The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) has awarded a Recordings at Risk grant to Chicago Film Archives in support of “Small Gauge, Big Shoulders: Digitizing Bill Stamets’ Super-8 Magnetic Sound Films of Public Life in Chicago,” a project that will result in the digitization and cataloging of approximately 70 hours of Super-8 sound film from the Bill Stamets Collection.
These films were shot by Chicago photojournalist Bill Stamets between the late 1970s and early 2000s. Chronicling what Stamets describes as “a miscellany of civic occasions where Americans make sense of power,” his footage depicts a variety of important Chicago figures, including the groundbreaking mayorships of Harold Washington and Jane Byrne, as well as numerous heated protests, celebratory parades, and other culturally-revealing public events.
The digitized footage and catalog records will be shared online via CFA’s website.
Our thanks to CLIR for making this important project possible. We’re looking forward to sharing the results!
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This project is supported by a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from the Mellon Foundation.
