Newcity Chicago October 2020

OCTOBER 2020 filmmaker of the moment Colette Ghunim

NOW OPEN Advance Tickets Required Lead support for Monet and Chicago is generously contributed by Major funding is provided by Lesley and Janice Lederer, the Shure Charitable Trust, Richard F. and Christine F. Karger, Mark and Fund for French Impressionism, Alison R. Barker in honor of Ruth Stark Randolph, the Kemper Educational and Charitable Fund, THE KENNETH C. GRIFFIN the Rose L. and Sidney N. Shure Endowment, Gail Elden, and Michelle Lozins. Members of the Exhibitions Trust provide annual CHARITABLE FUND leadership support for the museum’s operations, including exhibition development, conservation and collection care, and educational programming. The Exhibitions Trust includes an anonymous donor; Neil Bluhm and the Bluhm Family Charitable Foundation; Jay Lead Corporate Sponsors Anne and Chris Reyes; Cari and Michael J. Sacks; and the Earl and Brenda Shapiro Foundation. This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Claude Monet. Houses of Parliament, London (detail), 1906. The Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection.

ARTS & CULTURE CONTENTS Art OCTOBER 2020 Newcity OCTOBER 2020 Reckoning with Chicago's public art problem The Alley Project 46 Finding beauty in Design hidden passageways Fetish gear and bondage for all! 8 51 Filmmaker Dining & Drinking of the Moment Make room for Jell-O! Colette Ghunim and her quest 53 to make room for everyone 12 Film Film 50 Lucent dreaming 55 Cinematic creators to watch Lit 15 Kathleen Rooney imagines a world without war 57 Music All praise the mighty Pegboy 60 Stage An interview with Karen Yates of “Wild & Sublime” 62 Reviews A selection of our criticism and yay, it's great to have things to review! 64 3

Our lives as publishers and producers are convergingLETTER FROM THE as we document in the Film 50 the creative forces who lead the rise of cine-EDITOR matic Chicago. Newcity OCTOBER 2020 As I write, we're deep in the trenches of our movie business, three days away from the world premiere of “Dreaming Grand Avenue.” Most of the lon- ger-lead prep is done: the DCPs are at the theaters—Showplace Icon and Music Box—where it will open two days later, on Friday. e posters are in place for Chicago and ordered for future markets. e merch is in for the premiere gift bags, that night's program is at the printer, and most of the planning is done. Now we're down to the essence: selling tickets in Chicago and planning our expansion. We're not following a conventional rollout to theaters, due to the pandemic, of course, but also to our Chicago- and Mid- west-centric way of thinking about what we do. And we're waiting for the first reviews. Since we publish cultural criticism on the magazine side of our business, we know that this part is out of our hands as producers. We can only hope for the best. By the time you read this, this will all have played out and much of the film's trajectory determined. Our movie business is evolving into more of a micro-studio than just serving as a producer. We play a lead role in finding financing for our films—we're even launching a fund for this, e Chicago Film Fund. We take a very hands- on approach to development and creative production that engages us from casting to principal photography to post-production. And we not only chart the distribution path for each project, but we're increasingly taking on at least some of the role of distributor as well. So here we are, handling theatrical distribution for “Dreaming Grand Avenue.” And our other projects, past and future, demand their own amount of atten- tion, too. We've just signed new distribution deals for \"Signature Move,\" both in North America and the U.K., and we're getting things in order for that. And we're still trying to figure out how to work better with the distributors of \"Knives and Skin.\" All while continuing late-stage development of our next project, \"Homesick,\" which means casting searches, financing conversations and assembling a team. But first, the Film 50 must go to press and so I conclude this letter. It's a re- markably dynamic film and TV community that's nurturing Chicago, and we're happy to document it. And to be a part of it. — Brian Hieggelke 4

A Tale of Today Nate Young and Mika Horibuchi The Nickerson 40 East Erie A Tale of Today: Nate Jean Stark, Gary Metzner Presented by Mansion takes driehaus Young and Mika Horibuchi and Scott Johnson, and center stage museum.org is presented by Northern the Richard H. Driehaus Trust. Additional support is Annual Exhibition Fund. provided by Eugene and Now on view A Tale of Today: Nate Young Photograph by Steve Hall of and Mika Horibuchi is Hedrich Blessing, 2008. organized by the Richard H. Driehaus Museum.

Contributors RAY PRIDE (Writer and editor, “Film ” TIM CUNDY (Writer, “A World Without War”) ON THE COVER and “Filmmaker of the Moment”) is Newcity’s was raised in Cleveland, Ohio before moving Cover Photo Sandy Morris (Sally Blood) Film Editor. This year’s “Film ” is Ray’s to Chicago to study at DePaul University’s Cover Design Dan Streeting eighth edition. Sample bits of his book-length School of the Cinematic Arts. Since graduating meditation on Chicago “ghost signs”—which last June, Tim has been pursuing his interests Vol. 35, No. 1408 mutates with each overly eventful week— in writing fiction, producing local documentary on Twitter (@ChiGhostSigns). His Instagram work, and crafting multimedia stories. PUBLISHERS and Twitter are @raypride. Currently living in Lakeview, Tim spends Brian & Jan Hieggelke his free time visiting national parks, listening Associate Publisher Mike Hartnett SANDY MORRIS (aka Sally Blood) to Silver Jews albums, and fighting the urge EDITORIAL (Photographer, Cover, “Filmmaker of the to adopt a dog. Editor Brian Hieggelke Moment” and “Film ”) is thrilled to be Managing Editor Jan Hieggelke shooting the Film for the third time.  HAYLEY OSBORN (Writer, “Wild & Art Editor Kerry Cardoza She is an award-winning photographer Online”) is an artist, performer and writer. Design Editor Vasia Rigou and filmmaker who is also an ICG Her work focuses on several subject Dining and Drinking Editor member shooting on set stills for film/tv. matters, including; gender and sexuality, David Hammond sandymorris.com artistic authenticity, and the extrinsic Film Editor Ray Pride context behind the creative process. Lit Editor Tara Betts MONICA KASS ROGERS (Writer/ Music Editor Robert Rodi Photographer, “The Alley Project”) writes DAN STREETING and BILLY WERCH Stage Editor Sharon Hoyer and photographs from Evanston, Illinois. designed this issue of Newcity. Dan is a ART & DESIGN Growing up in Ukrainian Village, she's always designer, illustrator and educator based in Senior Designers Fletcher Martin, loved alleys, creating abstract digital photo the Chicago area but originally from Detroit. Dan Streeting, Billy Werch art of her finds. View daily posts of Monica's Billy is a Chicago designer with one leg in Designer Stephanie Plenner alley adventures at The Alley Project, on publishing and one in the music business. MARKETING Instagram @rogers.mk Marketing Manager Todd Hieggelke OPERATIONS Chicago Studio City General Manager Jan Hieggelke Distribution Nick Bachmann, Newcity OCTOBER 2020 Celebrating our 41st year in business! Adam Desantis, Preston Klik Full service motion picture studio, sound stages and office space. Retail price $10 per issue. In certain locations, Grip and electric equipment, generators, shops and trucks. Established in 1979. one copy is available on a complimentary basis. Subscriptions and additional copies of current 773.261.3400 5660 W. Taylor St, Chicago, IL 60614 [email protected] and back issues available at Newcityshop.com. Copyright 2020, New City Communications, Inc. 6 All Rights Reserved. Newcity assumes no responsibility to return unsolicited editorial or graphic material. All rights in letters and unsolicited editorial or graphic material will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyright purposes and subject to comment editorially. Nothing may be reprinted in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. Newcity is published by Newcity Communications, Inc. 47 West Polk, Suite 100-223, Chicago, IL 60605 Visit NewcityNetwork.com for advertising and editorial information. Subscribe at Newcityshop.com

Made in 20 L.A. 20 OPENING FALL 2020 LOS ANGELES a version Presented by: FULTON LEROY WASHINGTON (AKA “MR. WASH”), POLITICAL TEARS OBAMA (DETAIL), 2008. OIL ON STRETCHED CANVAS. 24 × 18 IN. (61 × 45.7 CM). COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

The Alley Project Photos and Essay by A Story of Remnants, Ordinary and True Monica Kass Rogers Perched in the alley on a tiny wooden stool, Then one day, an old man in a flatbed wooden I’m eye-level with this little hero. A push-pop- cart came past, the neck of his nag up-and- shaped cement plug, he leans tipsy-like in front downing in its bridle, nostrils chuffing the hot air, of me. Knocked sideways (how many times?) by hooves clopping on the cracked alley pavement. car bumpers, car fenders, car tires, car doors. And the old man cried, “Rags! Alarn!” or that’s I imagine decades of cartoon cars swelling and what it sounded like, as I pushed hard against shrinking in a jiggly film reel of changing fashions, our chain link fence to get a better look, so full all navigating this sharp alley turn with squeals of the sight and sound of that cart’s passing, I and jerks and owners’ curses as they hit my tiny could barely breathe with excitement. friend. But he’s still standing, plug-man is. A rain- bow sherbet of cautionary spray paint has made “He’s saying, ‘Rags, old iron,’ calling for peo- him a clown, but a brave one, I think, as I click ple’s junk, dad told me, watching too, but through the camera shutter. some long-ago South Side vantage, his eyes a prism of childhood memories. This alley is an “I.” The city planners carved this block, and dozens more, into quarters. Mak- I didn’t dream that rag man. But dreams do hide ing a grid with fronts and backs. Neat vivisection. here. You see them in the shifting light of the alley Exposé. I photograph alleys every day. plants. Pigweed and crabgrass, mulberry and ailanthus. Scruffy survivors. There are dreams in Because whatever face you see up front is the layers of peeling paint, taupe over white over seldom echoed at the back. green over blue. In garages that tilt and lean and groan and hunker. In the used-to-be murals, Alleys are our fuzzy slippers, worn-down at patched-over traffic cones, broken toys and crook- the heel. Our hole-y sweatshirts with cuffs frayed ed lettering, fences fallen, fences propped. and elbows out. Beloved. Familiar. Worth keep- ing, no matter their condition. And always the landscape of shifting trash. Discovery here is endless. The messages I grew up playing in alleys. What Chicago kid change hourly. Those cups and plates, so care- didn’t? Kicked the can, hit the ball, swept the fully stacked, say, “Take me, please, I’m not done dogshit. Shot the rockets, burned the cherry yet.” That tangle of balloons, skins sagging like bombs, broke the windows, ran to hide. shriveled grapes, drift in a spangly-ribboned af- ter-chorus of “party’s over.” This heap of shoes There was that time my little sister shook the and bedding I poke with my toe, amid posters pennies from her piggy bank and walked the alley and pots, and the arm of a shirt stretched flat to the corner store. Bought those chocolate Su- and pleading, says rent’s not been paid and paid zy-Qs and ate them fast. And when dad asked and paid. what she’d been eating, said she’d found them Gentrification comes with a sweep of shiny in the alley, leading panicked father on a wan- and new, but alleys hold out, a story in remnants, dering walk to a clean and likely-looking bin. Only ordinary, true. Wandering here, I’m one of them. confessed the lie when Dad told her she was gonna have her stomach pumped. Monica Kass Rogers writes and photographs from Evanston, Illinois. Growing up in Ukrainian Alleys are full of stories like that. The alley behind our house had a squat brick Village, she’s always loved alleys, creating building that once stabled horses. Working hors- abstract digital photo art of her finds. es. I used to imagine them coming and going through that dark maw of an entrance. The sound View daily posts of Monica’s alley adventures of their harnesses jangling. The sight of their at The Alley Project, on Instagram @rogers.mk coats glistening in the dusty dark. Newcity OCTOBER 2020 1 Pink Wind 6 Not Flag 12 5 7 2 Supplicant 7 Matter 3 4 9 10 3 Day 23 8 Candy Can 4 Golden 9 Eden 6 5 Tarp in the Wind 10 Horse 8 8

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Newcity OCTOBER 2020filmmaker of the moment Among thriving, multi-talent, multihyphenate Chicago filmmakers, Colette Ghunim is on the move. Literally: we caught up with the documentarian, executive director and co-founder of Mezcla Media Collective as she was settling into a stay in Cairo, Egypt. by ..................................... Ray Pride photos by....................... Sally Blood Photographed remotely with Sally in Chicago, Illinois and Colette in Cairo, Egypt. At Zamalek Cinema in Cairo Assistant: Christina Rizk Retouching: Baby Doll Studio At Colette's home Assistant: Nabil Khalifa 12

