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CFA CRASHERS: Greg Easterling

January 13, 2015 from 6-8pm

Join us for the final series installment of CFA CRASHERS!* At CFA we are constantly inspired by the sea of talented individuals who call Chicagoland their home. For our CFA CRASHERS series, we invited some of our favorite locals into our vault to curate a film program all their own (absolutely no rules or strings attached). The general motivation behind the series is to have a lot of different communities and voices engaging with our materials, as we’re increasingly interested in collaborating with those who are eager to mix it up with the CFA films in ways not thought of before. Beginning this August, a guest programmer (aka “Crasher”) will introduce a screening of their making over happy hour at the Hideout.

All films will be presented in 16mm.

This January we are excited to have Greg Easterling picking the films!

Chicago native Greg Easterling got his start in radio while in twelfth grade at New Trier High School and later honed his skills at the University of Illinois’ WPGU. Now we know Greg as the voice of Chicago’s WDRV (97.1FM) overnight show, which airs Monday through Friday from midnight-5AM.

And here’s what Greg has to say about his picks:

“Join us January 13th at 6pm for an evening of vintage rock and blues 16mm films directly from the Chicago Film Archives to your eyes! Don’t be late, we’ll open the evening with the Facts of Life, a rarely screened profile of legendary Chicago blues producer and songwriter Willie Dixon, the author of classic songs like “I Just Want To Make Love To You”, “You Shook Me” and “I Can’t Quit You Baby”. It’s a journey through Chicago’s South Side that includes vintage footage of Willie performing at the legendary blues club Theresa’s, one of the most important blues venues of all time. We’ll also celebrate The Beatles in not one but TWO films with nearly opposite origins: one of them an indie period piece with many rare photos and clips while the other will bring back childhood memories of the Fab Four’s Saturday morning cartoons. CFA also unearthed a piece of Elvis’ 68 Comeback Special with powerful blues inspired performances of the King as we would like to remember him…black leather clad and rockin’ hard with a stripped down small band.  And finally, we’ll travel far away from the city with B.B. King to the beginnings of the blues, back down home in the South with stops on Beale Street in Memphis, Clarksdale, Mississippi and Parchman Farm prison. Give My Poor Heart Ease is the name of this rarely seen film originally made by the Center for Southern Folklore in 1975. No individual film will run over 29 minutes but if you are as fascinated by these artists and topics as I am, these pieces of music cinema history will leave you wanting more. Let’s get together at the Hideout in Chicago, January 13th for this all film presentation….no digital or video sources allowed! It’ll be a nice cure for the mid-winter, post holiday blahs!!”

Facts of Life (1982, Gilbert Moses, 16mm, 29m)
A journey and reflection upon the life of Willie Dixon and the meaning of the blues. His story is laid out and explained in Dixon’s own poetic voice. Early in the film he states, “The majority of people don’t understand the blues…they don’t know that the blues are the facts of life.” Scenes of Chicago’s south side streets and alleys are combined with recording sessions in his studio as well as gigs at the legendary blues club Theresa’s on south Indiana Avenue.

Braverman’s Condensed Cream of the Beatles (1974, Charles Braverman & Gary Rocklen, 16mm., Color, Sound, 15m)
Through a mix of photos, performances, interviews and trippy animations, this little film leads us on an adventure through a non-authoritative history of the Beatles and their music.

Elvis: A 1968 Comeback Special excerpt (1968, produced & directed by Steve Binderr, 16mm., Color, Sound, 19m)
Recorded in late June in Burbank, California, the special, called simply Elvis, aired on NBC in December of 1968. Later known as the ’68 Comeback Special, the show featured lavishly staged studio productions as well as songs performed with a band in front of a small audience—Presley’s first live performances since 1961. Witness this King of Rock’ Roll before his unfortunate fizzle!

Beatles Adventure: Do You Want To Know a Secret? (1965, 16mm., Color (faded), Sound, 5.5m)
The second episode of The Beatles Cartoon series which ran on ABC from 1965-1969. The Fab Four go on holiday to Ireland where they encounter a delightful fairy and her leprechaun friends.

Give My Poor Heart Ease (1975, Bill Ferris, Color, Sound, 21m.)
An account of the blues experience through the recollections and performances of B.B. King, Son Thomas, inmates from Parchman prison, a barber from Clarkesdale and a salesman from Beale Street. The film is one of a series of films made in Mississippi in the mid 1970s by William Ferris and the Center for Southern Folklore and produced in association with Howard Sayre Weaver.

*don’t worry…CFA CRASHERS will return soon! with a few exciting alterations. We’ll be sure to keep you posted, and in the meantime stay warm out there.

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