Venues and Admission

Unless otherwise indicated admission is $8 general, $7 Student and Seniors (with I.D.) $4 Members.

Film Group Membership: $25 per year, includes 4 free admissions and
discounted single admissions to CF Screenings for one full year.

All screenings are located at:

Programming Coordinator: Todd Lillethun
Programming Intern: Andrew Messer

Programmers: Todd Lillethun, Amir George, Karen Johannesen, Brenda Webb, Heather McAdams.

Web Hosting: BurntHost, LLC

Special Thanks to Patrick Friel

Ah, the sixties. They don't make decades like that anymore. The politics, the drugs, the movies! Here's a remembrance by local maverick Tom Palazzolo with films that captured the era in newly remastered and re-edited prints. Revisit the 1968 Democratic Convention, Riverview Park, and many of the peculiar denizens that called Chicago home. Plus, take a trip to the Vatican to visit the Pope, and see what happens when religion is corrupted by power (the apocalypse?) starring local film celebrity Jon Favreau. Full of surprises and Chicago premieres, plus Tom's personal favorite about the early sixties ASSEMBLY LINE. This show is guaranteed outsider fun.

Program to Include:
CAMPAIGN - Tom Palazzolo (1968/2009, 12 min.) Filmed during the '68 Democratic Convention, a benevolent despot, played by Mayor Richard Daley, staves off an attempted coup of his regime by militant anarchists.
ASSEMBLY LINE - Morton Heilig (1961, 30 min.) A young man looks for love in the dark city.
Chicago Premiere.
TATTOOED LADY - Tom Palazzolo (1967/2009, 14 min.) Visit the fabled Riverview Park in Chicago, and one of its most illustrated inhabitants.
VATICAN WORLD - Tom Palazzolo (1992, 20 min.) Welcome to a Vatican of the future, with a very young Pope and his power-hungry assistant. Featuring Improv Olympic alum and Chicago film star Jon Favreau in his very first film role, and written and produced by Tom Cieslelka in collaboration with Second City. Chicago Premiere.
Special Bonus Short:
HEY GIRLS - Tom Palazzolo (1990, 4 min.) Based on one of her hilarious cartoons, Heather McAdams demonstrates how to deal with unwanted advances from male drivers.

7 PM Social Hour
8 PM Screening
Special Admission: $10

In the shocking and hilarious documentary ORGASM INC., filmmaker Liz Canner takes a job editing erotic videos for a drug trial for a pharmaceutical company. Her employer is developing what they hope will be the first Viagra drug for women that wins FDA approval to treat a new disease: Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD). Liz gains permission to film the company for her own documentary. Initially, she plans to create a movie about science and pleasure but she soon begins to suspect that her employer, along with a cadre of other medical companies, might be trying to take advantage of women (and potentially endanger their health) in pursuit of billion dollar profits. ORGASM INC. is a powerful look inside the medical industry and the marketing campaigns that are literally and figuratively reshaping our everyday lives around health, illness, desire - and that ultimate moment: orgasm. (2009, 73 min.)

Co-sponsored by BLACK CAT PRODUCTIONS

Much like photography, the camera in these films burrows into the lives of people as a privileged observer. The spaces, usually apartments, sitting rooms, courtyards, cottages, and studios, are voraciously detailed and made alive with history. The people are familiar friends captured at leisure or at work, barely acknowledging the camera's presence. Somehow their lives register through small gestures, expressions, and the spaces they occupy, while a shared intimacy grows vividly apparent. The 9 films presented this evening span 27 years of filmmaking. Most of these films represent Friedman's interest in portraiture, with the exception of "Untitled (revenant)" (2002), which is a dreamscape film. Portraits are an interest that extends back to when Friedman first began with filmmaking, and even earlier to her still photographic roots. For the portrait films, the presence of the camera is another character being conveyed.

NORTHPORT (2010), CHRISTIAN AND MICHAEL (2006) and MARIETTA (2006) are a trilogy of a family, friends of Friedman's for over 20 years, filmed in Vienna, Austria and Northport, Michigan.

ROBERT'S PLACE (2004) and UNTITLED (REVENANT) (2002) take place in the apartments of Chicago art collectors who have intense relationships with their possessions.

TREE STUDIOS (1989) was shot in the famous Chicago Tree Studios building before it was heavily renovated. The camera explores the apartment of an architect, as well as the garden courtyard of the building.

In PAULINE AND PATRICK, LE MARAIS, PARIS (2008), the camera watches a couple working in the kitchen and then wanders away to explore their apartment and courtyard.

CHICAGO TRIPTYCH (1995) is a film in three parts, portraying three Chicago artists, each in their studio environments.

SARAH AND NORMAN (1983) is a portrait of Friedman's father and grandmother, filmed when both were in declining health but still able to express affection by sharing chocolate.

(16mm, 81 min.)

Founded by the Department of Culture of the Basque Government, Kimuak has created an incredible body of short narrative films that has been awarded by festivals around the world. That's right: state sponsored filmmaking, as also found in Canada, France, the U.K., and Australia. The Spanish version is quite special - solid acting, clever scripts, lucid direction, a wry flair for the dramatic. In 2007 Kimuak celebrated its 10th anniversary, and has generously shared with us a collection of its bounty. We're pleased to bring you these wonderful new discoveries. (In Spanish and French with English subtitles.)