Where should we start? The first step was connecting all of us scat- stories are being told, and who are the ones OCTOBER 2020 Newcity   tered across the city and suburbs; we had telling them. It is also no longer enough to I returned to Chicago in 2016 after living in our first official Mezcla gathering at Stage just check the diversity box; it is one thing Egypt for two years, to co-direct my first 18 in Cinespace, and we were shocked for companies and crews to want diverse documentary, “The People's Girls,” which that over sixty women and non-binary in- perspectives, and another to actually listen. received over two-million views for its bold dividuals showed up. Since then, we have Specifically, as womxn of color, we are re- spotlight on street harassment in Cairo. grown organically to over 550 members, fusing to be used as tokens, fully embracing While temping in a variety of administrative who are independent filmmakers, cinema- our worth as filmmakers and innovators roles, I met who was to be my first boss and tographers, production designers, and in the industry. For too long, our communi- biggest mentor, Elena Valentine. Filming much more in both the documentary and ties have been ignored, and our stories and editing videos for her company, Skill narrative industries. warped by outside perspectives. Structures Scout, we built strong camaraderie, which   in place that keep marginalized peoples out, then led to the creation of Mezcla Media Knowing that our stories need to be heard whether through access to funds, people, Collective in 2018. I also started working now, more than ever, we work to create or space, are slowly being broken down, yet with Scrappers Film Group in 2018, where our own table, using the assets of our we hope to go one step further by building I learned an invaluable amount of technical community to build and fulfill our life pur- our own structures from the ground up. skills around filming and editing for non- poses of being the storytellers for our com- Through Mezcla, we feel incredibly grateful profits and documentaries [being made] munities together. We around the city. All throughout, I began seek to level the play- for the community partnerships that have working on my first feature-length film, ing field, ensuring that generously supported our organization's “Traces of Home,” catalyzed through Kar- women and non-binary growth, and I personally am excited that a temquin Films' Diverse Voices in Docs Fel- filmmakers of color are much needed shift in media making both lowship. “Traces of Home” follows my jour- leaders in our city’s bus- in front and behind the camera is starting ney with my parents to find the homes they tling media production to take hold.  were forced to leave in Mexico and Pales- scene, while also allow-   tine as children, while also confronting how ing stakeholders in the What are you doing that intergenerational trauma shaped my no- industry who are inter- no one else can do?  tions of home in suburban America.  ested in diversity and in-     clusion to work with the Like many others, the quarantine forced me The Hulu-Kartemquin grant organization to achieve to slow down and intentionally reflect on sounds like a real boost. their goals in a very in- my life, and how I want to live it. Sitting in   tentional manner. meditation every morning, I am learning to As one of two projects selected for the   love myself fully: embracing my own unique Hulu/Kartemquin Accelerator program, Mezcla offers three tiers character, imperfections and all. Removing I received a grant, a weekly mentorship of resources: hyper-local, comparisons, I am growing in acceptance for the film's progress, and a first-look deal knowledge transfer and that no one else can be my full, authentic with Hulu upon “Traces of Home”'s com- career advancement. self. And during my time here, I am beyond pletion. The film is in development with Kar- Through our closed on- grateful to spend my days with a camera, temquin and in progress to become a Kar- line group, members as a vehicle to amplify voices that too often temquin co-production. “Traces of Home” share centralized infor- go ignored, as well providing agency to also secured a broadcast deal with Al mation on job opportu- those who dream to do the same. Jazeera Documentary Channel by winning nities, advice on their film projects, net- the LatinArab Co-Production Forum in working events and Chicago film industry Buenos Aires, Argentina. My goal is to fin- events. Since its founding, Mezcla has filled ish the film by September of next year for over thirty production jobs for film compa- fall festival submission deadlines, as well as nies and facilitated at least a dozen hires to have a strong impact campaign that for jobs in Chicago. Through our monthly sparks healing in Latino and Arab commu- meet-ups and organized events, womxn of nities affected by forced migration. color have been able to connect with one   another and bring their projects to fruition. And now you are in Egypt. Led by our Leadership Circle, we plan ed- ucational programming and community re- I am currently based in Cairo, for my Egyp- sources that create access and equity, as tian husband's work, using this time very well as raise funds to keep us sustainable intentionally as my editing retreat to get and thriving as an organization for decades “Traces of Home” to an assembly stage!   to come.      I want to hear more about What future do you envision for Mezcla’s origins. Chicago to persist as a thriving   base for diverse filmmaking and Elena and I started the collective back in narrative forms of visual storytelling? November 2017 after we noticed a lack of   community and resources specifically for The time has come for our community to be women and non-binary filmmakers of color. extremely honest with itself around whose 13

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Newcity OCTOBER 2020 Who de nes any given year in a single word? 2020 carries bushels: Isolation. Solitude. Hibernation. Silence. Concentration. Inspiration. Resistance. Renewal. Resurgence. e world has changed and changes every day in ways that storytellers will tell us in clear or mysterious and shapely form, and visionaries will explain: quicker, slow- er, faster, surer, better. But not the same. As important to the sustenance and longevity of film in Chicago, as a pursuit, an industry, a community, as necessary as any audiovisual work that will explode upon the scene at the appropriate time in the appropriate medium, is vision. ese Chicago creative filmmakers have that. ey tap into mind and soul and art, but are aware of its utility and its influence in a community; they are islands, but in the verdant archipelago of Chicago. ere are old masters with decades of experience and upstarts, too. We don’t mark ages on the list, but the profiles and portraits offer clues. e exchanges with these talented, vital filmmakers, this blazingly articulate bunch, run 80,000 words in full, the length of a modest literary novel about a major city in a transformative passage of time. ese are not only filmmakers who have finished or nearly finished work, or who are invested in a two-year or a five-year or even seven-year plan, but artists who cannot help but transform storytelling in the new world and in our lasting com- munity: not just in the world, but in this world we breathe in today. We are stopped, but we are not still. Breathe in. Breathe out. Ray Pride Film was written by Ray Pride. All photos by Sandy Morris (Sally Blood). Shot on location at the Gene Siskel Film Center. 16

1 Kris Rey “I’m not some special talent. I’m just doing 1 it,” says Kris Rey, writer-director of the com- Kris edy-drama “I Used to Go Here.” “I’ve gotten Rey loads of opportunities over the years that led me to where I am and I’m very grateful from an urban, mostly Black school and a The list includes Kartemquin Films’ Jiayan OCTOBER 2020 Newcity for that. I believe that if you’ve got talent and suburban, mostly white one. “I’m fortunate “Jenny” Shi’s SXSW-recognized “Finding you persist, you can do this.” Missing its that the pandemic hasn't drastically Yingying”; Gordon Quinn and Leslie Sim- 2020 SXSW premiere when the Texas fes- affected my work,” he says. “I mainly do it mer’s “For the Left Hand”; and Maria Finit- tival was cancelled, Rey’s fourth feature had alone, in a room, often at home. Editing is zo’s “The Dilemma of Desire” and Yung a largely video-on-demand release this the most fun and powerful part of the doc- Chang’s “Wuhan! Wuhan!” as well as the summer to exceptional notices. A higher umentary process. As long as I can work on fiction film “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter profile won’t tempt her away from the city. meaningful projects with talented collabo- and Sweet,” executive-produced by George “Chicago is where I live. All my stuff is here. rators, I’m a happy camper.” Twenty-three Takei and Kevin Lin for a late 2021 release. I’ve got two kids and a house and all kinds years of close connection to Kartemquin She is a Sundance Creative Producing Fel- of friends and a whole life here that I love. Films hasn’t hurt. Come spring, Simpson low, an IFP Cannes Producer Fellow, a Film 2019 was the first year I decided to stop will cut Steve James’ new project. “Art Independent Fellow and a recipient of the complaining about the winter and started responds to dire times,” Simpson says. “It’s 2020 Cinereach Producer Award. “My immi- investing in house plants and fancy candles. hard for me to be too pessimistic for human- grant parents worked long hours at our It’s a great place to make movies. People ity, although my general hopes are tem- small, family-owned restaurant and had are authentic here. That’s important to me.” pered by fear and trembling for the outcome limited resources, but always made sure I Money for movies is important, too. “Money. of this election.” was around for the arts,” Quon says. “It was We need more money here. We have a mil- so unusual for Chinese parents, but my dad lion film schools that are graduating a lot 3 brought me to musicals and plays and he of talent, we have affordable housing, we Diane Quon would play his favorite LPs of Johnny Mathis have great crews, but we need money to and Nat King Cole for me. My parents took finance independent projects.” Of the recent Filmmaker Diane Quon, Kartemquin asso- me to piano and dance lessons growing up, months of 2020, Rey says, “I got pretty down ciate, member of the Academy and affiliate even though their work schedule would not and couldn’t write at all, and then got into of A-Doc and Brown Girls Doc Media, is a allow them to attend any of my recitals, and this horrible cycle of feeling guilty about not producer on a range of projects since the I was an art major in high school. If I had writing then anxious about feeling guilty then 2018 release of Bing Liu’s “Minding the Gap.” been talented enough—and I was not!— got sucked into a doom spiral. Things are flowing with my writing now and I’m feeling better about everything because of that. I also want to acknowledge that I am a privileged white person and I’m making it through this pandemic okay because of my circumstances, doom spirals or not.” 2 David Simpson Chicago editorial veteran David Simpson’s most visible work this year is as editor on Steve James’ “City So Real” (co-edited with James), a landmark canvas of Chicago that stretches from the Laquan McDonald mur- der trial, on to the mayoral election of 2019 and into this year's pandemic and summer's protests for racial justice. National Geo- graphic will likely air the five-part series before the election. Simpson also did foun- dational editing on “The Last Strike,” a fea- ture documentary by Danny Alpert and Ray Nowosielski, recounting the echoes to this day of the PATCO strike of 1981, during which Ronald Reagan fired 13,000 air traf- fic-controllers overnight and sparked three decades of U.S. anti-labor activity. He is editing “Messwood,” a feature-length doc examining the dynamics of a high school football program that combines students 17

I would have loved to have been on stage 2 release.” Digital doc series “Pulling the performing. After college and business David Thread,” coming this fall from World Chan- school, my goal was to find a way to com- Simpson nel and ITVS, unravels the nation’s most bine my love for the creative with my busi- popular conspiracy theories, revealing “the ness background. I am so grateful to have insecurity,” Alpert says. “No Small Matter,” emotional, cognitive and social forces that found work that has allowed me to do on why early childhood is the critical invest- lead rational people to believe irrational this—first, a fulfilling career in marketing at ment we must make in our future, was things. The project doesn’t tell people what NBC and Paramount, and now to be able released this summer, with over 1,300 to think, but pushes us to examine how we to produce my own films. I see myself con- screenings, including twenty statehouse think—why conspiracy theories are so allur- tinuing to support first-time filmmakers in screenings and two on Capitol Hill, as well ing, how baseless rumors and ‘fake news’ some capacity, whether as a producer, as over 750,000 views of supplementary undermine trust and democracy—and what mentor or executive producer. I would materials on YouTube. “Obviously, we are we can all do about it.” Alpert is hopeful. also like to continue to work on projects thrilled with this reach for a COVID-era “The protests for Black Lives Matter and with more established directors—I learn so racial justice demonstrate that the tide is much!—and fully funded commercial proj- turning. Still, this is a period of flux and ects, to stay sustainable.” things may get worse before they get better. I don't know what the future holds for me as a fifty-plus-year-old, privileged, white, documentary filmmaker and I'm trying not to think about the next five years. ‘The Last Strike’ has a lot of potential as a film and in its social impact, and I'm putting all my effort into making this potential a reality.”  5 Alex Thompson Director-producer-writer Alex Thompson spent the past year or so on the road with screenwriter Kelly O’Sullivan promoting SXSW breakout “Saint Frances” at later festivals, as well as Oscilloscope Laborato- ries’ U.S. release in theaters and virtually. The pair are developing O’Sullivan’s script, “Mouse,” which they intend to co-direct. 5 Alex Thompson 4 Danny Alpert Newcity OCTOBER 2020 “Normally, I have three or four projects going at once and every day is a juggling act,” says producer-director Danny Alpert, executive director of Kindling Group. “Particularly now, in the pandemic and resulting economic crisis, I am working on creating more focus— working on making one movie.” “The Last Strike,” set for summer 2021, “unravels the story, roots and echoes of the infamous PATCO strike of 1981. That August, 11,345 members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization walked the picket line in solidarity and in defiance of President Reagan’s order to return to work. When he fired them en masse, an era of corporate strikebreaking and declining union power followed, paving the way for modern Amer- ica’s unprecedented inequality and job 18

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Other projects? “I feel like I'm standing in Yingying,” since 2017, the story of a talented 6 front of an empty buffet waiting for the food Chinese student who vanished from the Jenny trays to be brought out. There's so much University of Illinois campus, and how her else happening in the world.” What does life touched everyone around her. A Kar- Shi the Midwest need to sustain its stalled temquin co-production, it won a Special industry? “There is a lot of lip service about Jury Recognition for Breakthrough Voice at spective. “My identity and perspective as ‘investing’ in independent film in Chicago, SXSW and is at festivals until its still-to-be- an Asian woman play a key role in the sto- but there are few folks actually making fis- announced distribution home. Shi was a ries I want to tell and the way I tell them,” cal investments and taking risks on inde- translator for the Academy Award-winning she says. “I’m proud to be a female film- pendent work. The dynamic is either mak- “American Factory,” and collaborated this maker of color, and I’m lucky to be champi- ing a film for far less than you should, and summer with a Chinese director on a oned by people who share the same values hoping in-kind [non-cash contributions] will COVID documentary from a global per- and respect work from BIPOC. But I hope bridge the quality gap, or making a film for there will be more access to resources and far more than you should. Both going big funding. What’s more, for emerging film- and going small appear to be insurance for makers, it’s crucial to have systemic and different investors. Big seems to ensure continuous support, such as mentorship quality [it doesn't] and small seems to programs with veteran filmmakers.” ensure recoupment [it doesn't]. That’s something my producers and I talk about a lot, finding that balance. ‘Saint Frances’ was financed entirely by individual equity inves- tors. Some had production experience, oth- ers didn't, but the bottom line is that I or someone on the team had to track down every dollar needed from a disparate, incredibly generous group. That's not a sus- tainable model and it serves only those with privilege and connection to privilege. It's never been easy to make independent films. It's not going to get any easier.” 6 Jenny Shi Director-producer-journalist Jiayan \"Jenny\" Shi is a Kartemquin FIlms associate and 2018 Diverse Voices in Docs fellow. Shi’s been working on her first feature, “Finding 7 7 Patrick Patrick Wimp Wimp “People seem to respond to the way I visual- ize stories,” filmmaker Patrick Wimp says. “I Newcity OCTOBER 2020 love style. I like to bring fantastical elements to my stories and explore the full breadth of visual language.” Wimp, an instructor at DePaul, Northwestern and the Harold Ramis Film School, is coming off a long festival run for a John Hughes-style teen comedy, “Ber- nadette,” winning more than a dozen awards. His biggest recent project is the three-epi- sode digital comedy series, “Brothers from the Suburbs,” following three awkward Black teenagers in an affluent, predominantly white, private school community. Among its nods were audience and jury awards at the 2019 Austin Film Festival; Wimp has sold that series to Warner Bros, which is shopping the show to networks. He was cinematographer on Chance the Rapper’s “We Go High” short music video directed by Elijah Alvarado. “I love hip-hop and this was a pipe-dream experience.” The virus, he says, “derailed any 20

