The Margaret Conneely Collection contains the films and papers of Margaret Conneely, a prolific and respected Chicago amateur filmmaker. The collection includes medical films she made as a cinematographer for Loyola University, story films she made with other local hobbyists and professional filmmakers, films made by other amateur filmmakers such as Carl Frazier and Nora Rafferty, and commerical films that she collected. Four of her films have been preserved by the National Film Preservation Foundation and The Women's Film Preservation Fund. The papers include a wealth of correspondence between Conneely and other amateur filmmakers, documents and publications from amateur film and photography associations, as well as photographs of Conneely and other filmmakers.

This home movie collection consists of 8mm home movies shot between the years 1944-1970. The majority of the films were shot in Chicago. The few exceptions include a visit to Stillman Valley, Illinois, a bike club trip to Beloit, Wisconsin, a honeymoon to Paris & London and a visit to a horse track. The Chicago reels depict railways, neighborhood street and stoop scenes, multiple weddings, interior domestic scenes, a funeral and soda shop interiors.

The Ron Doerring Collection contains numerous award-winning amateur films made in the Midwest by members of the Society of Amateur Cinematographers. The majority of the films in the collection were made by John and Evelyn Kibar, a husband and wife filmmaking team from Racine, Wisconsin. The Kibar’s films include travelogues, documents of historical reenactments, and polished, often humorous, amateur shorts. The collection also contains amateur works by other members of the Society of American Cinematographers including Billy Meers, Will Marshall, George Ives, Sidney Moritz and two experimental films by Sol Falon.

The Sunquist home movie collection (16mm and S8mm) features the Sunquist family who resided in Illinois from the 1930s-80. The collection contains reels of birthdays, weddings, Christmas and other celebrations, as well as numerous reels of family holidays. In addition there is documentation of "Worth Day Parades" in Worth, Illinois, footage of the "Carl Sandburg Band", and travel films of various domestic and international destinations. Included are trips to Cheyenne, Miami, Yellowstone, Alaska, Colorado Springs, Michigan, Sweden, France, Italy and Germany.

Chicago Film Archives has received two lots of films from the Warren Thompson Collection. The first lot consists of 2 reels of 16mm amateur films that document 35 years of citylife in Chicago and trips to Mackinac Island in Michigan shot from 1955 to 1965. In February of 2011, CFA received 21 more reels of 16mm Thompson films that document domestic and international travel from 1939 to 1981. They include footage from Japan, Hong Kong, Bangkok, the Caribbean, the St. Lawrence River, New England, the west, the Wisconsin Dells, and the Smokey Mountains. One reel is named "Fjord Mail Boat".