PROGRAM
7:35 DE LA MANANA (7:35 IN THE MORNING) - Nacho Vigalondo (2003, 8 min.) A song interrupts the routine at a cafe.
SINTONIA (WAVELENGTH) - Jose Maria Goenaga (2005, 9 min.) A highway tollbooth becomes a gateway to romance.
LA GUERRA (THE WAR) - Luis Berdejo/Jorge Dorado (2005, 10 min.) A boy hides from a soldier during World War II.
TERCERO B (THIRD FLOOR B) - Jose Maria Goenaga (2002, 18 min.) A chance encounter between two strangers at the beach turns deadly.
ERAMOS POCOS (ONE TOO MANY) - Borja Cobeaga (2005, 16 min.) After his wife leaves, Joaquin brings his mother-in-law to help with the housework.
TAXI? - Telmo Esnal (2007, 5 min.) This cab has too many options.
TRAUMALOGIA (TRAUMALOGY) - Daniel Sanchez Arevalo (2007, 22 min.) A father's heart attack interrupts his son's wedding, and family dysfunction comes bubbling up.

Named best film of 1979 by film critic Gene Siskel, this Milos Forman directed movie is considered by some to be even better than the hit Broadway musical of the 1960s on which it is based. John Savage plays a farm boy from Oklahoma who heads to New York City to enlist in the Army. In Central Park he meets a group of free-spirited hippies protesting the Vietnam War, led by Berger (played by Treat Williams), who takes him under his wing and tries to rescue him from going to Vietnam. An energetic and evocative look at the spirit that was the "Age of Aquarius," Hair was nominated for both Golden Globe and the French Cesar Awards. (Dir: Milos Forman, U.S., 1979, 121 min.)

Jewish-Hungarian doctor Sandor Lenard fled Budapest shortly before World War II for the safe distance of Brazil. He abandoned his medical practice and took up translating "Winnie the Pooh" in Latin, which soon became an international bestseller. Filmmaker Lynne Sachs discovered him only recently through letters to an uncle, and pieced together a sense of his life and personality in the exquisite new film LAST HAPPY DAY (2009, 39 min.). Her daughters are enlisted to dramatize bits of his life, and Sachs sets out to reclaim a bit of his dignity and purpose using letters, newsreel footage, and recreations of Sandor's environment as if to channel him back from the past.

Argentine author Julio Cortazar is the inspiration for WIND IN OUR HAIR (2009, 42 min.), which loosely interprets stories in the collection "Final de Juego" against the backdrop of social and political unrest in contemporary Argentina. In her first attempt at narrative filmmaking, Sachs still retains her associative, playful structure and documentary eye. Four young women, again played by Sach's daughters and family friends, grow restless at home and begin to make their way through Buenos Aires in search of excitement and eventually to a fateful meeting at the train tracks near their home. The film moves from childhood's earthbound, cloistered spaces and into the skittering beyond of adolescence, exploding with anticipation and possibility. Argentine musician Juana Molina lends her ethereal sound to compliment the wild mix of formats and styles.

7 PM Social Hour - Make your own 3-D glasses!
8 PM Screening
Special Admission: $10

The Editingmaven (award-winning editor Sharon Zurek) is up to her old tricks with "Babes in B-Movies," a mash-up of trashy classics including INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS (1973), SWAMP WOMEN (1955), and her favorite, CAT WOMEN OF THE MOON (1953). All three B-movies have been paired down to reveal their hilarious lesbian content! Nicholas Meyer (from the Star Trek films) sharpened his writing chops on BEE GIRLS; SWAMP WOMEN is one of Roger Corman's first early hits; and CAT WOMEN is full of terrific character actors from the forties. You will marvel at the bad science and cornball dialogue, but the women here have the spotlight. From the makers of "Bad Girls Behind Bars" and "Gia, Gia, Gia".

Co-sponsored by BLACK CAT PRODUCTIONS

Potter-Belmar Labs is Leslie Raymond and Jason Jay Stevens, collaborating artists since 1999. Their brand of "live cinema" incorporates mixed image and sound elements and audience participation. The result is a bit like a rock concert - well-practiced riffs mated with inspired improvisation - to create a spectacle unlike any you've ever seen. They build as they go, weaving field recordings with threads sampled from pop culture and their own rich sound and image compositions. From deeply ambient textures to moments of turbulence, concrete imagery gives way to abstraction, and themes emerge and recede. The results may recall a vivid dream, a visual symphony, or an abstract opera. PBL has received great notoriety for their performances around the country and we are proud to welcome them for an exclusive Chicago engagement.

It's that time again! Our popular Open Screenings feature whatever walks in the door - it could be anything: insane comedies, touching dramas, high-energy music videos, odd animation, hot topic documentaries, neighborhood portraits, or who knows what. Join us to showcase your work, or just come to watch. Maximum length per person is 20 minutes, and we will screen at least one work from everyone who brings something up to that time length. Accepted formats: 16mm, BetaSP, Mini-DV, DVD, and VHS. Nothing X-rated - sorry!