potential production work,” but he’s finished writing another original pilot and is attached to direct a feature doc about the founder of the Chicago Defender. “Identity is a core theme that runs through my work,” Wimp says. “The search for human identity crosses a lot of boundaries and sits at the center of a lot of great storytelling. I’m also drawn to examinations of identity and racial interac- tions in America. I want to tell stories about Black characters and other diverse or mar- ginalized characters just doing regular things, presented as real people. These are stories that get told about white characters all the time, and for me, dispelling stereotype and caricature is really important.” 8 Elena Valentine and Colette Ghunim Filmmaker and design researcher Elena 8 I'm most attracted to social issue documen- OCTOBER 2020 Newcity Valentine is the co-founder, with Colette Elena Valentine tary, and trying to tell a story in a way that Ghunim, of the Mezcla Media Collective creates an empathetic response in audi- nonprofit, which elevates women and of this and recognize the missteps. So ences.” Simmer, who recently began teach- non-binary filmmakers of color. (See Film- despite all this, I am encouraged to see that ing at Columbia College, slid into several maker of the Moment for more from Colette leaders are waking up and seeing that this projects since wrapping “America to Me,” Ghunim.) Valentine’s mission is to “leverage is a problem.” The lesson of 2020 for Valen- including “For the Left Hand,” co-directed film stories in the workplace to help people tine, though, “has been about nurturing with Gordon Quinn, about a pianist who find meaning in their work,” as a way to get Elena the artist—as opposed to Elena the survived a violent attack by his father that young people excited about their careers. business owner or community builder.” left him paralyzed on the right side and then She draws on the motto,“you cannot be spent the next sixty years mastering works what you cannot see.” Films made by her 9 written for the left hand only. A chance team at Skill Scout, where she is CEO, work Leslie Simmer encounter with the Tribune’s Howard Reich with clients like Nike and American Airlines led to his concert debut. A series still under to engage with employees. With Studs Ter- “’Empathy’ is critical for me to be able to enter wraps “was one of the most beautiful stories kel as a hero, she hopes to do with a film fully into a long-term, long-form edit,” says camera what the late interviewer achieved Leslie Simmer, director of editing and senior with a microphone in work like “Working.” editor at Kartemquin Films, “which is why She hopes “to capture the humanity of work and drive conversation and collective action about our workplaces. There is opportunity to drive meaningful change by focusing on the good. The stories we share can serve as a foundation for a national movement that uses film to drive awareness and change in workplace culture, diversity and inclusion and human resource practices.” As for Chicago, she says, “There’s a grit and grind to our stories and to our approach. And when it comes to genuine community and connection, there is a level of helpful- ness and open books kind of mentality here. Perhaps this is why Mezcla Media Collec- tive has been able to thrive so much.” Mez- cla has made it “blatantly clear” to her “the lack of intention film companies have had when it comes to building and fostering an inclusive culture. And, I don’t mean to just call out the film community. No film com- pany lives in a bubble. We are serving diverse audiences of all kinds. Every indus- try is challenged with this right now. And so many film leaders I talked to aren’t proud 21

everyday to the best of my ability.” Up next is “The Red Summer Project,” about a group of artists who went on a nationwide tour to honor the centennial of the Red Summer Race Riots in 2019. 11 Seth Savoy I've ever edited, both visually and emotionally. 10 Director Seth Savoy’s created commercial Being able to spend time with the characters, Jayme work and for cultural organizations, and albeit only on my Avid screen, always left me Joyce finished his feature “Echo Boomers,” a Chi- feeling more peaceful and cheerful. I used cago-set twentysomethings heist drama to tell people that editing it was like doing taking risks and pushing the art forms featuring Michael Shannon, Lesley Ann the backstroke in a warm, calm lake.” Simmer toward a big renaissance. It would also Warren, Patrick Schwarzenegger and is also completing a still-untitled film about serve Chicago to confront how segregated Alex Pettyfer, to be released by Saban activist and commentator Van Jones after it is. This includes the art and film world. I’d Films. “There is this unspoken bond in the the 2016 election: “His journey takes him love to see more diverse film crews. Fund- Chicago film community. Chicago has given deep into the messy drama of the Trump ing and gigs going more to people of color me everything I could have ever asked for. administration and America’s polarized pol- and women. I’m working toward this vision I found the majority of my investors here itics.” Simmer says she’s “umbilically linked and met Byron Wetzel, Sean Kaplan, Mike to Kartemquin Films and the incredibly tal- 11 Ware, who helped me produce ‘Echo Boom- ented group of filmmakers who have come Seth ers,’ and most importantly, this city gave me through our doors. There is a huge pool of Savoy a once-in-a-lifetime story to tell.” Savoy’s talent in the Midwest that needs to be nur- niche, he says, “is fun and flashy political tured and nourished.”  commentary that sparks conversation. Con- 10 Jayme Joyce Newcity OCTOBER 2020 Documentary producer-director Jayme Joyce made a commitment in 2018 to the nonfiction company, Local Legend Films, which has completed a raft of short docs as a group. Most recently, collaborating with disadvantaged youth, the group pro- duced a mini-documentary series, “Local Legends of COVID-19,” which relate tales of relief workers passing out food, promot- ing peace amidst gun violence, incarcer- ated people, students, artists and protests. “The people in Chicago have a lot of stories to tell and document,” Joyce says. “I’ve been seeking a deeper understanding of restor- ative justice and social and emotional intel- ligence as an alternative approach to run- ning a business, leading teams and telling stories.” She sounds a refrain: Chicago film needs funding. “Funding is the biggest thing missing for people working in all of the arts. If there was an abundance of funding, young artists could push boundaries and failures wouldn’t be so heartbreaking. We could celebrate new unproven artists for 22

tent that makes people question their own 12 beliefs is an absolute must, and as long as Shuling I’m working with great actors telling an Yong amazing story that makes people think—I could do this forever. And I’d like to thank the universe in advance for the beautiful, positive social changes in our future.” 12 Shuling Yong “I am taking from my unique experience of west stories.” It’s important to him not to 14 OCTOBER 2020 Newcity being a queer, Singaporean immigrant, take “the privilege of being a working film- J.P. Sniadecki woman of color, a mother, a wife, who is maker lightly—remembering the difference now working as a freelance director, direc- between entertainment and art is that art Filmmaker-anthropologist-professor J.P. tor of photography and sound recordist strives to challenge the status quo.” Liu, Sniadecki, director of MFA in Documentary specializing in vérité documentaries, and who is working on a feature-length docu- Media program and associate professor, using it to make a positive impact in my mentary about two organizations working RTVF Department, Northwestern Univer- community.” Shuling Yong, a 2009 North- to reduce gun violence on the South and sity, continues his dense but disarming western graduate, has made her place as West Sides, has been in California since documentary practice after successes like the director of 2019’s “Unteachable” and as lockdown, but looks forward to his return “The Iron Ministry” and “El Mar La Mar.” the highly regarded director of photography to the city. “Chicago has art-house theaters, Sniadecki released “A Shape of Things To on films such as “The Feeling of Being Midwestern-focused film festivals, indepen- Come” (co-directed with Lisa Marie Malloy), Watched” and “Trans in America: Chicago dent film community organizations, and a “an unsettling vision of eco-terrorism” and Love”; and location sound mixer on Maria thriving industry. As Lupe Fiasco says, it's “postmodern borderlands Western, specu- Finitzo’s “The Dilemma of Desire”; Debra the best city in the whole wide world.” lative fiction” that follows Sundog, an herb- Tolchinsky’s “True Memories and Other What’s missing? “More films representing alist-hunter-homesteader who lives off the Falsehoods”; and Margaret Byrne’s “Any life in Chicago, especially those parts of the land in the Sonoran Desert. Sniadecki says Given Day.” (She was lead location sound city often overlooked. I think this lockdown the film raises “provocative questions about recordist on “Becoming,” the Michelle and the renewed focus on inequities in Chi- humanity's relation to the environment, and Obama doc.) “Growing up in Singapore, cago and the country is making people to itself, amidst the specter of global col- I was always told that doing well in math rethink what is important in their work mov- lapse.” “Cairo, IL Project” in the works since and science was important as it would lead ing forward.” Liu is looking forward to fic- 2017, is a collectively authored work set in to greater career prospects,” she says. “So tional narrative as well, including a feature “the overlooked yet historic town of Cairo, when I was sixteen, my decision to pursue set in his hometown of Rockford. “Art is a Illinois, a former industrial and agricultural a career in the arts was a big disappoint- reflection of society,” he says. “If we as peo- empire at the confluence of the Mississippi ment to my parents. Even today, at thir- ple continue to support funding to invest in and Ohio Rivers” that was also a nexus for ty-four, they still have a hard time wrapping the parts of the city most in need—specifi- the civil rights movement in the 1960s, with their heads around a ‘freelance life,’ and cally those historically ignored and aban- protests against racist policies, violence constantly worry about my ability to make doned, it will produce not just rich and and oppression there led by figures like a stable living.” Working with groups like diverse art coming out of the city but a rich John Lewis, Reverend Charles Koen, Hattie Kartemquin, Mezcla Media Collective and and diverse community.” Kendrick and Preston Ewing Jr. Peopled by QueerDoc, Yong is “an eternal optimist, I always try to find the good in every situation” and believes that to live a fulfilling and sus- tainable life, “one needs to find their Ikigai, a Japanese term used to describe a reason for being, or the intersection of four things— what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. It took years of trying many facets of the media industry, including production assist- ing, digital marketing, impact producing, radio production, podcasting and nonprofit video production before I was able to find my Ikigai in what I do now: documentary cinematography and location sound.” 13 Bing Liu Bing Liu, the 2018 Film 50’s “Filmmaker of the Moment” and director of “Minding the Gap,” says “I’m interested in telling Mid- 23

15 “an indelible cast of Cairoites,” the project Yvonne Welbon celebrates the vibrant community spirit. “As a multiracial and multigenerational team of 16Newcity OCTOBER 2020 locals and allies, we are driven by the prin- Tom Palazzolo ciple of inclusion,” Sniadecki says, “and seek to dismantle existing hierarchical structures 24 which have long imposed limits, biases and barriers in the film world. We embrace a collective ethos: authorship is shared, sto- ries are woven together in a multivocal col- lage, and our team works together in a collaborative manner.” The group’s collab- oration with community leaders extends to bringing down abandoned homes for more gardens, creating economic opportunities for locals and launching initiatives like Cairo Media Art Center. Sniadecki is working on another project in China, as well as a 16mm film workshop in Beijing that teaches cellu- loid filmmaking and hand-processing, “although it obviously has run into some obstacles with COVID-19 and geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China.” 15 Yvonne Welbon “I have a unique set of life experiences as an award-winning filmmaker, producer, educa- tor and industry visionary,” says Yvonne Welbon, filmmaker, producer and founder and CEO of the nonprofit Sisters in Cinema. “I have demonstrated my dedication to shar- ing what I have learned with Black women, girls and gender non-conforming media makers throughout my career-long Sisters in Cinema project. Once we open the Media Arts Center in 2021, we believe we will be the only organization of its kind in Chicago and possibly in the entire country. We envision a world where all Black girls, women and gen- der non-conforming media makers and sto- rytellers have equal opportunities to create and thrive. I'm working with my community to make that happen.” As an award-winning filmmaker, and member of the Academy, Welbon has produced and distributed doz- ens of films including “Living With Pride: Ruth Ellis @100” and “Sisters in Cinema,” a documentary on the history of Black women feature film directors. Upcoming projects include “The Spies Who Loved Me,” an exposé on surveillance drawn from six years she lived in Taipei, Taiwan and “American Pride,” a Black lesbian coming-of-age series set in the early 1970s on the South Side. 16 Tom Palazzolo “Fifty years a filmmaker!” veteran filmmaker and retired SAIC teacher Tom Palazzolo reports. “There’s nothing I can do, that others can’t do better. But I can usually do it cheaper

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than anyone else.” A lavish book of Palazzo- 18 lo’s photography of lost skid row “Clark Clayton Brown Street” was published last fall, and he is still and Monica Long Ross hard at work. “Whatever falls in my lap will determine my future work. I don’t have pre- conceived ideas when starting a project, I want situations to unfold spontaneously.” The coming year should see the premiere of “Lee Godie: Chicago French Impressionist,” a feature documentary about the late street artist with filmmaker Kapra Fleming. “Still pursuing my interest in video documentary, still photography and painting. Doing video interviews and incorporating stills and 16mm footage. Chicago will always be the focus of my work. My roots are deep. I am optimistic about the future, but know we will need the pandemic to end before things return to nor- mal and new opportunities arise. In the next five years, I hope to continue experimenting with the documentary format, and collabo- rating with other video makers. I want to continue collaborating with Media Burn and Chicago Film Archives, as well as any person, place, thing that would like my input. I make it happen by reaching out to friends for sug- gestions. Much of my film work came about as a result of their ‘You should do a film about…’ I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.” 17 Jason Chiu Newcity OCTOBER 2020 “Everyone else can do what I do!” director looks dated. What’s missing from the film very complex relationship with science,” of photography Jason Chiu says of his highly community are more paid opportunities for Brown says. “A creationist organization in regarded work. “I'm fortunate and had lucky DPs and a production support system for Kentucky set out to build a life-sized Noah’s breaks that gave me valuable experiences.” indie filmmakers. Some truly special films Ark as a way to ‘prove’ the Earth is only six- (“Jason takes chances on first-time film- get made through the process, but a lot of thousand-years old, and that dinosaurs and makers,” one observer offers, “and always people end up working for free or for very humans lived at the same time. We didn’t makes something beautiful.”) Highlighting little and filmmakers themselves go broke. intend it to take six years, but it did! We’ve his CV is Stephen Cone’s luminous “Henry My five-year dream would be to be a DP on spent the last sixteen years exploring that Gamble’s Birthday Party” (2014), where he another series for a network or streamer, bizarre, fuzzy boundary between science met director Marty Schousboe, for whom while living in Chicago. Another dream: I’d and belief. Our method of following subjects he DPed seasons one and two of “Joe Pera like to DP a sci-fi version of something like for years to get the whole story makes us Talks With You” on Adult Swim. Alongside ‘Henry Gamble's Birthday Party’! Make it unusual, and we find ways to explore Amer- commercials and indie shorts with Chica- look like ‘Dune’ or ‘Blade Runner,’ but it’s ica’s weird and complex relationship with go-based directors and production compa- just a story about a kid trying to find their science in ways that no one else notices.” nies, he’s been on Alex Heller’s “Grizzlies”; way in life with their parents embarrassing Ross creates experimental shorts “exploring Dani Wieder’s “Cool for Five Seconds” and them along the way.” women and memory,” often using found Abby Pierce’s “Eat Your Heart Out,” as well footage to create short films and perfor- as working with Steppenwolf Theatre Com- 18 mance art with Chicago as both place and pany ensemble member Alana Arenas for Clayton Brown character, and recently “donated part of my the last four years on a doc about Black and Monica Long Ross large home movie collection, purchased at theater in Chicago. “Before the pandemic, estate sales in Chicago and surrounding my life was pretty closely tied to my profes- “We Believe in Dinosaurs,” which premiered suburbs with views of life in Chicago over sion. A lot of filmmakers feel the same way: on PBS’ Independent Lens in February after decades, to the Chicago Film Archives. I use our hobby is our profession. My pursuits in a healthy festival run, is the six-year project found footage from the collection to create life have been to be a better cinematogra- of co-director and co-producers Clayton new work, both short films and perfor- pher: To have a better eye for lighting, Brown and Monica Long Ross and their mance art, where Chicago becomes both movement and framing in relation to story science-based nonprofit 137 Films and their a place and a character.” Brown says that and theme with the tools and budget avail- “incredible collaborator” Amy Ellison. (Their he has “always been fascinated with the able. To follow and understand the ways collaboration began in the MFA film pro- ways in which science plays into our that cinematography is always changing— gram at Northwestern.) “It’s a film about thoughts and lives: my narrative work has what looked good three years ago now creationism, small-town USA and America’s explored science fiction, historical science, 26

