Peter Kuttner Collection
The items in this collection represent Kuttner's earliest media work. The films explore issues of civil rights, the political obliviousness of white college students at his alma mater, gender relations between African American college students, modern literature, musical composition, and the Vietnam War. The collection is comprised of a student film made at Northwestern University, Cause Without a Rebel (1965); two films made in collaboration with students at Dillard University in New Orleans as part of the 1965 War on Poverty, Mary Had a Little Lamb and Tackle is a Girl’s Best Friend; and kinescopes of three television shows Kuttner directed for Chicago’s public television station WTTW. The three shows include a satirical look at the Vietnam War, Ladybird Ladybird (1966); a visualization of Nabokov’s Pale Fire called John Shade – The Poetry of Everyman (1966); and a special on the music of local composer Ted Ashford from 1967.
Collection Items
By 1966 Kuttner was employed as a director at Chicago’s public television station WTTW. Kuttner worked on a variety of shows including a number of episodes of the station’s art program Facets. In 1967 he, along with Jon Jost and others, started the Chicago chapter of the radical documentary film collective Newsreel. In that capacity Kuttner filmed an April 27, 1968 peace march that was forcefully stopped by the Chicago Police Department. By 1968 Kuttner started working with the local documentary production company, Kartemquin – a relationship that continues to this day. For Kartemquin, Kuttner worked on the films Hum 255, Trick Bag, and Now We Live on Clifton. His commitment to political activism extends from filmmaking to his work with local community media groups and as a union member of the IATSE.
In addition to his documentary work, Kuttner has worked as an assistant cameraman on a long list of Hollywood feature films shot in and around Chicago including The Dark Knight, The Break-Up, Barber Shop, Mad Dog and Glory, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.