Well folks, we survived Lollapalooza weekend! From the Ted Bokhof Collection: silent 16mm footage of Jefferson Airplane performing a free concert at the Grant Park Music Shell on 5/13/1969, presented by the Chi Park District. Watch the whole reel: collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objec...

A man using a riding lawnmower to pull a girl around a yard in a small wagon. From an 8mm home movie reel labeled "Iowa Vacation 1961" shot by Donna Adams.

Ladies of the Faust and Wyckoff families drinking Schlitz with their pooch by the Lake in Belgium, Wisconsin, circa Summer 1945. 📽️ From a reel of 16mm home movies labeled "Wisconsin Vacations At Wyckoffs - Part I" in CFA's Chester E. Faust Collection.

Fiesta del Sol starts today! This Pilsen tradition started in 1973. Here are some scenes from the 1988 iteration from our Susan Dobinsky Collection. Watch more on our website!: collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objec...

An older woman spinning wool and wearing a magnificently chunky knitted sweater vest, from a 16mm home movie shot in tiny, rural Bitely, Michigan circa 1929.

CFA's staff have been working closely with Agata on this exciting project for the past few years!

Chicago Reader@chicagoreader.com · 3w ago

Film scholar Agata Zborowska's “Not-So-Ordinary” project archives and restores amateur films from the city's Polish immigrant community. https://bit.ly/4ym0hBQ

A loose montage of Chicago summer scenes from 1984 from a Super 8 reel labeled "Summer City Festivals" in the Bill Stamets Collection.

Come see CFA favorite OBEY YOUR AIR RAID WARDEN (Robert Davis & Harry Hilfinger, 1942) in LA!

Jeff Lambert@jefferylambert.bsky.social · 4w ago

Gonna be showing all 3 minutes of this mini-masterpiece alongside 7 other short films preserved by @filmpreservation.bsky.social on July 18th @vidiots.bsky.social in LA. Spread the good word. Info & tickets: vidiotsfoundation.org/movies/celeb...

July 26, 1965: people gather for a civil rights march from Grant Park to City Hall in Chicago. The rally was led by Martin Luther King Jr. and sponsored by Chicago's Coordinating Council of Community Organizations (CCCO).

A bevy of clowns celebrate the US Bicentennial on 7/4/1976, seen through the eyes of Chicago filmmaker JoAnn Elam (excerpt from "Peggy / Centennial," 8mm, silent).

Superdawg, circa 1979. From a Super 8 film shot by Chuck Kleinhans.

Scenes from the 1974 #whitesox home opener at Comiskey Park, including fans buying Falstaff Beer for less than a dollar and a brief glimpse of a streaker in a bright red White Sox batting helmet. 16mm news footage from the Frank Koza Collection. Catch plenty more Sox footage on our website!

Chicago Mayor Harold Washington gives a speech in Lincoln Park as the 18th Annual Gay & Lesbian Pride Parade proceeds along N Broadway on June 28, 1987. From a Super 8 reel in the Bill Stamets Collection.

"Pink Triangles Rising," (1982, Dan Dinello & Tom Corboy), a documentary short depicting attendees of the 13th annual Chicago Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade rallying against the American Nazi Party in Lincoln Park on Sunday, June 27, 1982.

Pink Triangles Rising

A documentary short depicting attendees of the 13th annual Chicago Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade rallying against the American Nazi Party in Lincoln Park on Sunday, June 27, 1982, with a soundtrack of ...

collections.chicagofilmarchives.org

Come see us at our open house this Sunday 6/28! We'll be open for visitors from 1pm – 4:30pm.

CFA Open House June 2026 - Chicago Film Archives

chicagofilmarchives.org

A terrier being stuffed into a little sweater in Chicago's Jackson Park. 🐕 This 16mm home movie was shot in 1926, just blocks from what is now the site of the Barack Obama Presidential Center.

9.5mm home movie shot at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair (A Century of Progress), featuring a strongman outside of the "Dungeon of Torture" (admission fee refunded for accredited scholars!) Originally donated to CFA by our friends at the Center for Home Movies.

🇵🇷 Chicago Mayor Harold Washington marches with the Puerto Rican Day Parade on June 9, 1984. From a Super 8 reel in the Bill Stamets collection.

Journalists, IL Governor Jim Edgar, and officials from other nations walk through Soldier Field (and kick a ball around!) as Chicago prepares to host the 1994 FIFA World Cup.  📽️ Super 8 from a reel labeled "Soccer" in the Bill Stamets Collection, digitized with support from @clirnews.bsky.social

Come see us this Saturday afternoon! We're excited to be part of this @landmarksillinois.bsky.social event highlighting the history of the Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church on Chicago's West Side.

Preservation through Photography: The Story and Legacy of Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church - Chicago Film Archives

chicagofilmarchives.org

Unidentified children trying to do headstands in an 8mm home movie from the John McNaughton Collection, likely shot in Chicago's Pullman neighborhood in 1956.

Legendary advertising filmmaker Joe Sedelmaier passed away earlier this month. His most famous work was the 1984 "Where's the beef?" TV commercial (shot right here in Chicago!) CFA's Bill Stamets Collection includes a few behind-the-scenes Super 8 moments from the "beef" campaign:

Tomorrow night at the Logan Center for the Arts, come see HIGHLANDERS WEDDING (1961), a document of Chicago's Polish Highlander community featuring excellent music, brand new English subtitles — and a beautiful new 16mm print created with support from @filmpreservation.bsky.social!

Happy May Day! Here is Super-8 sound footage from a Progressive Labor Party rally on International Worker's Day in 1981. Shot by Chuck Kleinhans, with Joe Hendrix interviewing attendees. collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objec...

[Progressive Labor Party May Day Demonstration]

Scenes from a Progressive Labor Party rally on May Day (International Worker's Day) in 1981. Between speeches, Joe Hendrix interviews attendees: Rose Francis talks about her involvement with the Inter...

collections.chicagofilmarchives.org

Come see us at our open house this weekend! We'll be there on Sunday from 1 to 4:30 pm.

CFA Open House April 2026 - Chicago Film Archives

chicagofilmarchives.org

Enjoy these excerpts from Tom Palazzolo's 1969 film "Your Astronauts," an observational portrait of the August 13, 1969 parade held in Chicago to celebrate Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr., and Michael Collins a few weeks after their return from the moon.

An Easter-themed, portrait-style home movie, circa 1941, featuring young Bob Sommerfeld, his parents and baby brother, his cousins Sheldon and Diane Glick, and his uncle Jack Glick. 📽️ From a 16mm Kodachrome home movie in CFA's Glick-Berolzheimer Collection.

A home movie from the Glick family's Passover Seder, c. 1939, likely shot in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood in the two-room apartment at the New Lawrence Hotel where Jack & Dorothy Glick lived with their two children. Jack immigrated to Chicago from Ukraine and ran a bar and cigar shop at the hotel.

Time-lapse footage of spring flowers blooming, shot in 16mm circa 1957 by John Nash Ott of Winnetka, Illinois, whose elaborate greenhouse and camera system was called "ingenious" by American Cinematographer in 1947.

♫ Batter up! Hear that call! Now's the time... to plaaay ball! ♫ The real-life Rockford Peaches make an appearance in this 1943 home movie from the Dean Collection. The family brought their 8mm camera to this All-American Girls Professional Baseball League game during the Peaches' inaugural season.