21 Ashley O’Shay or folks whose obsessions with science microbudget feature through DePaul's Indie us that the world is hateful, I believe there OCTOBER 2020 Newcity bring them together. Lately though, like Studio. Choi is writing and directing a trans- is more good out there than bad. It’s a con- many, my work has turned toward themes continental mother-son dramedy—Chicago stant battle where we must be diligent and of division, isolation, anger and fractured to Seoul—delving into his Korean roots, and focus on our purpose and truth for the art cultures, trying to make sense of what is as a good producer, multiple projects in and business of cinema. The light is there. happening around us.” search of financing. Choi has “a couple great I see its glimmer.” potential projects in the works” with “Saint 19 Frances” director Alex Thompson. A decade 20 James Choi as an educator at DePaul, working with the Danielle Beverly next generation, is “integrally linked” to his Filmmaker James Choi says his enterprise approach as a filmmaker. “I've always been Veteran documentarian Danielle Beverly, an is in “making quality and successful films drawn to the power of cinema as a way to assistant professor at Northwestern Uni- for less than what is traditionally thought engage people in our commonalities thus versity and Northwestern University in possible. Isn't ‘tradition’ and filmmaking a directly or indirectly promoting empathy Qatar, recently brought her filmmaking back paradox?” asks the co-producer of 2019 and kindness toward one another; some- to Chicago. Her feature documentary festival favorite “Saint Frances” and instruc- thing we desperately need now. As a per- “Dusty Groove: The Sound of Transition” tor at the DePaul School of Cinematic Arts. son of color, the stripping of our country's (2019), completed its fourteen-month festi- “If it’s not, it should be.” Beyond the SXSW aged, old facade has been long overdue and val tour. “Dusty Groove” follows Rick Wojcik, audience award and a special jury prize for while the struggle is ongoing, the changes a used vinyl record buyer, as he enters the Breakthrough Voice, Choi hopes for end-of- I'm seeing in the industry feel optimistic. An lives of people selling once-prized posses- season Spirit Award nominations after its Asian-American story five years ago would sions—their record collections. Each seller “healthy” U.S. and U.K. theatrical runs. Cur- have been overlooked, but here we are is facing a life transition. “It’s about much rent work includes a doc short, “Engage today with more diversity, niche content more than records, although vinyl nerds dig Earth,” about Brazilian artist Denise Milan platforms, and a South Korean film winning the film,” Beverly says. “I had hoped to take whose work with stones deliberates on the an Oscar for Best Picture. Despite being it on a grassroots outdoor screening tour metamorphosis of crystal quartz. Choi also inundated with divisive messages on the this summer but did not feel it was safe shepherded “Sun King,” a student-produced news and social media that could convince enough. I’ll do that next summer.” In her 27

20 past work and projects to come, she says, Danielle “I’m interested in people and places in tran- Beverly sition. Each of my observational documen- taries has explored individuals who are 19 reinventing themselves, or communities James who are facing change. Certainly, Chicago is a place that loves its own history, yet is Choi also constantly reimagining itself. There is definitely another Chicago-based docu- Newcity OCTOBER 2020 mentary in my future.” She calls Chicago home because of multiple “formative stints.” “My twenties were spent stomping around Wicker Park during its heyday, while I stud- ied documentary at Columbia. She got her first freelance gig with music video com- pany H-Gun Labs, picking up garbage on the Public Enemy-Anthrax shoot for “Bring the Noise.” “I was immediately hooked!” Later roles included associate producer at WTTW, and directing her first feature doc- umentary, “Learning to Swallow,” about Chicago artist Patsy Desmond. Intervening years spent in San Francisco, New York, Athens, Georgia and Qatar led eventually to a role in the faculty in Northwestern’s MFA in Documentary Media program. “I own a home now in Rogers Park, so I guess that’s putting down roots!” She’s an opti- mist in other ways: “I’m optimistic about the revolution for Black Lives. Even though my documentary work has race embedded in the narrative, with Black and white voices in conversation, as a professor I’m best able to contribute to this revolution. In the class- room I include films by BIPOC makers. I assign journal articles that contextualize those films, allowing students of different identities and lived experiences, to enter into conversation. Going forward, I’ve com- mitted to advocating more forcefully for change, by speaking out about inequity in my workspaces, and the documentary space at large.” Of other pursuits, Beverly adds, “Roller-skating with old-school skates on the Lakefront. I don’t see too many oth- ers doing this.” 21 Ashley O’Shay Documentarian and director of photogra- phy Ashley O’Shay, a Kartemquin Films associate, has shot a range of shorts and projects throughout Chicago in the past couple years “with the intention of illumi- nating marginalized voices.” She filmed and co-produced the Chicago episode of KQED's award-winning series, “If Cities Could Dance,” and her work appeared in the Lifetime series, “Surviving R. Kelly.” O’Shay’s focus of late has been on her debut feature, “Unapologetic,” a doc that “looks deeply at the Movement for Black Lives in Chicago, through the experiences 28

23 Paige Taul of two young, Black queer women, Janaé 22 It could be through dialogue, setting, or OCTOBER 2020 Newcity and Bella, a love letter to the movement, Derek Dow style of dress. For a kid from the South Side, and a piece of archive that will serve for Chicago just has this aura that I can’t find years to come.” Building experience in the Director-writer-actor Derek Dow, a Chicago anywhere else. The smells, the energy, community, she says, “So much of who I am State University professor and prolific inde- the sense of community. The people carry as a filmmaker began when I was a teen, at pendent filmmaker, has twelve films to his this sense of pride, and the city offers you a youth-led public access show in Indianap- credit, including feature “L.A.A.P Presents so much from history and hidden gems. olis. I want to create those formative spaces Family Values,” “Shotgun Wedding,” “Grow- I want to bring eighties-nineties comedy for other Black creators, whether through ing Pains,” “Mama, I Made It” and “Coping.” back for my community—that ‘The Break- my work or intentional education. Quite “We call him ‘Mr. Black Harvest,’ the Siskel fast Club’ type of stuff but with a little color frankly, being a Black woman with the talent Film Center’s Barbara Scharres says, on it. We just need to keep telling stories to wield a camera is a superpower in itself. “because he’s had so many films in the that feel good to us in the place they origi- The convergence of those identities will festival. If I could name just one filmmaker nated from.” keep me energized for many years to come.” who started his career at Black Harvest Image is paramount: “As I entered film who I think should be directing features, it’s 23 school I became obsessed with how visuals Derek. He’s grown to an artistic maturity Paige Taul worked in tandem onscreen. As a cinema- that demands a chance at a mainstream tographer, I have the ability to control how career.” A digital series, “I’m Trying” and a Filmmaker Paige Taul, who teaches at Uni- and through what lens we see the world Chicago-set script, “Care Package,” are versity of Illinois at Chicago and University around us. This becomes especially import- forthcoming. “Everything I do is about Chi- of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, has been making ant when depicting vulnerable populations, cago. The city is in every fiber of my being. works about “Black identity expression and given the surplus of negative depictions I go to places that are considered paradise my experience of these expressions as well throughout media historically. Chicago is and ask the people there, ‘Have you ever as works exploring my familial relationships” such a beautifully diverse city, and I work been to Chicago?’ That type of love never for “myself and others in the diaspora to very hard to portray that complexity.” goes away. It creeps into my work somehow. experience.” Taul is exploring the relation- 29

ship between her mother and aunts. “My 25 “Along with that, I have two amorphous writ- mother has lived in California for the last Marco ten entities to wrestle into shape. One is a twenty-five years and it’s been many more Williams feature-length horror script, which may only since her and her sisters have lived in the make sense to me when it’s done, but its same city. I’m interested in the whiplash Connelly. Her weird world is being discov- imagery will scare the crap out of anyone that comes from being forced to make ered in other parts of the world, a spectral who watches it. The other thing seems to space for each other.” “She tests the limits place where the merely commonplace be book-shaped. Despite the non-cine- of identity and self-identification as an Afri- holds secrets. “I’ve had the expected ups matic medium, parts of it can be mined for can American,” an observer says, challeng- and downs since 2018 that every filmmaker a series of shorts. And I have the usual ing “notions of racial authenticity” and faces.” While a pair of scripted shorts awaits smattering of other ideas percolating and “observing environmental connections and production, in the past two years, Connelly footage to sift through. When you engage concepts tied to race-based expectations has released an essay film, an experimental in a practice because doing it sustains you and intraracial othering that takes place film and a documentary character portrait and not doing it makes you miserable, it within the Black community.” What does as well as filming an observational docu- becomes a logical conclusion to release the Chicago need to encourage work like hers? mentary on cemeteries, which she is editing. work into the world before moving on to the “An abundance of funding opportunities.” next thing. This is not just my plan for the Still, she says, “I’m eager to make space for next five years, it’s my plan for eternity. myself and become part of the ebb and flow Maybe I’m less of a filmmaker and more of of the abundant arts scene here.” “Routine a meanderer.” She’s created her own edition is crucial right now,” Taul says. “I feel a of our city. “The Chicago-specific pursuit sense of urgency to make work and keep affecting my filmmaking is walking in cem- deadlines while balancing the overwhelm- eteries. I live near four, but one contains ing desire to slow down. It is hard to focus more messy beauty and history than the sometimes due to the looming unknown others. Cemeteries are monuments to love that is the next few years of the world’s fate; and relationships and remind me that death but I do what I can.” needs to be continually acknowledged as a part of life since culturally we work so hard to deny its existence. This obsession unites all of my cinematic doodlings, and if some- one misses that, my films look like a series of non-sequiturs, which may not be a bad thing. Because I’ve been walking in the same cemetery for six months I’ve seen it change with the seasons, I’ve made friends with its deer and goose residents, seen new graves appear, new tokens left behind for the dead and after the storm this spring trees topple gravestones from the 1800s. It’s a place of wonder.” As is Chicago. “Chi- 24 Shayna Connelly Newcity OCTOBER 2020 24 Shayna Connelly “I don’t know anyone who makes experimen- tal-documentary-narrative-horror-feminist- children’s films about death and ghosts, but if there’s someone else like me I want to meet them,” says filmmaker and De- Paul University associate professor Shayna 30

cago is full of folks who operate creatively in a similar way as I do. Folks here have an easier time making sense of my cinematic eccentricities and accepting my cinematic banalities. I like being removed from the business of filmmaking and its alienating set of rules for how things should be done.” Yet money matters. “The big thing missing here is more grant funding for film, since it is such an expensive art form. That feels decadent to say when so many people are struggling to keep a roof over their heads, but creating and engaging in art changes lives. We don’t give the arts and artists the support they deserve. Still, film and art make me optimistic, though in other areas of life I tend to be pessimistic and curmud- geonly. But change is inevitable and it’s also exciting to see the future as an opportunity to rid ourselves of bad habits. I’m keeping an image of the future open, hoping it is much better than I can imagine.” 25 Marco Williams “What I do, everyone can do. But do they do 26 Henry Hampton. “Chicago has a great his- it?” asks award-winning filmmaker and film Zanah tory that celebrates the lived existence of educator Marco Williams, a professor at Thirus African-American communities,” Williams Northwestern’s Department of Radio Tele- says. “The contribution and the impact on vision and Film and member of the Academy. from being “a victim of trauma and violence the Black Chicagoans, as well as the Latino His extensive filmography includes 2017’s into a fierce advocate.” Further down the community continue to compel me as a doc- “Crafting An Echo,” capturing the process of road are “Chicago Lawn,” about a commu- umentarian. I don’t rely on optimism or pes- a dance commission on deadline for the nity of working Latinx and African-American simism. I just do the work. Through the ups Martha Graham Dance Company”and residents and the economic stresses and the and downs, I just do the work. I am more “Inside: The New Black Panthers” (2009). In systemic racial inequities they face; and sculptor than painter.” post: “Murders That Matter,” a broadcast doc an exploration of the making of “Eyes on feature that follows across four years an Afri- the Prize” and African-American filmmaker 26 can-American, Muslim mother who moves Zanah Thirus 27 Peter Burr “Here’s the thing. Anyone can do what I’m OCTOBER 2020 Newcity doing, and that's the beauty of it,” filmmaker Zanah Thirus says. “You’re not talking about wanting to make films, you’re making films. What I do isn't special, it’s logical. Write a $500,000 script and beg people to fund it, or write a $1,500 script and shoot it in two days with my friends? I’m choosing the lat- ter. Chances are it’ll wind up at the same festival as the $500,000 film, because I’m just that good!” Thirus has produced fifteen films, several of which can be seen on Ama- zon Prime. “Outside of my full-time day job as a content producer in the ad world, in the past two years I’ve written, produced and directed a short, 'MeMaw,’ written and produced another short, ‘Demons,’ and pro- duced and directed two documentaries, ‘Black Feminist’ and ‘Unlearning Sex.’” I'm 31

