As Split Pillow launches the second volume of its ten-part documentary series “Chicago360” with a series of screenings this spring, the nonprofit film incubator is enjoying its sixth year of steady growth.
It broke the $100,000 mark last year and now sees several projects in various forms of distribution?one film will be its most profitable.
“In ten years it will be a look back at what the early 21st Century in Chicago was like, lives and cultures that are not necessarily being recorded otherwise,” said Split Pillow executive director Jason Stephens.
“We call it ?Chicago360,’ but it’s important to recognize that a 360 degree view doesn’t come from a single volume but from a long-term commitment to this project. It’s impossible to catch Chicago in an hour. It’s probably impossible to catch it in ten hours, but we’re getting a little closer.”
Each annual volume of “Chicago360” is composed of five short documentaries. The first set profiled neighborhoods. This volume explores performance subcultures.
Tom Bailey and Brendan Kredell “had been doing a documentary [?No Halfstepping’] on Sharkula, a local hip-hop artist who lives primarily on the streets,” Stephens said. “They came to us with a proposal to finish it up.”
Split Pillow regular Etta Worthington “had been connected to the swing dancing community and had the idea of doing a documentary for awhile, but she hadn’t had the opportunity. We gave her the resources to do that,” Stephens said, and she created “Chicago Swingers.”
Judy Kropsch’s “Windy Season” traces the legacy of department store Santas from today back to Marshall Field. Melina Kolb’s “The Original Slam” follows the 20-year history of the Green Mill poetry slam. And Jackie Sestak’s “Chicago on Chicago” profiles three idiosyncratic businesses on Chicago Ave. at Damen Ave.: Atomix, Loraine’s and Rotofugi.
Stephens planned to make an announcement in mid-April about a distribution deal for last year’s gay religious cult comedy “soulMaid.” “We’re on the verge of signing with Aristical,” which released the DVD of Split Pillow’s second feature “Brushfires,” Stephens said.
“Once it’s signed it becomes our first profitable film, in that we’re receiving more on the advance than it cost to make it. Nobody’s getting rich off it, but we’re putting the capital back into new projects, which is exciting for us.”
“Common Senses,” Split Pillow’s 2005 omnibus feature, was released in March on DVD by Echelon Entertainment.
