Chicago Film Archives has come up with a new way of presenting programs. It asks locals with unique businesses or talents to curate an hourlong program selected from its vast vault of vintage 16mm films.
The program, each time assembled by a different non-film person, screens on the second Tuesday of every month at the Hideout.
The general motivation behind the series, says CFA founder Nancy Watrous, “is to have a lot of different communities and voices engaging with our materials.
“We’re increasingly interested in collaborating with those who are eager to mix it up with the CFA films in ways not thought of before.”
Curator (a.k.a. Crasher) of the Tuesday, Nov. 11 program is Christen Carter, founder of the Busy Beaver Button Company.
“CFA has loads of great films I didn’t know existed,” says Carter, who runs an unusual business. Busy Beaver creates and manufactures custom lapel buttons for thousands of bands, politicians, non-profits, institutions, entertainers — name it.
Carter is also the founder of the Busy Beaver Button Museum, the only one if the world solely dedicated pinback buttons
The CFA films she assembled for Nov. 11 were chosen “so we can have some fun together,” Carter says. Her mix of nine short 16mm films, 3.5 to 12 minutes long, span the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, when 35, 16 and 8mm film were the coin of the realm.
Two shorts were produced by the 1960s-80s’ Millie and Mort Goldsholl’s iconic design and film company in Northbrook. One short is a series of five innovative Kleenex spots and the second, from the ‘70s, looks at the discourse of the “politics of housework.”
The evening’s longest film, at 12 minutes, is Chuck Olin Associates’ 1968 WLS radio promotional piece pitching airtime to advertisers. The oldest is a 1934 Universal Cartoon Studios animated cartoon, “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.”
The Hideout is at 1254 W. Wabansia, 6-8 p.m. Tickets are a mere $5 and may be purchased here.