28 Grace Hahn Newcity OCTOBER 2020 in preproduction for my first comedy short, first went to art school a couple decades and sensitive and also like to build the world and in development for my next feature doc, ago and began learning how to use digital from their own imaginations. I think we need both shooting in 2021. I also launched a tools to sample and repurpose this material, more of that in Chicago right now.” microbudget film podcast on Apple and it was really exciting. It felt like grabbing Spotify.” Thirus isn’t stopping. “I’m really hold of the firehose that had been spraying 28 optimistic because of my approach to film- me for so long and turning it around, spray- Grace Hahn making. I’m a microbudget filmmaker who ing back. And doing so with purpose! It was self-funds the majority of my projects for cathartic and liberating, but also it was not Grace Hahn produced Stephen Cone's under $5,000. It hasn’t limited me with dis- my voice. It was the voice of the vessel that “Princess Cyd” right out of undergrad at tribution, film festivals or awards in any I grew up in, but it’s easy to get lost in there.” Northwestern University; 2018 was the year way. Making films with your friends is best. Burr is devoted to “exploring the concept of that first feature film landed on a major I write, produce, edit and direct most of my an endlessly mutating labyrinth.” “My most streaming network. “That changed the films, so I can run with nimble teams. The recent work has been a very deliberate turn- game for me,” the creative producer says, pandemic has shown people that every- ing inwards—eschewing traditional tech- “providing perspective on the life of a project thing doesn’t need to be a blockbuster. niques of collage and sampling and instead when it leaves your hands, your city, and We’re going to see some incredible projects using the mechanisms that produced the starts a life of its own. I knew at that time come out of 2020 and 2021. There will never industrial images I grew up on to create new that I wanted to be deliberate in what I say, be a time where what I'm doing will go out feelings and images and situations that are do, and make.” Since then, Hahn completed of style. I’m fifteen films in at this point and difficult to express any other way. However, a number of short films and music videos I don't plan on slowing down.” virtually none of my work is made in a vac- as well as another feature, “Once Upon a uum. Whether it’s a punk community in River,” by writer-director Haroula Rose, 27 Portland (where I lived a decade ago) or a which has its virtual theatrical release this Peter Burr community of artists interested in ambient month via Film Movement. “Spending the music or an academic community as I have past couple of years in the post-mortem “I grew up beneath a waterfall of industrial here in Chicago, humans are important to phase of production and the listen-and- entertainment—TV, video games, movies, me and my practice. The traditions of cul- learn phase of distribution, I’ve been trash,” says Peter Burr, visiting artist at tural production may change as I move insanely lucky to experience diverse audi- SAIC’s Department of Film, Video, New through the world, but the baseline is an ence reactions to queer stories, native Media and Animation. “I remember when I interest in working with people who are kind stories, plotlines involving abortion, abuse, 32

gaslighting and resilience. I am so proud of seeing the impact of these films, for better or for worse, and not because they employ good buzzwords, but because they repre- sent someone’s reality. I’m knee-deep in development for three features at different phases of readiness, but all supporting this goal of mine to interpret stories with care and audience in mind.”  29 Nevo Shinaar Independent producer Nevo Shinaar, with Bob Hercules and Keith Walker. While 29 co-founder of SITE Collective and producer 2020 is challenging, he sees the documen- Nevo at Free Spirit PRO, has been involved in tary field “growing exponentially as viewers Shinaar over ten short documentaries, produced in become more interested in real-world expe- the U.S. and internationally, “which have riences and wanting to affect change in the overlap between culture and technology,” allowed me to create new relationships and world.” Shinaar is also “fascinated by the and hopes to learn more about interactive learn more about the rapidly changing dis- technologies, specifically AR and VR. “And tribution landscape for shorts.” Shinaar is 30 as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, also a co-producer on Sebastián Pinzón Jim Shinaar hopes “to see increased diversifi- Silva’s in-production feature debut, “La Vendiola cation in our field, shifting focus to assure Bonga,” as well as developing both docu- access of marginalized communities to mentary and fiction films and interactive resources and opportunities while tackling projects. Working at Free Spirit PRO as a systematic racism in the field, both in this mentor and producer since 2017, he says, country and worldwide.” Chicago’s poten- has taught him more about the South and tial is “endless,” he says. “With the infra- West Sides of Chicago “while supporting structure of a major city, a plethora of peo- young adults as they learn to become pro- ple and stories and a strong network of fessionals in the field.” A 2017 graduate of non-profit media organizations, academic Northwestern’s MFA in Documentary Media programs and an increasingly vibrant and program, the shorts he has produced have diverse community—I am confident its best premiered at festivals like Sundance and days are ahead.” SXSW. Before moving to Chicago, he spent several years in community development in 30 rural Nepal “and have vowed to prioritize that Jim Vendiola focus on community over anything else.” As a relative newcomer to Chicago, Shinaar finds an embracing city, discovering collab- orators during his time at Northwestern and while interning for Media Process Group “When I was a freshman in college, I discov- OCTOBER 2020 Newcity ered two dead bodies in a ravine. I notified authorities, but to my knowledge it was never in the papers or on the news,” writer-director Jim Vendiola says. “Twenty years later, I still carry an unusual heartache for those two anonymous strangers, whose stories I’ll 33

31 Christopher Rejano probably never know. I’m barely part of their articles. We’ve seen all 406 episodes of ticipate in, even if I am right for the job. It story, but they’re part of mine. It’s in the back ‘Forensic Files,’ and habitually rewatch them. almost feels foolish to be optimistic about of my mind, subconsciously inspiring my Other times in my life, as a Filipino-American, anything these days. But if and when things unique and empathetic approach to other- my mom has made me the de facto videog- stabilize a bit, I am completely psyched to let wise macabre narratives. I wonder what my rapher for the open-casket funerals of some it rip on my first feature, and on future proj- work would have been like without that of our relatives. The footage is meant for ects. In the event I get to keep doing what encounter.” Vendiola’s short work, including extended family back in the Philippines, I’m doing in some future iteration of these “Library Hours” (2017), blooms and broods unable to attend. So it’s functional, but still dark times, I like to think my creative voice with hothouse atmosphere, and his interest a very strange, morbid thing to have to par- stands a fighting chance.” in the ongoing vogue for true crime material Newcity OCTOBER 2020 suffuses his soon-to-shoot first feature, 32 “Homesick,” a supernatural thriller he and Kyle co-screenwriter Shelley Gustavson began Henry writing in late 2018. (Newcity’s Chicago Film Project will produce; the project was part of Chicago International Film Festival’s “The Pitch”) Vendiola describes “Homesick” as a blend of “youthful abandon, haunting dread and multi-era murder mystery. “Through its serial killer antagonist, it’s also a contempo- rary examination of predatory men, male fragility, and toxicity that subverts popular media’s frequent depiction of these killers as brilliant, methodical criminal masterminds, whose ability we’re meant to envy on some level.” He intends to continue in the true crime lane. “My girlfriend and I are immersed in true crime media, so that bleeds into my work! She falls asleep to crime podcasts every night, and we watch so many of the docs and programs, and read books and 34

FILM 50 HALL OF FAME These folks are so well-established and foundational to the film world of Chicago that they are always near the top of the list. 34 Josh Abrams Manual Cinema Melika Bass (Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Aymar Jean Christian  Ben Kauffman, Julia Miller) Stephen Cone Steve Conrad  31 duction of Nia DaCosta’s take on “Candy- Lori Felker  OCTOBER 2020 Newcity Christopher Rejano man.” “If I’m being brutally honest, I want Maria Finitzo to be the go-to person when they think of Bob Hercules  “Being in a Midwest metropolis and the a Chicago cinematographer. If a commer- Steve James  Great Lakes area puts me in a unique posi- cial is going to shoot here I want to be up Gabe Klinger  tion as a cinematographer,” says Christo- for it, if a film is being shot in Chicago I want Gordon Quinn  pher Rejano, whose recent work includes to be up for the job as cinematographer!” Jennifer Reeder  Jennifer Reeder’s “Knives and Skin,” which Still, says Rejano, the local film community Ines Sommer  debuted at the Berlinale and Tribeca and is missing “validation.” “Chicago is full of Deborah Stratman  recent debuts “Dreaming Grand Avenue” talented people yet we still have to fight Joe Swanberg and “Tom of Your Life.” “Living in Chicago hard to get big shows to shoot here. Our Lana Wachowski keeps me rooted in the realities and incon- independent film scene is tight, but I feel Lilly Wachowski sistencies of city life. The divisive nature that given the proper light, we could have Aaron Wickenden of race, wealth and location are factors a bigger presence on streaming networks. that as an artist you cannot ignore if you There also needs to be more backing and live in Chicago. On the flipside of that, hav- funding for LGBTQ filmmaking and shows ing grown up in a suburb of Detroit, I can and more POC and women directing proj- appreciate the beauty of a lone barn as it ects in Chicago. There should be more deteriorates in a long-forgotten field just as women DPs, camera operators and gaffers. well as I can appreciate a graffiti-covered Until we can all work together to get these car that’s been abandoned under the El things in place, then the idea of community tracks. The ability to see the some- is still just an idea.” times-dark beauty of living in a big city and overlaying that with the rich skin of Midwest 32 rural bleakness is very much a part of my Kyle Henry persona as well as an essential part of my quiver as a cinematographer.” As well “I’m not a superhero and don’t have a special as shooting several shorts, Rejano was power. But I did work professionally for ten second-unit DP on HBO’s “Lovecraft Coun- years as a feature film editor,” says filmmak- try” pilot, and right before lockdown, shot er-Northwestern associate professor Kyle additional scenes for the Jordan Peele pro- Henry. “For my features ‘Rogers Park’ and 35

road trip,” with diversions into aspects of history and contemporary struggle: the toxic environmental fallout from the cre- ation of celluloid via an investigation into Kodak's history of pollution in Rochester, New York, where his mother’s nursing home was located; how his family benefited from white privilege post-WWII; his moth- er’s stifled art career and her history of sur- viving workplace harassment and discrim- ination. It’s slated for 2022, Henry says, “after I finish editing the 100,000-plus photos and 2,000-plus hours of archival and filmed footage. It’s mostly an archival essay doc- umentary, so COVID hasn’t slowed me down.” Henry works again with writer Car- los Treviño (“Rogers Park”) on “a chamber piece eco-thriller set on a Great Lakes island in the near future of 2050. We've visited practically every island in the Great Lakes and have slogged our way through the consciousness-shifting scien- tific research of what our world will proba- bly look like after the next major cascades of climate change hit, so it’s full-stop writing drafts this apocalyptic fall and winter.” 33 Laura Harrison 33 through production on an essay film, “Trace “I don't think anybody can make the anima- Laura of Time,” “about my family archive’s relation- tions that I make,’ says Laura Harrison, an Harrison ship to twentieth and twenty-first century assistant professor at University of Wiscon- American history.” While his mother, who sin-Milwaukee in the department of Film, ‘Eldercare,’ a group of actors helped shape suffered from dementia is its heart, the nar- Video, Animation and New Genres. The character through research, improvisation rative follows Henry’s struggle to see her 2017 Guggenheim fellow is working on “The and ongoing screenplay feedback, where before she died in an upstate New York Limits of Vision,” “either a long short or fea- beyond a general story arc that I helped nursing home, “including a harrowing final turette—depending on how much more shape, writers were free then to bring sto- money I can raise to keep animating!—fea- ries to life. So perhaps radical collaboration, turing a madly philosophical, lonely house- even on personal and intimate work, is my wife. Coming unstuck, she goes on fantas- superpower after all?” Henry is halfway tical journeys into the universe of dirt and decay, archeological digs in the Gobi and 35 rides on the Beagle with Darwin. It’s about Daniel art, transformation, decay, white feminism, Eisenberg class and race power dynamics. It's also about language and slipping the bonds of Newcity OCTOBER 2020 what holds us.” This city has been freeing for Harrison. “Chicago has been transfor- mative for me. Since moving here, I got a third MFA. I got married. I got my first real job. I was treated like a real artist by my peers. At the same time, reckoning with my limitations has been part of the challenge of living here, transforming my animation and teaching practice, making me much more conscious than ever before. This is a place to do hard work of all kinds—psycho- logical, spiritual, political, relational.” She’s saddened that “animation is still considered a bit of an outlier. I know film people who I respect who dismiss animators as ‘crazy’ and generally tend to think of it as a medium not to take seriously. It is seen not so much 36

