building and Lake Point Towers as they were being constructed. The
collection includes industrial films about steel foundries, the
making of railroad wheels and a film about the teacher’s strike
at Niles North in the ‘70s. Jack has donated the rights of
his films and those of Gordon Weisenborn to CFA. Behrend has also
donated 52 prints made by the National Film Board of Canada.
Bill Cottle Collection (8 titles)
Cottle was a principle in the Film Group, a film company that was
a major part of a movement to document the social and political
upheaval of the ‘60s and ‘70s in Chicago. Cottle donated
the entire Urban Crisis series (7 components) and American Revolution
II, a film made about the social and political unrest of the sixties
in Chicago to CFA. Within the Urban Crisis series are a first and
second answer print of Cicero March, one (out of three) of the modules
that was awarded a preservation grant from the National Film Preservation
Foundation. Historically, the Film Group was at the forefront of
what was to become a succession of social documentary filmmakers
in Chicago. Mike Gray was Cottle’s partner and was a presenter
at our first benefit in May, 2005. Gray now lives in Los Angeles
and wrote the screenplay The China Syndrome and several books that
deal with controversial social and political issues.
(32 titles and elements)
Chuck Olin was a Chicago documentary filmmaker who passed away in
2005. His partner, Libi Hake and widow Nancy Olin each donated part
of his collection to CFA. Olin had a film career that spanned from
the mid sixties to the present. He was part of the Film Group in
the late ‘60s and then created his own film company to make
commercial, industrial and documentary films. This collection of
17 titles includes 5 copies of In Our Own Hands, 2 copies of 8 Flags
and a print of Box of Treasures, a film made about the U’Mista
tribe of Northwest Canada. Nancy Olin sent CFA 35 16mm films that
included some early commercial spots, trailers to The Murder of
Fred Hampton and American Revolution II and some reels from the
Urban Crisis series. Olin was an important filmmaker from the era
of the Chicago social movement documentary and applied this style
of filmmaking to other educational and industrial films he produced.
(1 title print and elements)
Poster recently donated his 35mm film Another Saturday Night to
CFA. He included with the print several elements to the film. Poster
was a Chicago filmmaker in the 1970s who went to Los Angeles and
continued work as a cinematographer. He has worked on many features
as Director of Photography. This film is an historical record of
Chicago in the ‘70s and also represents Chicago filmmakers
who have moved on to Los Angeles to successfully make theatrical
feature films.
(93 titles and elements)
This collection of documentaries, feature films and educational
films is our most recent acquisition. Home Vision was a video distribution
company that was an off-spring of Films, Inc. Both of these companies
were owned by the Charles Benton family. Films, Inc was one of the
largest producers and distributors of educational and documentary
films in the Midwest and is an important part of Chicago’s
film history. This collection is currently being processed.
(3 titles)
A few films from University of Illinois -Chicago, one which follows
an immigrant Latino family in Pilsen. Made in the 1970s.
Chicago "artist reporter", Franklin McMahon, recorded
much Chicago history through his drawings that were filmed and audio
recordings that documented significant political and social events
in Chicago from the early 1960s through the 1980s. Some of his drawings
and paintings can be found at the Chicago History Museum.
Collection of agricultural and early corporate 16mm films that promoted
their products and services to the midwest rural communities.
Included are films made by C/L. Venard, a beginning of the twentieth
century filmmaker from Peoria.
A collection of both 16mm and 35mm theatricals and some home movies.
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