The Bernie Fry collection consists of a short claymation film shot on 16mm film as part of his senior Bachelor of Fine Arts thesis in 1980. It illustrates his views on how political and religious differences separate peoples into tribes who build walls to divide themselves from each other.

The films in this collection were made and collected by Chicago area film critic and filmmaker Bill Stamets. The bulk of the collection consists of Super 8 films and outtakes made 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. Also in the collection are nine 16mm film prints consisting of 3 films made by Chicago filmmaker Tom Palazzolo and 6 films by Stan Brakhage.

The Charles E. Krosse Collection contains films produced and/or distributed by a Peoria film production company, C.L. Venard Productions, a company that became known for its educational films dealing with agricultural subject matter. It was donated to CFA by Charles E. Krosse, who previously worked in the Marketing division at Caterpillar. The collection contains both 16mm and 35mm films, a number of which may also be titles that Venard employees collected. Included in the collection are promotional and in-house training films made for Caterpillar, a fundraising film made for the city of Peoria, some soft-core erotic shorts, unrelated animated shorts, silent film comedies, and unidentified home movies.

The Chuck Olin Collection is comprised of films, videotapes and ephemera made by Chuck Olin from his work at two Chicago area film production companies from the mid-60s to the late 1990s: first with the Film Group/Mike Gray Associates and after 1974 with his own Chuck Olin Associates. Included are political documentaries made by the Film Group on the 1968 Democratic National Convention; television commercials for a variety of clients including Sears, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and politicians running for election; sponsored films for the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Medical Association, and Eli Lilly; educational films for Encyclopaedia Britannica; and a documentary by Olin on the Jewish Brigade in World War II.

This collection of films was made by filmmaker DeWitt Beall in Chicago during the 1960s. A large portion of the collection consists of elements and prints related to LORD THING, a film about a Chicago-based gang named the Conservative Vice Lords. The film was never released, but won an award at the Venice Film Festival in 1971. Various other educational films, documentaries and PSAs are in this collection, including the EARTHKEEPING series which aired on PBS in the early 1970s.