Chicago Film Archives

06/04/2026

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.

05/20/2026

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:

05/18/2026

Silent black-and-white footage from the Maria Moraites Collection follows poet Gwendolyn Brooks on her commute from her home in Greater Grand Crossing to the NEIU campus in North Park in 1968.

Silent black-and-white footage follows poet Gwendolyn Brooks on her commute from her home in Greater Grand Crossing to the Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) campus in North Park. Brooks taught creative writing at NEIU from 1965 to 1968; in 1968, NEIU President Jerome Sachs appointed her Poet i...

04/27/2026

Newly streaming: an industrial film from CFA's Film Group Collection made to promote the Chicago-based U.S. Gypsum company's Thermalux electric heating line of products.

An industrial film made to promote The Chicago-based United States Gypsum company's Thermalux electric heating line of products.

04/20/2026

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

Have you ever wondered what it’s like at your local independent film archive? The CFA open house is your chance to find out! Drop by to chat with our staff, tour our workspace and cold storage vault, see a film scanner demonstration, and watch a 16mm film! The collective of vintage furniture deale...

04/03/2026

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.

04/02/2026

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.

📽️ This film is from CFA's Glick-Berolzheimer Collection. More about this collection here: https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/collections/49

04/01/2026

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.

See more from CFA's John Nash Ott Collection here: https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/collections/117