Film Identifier: F.2011-01-0233

Run Time
0h 4m 54s

Format
8mm

Color
Color

Sound
Silent

Date Produced
circa 1981

Abstract
Experimental home movie documenting a visit by filmmakers Wayne and Eleanor Boyer and their nine-year-old son Brett to JoAnn Elam’s home in Logan Square, Chicago, for a summer barbecue. Later in the film, Chuck Kleinhans and Julia Lesage, co-founders of the cinema journal Jump Cut join the group. Since Elam is on screen for much of the film, it was likely mostly filmed by Elam’s husband Joe Hendrix, who also appears at the end of the film. During the visit, the friends relax on Elam’s back porch and film her garden, both frequent locations in her work. A group of friends and colleagues that included Elam, Kleinhans, and Lesage adopted the name "The Rhinos" after walking to a screening at Kartemquin Films on a cold winter evening, and having a group of kids throw snowballs at them and tell them that they looked like a group of rhinos.

Actors, Performers and Participants