News

April 6, 2018

Designed to be Seen: Art and Function in Chicago Mid-Century Film

We are extremely proud to announce Designed to be Seen: Art and Function in Chicago Mid-Century Film – a four program film series that will screen in fall 2018 as part of the Terra Foundation for American Art’s Art Design Chicago initiative. Art Design Chicago is a wide-ranging initiative spearheaded by the Terra Foundation and developed in partnership with more than 60 cultural...

March 15, 2018

2007 Interview with Millie Goldsholl

On April 20, 2007, Chicago Film Archives Executive Director Nancy Watrous interviewed Millie Goldsholl, filmmaker and designer, at her home in Highland Park, Illinois. The following edited excerpts feature Millie describing her earliest work at the School of Design (now the IIT Institute of Design) in Chicago, where she studied under Hungarian-born artist László Moholy-Nagy. Millie passed away in 2012...

March 7, 2018

CFA International Media Mixer 2018: Meet the Artists!

We’re so thrilled to introduce the amazing lineup of artists who are participating in our first ever CFA International Media Mixer! If you aren’t already familiar with the project, please read more about it here. Giuseppe Boccassini (IT) + Alex Inglizian (US) Lori Felker (US) + Patrizia Oliva (IT) Federico Francioni & Yan Cheng (IT) + Tomeka Reid (US) 
Domietta Torlasco (US)...

March 2, 2018

Inspecting Millie Goldsholl’s Personal Reels

By Olivia Babler Since joining Chicago Film Archives as a transfer technician last October, one of my main long-term projects has consisted of inspecting, stabilizing and digitizing films from the Mort & Millie Goldsholl Collection as part of the “Woman Behind the Camera” project. While the couple are best known for their mid-century graphic design and advertising campaigns with Chicago-based...

February 7, 2018

Italian Premiere of the International Media Mixer in Bergamo!

Video by Cerise Films / Original Track “Birdseed” by Salvatore Córdova We’re thrilled to announce the Italian premiere of our International Media Mixer project in Bergamo, Italy at the Bergamo Film Meeting Festival on March 11, 2018. This very special screening will feature live audio accompaniment to four brand new commissioned videos that were made using archival footage from the collections of...

December 26, 2017

CFA Media Mixer 2017 (in review)

As 2017 comes to a close, we’re reflecting back on some of our favorite events and this year’s Media Mixer (our 6th annual) was a definite highlight! We had so much fun at the Hideout (as usual!) and this year’s videos were fantastic. They’re streaming below for you to enjoy. 2017’s talented lineup included: Eric Fleischauer + Matchess Samantha Hill + Haptic Marianna Milhorat...

December 18, 2017

Scanning JoAnn Elam’s “Filmabuse (Original)”

By Justin Dean and Brian Belak One of our missions for the Woman Behind the Camera project is to digitize and make accessible online the film work of JoAnn Elam, but as can be the case, that has sometimes turned out easier said than done. Recently, we found a curious reel labeled “Filmabuse (Original)” that presented a challenge for digitizing...

November 1, 2017

JoAnn Elam’s Everyday People (1978-1990) at Chicago Film Archives

By Aurore Spiers, University of Chicago The JoAnn Elam Collection (1967-1990) at Chicago Film Archives (CFA) consists of approximately 735 film, video, audio elements and some paper material, which JoAnn Elam’s husband Joe Hendrix donated in 2011. In addition to Elam’s best known films, such as Rape (1975) and Lie Back and Enjoy It (1982), the collection includes dozens of...

September 11, 2017

The JoAnn Elam Collection at Chicago Film Archives

by Aurore Spiers, University of Chicago The JoAnn Elam Collection (1967-1990) at Chicago Film Archives (CFA) is one of the 58 archival projects receiving generous support from the Woman Behind the Camera. It consists of approximately 735 film, video, and audio elements and some paper material, which JoAnn Elam’s husband Joe Hendrix donated in 2011. Since then, CFA has inventoried, digitized,...

