Chicago Filmmakers - Friday, 8pm
If the name Tommy Chicago
doesn't ring a bell, you better ask somebody. Since he moved to the city
in the early '60s to study at the Art Institute, Palazzolo has made
work that captures the diversity (read: ethnic enclaves), characters,
and quirks of the Midwestern Metropolis. An accomplished painter and
photographer with wit to spare, he's never tried to imitate the tropes
of costal experimental film stalwarts. Instead he's used (and reused)
his heartland footage to craft films with joie-de-vivre and irreverence.
Palazzolo edits by intuition rather than theory, and even when his
technique seems crude his heart makes up for it. Tonight's program,
titled Gone Rogue: An Iconoclastic Look at Church and State,
features four of his shorts and what he says is his favorite film about
the early sixties. If counterculture is what you're after, then CAMPAIGN
(1968/2009) will provide you with the recommended daily allowance of
Abbie Hoffman and Allen Ginsburg. The original Mayor Daley battles
hippies and chaos, and gleefully sends his goons to keep the peace.
Advantageously shot during the '68 Democratic convention, it ranks right
up there with MEDIUM COOL as an accidental comment on the generational
divide the event reinforced. Less political is TATTOOED LADY
(1967/2009). Covering the long-since defunct Riverview Park, the camera
lets the real freaks perform and enrapture us into believing that, even
in 1967, this north-side amusement park wasn't downtrodden. The most
recent film showing is a comedic collaboration with Second City, VATICAN
WORLD (1992), and features Jon Favreau (credited as Favro) in his film
debut. Favreau plays a young, near-sighted pope who enlists a PR man to
increase the market share of Catholicism. Also screening is Palazzolo's
HEY GIRLS (1990), based on a Heather McAdams cartoon, and Morton
Heilig's ASSEMBLY LINE (1961), which has a tone reminiscent of classic
50's educational films. An optimistic young factory worker goes downtown
to blow his weekly earnings but, instead of fun and camaraderie, he
finds scams and loneliness and ends up at home with one more rung in the
ladder of his banal industrial life. Palazzolo in person. (1961-92,
approx. 70 min total, 16mm and DVD) JH - Cine-File.info
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