as an art, but as a type of film, made for 36 circus arts comes into play in our silhouette children or sentimental and precious, and Kirsten movement work, or Kyle and Ben’s experi- that is a shame. There are so many wildly Leenaars ence with experimental and new music diverse animators in Chicago: Jim Trainor, provides them with innovative approaches Chris Sullivan, Joel Benjamin, Lilli Carré, Drew Dir says that the five “come from to composing a score.” He continues, “We Peter Burr, Lisa Barcy and Selina Trepp, and disparate backgrounds, including music, feel like outsiders to the film community; none of them make childish, sentimental experimental theater and visual art; none of we originated in the music world and the work and none of them are crazy.” us studied or trained in film. But all of us theater world, and so we’ve stumbled into apply our respective backgrounds to work- film through the back door. So we haven’t 34 ing collaboratively on a film project; for really been here long enough to know Manual Cinema example, Sarah and Julia’s background in what’s missing! But we also know that we’d love to find more folks who have taken A decade on the scene, Manual Cinema has 37 non-conventional routes into film. The mis- crafted and mastered their own audiovisual Pegah sion remains the same—how do we create vocabulary, reaching as far back as the Pasalar the experience of cinema in a way that feels silent era, to present theater-animation-film handmade, intimate and theatrical.” experiences that contain gorgeously styl- ized films created live, in real time. The 35 quintet of co-artistic directors—Julia Miller, Daniel Eisenberg Sarah Fornace, Drew Dir, Ben Kauffman, Kyle Vegter—made a startling impression Filmmaker-artist-curator Daniel Eisenberg, on a larger world when a trailer for Nia making films and video at the edges of doc- DaCosta’s 2021 “Candyman” dropped in umentary and experimental media for three June, drawing from the shadow animation decades, has been with SAIC for twenty-six they had created. The past two years also years, and is a professor in the Department saw premieres of two theatrical productions, of Film, Video, New Media and Animation. “The End of TV” and “Frankenstein.” Half of each year is usually spent making film and OCTOBER 2020 Newcity video, in collaboration with other artists or institutions like The New York Times or Topic Magazine, and the other half touring their original shows around the world. The pandemic canalled Santiago and Edinburgh engagements, leaving the group to shift gears to film, video and virtual live program- ming. “We’re working on an adaptation of ‘A Christmas Carol’ in our first-ever virtual theatrical run,” Julia Miller reports, with live performances streaming nightly December 3 through December 20, which “features our signature cinematic shadow puppetry with hundreds of paper puppets, miniatures, silhouettes, multiple camera feeds and a live original score in a reinvention adapted specifically for the 2020 holiday season.” 37

a large conceptual structure to the work, but the work also functions on many levels so can easily be reformed to specific con- texts, conditions and forms. The unstable object refers to the meanings and value we place on things in an era of non-materiality, but of course the most unstable object of all is media itself.” Optimism, he says, “is something I cannot afford right now in the current economic and political climate. I am vigilant and wary, and remain active in my commitments to economic justice and I think many other forms of justice including racial justice flow from there.” 36 Kirsten Leenaars 41 three-hour film, “The Unstable Object II” in Interdisciplinary video artist and documen- Jon the form of hour-long factory portraits that tary maker Kirsten Leenaars, associate pro- Satrom can be seen as separate films.” The facto- fessor in Contemporary Practices at SAIC, ries are the world’s largest prosthetics fac- draws on performance, theater and nonfic- “In my teaching I am motivated by forming tory in Germany, a small hand-made cou- tion strategies in her work. “I make my work strong support for individuality in the con- ture glove atelier in southern France, and with a hopeful yet critical consciousness,” text of community,” he says, “which means a medium-sized distressed-jeans factory she says. “I foster an intentional porous pro- exactly that the individual artist and student in rural central Turkey. “There is, of course, cess in which I invite others to participate to must articulate subjectivity in the context create the work. Through this collective cre- of a deeper understanding of community, ative process I am committed to thinking of its essential importance, and value. about the political, social and personal pos- We have lived in an extraordinary era of sibilities of living a life together.” Current fetishized individuality, and we have all suf- work includes “(Re)Housing the American fered from its cultural dominance. It’s time Dream,” a cumulative performative docu- to reassert community as a motivating eco- mentary project. “This experimental multi- nomic and social force.” Chicago is a place year documentary project follows a group of “chance…ease…,” Eisenberg says, “It’s of American and refugee youths, growing international and local at the same time.” In up in the time of Trump, through the collec- his media work, he values “exploration of tive making of performative video work and form, of time and duration, and is invested interviews, exploring the construct of the in the idea that knowledge is not only lin- American Dream as it intersects with their guistically produced, but sensually as well. own lived realities. I just finished shooting My work is about producing knowledge our latest iteration.” Directly in front of her through the senses, and a complex articu- is the completion of “Imaginary Homelands,” lation of time and space. That sounds abstract, but it’s what motivates an explor- 38 atory approach to working—trusting the Danièle eyes and ears to lead, and the ways our Wilmouth senses are curious.” Recent work includes Newcity OCTOBER 2020 a 2018 international symposium on work and labor at SAIC, “Re:Working Labor,” which was mounted in 2019 as an interna- tional exhibition. Eisenberg finished the second hour of a “modular and protean” 38

40 Zachary Hutchinson a documentary she made via Zoom during and “Monday,” each of which takes place These encounters spark hope and let me OCTOBER 2020 Newcity the past few months, about “notions of home, over the course of one day following a celebrate my moments of being an artist. belonging, community and citizenship.” Lee- woman with very contemporary concerns; Being an artist and sustaining it is difficult. naars says she is “both super-excited and she is developing “Tuesday” as a feature. One phrase, one sentence, one discussion, intimidated by the process of editing all “’Tuesday’ follows an Iranian girl in four dif- one debate, one gaze can change one’s life.” the footage from the past four years of the ferent ages of her life. It has so much paint- ‘(Re)Housing the American Dream’ project erly imagery and is very intimate. But it’s 38 into one film.” She thinks globally and locally. not only about Iran. It's about the struggles Danièle Wilmouth “I always want to see more deeply, I want to of womanhood. The struggles of mis-fitness. understand physically, emotionally, relation- The struggles with patriarchy. This story is “Whether I like it or not, my works are shame- ally, historically, politically the world that I what makes me wake up early every day.” lessly private, sentimental and intimate,” am part of in deeper ways. In some ways During lockdown, Pasalar began a personal says filmmaker and educator Danièle Wilm- perhaps not being from the U.S. helps in project, “Exodus Pathology,” an experimen- outh. A teacher at SAIC and Columbia, she this pursuit. My work is community-based— tal hybrid documentary that narrates the says, “For years I’ve been making experimen- and often rooted in Chicago—hence having story of her own immigration. Exploring tal films with deeply personal themes, as well an understanding of the local is key. Reality “utopia and national boundaries,” Pasalar as quiet social issue documentaries about is permeated with dominant fictions, indi- knits reenactments, visual diaries, imagi- grief, trauma, aging and disability. In the past, vidual longings and collective imaginings. nary cartography, moving image paintings, women artists were condemned when they We choose what we believe about what we and virtual and online conversations “to adoringly painted their children, or filmed a see and experience. We construct narra- depict the alienation of leaving one country housewife in real time peeling potatoes for tives to which we refer in order to make our with difficulty, only to find oneself in another.” twenty minutes. Perhaps it’s the advent of way through life. In my practice, I explore “I am just an intuitive person with so much #MeToo, or the fact that I’m finally old the nature of these narratives. I look at our passion for people and life and my dog. I do enough not to care so much about what oth- ways in which we understand and perform care about having a better world that is ers think. I embrace the personal, the sloppy our daily lives and explore possible ways of more just and equal. I think there are very sappy struggles and events of everyday life. relating to each other.” different approaches toward that, some The ordinary is extraordinary, the static can people use their bodies in protests, some be ecstatic. I’m interested in the slow burn 37 people use their wealth to support other of hyper-reality as well as the messy roman- Pegah Pasalar people and mine is through my art. We need ticism of hyper-humanism.” Wilmouth is in the collective of approaches. There is no post on the nonfiction dance short “I’m Fine,” An Iranian-born interdisciplinary artist, ‘better’ or ‘worse.’ We need it all. I really miss which addresses “midlife existential ques- Pegah Pasalar has made shorts titled after gatherings and surprise encounters with tions” in collaboration with dancer-choreog- a day of the week; after “Saturday,” “Sunday” people in film communities, screenings. rapher Peter Carpenter. “Deeply exploring 39

40 Zachary Hutchinson the body-mind connection, the dancers shift 42 “My work is very different from a lot of people from rigorous dance choreography, to impro- Hugh making experimental work in Chicago,” says vised nonfiction accounts of personal suffer- Schulze artist, filmmaker and UIC adjunct assistant ing in the form of both words and physicality.” professor Zachary Hutchinson. “I try to have A second work is “a posthumous collabora- event was postponed while Eyeworks put some level of accessibility in all my work so tion between my parents and myself,” “7.5 out the first issue of “Hammerspace,” an that my dad, a former factory worker who inches per second,” which combines 16mm artist book-journal on a specific theme never went to college, can enjoy it as much film, stop-motion animation, HD video and in animation, and plans a second, on the as the most educated academic elite. I say reel-to-reel audio recordings “to explore theme of “Rails.” “I’m grateful to have grown this without qualification of these two kinds the humanity of objects, home as archive, amongst what I think are especially strong of people, but as a way to speak about the the labor of grieving, family archeology experimental film, comics, and art commu- impenetrable wall of stuffiness and aca- and cloud storage as a postmortem for- nities in Chicago, and found influential teach- demic pretentiousness that keeps experi- warding address.” “7.5 inches per second” ers and peers here in each of those worlds,” mental film out of reach from people who also questions “the ongoing trend to erad- she says. “In lockdown life, I’m working on a might otherwise be interested. I’m not here icate the physical object or body, and move hand-drawn animation and weaving proj- for the film-history circle-jerk. That said, toward purely intangible modes of storage ects, for a show next fall at Western Exhibi- I think experimental film is actually every- and preservation.” tions. I feel lucky to work in mediums that where, from advertisements to TikTok, we are meditative and well-suited for social just aren't using the language to define it 39 isolation in such a fucked moment.” and make it clear that it’s everywhere.” Lilli Carré Hutchinson is in post on a short she shot at an ACRE artist residency last summer. “Lately, I’ve been writing narrative-directed screenplays, trying to break out from exper- imental. Because I come from a fine art background, so many film industry stan- dards and systems don’t apply to me or I just choose not to participate. I don’t come from generational wealth, so being a filmmaker has always been risky as a non- binary queer person, even when not in a pandemic. I hope to figure out how to receive funding for larger projects without using crowdfunding. This process has always been very opaque to me (intention- ally so, I’m sure). I want to make a feature but I need financial help. That's the reality 45 Michael Smith Newcity OCTOBER 2020 “I am interested in how this time will take shape collectively in the work being made right now,” says Lilli Carré, artist, animator and co-director of the Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation. “I’m recalibrating and adjusting to some life changes, and let- ting myself make work directly in response to this moment of cultural, social, political and personal implosion and an attempt to process it in physical isolation.” In the past year, Carré finished a short animation, “Pri- vate Properties,” “a sort of forensic study of a domestic space. The linework combines quick representations, as architecture con- tinuously collapses and rebuilds.” She also created “Night Watch,” a five-channel CG video in which characters performed and interacted silently behind sets of blinds. After the tenth year of the Eyeworks Festival the 40

43 Harley Foos and it’s terrifying because I don’t know works with nonprofits and cause-based Chicago Film Project.) “Early in my career, OCTOBER 2020 Newcity where to start.” Teaching Intro to Filmmak- organizations, as well as netizen, a nonprofit I had the good fortune of honing my skills ing at UIC, she says, “Most of my students organization that “infuses digital learning as a copywriter and scriptwriter in adver- are first-generation immigrants of Mexican with civics, creativity and criticality.” His art tising,” says Schulze. “After starting my own and/or Latinx families. It is SO hard to find “involves a lot of troubleshooting,” Satrom business in 2001, I've been able to pursue filmmakers and video artists who look like says. “It's motivated by our contemporary a number of creative interests including them. Where are the brown indigenous condition of perpetual beta and forced writing and directing films. The good for- Latinx filmmakers? So I tell them it's incred- obsolescence. It's inspired by the cracks tune now is being able to work with inspir- ibly important for them to fill this gap.” and fissures in the systems and tools we ing and talented people in all areas of film- use every day. New media is at the core of making.” He’s at work on two additional 41 our culture, and it's inherently unstable. It's feature scripts. “In spite of ending many Jon Satrom ripe with bugs, patches, errors, fixes, hacks sentences with ‘in the middle of a pan- and glitches. These common obstacles are demic,’ I am optimistic. Guillermo del Toro “I describe my practice as artist, entrepre- at the heart of my practice. Glitches are wrote an essay last year called ‘Radical neur, educator and organizer,” says Jon moments in time that break us from a par- Optimism.’ His fundamental argument was Satrom, “or as an octopus spinning plates.” ticular flow—gifting us with the opportunity that at this time, radical optimism is the As a University of Chicago faculty member, to consider the systems at play. Over the most subversive mindset one could have to he supervises the Media Art and Design past twenty-odd years, I've been collecting, effect change in the world. I think he's right. minor of the Department of Cinema and conjuring, capturing and leveraging glitches. With any luck, the release of ‘Dreaming Media Studies, which “focuses on the rapid For all of the problem solving my work Grand Avenue’ will connect me with collab- developments in media and design that requires, I refer to it as ‘creative problem orators who share my point of view. I hon- have changed the character of contempo- creating.’” Chicago’s the place, he says. “I’ve estly, though perhaps naively, believe, rary life.” As an artist, “I make new media been courted and wooed by other places we can get this country back on the road works that are typically performed live with over the years, but I keep coming back to to making itself the ideal of what we used elements consisting of software art (custom the networks and relationships I’ve devel- to call, unironically, ‘a melting pot.’ Better scripts and apps created for artistic or per- oped in Chicago. It’s a hub of thinkers, tin- together than apart. An alchemy of the formative purposes), banal software bits kerers, makers and doers.” human soul.” (think your operating system or even Mic- rosoft Office), video (linear, nonlinear, 42 43 streams and real-time screen recordings), Hugh Schulze Harley Foos audio (noise, samples and synthesis), and experimental art games. The results are Hugh Schulze’s second feature, “Dreaming Director-producer-writer-performer Harley often kludgy, glitchy, messes of data—mas- Grand Avenue,” a fantasia of the poetic Foos’ past couple years include music vid- saged and tickled into an audio/visual expe- dream life of Chicagoans, had its world pre- eos for local musicians, “who I’m also lucky rience.” Satrom founded studiothread, a miere at the ChiTown Movies drive-in in to call my friends,” as well as producing boutique Chicago-based digital studio that September. (It was produced by Newcity's shorts, one of which, “Black Pill,” world-pre- 41

