Rediscovering Chicago's Film History

Last year I became the LIBRAS Archives Special Interest Group Chairperson; part of my job is to put events together which interest archivists and librarians within the LIBRAS community. The most
recent event was a visit and tour of the Chicago Film Archives. Their website states: “The Chicago Film Archives is a non-profit 501(c) (3) institution established in late 2003 in order to preserve and catalogue over five thousand 16mm films donated by the Chicago Public Library.”

Extra copies of films donated by the Chicago Public Library
During the visit, we discussed how the film industry in Chicago boomed during the early 20th century with actors including Charlie Chaplin getting their first start at Essanay Studios. Chicago was the film industry hub until the production companies moved to Hollywood. 

The films at CFA cover the “dark ages” of Chicago and Midwest filmmaking. As a regional archive their collections relate to Midwest history, amateur filmmakers, and home movies from donors. They also hold the film collection donated from the Chicago Public Library, which includes educational and travel films, silent films, foreign and American-made theatrical films, documentaries, industrials, newsreels, sports events and children's films.

CFA staff with Kinetta Archival Film Scanner,
taken from CFA's Twitter
One of the films shown to us was The Fairy Princess from amateur filmmaker Margaret Conneely. WATCH IT HERE. From the CFA website: “[Conneely] frames stop-motion animation and trick photography with live action footage to fuel her very own Christmas fairy tale.” We then compared it to a Christmas home movie from the Stacy Maugans Collection, 1965-1984. Even though the films are from the same era with similar subject matter, the Conneely film was purpose built and told a story, while the Maugan’s home movie captures real life for this family.

The 3 person staff also performs conservation work to restore or recreate a film's original look and sound. They recently purchased a Kinetta Archival Film Scanner, which captures 4K resolution images for digitization purposes. It helps them create access copies of films which are shown at local and international film screenings. In terms of preservation, films that are no longer stable for physical handling can be run through the Kinetta to create a beautiful reproduction.

Work station to check physical conditions of films

Amidst all that, we discussed how CFA compares to colleges or historical institutions, particularly in light of service functions, approaches to access, funding, and collection content. The main differences we found were funding and associations with other institutions. CFA relies on grants, donations, and a business model of charging for goods and services. It is also not affiliated with a college, university, or historical society, making the mission of CFA very specific.

I encourage everyone to check out their website and watch some of the 1600 films available online. 

I’d also like to the Nancy, Amy, and Brian for a fantastic experience!


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