Celluloid heroes

Nancy Watrous wants your home movies. You might think they're junk, but Watrous, executive director of the 17-month-old Chicago Film Archives, argues otherwise. "They're historical documents that should and need to be preserved," she says.

Watrous created the Archives in December 2004 after thousands of home movies, news reels, and amateur, educational and industrial films were evicted from the Chicago Public Library and left without a home. The nonprofit is hosting a benefit Friday 13 at the Cultural Center to raise both money and awareness for their mission. Led by Chicago Reader film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, the event will feature high-profile guests, like famed cinematographer Haskell Wexler (Medium Cool) and writer-director Mike Gray (The China Syndrome), talking about their work in relation to Chicago history. Tickets are a steep $100 a pop, but for Watrous and her volunteer crew, it's a small price to pay for preserving Chicagoans' legacy.

"We're looking to compile a moving-image history of Chicago, the people, the politics, the Midwest culture and the film business in our area," Watrous says. "And there is quite a history, particularly in 16mm film. Chicago used to be a major producer and distributor of educational and industrial films, and they've been largely ignored. But people are finally catching on."

In late April, a number of Chicago-made gems showed at the Cultural Center, including rarely screened political documentaries such as segments from the Chicago Film Group's "Urban Crisis" series of the late '60s and "Just as I Am," a poignant glimpse into the lives of four residents of the Pacific Garden Mission on State Street in the '80s.

According to Watrous, the CFA contains more than 5,000 films, only a fraction of which have been seen and evaluated. "Some of them are shockingly beautiful," she says. "But there are others where the color has shifted." For example, Watrous notes, sadly, that a one-of-a-kind 16mm print of "The Santa Claus Suit," about two hand puppets debating the existence of Saint Nick, is starting to turn red.

But now that the films are tucked away in a climate-controlled space in Pilsen, fewer films will suffer the ravages of time and temperature. And for prized titles that are deteriorating, like amateur filmmaker Margaret Conneely's "The Fairy Princess" from 1956, the Archives is committed to restoration. Named one of the Photographic Society of America's Ten Best amateur films of the year, Conneely's film is a prime example of the kind of "folk" filmmaking that should be preserved, says Charles Tepperman, a University of Chicago Ph.D. student and the CFA's director of amateur and home movie acquisitions.

"These kinds of amateur films are different from mere 'home movies,'" Tepperman says. "We're not just talking about snapshots here. Conneely's film employs stop-motion animation and semisynch sound. We saw the significance of 'Fairy Princess' right away, but are still in the process of finding out what other treasures the rest of the collection holds," he says.

"If we don't preserve these films," Tepperman adds, "we'll lose a significant aspect of film history, as well as a crucial way of understanding everyday life in Chicago."

Chicago Film Archives Night begins at 6pm on Friday 13 at the Chicago Cultural Center. For more information, see www.chicagofilmarchives.org.

If you have home movies or amateur films that might fit the Chicago Film Archives' mission, e-mail info@chicagofilmarchives.org.