still from Robert Stiegler’s Capitulation (1965)
A Chicago native, Robert Stiegler received a bachelors and a masters degree at the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He began teaching at University of Illinois Chicago in 1966 and was active in the development of the school’s photography program. Stiegler was a filmmaker and photographer who received numerous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council, among others. His photographs are in several museum collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. This program of films highlights the influence of Moholy-Nagy’s teachings on his work, in particular his use of light and interest in formal experimentation. Multiple exposures, negative film stock, and sequences of rapid edits are used to construct fluid sequences and layers of movement through urban space in the city of Chicago. Merging abstraction and the documentation of everyday experience, these films are stunning explorations of light and film as a material.
Traffic (1960, 16mm, color, silent, 8 minutes)
Capitulation (1965, 16mm, b/w, sound, 22 minutes)
Licht Spiel Nur (1967, 16mm, color, silent, 3 minutes)
Full Circle (1968, 16mm, color, sound, 24 minutes)
All films are from the Chicago Film Archives’ Robert Stiegler Collection and will be screened on 16mm film. Presented in partnership with Chicago Filmmakers. Read more about Robert Stiegler’s collection on CFA’s blog here.