April 26, 2017

2018 International Media Mixer!

The Chicago Film Archives (Chicago, IL) and Lab 80 – Cinescatti (Bergamo, Italy) are thrilled to announce a new international artistic collaboration—the 2018 International Media Mixer! This project is one of 15 artistic partnerships supported by the MacArthur Foundation’s International Connections Fund. The International Media Mixer is a cross-cultural “call and response” exchange, bringing together artists from two different countries...

April 7, 2017

CFA Media Mixer 2017: Meet this Year’s Artists

We’re so thrilled to announce the amazing lineup of artists participating in this year’s CFA Media Mixer event. Now in its sixth year (!!!), the Media Mixer has grown to be one of our most anticipated and exciting public programs. The project began in 2012 as a way to open up our vault of archival footage to Chicago-based contemporary artists...

March 22, 2017

Bobby Lee (1942-2017)

Our friend Bobby Lee passed away yesterday. Bob was a community organizer and a member of the Chicago Black Panthers. His home has been the 5th Ward in Houston over the past few decades, and he is indeed known as “Da Mayor” of the 5th Ward. Bobby Lee was one of those rare people who had the ability to form...

January 31, 2017

Collaborating with the Korean Film Archive

KOFA’s Sangam facility in Seoul, South Korea In September of last year CFA was approached by Eric Choi from the Korean Film Archive (KOFA) with a proposition: Eric works in the acquisitions department of KOFA and was inquiring about collaborating with CFA to make any Korea-related material held by CFA accessible to researchers in South Korea through KOFA. We said...

January 11, 2017

CFA’s New Year Awards and Grants Roundup

The turn of the year has been full of news for CFA! Here’s a round up of the grants and awards we have received recently, which we are extremely grateful for. Lots of reasons to keep checking back in with us to see what we’re up to! CFA and Partners Awarded “Hidden Collections” CLIR Grant Chicago Film Archives, Northeast Historic Film and...

October 12, 2016

Preserving the Bill Stamets Collection

This past summer, CFA was lucky enough to have Shahed Dowlatshahi as an intern. Amongst other things, he did significant work processing the Bill Stamets Collection. Here is what Shahed had to say about what he found in Stamets’ films.   As an unobtrusive observer capturing life as it happened in the 1970s and 1980s, Bill Stamets shot thousands of feet of Super-8mm film...

September 26, 2016

Maggie And The Somersaulter-Moats and Somersaulter Finding Aid

This past summer, CFA was lucky enough to have Maggie Sivit as an intern. Amongst other things, she crafted the finding aid for the Somersaulter-Moats and Somersaulter Collection for us. Here is what Maggie had to say about her experience creating the finding aid:   Two months ago, I arrived at Chicago Film Archives as a summer intern. One of the...

June 27, 2016

CFA Media Mixer 2016 (in review)

We had a lot of fun on June 9th at the 5th annual Media Mixer and are extremely thrilled with the videos produced by this year’s line-up! Thanks to all who came and participated, but if you couldn’t make it (or if you just want to watch them again), we now have two of the videos available to stream below. And...

June 7, 2016

CFA Media Mixer 2015 (in review)

A couple of weeks ago we shared the video collaborations from 2014’s MEDIA MIXER event on the blog, and now we’re excited to bring you some of 2015’s videos, available to stream for the first time! Check ’em out below and also see 2012, 2013, and 2014 for more MEDIA MIXER greatness. And don’t forget to come to the Hideout...

May 19, 2016

CFA Media Mixer 2014 (in review)

We’re getting so excited about the upcoming CFA MEDIA MIXER that we started looking back at past years’ projects and realized there are TWO years of amazing collaborations that we never assembled in one place to stream. In this post we’re proud to present the videos produced by our 2014 Media Mixer participants (you can view 2012 and 2013 here and...

May 3, 2016

CFA Out of the Office at Midwest Archives Conference & Nitrate Picture Show

Amy here. I have recently returned to the CFA office after attending the 2016 Midwest Archives Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Midwest Archives Conference, or MAC, is a regional professional association with over 800 individual and institutional members that represent all types of archives in the 13 heartland states and beyond. The association’s annual conference rotates its location yearly, and as Milwaukee is...