A Global Super 8 Event will be held May 8 at Chicago Filmmakers as part of 40 events taking place in 40 cities, held in recognition of the 40th anniversary of Kodachrome 40, Super 8 film.
Forty films by 40 predominantly Chicago filmmakers were invited to creatively shoot one roll of Kodachrome 40, or a three-minute film.
The filmmaker had to have a project in mind when he shot the footage, said Patrick Friel, programming director of Chicago Filmmakers, one of the sponsors of the event. “They could edit in the camera or have one long take, but not raw film or rushes.”
Kodak donated all the film and Dwayne’s Photo of Parsons, Kansas provided processing for all 40 flicks.
No one, not even the filmmakers, will see the short films until the 6 p.m., Friel said, “to highlight the excitement and unpredictability of the small gauge film.”
The list of filmmakers was jointly compiled by event organizer, filmmaker Michelle Mahoney, a Super 8 instructor at the School of the Art Institute, co-sponsor of the event, and Friel.
Some of the filmmakers participating in Global Super-8 Day are Bill Stamets, longtime Chicago Super 8 filmmaker; Catherine Crouch, whose feature “Stray Dogs” recently played on the film festival circuit; Jim Finn, director of the Video Mundi festival; Ines Sommer, currently working on the dance documentary “Urban Credo”; and David Gatten, Ithaca College professor and 2005 recipient of a Guggenheim
This event draws from the faculties of the School of the Art Institute, Columbia College and the University of Illinois.
From SAIC: Jazz musician and experimental filmmaker Tatsu Aoki, Sharon Couzin, Tom Comerford, Shellie Fleming, Michele Mahoney, Cecilia Cornejo, Kerry Richardson, Kristin J. Mohr; Ruth Leitman, whose “Lipstick and Dynamite” was picked up for national distribution starting this spring; and Daniel Eisenberg, whose “Something More Than Night” screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
From Columbia College faculty: Paula Froehle, Eric Scholl and Wenhwa Ts’ao. From the U of I: Jennifer Montgomery, whose “Threads of Belonging” screened at the Museum of Modern Art.
Chicago Filmmakers is located at 5243 N. Clark St. Admission is $7.
