Chicago Filmmakers - Friday, 8pm
In the vernacular of cinema nothing says nostalgia and family quite
like Super-8mm. With its simple light-tight cartridge and auto-exposure
cameras it really was the format that gave the everyman a chance to
capture memories when it was introduced in 1965. By reducing the technical
skill required for filmmaking down to simply pointing and shooting it
exponentially increased the number of home-movie makers and foreshadowed
the era of video and the widespread documentation of weddings, school
plays, and the oh-so-common Christmas mornings. While the amateur aesthetic
this would suggest is not to be ignored during the unique show at Chicago
Filmmakers tonight, nostalgia takes a back seat to a celebration of
community. Twenty local filmmakers have each been given a single roll
of film to shoot and no one, not even the filmmakers, gets a chance
to see the results before they screen.* The format inspires introspection
and familiarity, and it is sure to be central to a number of the films.
For my contribution I walked around the Damen blue line stop early on
a weekday morning and took ten-second portraits of people in my neighborhood.
Both an experiment and a chance to talk to strangers on the street (I
probably asked 75 people before I had enough willing participants),
to me the film was a fitting reflection of the show. Being a part of
an artistic community like that in Chicago is much like the city we
call home: friendly, under the radar, formally challenging, and happy
to take a risk. Many of the filmmakers will be in person. (2010,
approx. 70 min, Super-8mm) JH - Cine-File.info
