When: Friday, October 17 at 7pm
Where: Logan Center Screening Room on the campus of the University of Chicago
Admission: FREE
Bill Stamets is a Chicago-based freelance writer, photographer, and filmmaker. He has been filming what he describes as “a miscellany of civic occasions where Americans make sense of power” since 1976. His Super 8 films document Chicago’s many protests, parades, and political campaigns, both mainstream and marginal. CFA is home to Bill’s reversal originals, and we have worked in recent years to digitize and preserve his work. This program debuts six films that are newly accessible through these efforts.
Presented with Bill Stamets in person for a post-screening conversation. This event is free and open to the public; doors will open thirty minutes prior to showtime. Presented with the University of Chicago Film Studies Center.
THE PROGRAM
Rock Sox Disco Sux* (1979, 12 min, 16mm print from Super 8 original), an ethnography of Chicago’s notorious “Disco Demolition Night,” a promotional stunt-turned-riot held at a White Sox game on July 12, 1979.
Novo Dextro: Purity & Danger* (1982, 35 min, 16mm print from Super 8 original), an experimental documentary depicting an American Nazi Party rally held in Lincoln Park during Chicago’s 1982 Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade.
Harold is Gone* (1987, 15 min, 16mm print from Super 8 original), an examination of public mourning and political ritual shot in the days following the sudden death of Chicago’s Mayor Harold Washington on November 25, 1987.
Boy With a Microphone** (1985, 11 min, digital file from Super 8 original), in which a child in the Pacific Northwest narrates his world, interviewing people and animals with equal curiosity.
Pope Visits Chicagoland** (1979, 23 min, digital file from Super 8 original), which depicts Pope John Paul II’s October 1979 visit to Chicago.
Chi-Nite Ithaca** (1975 –1979, 12 min, digital file from Super 8 original), an avant-garde home movie featuring Chicago monuments and activities at night and the lyrical rural beauty and architecture of Ithaca, New York.
* Preserved on 16mm with support from the National Film Preservation Foundation.
** Digitized with support from a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources.