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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circa 1929
The Kautzer Collection is a pair of nitrate 35mm reels. Circa 1929, the two films are newsreels from the Chicago Daily News depicting parades, celebrations and noteworthy instances in and around Chicago from the time, e.g. the crowning of Miss Illinois, the celebrating of new fawn at the Lincoln Park Zoo, the commemorating of Veterans from three different wars in a Veterans’ March, and a fatal car accident at 91st and Buffalo St.
1939 – 1944
The Mayor Edward J. Kelly Collection consists of films collected by former Mayor of Chicago Edward J. Kelly (1933-1947) and found in his home in Eagle River, WI, after his death. Included within the films are fragments of newsreels depicting the construction of the State Street subway tunnel in 1939, the re-election of Kelly as mayor in 1939, the opening of a WWII service men's center in Chicago in 1942, and the unsuccessful presidential campaign of Thomas E. Dewey in 1944. The collection also includes a short campaign advertisement for Kelly's re-election in 1939.
1935 – 1989
The Frank Koza Collection primarily consists of news footage Koza shot from the mid-1930s through the late 1980s. Based in Chicago, Koza worked as a cameraman for Telenews, Inc. and WLS-TV, for which he filmed local, national and international events. The materials include distributed newsreels, unreleased stories, production elements, and outtakes. The collection also contains home movies and other personal films Koza shot and collected.
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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.
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.
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.
circa 1955 – 1958
Collection of 13 home movies from the mid-1950s, most of which were shot by Wilson Hembree of Kansas City, MO.
3 reels of family outings; 1 reel, Bar Mitzvah party, Albany Park, 1956; 1 reel, Carnival, 1956 at the University of Illinois, Champaign.
36 reels of 8mm and Super 8 home movies shot in the Chicago, Albuquerque, and Milwaukee areas.
Home movies on 8mm and Super 8 film.
1968 – 1976
A collection of independent/student films made in the late 1960s and early 1970s in and around Chicago, Park Ridge, and Niles, Illinois.
1950 – 1958
The Elizabeth Pearson Collection consists of twelve reels of 8mm home movies and one 8mm camera. The footage features Pearson family events and vacations shot by Elizabeth Pearson of Chicago.
Collection of 4 16mm home movies.
circa 1949 – 1962
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. The boxes the films came in indicate the films may have been shot by Emma Puder of 3640 N Janssen Ave in Chicago.
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.
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.