mieres at Inside Out Toronto this month. 46 and nurses. I also know the city of Chicago “It’s a sci-fi piece about a depressed trans Clare well, having lived here since 1993. I know person living in a near-future techno-dys- Cooney what kind of people live in which neighbor- topia who orders mysterious pills from the hoods and I write specifically with those internet in a last-ditch attempt to find mean- ond fiction feature, “The Stranger,” which characters and locations in mind.” Smith is ing in their life,” Foos says. Collaboration is received a Script & Project Development optimistic about an audience for microbud- imperative, they say, while “my ability to Support from the Hubert Bals Fund. “There get cinema. “The pandemic has hit inde- simultaneously hold the logistic and cre- is almost no financial support” in China for pendent filmmakers and independent ven- ative makes me well suited to processes experimental and art-house work, Zhu told ues the hardest so my optimism is predi- with less hyperspecialization. What I love arts journalist Pamela Cohn. “We want to cated on the notion that we’ll ‘return to about film is that it’s practically every art make films in the United States and other normal’ at some point.” form rolled into one. I want to get my hands places, but China is still the place where I dirty in all those other mediums and orga- want to make most of my work. I’m so emo- 46 nizing too! I’m changing the meaning of tionally connected with that place and my Clare Cooney ‘creative producing.’” Foos has also worked experience of living in another country really with a community group, a collaborative gave me a different perspective in the way Filmmaker Clare Cooney says her self-em- radical media project with Little Village Sol- I look at China.” ployed career includes “a little of every- idarity Network for the past year. “We’re thing,” not limited to actor, director, editor, making videos about the for-profit migrant 45 casting director, artistic director, writer and youth detention facilities run by Heartland Michael Smith programmer for shorts channel Omeleto Alliance in Chicago. I guess I’d call them and at Elevated Films Chicago. “I really love experimental documentaries.” The project all of it. I started off only intending to act, they’re most excited about is “Tha Park,” “a but either by necessity or out of interest, I’ve black comedy about three twelve-year-old learned to do a bit of everything and I’m skater boys desperately trying to impress constantly developing new skills in this field, each other and become men, and just look- in front of and behind the camera.” Cooney’s ing to the absolute worst examples of adult first short, “Runner,” had a 2018 festival run, masculinity. Working with low budgets has and since then her Chicago-made work has caused me to work in a different way out of included directing a pilot and a hybrid short, necessity, but I’m trying to intentionally which she edited and cast as well, as well hone alternative ways of working.” And as editing a web series, four shorts, two thinking, too. “I’ve always been a leftist but music videos and over a hundred actor only recently started to understand how my reels. Her acting roles include Michael politics can coalesce with my film work Smith’s “Rendezvous in Chicago,” for which (even on projects that aren’t overtly politi- she cast several roles—“although I did not cal).” Optimistic or pessimistic? “Honestly, cast myself!”—and “Chicago P.D.” She’s I’m not that optimistic. The American editing a short made during quarantine, and empire is crumbling. Which makes me opti- says that time also forced her to write more, mistic in a very abstract way, but pessimis- including a pilot and a feature “that are tic for the short-term and the wellbeing of everyone I know and love.” Newcity OCTOBER 2020 44 Writer-director-producer-critic Michael Shengze Zhu Smith, who teaches at Oakton Community and Zhengfan Yang College, Harper College and the College of Lake County, released “Rendezvous in Chi- Under the Burn the Film banner, Shengze cago,” his third feature, at the end of 2018 Zhu and her partner, Zhengfan Yang, direct and set it on a year-long festival run; Mid- and also serve as producer for each other’s western distributor Cow Lamp Films took work since 2010. Their experimental work, streaming rights and leased it to Amazon drawing on nonfiction elements, black-and- and Tubi. Smith produced Rob Christo- white, duration and evolving concepts of pher’s documentary “Roy’s World: Barry streaming, draws notice around the world. Gifford’s Chicago,” and his fourth feature in Her third film, “Present.Perfect.” (2019) pre- six years as writer-director will shoot in 2021. miered at International Film Festival Rotter- “I watch a lot of new and old movies every dam, where it received the Tiger Award. Zhu year, and write about them for Cine-File,” he was producer for Yang's films including says. “I don't think of myself as a pastiche “Distant” (2013) and “Where Are You Going” artist or someone doing overt homages but (2016). His short “Down There” (2018), pre- I am a cinephile-filmmaker and I know my miered at Venice in the Orizzonti section, work is inseparable from the fact that I write and screened at the New York Film Festival, about film and teach it for a living. In Chi- Busan and AFI Fest. Yang has also served cago, you can be a full-time teacher, make as cinematographer for two documentaries independent films in your spare time and directed by Zhu, and is developing his sec- be friends with people who are plumbers 42

deeper for those who want it.” “Technology Lake: Meditations on Death and Sex,” “pretty much an R-rated version of ‘Air Bud,’ made the 2019 festival circuit, and was released by Dust on their sci-fi short film channel this year.” He’s working on two feature scripts and a pilot, talking to production companies and collaborators to make the jump to long- form comedy storytelling. “I feel like there is no shortage of insane stories that constantly surround me, no matter how much I beg them to stop. It would be impossible for these things to not factor into my work. This year, I am going to direct my first feature, whether that be with a one-million-dollar budget or a $20,000 budget. That movie is going to play a bunch of film festivals and make a bunch of money, so that me and my squad are set.” finally coming together.” Cooney is also 48 48 acting in, co-producing and serving as cast- Frédéric Frédéric Moffet ing director of Smith’s 2021-slated “Relative.” Like many others, she sees a need to add Moffet “Stuck alone in my apartment, I recon- a layer of money atop the Chicago scene. nected with ghost images,” filmmaker “Yes. Simply, money. And an eagerness and technically skilled filmmakers don't care Frédéric Moffet relates. “On the other hand, confidence to invest that money in Chicago- about comedy. There is a need, though, for I can't wait to go outside and freely shoot ans. It feels like there are a lot of up-and-com- something that bridges this gap; like an A24 new material. One day soon, hopefully…” ing filmmakers who are hoping it’ll be their version of ‘Billy Madison.’ There's a short Moffet, chair of Film, Video, New Media turn to shake the piggy bank, and the piggy list of filmmakers doing this, and I like to and Animation at SAIC, has transmogrified bank always comes up short. Plenty of film- think that I am one of them. My goal is to his most recent project, “Horsey,” from a makers, including myself, can feel strung create comedies that appeal to both high- festival run that includes a Best of Fest out and underpaid, juggling multiple jobs, brow and lowbrow audiences simultane- award from Onion City, into other contexts, trying to find time to create art on the side. ously; work that values both thematic depth including looping in galleries or streaming I’d like us to stop glamorizing the archetype as well as good gags. I make movies that online. “Like most people, the pandemic of the starving artist—it’s a lot easier to have incredibly dumb jokes everyone can and stay-at-home order drew me into a make inspired work when you’re not starv- laugh at, but that also have something self-reflective mood,” he says. “Cinema has ing and you feel your work is valued. Art creation shouldn’t only be for the most priv- 47 ileged among us, for those who can suc- Brandon cessfully fund their own films with the help Daley of rich parents or a well-connected friend. If we want art to be created by a diversity of voices, there needs to be more support, financially and structurally, and there simply needs to be more Chicago-made work on a consistent basis.” 47 Brandon Daley Shorts filmmaker Brandon Daley made a OCTOBER 2020 Newcity splash as an actor this year as elongated sight-and-sound gag “Tall Brandon” in Kris Rey’s “I Used To Go Here.” “I write cock jokes that will also make you cry,” he says of his sleek, deadpan comedies. “A lot of the best comedy people don't care as much about formal aesthetics. Inversely, a lot of 43

been hit hard. Theaters shut down and are 49 slow to reopen. There is a lot of anxiety Lonnie about being in a large room without win- Edwards dows, sitting next to strangers.” But, he says, “My students always motivate me. Our conversations are intense. Like them, I turned to making in order to feel alive. I discovered unused footage in old hard drives, leftovers from projects unrealized. Cinema mutates. There will be a renais- sance of intimate, DIY, personal, experimen- tal cinema. (My favorite kind of moving-im- age work.) My students had to postpone or cancel their initial plans but they are not inactive. They have to create. There is urgency. Using whatever is available, they turn their attention to their own experience or comment on everything that is happen- ing in the world around them. They shoot videos, secretly capturing the strange activities just outside their window; they search Google Earth to connect to their past; they draw animation about being bored at home, watching ‘Tiger King’; they sing to an empty Zoom interface; they put a mask on, grab their iPhone and take to the street to document anti-racist protests. This work is often raw, direct and unex- pected. Restrictions can be stimulating.” 49 Lonnie Edwards Newcity OCTOBER 2020 “I’m being Lonnie Edwards,” the 2016 Film within this city to curate my work in a way artist I could be.” While working for the 50 Filmmaker of the Moment says of his that I’m the architect of something that has moment in Los Angeles, as a producer on recent work. “By the time someone else has the essence of Chicago, the mood of the “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” and as a consulting figured out how to be that I will have city but not necessarily romanticizing the producer on the upcoming new version of evolved. Like art!” Edwards, whose work city physically, if that makes sense. At this “Saved by the Bell,\" and writing on \"The includes “An Atramentous Mind” (2017), point of my life, especially with what’s going Amber Ruffin Show,” Perkins says that “Chi- “Sounds of Exodus: An Ode to the Great on in the world, it’s all about making quality cago is almost always a character in all of Migration” (2016) and the contentious col- work. The beauty of art is there’s no actual the work because it was so essential to my laboration “A Ferguson Story” (2016), is formula to it, there’s no good or bad. It just growth as an artist.” Perkins is co-writing completing what he calls his final short. “I is. So I’m as optimistic as my mind allows “The Blackening” with “Girls Trip” screen- feel like my work is starting to align with a me to be. My mind has to work a bit harder writer Tracy Oliver, based on the viral short. much bigger purpose. We’re living in a time to be optimistic otherwise, particularly in He’s also developing his first solo show, like no other. I’ve never had a time in my life regards to words that start with the letter “How Being Black and Gay Made Me Better as an artist, as a filmmaker, as a Black man, ‘P’. As in ‘pandemic’ and ‘politics.’ Art in Than You,” which had its initial run here in where I’ve been pulled in so many direc- motion isn’t going anywhere. I’m a story- December. Among press plaudits, Variety tions emotionally. I’m deeply affected and teller and storytelling has been here long named Perkins one of the \"10 Comedians moved by all that’s going on to the point before we were here, the Bible, and will be to Watch in 2020.” What does Chicago where my work is not just an extension of here long after we are gone. It’s an art form need? “The biggest thing that is missing me anymore. I look at my work as an oppor- and art forms never die, they just evolve. that will make the film community better for tunity to represent a perspective, my per- Like we all should.” myself and those I work with is a truly trans- spective, as a Black man in a world where parent conversation and action-based plan we have to remind everyone that we 50 on diversity in the workplace. There is sim- deserve to be here and deserve to be Dewayne Perkins ply not enough being done. Period.” Perkins treated with equality, just as everyone does. is optimistic about himself and those he’s So for me, regardless of what I’m creating, Chicago is the heart and soul of comedian, “blessed to surround myself with, and to use I want it to exude parts of who I am and actor and writer-producer Dewayne Perkins. art as an extension of our lives.” But gener- what I represent, a strong intelligent Black Starting out in Chicago, he says, “my focus ally, he says, “I think the world is spiraling Chicagoan.” Edwards’ feature ambitions are wasn’t dictated by big flashy opportunity, into a fiery apocalyptic end and truly noth- in the psychological horror genre, with a but simply on trying to become the best ing matters, hahahaha.” heavy manga influence (including artist Junji Ito). “I want to use my experiences 44

Sharel Cassity's “Fearless” An outstanding album release by this stellar Chicago artist, the saxophonist displays tremendous bebop bravado on an album of largely new material that she wrote during a bout of ill health. The performances reveal her roaring back to ravishing top form. Arts & Culture

Art DESIGN TOP 5 Base of statue of Christopher Columbus by Carlo Brioschi (1879-1941) in Grant Park, 1 Richard Hunt: Scholar’s Rock after removal on July 24, 2020/Photo: James Conkis or Stone of Hope or Love of Bronze. Art Institute of Chicago. Time for a Reckoning Famed Chicago sculptor Richard Hunt shows a monumental bronze Chicago Reckons With Its Public Art Problem work, developed over the last six years, alongside other large- and By Kerry Cardoza small-scale pieces, arranged on the museum's Bluhm Family Terrace. Newcity OCTOBER 2020 It isn’t often that you can watch the art across Chicago, “confront the ways in Through Summer 2021 public conversation on a politically divisive which that history has and has not been issue change in real time, but the topic of memorialized” and develop systems to 2 Anthem. Weinberg/Newton monument representation is in such a commission public art and include residents Gallery. The West Town gallery moment. On June 18, Mayor Lightfoot said in a dialogue about city history. partners with the ACLU in this highly she did not favor removing the Christopher relevant group exhibition, including Columbus statues in the city, which at that The speed of that change is notable, local greats Bethany Collins and Eve point had been graffitied with tags: “geno- although horrific that it had to come after Ewing and photographer Naima cide,\" “killer.” The statues were soon dozens were injured when police interrupted Green, which scrutinizes voting rights. swaddled in coverings, briefly receiving a Black and indigenous solidarity rally on Through December 19 their own police security details. All three July 17. The time for a public reckoning with were gone by July 24, at least temporarily. our public monuments is here, forcing us to 3 Third Coast Disrupted: In August, the mayor’s office announced the confront the question of what monuments Artists + Scientists on formation of a committee to assess public say about a society. Are they tributes to the Climate. Glass Curtain Gallery. Artists use science-based work to 46 explore the impact of climate change in Chicago. Through October 30 4 Nine Lives. Renaissance Society. With a range of protagonists as their subjects, eleven artists, part of the Feminist Art Coalition, consider how stories are told and how histories can be written and rewritten. Through November 15 5 Household Name. 4th Ward Project Space. Artist and Julius Caesar co-founder Diego Leclery is a true believer in the capability of project spaces to showcase an artist's craving for performativity. This exhibition surveys his staggering contributions to Chicago's alternative scene while questioning the basis of cultural production. Through November 1

