Designed to be Seen: Art and Function in Chicago Mid-Century Film presents—for the very first time—a series of screenings that reframe the history of cinema in Chicago through various lenses and modes of production. Curated by Michelle Puetz, this four program series illuminates the diverse factors that have shaped the filmic landscape of the region from the mid-century through the 1970s.

One of 15 artistic partnerships supported by the MacArthur Foundation’s International Connections fund, the International Media Mixer is a cross-cultural “call and response” exchange. Bringing together artists from Italy and the United States to explore the process of creating hybrid works of media art, the project sheds new light on the international practice of media conservation and artistic creation.

Dig This! is the first public presentation of four newly preserved film and video works made between 1969 and 1971 by Northwestern University professor of film and media studies, Dr. Hamid Naficy.

Out of the Vault is a monthly series that highlights rare films from the collections of the Chicago Film Archives.

In collaboration with Corbett vs. Dempsey gallery, CFA will be presenting nine films at Art Basel Miami Beach on Saturday, December 9. The screening is free and will be projected outside on the wall of the New World Center (designed by Frank Gehry). More information can be found here. Curated by Michelle Puetz (CFA) and Jim Dempsey (CvD).

This program, presented in conjunction with the Block Museum’s exhibition William Blake and the Age of Aquarius, explores the influence that the energy and musicality of Blake’s poetry had on a range of countercultural and rock musicians in the 1960s, and on several of the experimental filmmakers who utilized their music.

Select programs curated for Block Cinema, the Block Museum of Art’s screening series.

Held in conjunction with the exhibition A Feast of Astonishments: Charlotte Moorman and the Avant-Garde, 1960s–1980s, this free performance by Okkyung Lee activates the Block Museum’s lobby and stairwell.

In response to the Body Doubles exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Teen Creative Agency and About Face Theater will stage an afternoon of performance and conversation in the main hall of the MCA and inside the galleries.

Artists Lilli Carré and Alexander Stewart led a wildly successful animation workshop in the summer of 2013, and we invited them to offer another iteration at the MCA’s Family Day on April 12, 2014.

Join us for the Chicago premiere of Hairy Who & The Chicago Imagists, followed by a discussion with artists Gladys Nilsson and Art Green, director Leslie Buchbinder, writer John Corbett, and curator Lynne Warren.

A key figure in the history of Minimal music and video art, artist Charlemagne Palestine will present a selection of videos including his highly influential and visceral performance-based work from the mid-1970s.

Corbett vs. Dempsey is excited to present a selection of rarely seen short films and animations by Japanese artist Keiichi Tanaami, specially selected and introduced by film scholar Michelle Puetz.

The Gypsy Cried (Chris Langdon, 1972, 3 min.)
Picture And Sound Rushes (Morgan Fisher, 1973, 11 min.)
Soundtrack (Barry Spinello, 1969, 10 min.)
Episodic Generation (Paul Sharits, 1978, 30 min.)

Experimental Sound Studio’s Outer Ear Festival of Sound and Conversation at the Edge team up once again to present a program of films that investigate the visual and aural possibilities of 16mm optical audio, as sound perform images and images become sonic scores.

Flanked by the Hollywood storytelling machine to the West, and the legacy of art cinema and cinéma-vérité documentary to the East, film production in the Chicago metropolis has historically been relegated to the realm of the industrial, commercial, and educational film.

A five-program screening series that toured seven North American cities in 2004 and 2005.