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Documentary / History
"There was a time, from the late 1940s through the 1960s, when the now-upscale Lincoln Park neighborhood served as the beating heart of Chicago’s huge Puerto Rican community, and the base of operations for a band of Puerto Rican revolutionaries known as the Young Lords. Led by a…
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Caged. Invisible. Shamed. Trapped. These words mark the tenants, clerks and even the owners of Chicago's last remaining Singe Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels. These small spaces are home for many at the bottom of Chicago's housing ladder. Cloaked in darkness and secrecy, these hotels are often maligned as drug dens and havens for prostitution but the people who live, work and own these hotels have never fully shared their stories. Caged Men is a feature-length documentary which examines the disquieting stories of near-homeless Americans living on the margins and their invisibility in a largely indifferent and, at times, hostile community. It attempts to lend a voice to SRO residents, clerks, owners and to the hotels themselves.
Mike Leonard tells the inside story of how the west Loop’s St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, known to residents as Old St. Pat's, transformed itself from an empty church in a declining neighborhood into a Chicago hub of worship, culture, social life, education, and service -- revitalizing a then-struggling West Loop.
We follow the story of The Thinker bombing at the Cleveland Museum of Art, trying to solve the mystery behind it because no one was ever caught. By following this case, we unravel the whole landscape of Cleveland and the USA in the 60s/70s - student protests, social justice movements, anti-war movements, and radical militant groups. We give a context to the bombing, which is symbolic on so many levels - it's an art piece that randomly became a target for political violence that, by being left unrepaired, became a reminder of the complicated history of the 60s/70s. The Thinker is a silent witness to this fascinating decade, looking down from his pedestal, still thinking about our place in the world as humans.
Set within Chicago’s labyrinth of alleyways, Scrappers is a cinéma vérité portrait of Otis and Oscar—two scrap metal scavengers searching for a living with brains, brawn, and battered pickup trucks. The film elucidates how globalization, the 2008 financial crisis, crackdowns on undocumented immigrants, and widespread scrap metal theft affect these men and their families.
A five-year odyssey of a South Side Chicago neighborhood, where more than 400 African-American families are being displaced by a multi-billion dollar freight company. The documentary film follows homeowner-turned-activist Deborah Payne, who vows to be "the last house standing," and the Row Row Boys, teen friends who must start a new life across gang lines.
Surreal film melding documentary footage of Chicago and its residents, featuring fast paced montage sequences set against a rollicking 1960s musical backdrop. The film aptly deconstructs the absurdities of contemporary American life, particularly the thick fog of patriotism engulfing the country at the time.
