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.
All Collections
View Filters
Close Filters
1925 – 1963
Though the Anti-Cruelty Society's film collection used to be more vast, the nine items in this collection are all that remains. This collection contains a cross between professionally produced educational shorts, as well as amateur film footage. The films feature imagery of petting zoos, animals getting check-ups at a Society clinic, animal training instructions, and the Anti-Cruelty Society's building on Grand Avenue circa 1940.
1932 – 2001
This collection of films was compiled by Jack Behrend who owned a camera equipment rental house and worked as a professional industrial filmmaker from the 1950s until the 1990s. Included in this collection are 13 reels of raw footage from an unfinished documentary of historical inns of America and time lapse footage of Grant Park, the Equitable Building and Lake Point Tower as they were being constructed. The collection includes industrial films about steel foundries, the making of railroad wheels and a film about the teachers' strike at Niles North in the 1970s. Also within this collection are films made by Gordon Weisenborn, a Chicago filmmaker who gave his films to Jack Behrend before his death. Behrend has donated the prints and rights of his films and those of Gordon Weisenborn to CFA. He has also donated 52 prints made by the National Film Board of Canada.
The Chicago Public Library film collection is Chicago Film Archives' (CFA) founding collection. CFA formed in order to care for this collection of about 5,000 16mm films that the library no longer could keep. The collection contains a broad sweep of genres. A large number of films are educational and travel films, but there are also silent films, foreign and American-made theatrical films, documentaries, industrials, newsreels, sports events and children's films. Together these films comprise a rich snapshot of an educational and cultural pathway the City of Chicago built for its citizens during the mid twentieth century.
circa 1950 – 1988
Chicago Film Archives acquired this collection from the Lincoln Middle School in Park Ridge, Illinois. The collection consists of educational films made for primary and secondary school-age children. Film producers and distributors in this collection include BFA Educational Media, Coronet Instructional Films and Encyclopedia Britannica Films. Film subjects range from grammar, science and history to social manners and world cultures. Selected highlights listed from the collection include films that tie into Chicago and the Midwest.
circa 1930 – 1988
These films were once part of Minnesota State's Memorial Library Collection. The collection includes shorts, features, and educational films whose subjects range from sexual behavior and drug experimentation to the history of dance and design.
1926 – 1985
The Rod Nordberg Collection contains 16mm film prints and videotapes of documentary series and educational programs produced by Chicago’s public television station WTTW 11 and Rod Nordberg’s company Hollywood East in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. These include The Architecture of Chicago (1968-9), Metro!!! The School Without Walls (1970), Until I Die (1970) Earthkeeping (1972-3), and Making M*A*S*H (1981). The collection also features 16mm prints of student films from Columbia College, the Chicago Public High School for Metropolitan Studies (Metro), and University of Illinois at Chicago Circle (UICC), as well as 16mm Chicago home movies from the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s collected by Nordberg.
This collection, donated by Northwestern University's Radio/Television/Film Department, is mainly comprised of 16mm films. These include prints of feature film classics formerly used in film studies instruction at Northwestern, a collection of film elements shot by Swiss nature photographer Helene Fischer, and a collection of films made by Wilding Picture Productions (a Chicago-based maker of industrial films).
This collection consists of "orphan" films and is named after William O'Farrell, a Canadian moving image archivist and champion of the neglected, lost film and regional archives in general.
circa 1942 – 1986
The John Nash Ott Collection spans decades of Ott’s prolific filmmaking hobby-turned-career, including episodes of his weekly 1950s television series How Does Your Garden Grow?, elements from his self-distributed educational films on a range of topics including the benefits of full-spectrum light, and Kodachrome time-lapse footage of flowers blooming that he brought with him for his lectures at garden clubs across the country.
1960 – 1984
The Regional Educational Media Center Association of Michigan (REMC) was founded in 1969, operating through the intermediate school district structure to provide various educational programs and services locally as well as collaborating on statewide programs. This collection consists of 16mm instructional and educational films produced by Coronet, McGraw-Hill, EBE Encyclopaedia Britannica Educational Corporation and multiple other production companies. These films span diverse subject matter including but not limited to health and safety, science, history, geography, social guidance and youth, and would have been available to teachers for classroom use.
circa 1930 – 2008
Collection of over 5800 films, videos, and audio elements related to C.L. Venard Productions, a Peoria, Illinois-based producer of industrial films, mainly related to agriculture. Venard ran a production studio, distributed films made by others, and did work for hire for companies like Caterpillar. The collection was donated to CFA by Gary Smith, who worked in production for the organization for many years before purchasing the company from Venard in 1967.
