Remember ration coupons, war bond rallies, and scrap drives? Remember drive-in movies, TVs with rabbit ears and cars with fins? This was Chicago in the 1940s and '50s. This WTTW documentary brings these years back to life through the touching memories and home movies of Chicagoans themselves. See old friends form early Chicago television like Kukla, Fran and Ollie, Miss Frances, Dave Garroway, and more. Rediscover hula hoops and yo-yos. Recall the days when ladies donned white gloves to go downtown and men shined their shoes to go on a date. Relive the patriotic spirit of the war years when everyone pulled together.
In the 60s, the five members of a Chicago kingpin's inner circle are called to a meeting following a job gone wrong. At the back of a popular bar owned by one of their own, a rat is revealed and the family is torn apart. Who turned on the family? Who can survive a night at Phillies?
A 17-year-old kid from South Chicago coexists with his selfish foster mother. On his way to school with his best friend, they discover something that will change their lives forever.
The regulars of Chicago's Southside Rink show off the style and personality of the place they have called home for generations.
A twenty something gay man travels from Chicago to his home in rural Missouri following the death of his father — an obsessive hoarder who has left a house full of items, some valuable and some not so, to pick through.
The colorful stories of Irish-American immigrants and their descendants who lived the history and exemplify the repeated cycle of the outsider becoming the ultimate Chicago citizen-insider.
Mike Leonard tells the inside story of how the west Loop’s St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, known to residents as Old St. Pat's, transformed itself from an empty church in a declining neighborhood into a Chicago hub of worship, culture, social life, education, and service -- revitalizing a then-struggling West Loop.
Filmmaker Kevin McMahon accompanies the Haida delegation on a repatriation trip to Chicago in 2003. His film reveals the whole repatriation process through the stories and experiences of the people who participated, both Museum staff and the Haida people.
30 years in the making, the film Jan Terri: No Rules tells the story of an irrepressible, and often delightfully perplexing personality. As a child, Jan would dance and sing for anyone who would listen. As a teenager, she began writing and performing her own songs. After earning her BA in Arts and Entertainment Management, she continued making music while working full-time as a limo driver. The income from that job allowed her to hire a studio as well as a videographer to help her make her unorthodox DIY music videos and distributing them on VHS tape. Without her knowledge, her videos made their way to the nascent YouTube. The fact that her most popular YouTube video was given the title “Worst Music Video Ever” didn’t dampen her spirit. Her fanbase grew to include such luminaries as Marilyn Manson and Cynthia Plaster Caster. Over the years, Jan’s independent spirit attracted many collaborators who’ve helped bring her vision to life.
As Comiskey Park, Chicago's 80 year old ballpark, prepares for its final season in 1990, expectations for the home team, the Chicago White Sox, are very low. Surprising many, the young team becomes a contender, and a bittersweet season becomes an exciting one.
Lyla Riley is in a punk band -- Minor Illusion. They suck. Regardless, she perseveres with her best friend Rob on guitar, numbskull drummer Sean and showboat bassist Pete. Minor Illusion's pathetic existence vexes Lyla's older sister Stephanie, a former punk turned 9-to-5 suit. Through lineup changes, borrowed cash, shitty gigs and drunken nights, Lyla and the band journey through the perils of Chicago's DIY music scene to get their shot at adequacy.
A video that takes a closer look at the city of Chicago.
In the 1930s, Frankenstein’s monster travels to Chicago to seek the aid of a Dr. Euphronius in creating a companion for himself. The two reinvigorate a murdered young woman and the Bride is born. She is beyond what either of them intended, igniting a combustible romance, the attention of the police and a wild and radical social movement.
STRANGER is a coming-of-age short film that focuses on two neighbors reconciling before one of them goes off to college in Chicago. It is based on a true event that occurred the last day that I was in town before I moved to college. The two characters, Max and Cass, discuss their past together after not talking for years, realizing that they have changed as young adults and miss hanging out but cannot because Cass is leaving while Max stays in town to fix cars. With this last interaction, they get to say goodbye officially on a good note.
A young couple struggling with infertility seeks the aide of a healer with a promised remedy, while unknown forces also work to provide them with what they wish.
A Chicago community puts their lives in danger to seek peace and salvation.
Designer’s Game is a crime drama short film that follows a young broke graphic designer into the descent of a life of crime working in the deep web in the city of Chicago. With a new-found life with easy money, he thinks all is okay until a client comes back, but not in the way he thinks.
THE VOICE THAT ROCKED AMERICA is an one-hour documentary about Top 40 radio personality Dick Biondi. Dick's powerful connection with his audience has endured for decades, and the bands he promoted have never forgotten his generosity. Dick's story will be told through archival photos and footage, recreations, and interviews with recording artists, broadcasters, fans, friends and Dick Biondi himself. The film is narrated by Pam, whose life was changed when she met her teenage idol.
Can flipping through the channels change your life? For Karen, a former prosecutor living in Chicago, her world changed forever when she accidentally fell in love with telenovelas. Now she has quit her job, and she's moving to Mexico City to write the telenovela she's always wanted to watch.