Collections
CFA's collections contain professional and amateur films of all genres, including documentaries, experimental films, and home movies, depicting histories of Chicago, the Midwest and the world. Our online catalog contains thousands of digitized items from our collections along with descriptive catalog records.
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1980 – 2010
The collection consists of home movies shot by Julia Lesage. All were captured on small gauge formats, and feature images of everyday life in Logan Square with partner Chuck Kleinhans as well as travel to Central and South America.
1947 – 2012
The films in this collection were made and collected by Chicago photojournalist, critic and filmmaker Bill Stamets. The bulk of the collection consists of Super 8 films and footage shot by Stamets in the 1970s and 1980s. They depict political events primarily in the city of Chicago, including former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington's two election campaigns, inaugurations, and time in office; numerous street protests and marches; and cultural festivals around the city.
circa 1948 – 2012
Materials documenting trains and streetcars in Chicago and the world, including films, miniDV tapes, and papers.
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Collections in Progress
Our staff is always working to expand CFA's catalog by researching, describing, and digitizing new collections. Here are the collections that are currently in progress.
Five 8mm home movies shot in Chicago between 1958 and 1962.
A collection of 129 16mm films, mainly educational titles.
Materials related to the work of experimental filmmaker and Chicago high school teacher Eleanor Binstock.
13 reels of 16mm adult films rescued from the Oak Theater in Chicago, at Armitage Ave and Western Ave, as it was being cleared out for renovation.
52 reels of 16mm home movies and collected films from the Beverly and South Shore areas of Chicago, shot and collected by Chester Faust.
Two 16mm films about Fred Flom, of Menasha, Wisconsin, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam from 1966 to 1973.
Collection of films produced by Guzik as part of his work for various companies during the late 1970s.
Collection of 13 home movies from the mid-1950s, most of which were shot by Judith Hembree's father.
3 reels of family outings; 1 reel, Bar Mitzvah party, Albany Park, 1956; 1 reel, Carnival, 1956 at the University of Illinois, Champaign.
38 reels of 8mm home movies shot by Sydney Katz, primarily of family birthday parties, weddings, holidays, and vacations.
Collection of 71 8mm home movies.
Chet Kowalkowski’s film collection consists of home movies, birthday celebrations, vacations, and leisure activities shot in the American Midwest and Poland. Among them is a record of the several-year construction of his home in Lockport, Illinois, from the purchase of the land and its clearing to the erection of the walls and roof, as well as footage documenting the various stages of construction of the Resurrection Catholic Cemetery & Mausoleums. Chet also took his camera on tours with the Eddie Blazonczyk Versatones polka band and recorded their antics along the way, both in the US and Europe. In addition to these joyful events, the collection also includes footage of the funeral of Chet’s sister, Irene, who was murdered in 1966 at the age of 16.
36 reels of 8mm and Super 8 home movies shot in the Chicago, Albuquerque, and Milwaukee areas.
Collection of predominantly industrial films worked on by Charles S. C. Lee, who worked in film production in Chicago from the 1960s – 1980s.
About a dozen rolls of 16mm film, mainly comprising unedited footage shot during the 1966 football season, as well as 16mm kinescopes of the Vince Lombardi Show and the George Halas Show.
Home movies on 8mm and Super 8 film.
A collection of independent/student films made in the late 1960s and early 1970s in and around Chicago, Park Ridge, and Niles, Illinois.
Collection consisting mainly of 16mm elements of films made by or in collaboration with Robert Orr, both during his high school years and his professional career.
Collection of 4 16mm home movies.
47 reels of 8mm home movies found in a dumpster and donated to CFA. Reel labels indicate that the films depict visits to Europe as well as to Crivitz, Wisconsin.
13 reels of 16mm film from Dr. Herbert Ratner, who was health commissioner of Oak Park, IL, from 1949 to 1974.
2 reels of 16mm film about urban planning in Chicago, produced by the City of Chicago Department of Urban Renewal.
circa 1955 – 1974
Multiple 8mm and Super 8 films taken by Caroline Wenz Rubin in the 1950s-'70s in Chicago, lL; Perrysburg, OH; Yellow Springs, OH; Newton, MA; Washington, DC; and various other locations. Collection includes one or more short movies filmed by Betsy Rubin, then a high school student. Most films are family or travel documentary in nature; a few are filmed stories or plays, including one stop-action short film.
circa 1955 – 1964
The Sanetra Family Collection consists of 27 home movies (including thirteen of 8mm and fourteen of Super 8mm) taken by Charles Sanetra. The films capture family holidays and celebrations – Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, communions, church picnics, parades, and neighborhood sporting events. Among them are documentation of Cardinal Karol Wojtyła’s (Wojtyła) visit to Chicago in 1976 and the 1964 Alaskan earthquake in Anchorage.
Collection of 31 reels of 16mm home movies from a Michigan family.
Three reels of film found in the church when they were clearing out old things.
A collection of educational films, newsreels, and student films.
12 cans of 35mm negatives in cans from National Film Archives - Public Archives Canada.
Collection of 8mm home movies.