1945 – 1987
Chicago Film Archives acquired this collection from the Southern Illinois University library, located in Edwardsville, Illinois. The library deaccessioned their entire 16mm film collection in 2007, and CFA selected sixty-three films from over 3,000 titles. These works span across genres, from experimental shorts to feature documentaries to educational and instructional films. The McGraw-Hill Book Company and the Encyclopedia Britannica distributed a substantial number of these films, and others are still currently in distribution by the National Film Board of Canada, California Newsreel, and Maysles Films. Highlights of this collection include works by Millie Goldsholl (another CFA collection), the documentary Coalmining Women, about the history of women in the United States Coalmining Industry, and Skater Dater, an amusing educational film assessing male rivalry and teen sexual awareness.
circa 1960 – 1978
This collection of 16mm films includes full historical shows ("Chicago 1968", "Black Power", "See How They Ran", etc.) as well as historical footage of sports, political events and other historical happenings (anti-war protests, courtroom footage, prohibition, etc).
1960 – 1999
The Bert Van Bork Collection contains films Van Bork directed and produced while working at Encyclopedia Britannica Films. Also included in the collection is his 1999 short documentary EYEWITNESS, which examines the sketches and paintings done secretly by men and women who lived and died inside the walls of Nazi death camps.
No results match your filter criteria. Reset Filters.
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.
circa 1963 – 1967
The Leon P. Granacki Family Collection consists of twelve 8mm home movies taken by Leon P. Granacki. The films capture the life of a Polish American family living in the Old Irving Park neighborhood of Chicago. The footage features vacations, trips to the Squaw Lake (Minnesota), Channel Lake and Long Lake (Illinois), and travel to St. Louis. Other films document Easter and the Graduation of Leon’s daughter, Victoria Granacki.
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.
Films made by, worked on, or collected by documentary filmmaker Judy Hoffman.
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.
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.
This collection of 8mm and 16mm films, and some audio tapes, belonged to Dr. Martin Ross of Lincolnwood, IL. He was an avid traveler and photographer, and often shot 8mm and 16mm film on his trips in addition to slides and snapshots. He shot all of the films which are home movies and travelogues.
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 over 200 16mm films, predominantly home movies shot by Arthur Senior of Homewood, Illinois.
The Jerzy “George” Skwarek collection consists of 80 films (including one 16mm, thirteen Regular 8mm, and sixty-five Super-8mm) taken by Jerzy “George” Skwarek. The films document travels with friends and clients of Polish travel agencies, mainly in the United States, including Florida, California, Texas, Arizona, North and South Carolina, and Peru. Among Skwarek’s captured friends is the famous Polish actress and singer Kalina Jędrusik. The Midwest is portrayed in films from Chicago and Wisconsin, as well as in documentation of his visits with friends to the Ponderosa Sun Club and Naked City in Roselawn, Indiana.
The collection also includes home movies from the early 1950s of an unknown moviemaker and family. These include trips to Saugatuck in Michigan, Starved Rock State Park, Illinois, Florida, Bermuda, and Mexico. Additionally, Skwarek’s collection consists of short commercial pornographic films, including Wet & Wild, which was likely directed by Edward D. Wood Jr. in 1973.
The collection also includes home movies from the early 1950s of an unknown moviemaker and family. These include trips to Saugatuck in Michigan, Starved Rock State Park, Illinois, Florida, Bermuda, and Mexico. Additionally, Skwarek’s collection consists of short commercial pornographic films, including Wet & Wild, which was likely directed by Edward D. Wood Jr. in 1973.
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.
Films, videos, and audio tapes related to the organization's activities.
1973 – 1974
The Vince Waldron Collection consists of 13 black & white Super-8 films and one 1/4" magnetic audio tape. The films were shot and edited by Vince Waldron as a student in and around the Antioch College campus in Yellow Springs, Ohio and in downtown Chicago from 1973 to 1974.
Materials documenting street cars in Chicago, including films, mini DV tapes, and paper materials.
1983 – 1986
Collection of 8mm home movies.