Kelly Kristin Jones, \"I was aware of him before he cleared his throat\" (he came up from behind) Red Bull Arts OCTOBER 2020 Newcity 2018. Archival pigment print, 26in x 38in Microgrant past or guideposts to a just future? How did we get here, and is Chicago Chicago ready to lead the way to greater equity in public art? $1,000 Unrestricted Neysa Page-Lieberman is a curator and educator who is knowledge- Grants able about public art, but wasn't always interested in monuments. Awarded “In my mind, and I think to a lot of people, monuments had become Monthly almost invisible,” she says. “We walk right past it. They all look the Apply Now same and they disappear into your surroundings.” www.redbullarts.com 47 But as the art world began to address representation and access, she realized why she had so little interest in the standard neoclassical, “white supremacist, patrilineal narratives” of many statues. “What I wanted to do was to bring new stories, new histories into the public realm and also have these works envisioned by BIPOC people, LGBTQ people, bring in all of these other ideas for representation.\" The tradition of erecting commemorative figurative statues originated in Europe. As Northwestern art and art history professor Rebecca Zorach wrote recently, the monuments “created visible reminders of who held power” and served as signs of conquest. The same followed in our country. The United Daughters of the Confederacy was founded in 1894 to fund and erect monuments to confederate soldiers. Gutzon Borglum, the original sculptor of Georgia’s Stone Mountain and Mount Rushmore, itself a desecration of Lakota Sioux land, was a white supremacist who was deeply involved with the Ku Klux Klan. As it stands, monuments across the nation do not accurately reflect the demographics and contributions of the country’s inhabitants. As of 2018, out of 152 national monuments, only three honored women, and just one of those honored a Black woman. Michelle Duster, great-granddaughter to the abolitionist, journalist and activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett, has worked locally to correct that imbalance through

EXHIBITIONS THE ARTS CLUB OF CHICAGO DEPAUL ART MUSEUM 201 East Ontario Street At DePaul University 312 787 3997 935 W. Fullerton Avenue [email protected] / www.artsclubchicago.org 773 325 7506 Tues–Fri 10-1 | 2-6, Sat 11-3 [email protected] / artmuseum.depaul.edu (subject to change due to COVID-19) October 8–December 28 Ayanah Moor: for you Viewing available online @artsclubchicago or www.artsclubchicago.org September 7–December 20 DPAM Window Installation by Kathryn October 16–March 20 Upkeep: Elliott Jerome Brown, Jr., Andrews: Victoria Woodhull, Belva Ann Lockwood, Abigail Scott Duniway, Laura Clay, Lenka Clayton, Sara Cwynar, Bronwyn Katz, Chancellor Maxwell, Lily van der Stokker Cora Wilson Stewart, Gracie Allen, Anna Millburn, Ellen Linea Jensen, Mary Kennery, Agnes Waters, Margaret Chase Smith, Fay T. Carpenter Swain, Charlene Mitchell, Shirley THE BLOCK MUSEUM OF ART Chisholm, Linda Jenness, Evelyn Reed, Bella Savitzky Abzug, Patsy Takamoto Mink, Margaret Wright, Barbara Jordan, Ellen McCormack, Deirdre Griswold, Koryne Kaneski At Northwestern University Horbal, Maureen Smith, Alice Tripp, Gavrielle Holmes, Sonia Johnson, Martha Kirland, 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, IL Tonie Nathan, Mary Ruwart, Wynonia Burke, Lenora Fulani, Willa Kenoyer, Mamie Moore, 847 491 4000 Patricia Schroeder, Georgiana Doerschuck, Helen Halyard, Caroline Killeen, Gloria La Riva, [email protected] / www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu Isabell Masters, Tennie Rogers, Susan Gaii Ducey, Elvena Lloyd-Duffie, Marsha Feinland, Special Block Cinema Series – Free and open to all, online Dr. Heather Anne Harder, Mary Cal Hollis, Jo Jorgensen, Mary “France” Letulle, Monica October 8–30 Liberating History: Arab Feminisms and Mediated Pasts Moorehead, Diane Beall Templin, Cathy Gordon Brown, Angel Joy Chavis Rocker, Elizabeth Dole, Dorian Yeager, Katherine Bateman, Joanne Bier Beeman, Sheila Bilyeu, Carol CARL HAMMER GALLERY Moseley Braun, Jeanne Chebib, Mildred T. Glover, Millie Howard, Carol A. Miller, Lorna Salzman, Florence Walker, Elaine Brown, Hillary Clinton, Nan Garrett, Cynthia McKinney, 740 N. Wells Street Mary Ruwart, Christine Smith, Kat Swift, Roseanne Barr, Peta Lindsay, Jill Stein, Michele 312 266 8512 Bachmann, Khadijah Jacob-Fambro, Carly Fiorina, Alyson Kennedy, Lynn S. Kahn, Cherie [email protected] / www.carlhammergallery.com Deville, Souraya Faas, Tulsi Gabbard, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Tues–Sat 11-5:30 (subject to change due to COVID-19) Kim Ruff, Elizabeth Warren, Marianne Williamson September 12–November 28 Sincerely . . . an exhibition of works GRAHAM FOUNDATION by H.C. Westermann and Ray Johnson 4 W. Burton Place DEPARTMENT OF VISUAL ARTS 312 787 4071 AND LOGAN CENTER EXHIBITIONS [email protected] / www.grahamfoundation.org Visit our website and follow us on social media @grahamfoundation At the Reva and David Logan Center Artist-in-residence: Anna Martine Whitehead, FORCE! 915 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637 773 702 2787 an opera in three acts [email protected] / arts.uchicago.edu/logan/gallery Tues–Sat 9-9, Sun 11-9, Mon closed (subject to change due to GRAY COVID-19) October 16–November 8 2020 BA Thesis Exhibition Richard Gray Gallery, Hancock: 875 N. Michigan Avenue, 38th Floor Mon–Fri 10-5:30, Sat by appointment (subject to change due to COVID-19) Gray Warehouse, 2044 W. Carroll Avenue Mon–Fri by appointment, Wed–Fri 10-5, Sat 11-5 312 642 8877 [email protected] / www.richardgraygallery.com September 10–October 31 McArthur Binion: DNA:Work and the Under:Conscious Drawings (Gray Warehouse)

KAVI GUPTA GALLERY THE RENAISSANCE SOCIETY Kavi Gupta | Washington Blvd., 835 W. Washington Boulevard At the University of Chicago Kavi Gupta | Elizabeth St., 219 N. Elizabeth Street 5811 S. Ellis Ave., Cobb Hall, 4th Floor By appointment only, email [email protected] to arrange 773 702 8670 [email protected] / www.renaissancesociety.org 312 432 0708 Tues–Wed, Fri 10-5, Thurs 10-8, Sat–Sun 12-5 [email protected] / www.kavigupta.com (subject to change due to COVID-19) Visit online at https://website-kavigupta.artlogic.net/ Please contact The Renaissance Society for more information. Roger Brown: Hyperframe (Washington Blvd.) September 10–December 26 Deborah Kass: Painting and Sculpture RHONA HOFFMAN GALLERY (Elizabeth St.) By appointment only, email [email protected] 1711 W. Chicago Avenue to arrange 312 455 1990 [email protected] / www.rhoffmangallery.com MONIQUE MELOCHE GALLERY Tues–Fri 10:30-5:30, Sat 11-5 Please schedule an appointment through Tock: 451 N. Paulina Street exploretock.com/rhonahoffmangallery 312 243 2129 September 11–October 31 Spencer Finch: looking around, [email protected] / www.moniquemeloche.com Open by appointment gazing intently, beholding September 12–October 31 Jake Troyli: Don’t Forget to Pack a Lunch! MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY SMART MUSEUM OF ART PHOTOGRAPHY At the University of Chicago At Columbia College Chicago 5550 S. Greenwood Avenue 600 S. Michigan Avenue 773 702 0200 312 663 5554 [email protected] / www.smartmuseum.uchicago.edu [email protected] / www.mocp.org Fall 2020 Take Care Tues–Wed 10-5, Thurs 10-8, Fri–Sat 10-5 Fall 2020 Claudia Wieser: Generations (subject to change due to COVID-19) Please contact the Smart for updates on hours and dates. October 1–December 23 What Does Democracy Look Like? Subject to change. Please visit mocp.org for up-to-date information WRIGHTWOOD 659 and to reserve a free ticket. 659 W. Wrightwood Avenue THE NEUBAUER COLLEGIUM 773 437 6601 FOR CULTURE AND SOCIETY [email protected] / wrightwood659.org Thurs–Sat by reservation only. $15 tickets only available online. At the University of Chicago September 9–December 12 Balkrishna Doshi: Architecture 5701 South Woodlawn Avenue 773 795 2329 for the People [email protected] / neubauercollegium.uchicago.edu Open by appointment ZHOU B ART CENTER Through December 21 Apsáalooke Women and Warriors 1029 W. 35th Street POETRY FOUNDATION 773 523 0200 [email protected] / www.zhoubartcenter.com 61 W. Superior Street Mon–Sat 10-3 312 787 7070 August 7–November Centerline 2020 (open by appointment) [email protected] / www.poetryfoundation.org Check poetryfoundation.org/visit for updates on our current exhibition and hours.

Originally installed along Chicago’s lakefront, “Helping Hands” sat in storage for several years after being severely vandalized. The Chicago Park District and the Art Institute of Chicago cooperatively conserved the artwork and relocated it in Chicago Women’s Park, 2011 Newcity OCTOBER 2020 her efforts to erect a monument to Wells, sculpture in the Chicago Women's Park and challenge of moving past nostalgia for the who lived in Chicago for much of her life. Gardens, which commemorates Jane simplicity of our elementary school under- Duster and a team of collaborators have Addams. A bust of Georgiana Simpson, the standing of history, tainted as it almost worked on the project since 2008, with first African-American woman to receive a invariably was with white supremacy.” hopes to unveil the work, created by the Ph.D. in the United States, was installed at celebrated Chicago sculptor Richard Hunt, the University of Chicago in 2018. That same I would argue that the city should follow the next year. While conducting research on why year, a statue of the poet Gwendolyn Brooks lead of the remarkable artists who are already this monument was so necessary, Duster was unveiled in Kenwood’s Brooks Park. working to challenge dominant, white-su- was struck by the statistics of monument premacist narratives. Kelly Kristin Jones’ representation. Page-Lieberman believes the city has a long work healing the city’s landscape of way to go in reckoning with monuments and contested monuments, by photographing “Once I got involved in learning that level of leveling the playing field to provide a greater them camouflaged into their surroundings, is information, the more I started feeling like, diversity of narratives. Nor does she think it’s one such project. Another is by Santiago X, ‘Whoa there's a lot of work to be done here,’” a good use of public time or money to add who has designed two earthwork mounds she says. “There are around 5,500 statues nuance to existing, contested monuments, that aim “to promote environmental literacy, in the whole country, and around 570 are of as Lightfoot offered. In June, Lightfoot told visibility of Indigenous peoples past and women. Just to give another perspective, the Tribune the Columbus statues should be present, and appreciation of neighborhood out of those 5,500 statues, 700 of them are used as teaching tools, and that she seeks histories connecting the Chicago Branch and to the Confederacy. So you have more “to not try to erase history, but to embrace it Des Plaines River along Irving Park Road,” statues to the Confederacy than there are of full-on.” where the monuments will be located. all women.” “When are we going to get to stories of As public art, monuments belong to all of us, For Duster, it’s imperative that our monu- BIPOC people and women, when are we they speak to who we are as a people. It ments reflect the truth of what our country is going to get to these stories if we are going matters who we choose to commemorate, and has been. “The way things are right now back and saying, wait a minute, let's talk a who we commission to create the works, is a false narrative. It doesn't reflect our true little bit more about these guys?\" Page-Lieb- where the works are placed and who has history. It doesn't reflect our true demograph- erman asks. \"Let’s put more taxpayer money, access to those place. As Page-Lieberman ics,” she says. “When you break down the time, attention, scholarship, let’s reinvest it observes, \"There has never been a time numbers, it’s abysmal when it comes to into these guys, taking away all of those when so many people cared about public art. women and especially women of color. resources from honoring other people and It’s a moment we can’t let pass.\" Considering how long we’ve been in this moments and accomplishments.\" country and how much we’ve contributed to “We all agree it's time for a reckoning on an the country, it’s important for the public Contested monuments like Mount Rushmore exclusionary history that props up symbols tributes, commemorations in these various aren’t actually about remembering history, but that just erase other people and cultures,” forms to be of greater reflection of reality. instead require “spectacular acts of she says. “I love the fact that we can act and That erasure or omission gives people of forgetting.” Zorach says. She argues that it’s discuss questions and ideas that we were color, there's a void for us of seeing ourselves useful to continue discourse around these never able to challenge before. The idea that in these public spaces. There's a false historical figures, but the statues don’t have we’re able to discuss everything from the impression that Black people or people of to remain standing. “White people in physical object that inhabits space and color haven't contributed as much as we particular need to take a good long look at inspires conversation in our public spaces to actually have.” what Columbus did, both directly and permanence and ephemera and the idea that indirectly, and at the personal and institutional there’s innumerable stories that are going to WBEZ reported in 2015 that out of Chicago’s relationships George Washington and other influence our education, our shared history 580 parks, there was not “a single statue or Founding Fathers had to the enslavement of and our investment in our people and our bust of a historically significant woman.” African people, which was far from incidental culture. It’s an explosively wonderful time for There are nonfigurative moments to women, to the founding of the United States,” she the trajectory of public art and monuments.” such as Louise Bourgeois' “Helping Hands” writes. “White people must accept the 50