Screening 35mm & 16mm film prints from studio vaults, film archives, and private collections.

  • Onion City Experimental Film Festival (Closing Night)

    Sunday, April 6 @ 7:00 PM / NEIU — Chicago Filmmakers
    Tickets: $12 at the door or purchase in advance

    Selections from the 16mm Film Study Collection
    For over 50 years, the John M. Flaxman Library’s 16mm Film Study Collection at the School of the Art Institute has been a renowned resource serving faculty, students and researchers within and outside of SAIC’s communities. The collection originates from prints acquired by SAIC’s academic departments and the Film Center, before its transfer to the Library in the 1970s. The Library provides access to over 700 16mm prints spanning the history of film, including a significant number of films by SAIC faculty and alumni. While the collection continues to be an invaluable resource for teaching and research, it also reflects a history of film pedagogy at SAIC, and has become a vital resource for preserving Chicago experimental film history. Following a partnership with the Chicago Film Society to restore the 16mm films of SAIC alumnus Edward Owens, the Library has recently finished new 16mm restorations of Owens’ earlier 8mm work.  Owens, a Black queer filmmaker from the South Side of Chicago was a student in the newly formed Film Department at SAIC in the mid-1960s, mentored by its founder, Gregory Markopoulos. In celebration of Chicago’s rich experimental film legacy, and the Flaxman Library’s contributions to it, we are premiering these restorations with a selection of rare prints by Chicago filmmakers from the Film Study Collection.

    Program:
    Swish (Jean Sousa, 1982) – 3 min
    Devotio Moderna (Shellie Fleming, 1993) – 9 min
    Blink (Zack Stiglicz, 1998) – 11 min
    Sound in Sync (Tatsu Aoki, 1984) – 20 min
    Edward Owens 8mm films – approx 30 min
    Approx. 70 min total • 16mm

    Presented in partnership with the John M. Flaxman Library at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as part of the Onion City Experimental Film & Video Festival (running April 3 – 6)

    NEXT UP: SPRING NIGHT, SUMMER NIGHT on Wednesday, April 9 at NEIU

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Upcoming screenings:

View all upcoming screenings & venue info

Wed 3/26 at 7:30 PM at NEIU
History is Made at Night 

Sun 4/6 at 7:00 PM
Onion City Experimental Film Festival
Advance Tickets

Wed 4/9 at 7:30 PM at NEIU
Spring Night, Summer Night 

Sun 4/13 at 11:30 AM at Music Box
The Dragon Painter • Advance Tickets

Mon 4/21 at 7:30 PM at Music Box
Harakiri • Advance Tickets

Wed 4/30 at 7:00 PM at Music Box
Daisies • Advance Tickets

Wed 5/7 at 7:30 PM at NEIU
Corn’s-a-Poppin’

Wed 5/14 at 7:30 PM at NEIU
The Band Wagon

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The Chicago Film Society works to promote the exhibition of analog film prints, to preserve the equipment and skills used to create and exhibit them, and to encourage an approach to film history that positions cinema as part of the broader history of technology and society.

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