New Chicago Studies article!
Media burn represents Chicago with innovative online archive on Thursday, May 6 at Film Studies Center
It was 1970, and Sony’s Portopak had just become the video camera of choice for a growing number of Chicago’s underground filmmakers. When Judy Hoffman wanted to interview garbage collectors, waitresses and aldermen to capture the images and sounds of a “different city” than what was shown on television, that camera made it possible.
“It was called Guerilla Television,” Hoffman, now a professor of cinema and media studies at the University of Chicago, explained. “You couldn’t get anything seen on TV that wasn’t produced in a studio, but we started playing around with this new technology … to change how film was produced and received.”
Much of this independent work would be in danger of vanishing, Hoffman says, if not for Media Burn - a project to share the city’s most valuable independent films for free online. Hoffman sees Media Burn’s archive, which boasts hours of footage with city luminaries and everyday citizens - among them the legendary author and radio broadcaster Studs Terkel - to be a resource to students and researchers studying Chicago’s intricate cultural and political history.
Results of Media Burn’s six-year online archiving project will be shared with the University on May 6 at 7:00 p.m. in the Film Studies Center in a presentation called Representing Chicago: Experimental Video and Television at the Media Burn Archive. In addition to screening videos from the collection, the presentation will walk viewers through the Media Burn digital archive and discuss the particular role media plays in making Chicago’s people, politics, and culture accessible.
“The type of work you find in this archive doesn’t exist anywhere else—it’s totally unique. This is because it was done on a medium that was very looked down upon,” says Hoffman, who is using the archive to teach a spring course on Chicago’s film history.
Sara Chapman (AB 04), Executive Director of Media Burn Digital Archive, echoes this sentiment: “The type of work that came out of this movement is not easy to categorize. It does not at all resemble the feature-length documentary movies that are distributed in movie theaters, featuring voiceovers and archival photos or anything like that. The work is often very personal, and it is usually made by a small group of people, maybe a single individual or maybe a handful of people.”
But the material is extensive: Famed Alderman Vito Marzullo; former owner of the White Sox Bill Veeck; eight of the working-class men and women interviewed for Studs Terkel’s book Working.
And then there is Studs Terkel himself, who donated his own collection to Media Burn. Hoffman and her collaborator Tom Weinberg, Media Burn’s president and founder, shot him after their final Working portrait was finished. Hoffman describes the experience of working with Terkel as “tremendous,” as he flowed easily between the roles of mentor and subject.
“He respected people, and was thoroughly passionate about social justice.” Pair that independent spirit with a revolutionary new form of videography, she says, and: “There were no rules. We were about making [our own] rules, and making change.”
That particular film made it onto PBS. But Hoffman insists that what remains of the footage she and other independent filmmakers shot throughout the 1970s would not be available without Media Burn’s extensive efforts to digitize and share the work.
According to Chapman, the archive houses over 6,000 videotapes in total, and spans 40 years of video work from all over the world, including footage of the U.S. invasion of Panama and illegal art collectives in Moscow, Russia.
“Over one-third of the collection has a direct connection to Chicago, whether documenting the early video movement here, the arts, politics, or daily life,” she adds. “Nowhere else can students find these kinds of portraits of our city and its people, politics, and neighborhoods.”
Representing Chicago: Experimental Video and Television at the Media Burn Archive will be at the Film Studies Center (Cobb 307) on Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 7 pm. For reservations, call (773) 702-8596.
Showing posts with label Chicago Studies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chicago Studies. Show all posts
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Monday, December 14, 2009
The City is a Laboratory: Chicago Studies Winter Courses
What I like best about Winter Break is the three weeks of joy I can experience over choosing my classes, unadulterated by the notion that once the quarter gets underway I will be too busy/stressed/freezing cold to tell the difference between Phy-Sci Core and Spanish Literature anyway. So on that note, let's get excited about the new crop of Chicago Studies courses being offered this Winter:
This winter, UChicago students will advise local non-profits, drive along 100 miles of the Michigan-Illinois Canal, and study the community organizing tactics of Saul Alinsky.
These are just a few of the topics covered in next quarter’s Chicago Studies courses. The classes will allow students to engage with the city of Chicago through everything from geography to philosophy.
According to Bart Schultz, the director of the Civic Knowledge Project and the teacher of next quarter’s “What is Civic Knowledge?” and “The Chicago School of Philosophy” the city of Chicago is a critical resource for students of political and social movements.
Schultz is team-teaching “What is Civic Knowledge?” a special course in the Big Problems department, with Margot Browning, Assoc. Dir. of the Franke Institute for the Humanities.
“We’re not interested in teaching ‘here are the three branches of government.’ [“Civic Knowledge”] is about the actual basis for community organizing, civic friendship, a healthier and more participatory democracy,” Schultz says.
“We really range across the history of Chicago and the history of the University of Chicago from the original settlements in the Pottawattamie to looking at future plans for 2020 and 2040,” he explains. “We read a lot of absolutely wonderful material, everything from [President Barack] Obama’s Dreams From My Father, to classic Chicago authors with an emphasis on political mobilization.”
In Debra Schwartz’s class, “The Business of Non-Profits,” students will do more than study community activism. They will consult with and advise local non-profits, then present their work to the rest of the class, she said. Schwartz will also bring local non-profit leaders to speak to the class, which is limited to members of the RSO-branch of the non-profit consulting group Campus Catalyst.
Like Schultz, Schwartz links her course material to Chicago’s rich history of public service work and University research.
“Some of the most influential leaders were Jane Addams and her colleagues, some of whom were on our faculty. One of the great insights they had at the time was that Chicago was tremendous urban laboratory. [This city] gives us the opportunity to really see upfront the kinds of problems we’re trying to address through social policy,” Schwartz explains.
“I don’t think you can get quite the depth of experience without this hands-on piece, if you want to really understand the role that a nonprofit plays and how difficult it is to do nonprofit work well,” she adds.
The non-profits range from the Hyde Park Art Center to tutoring and childcare organizations. Because of this diversity, Schwartz said the class attracted a broad range of students, including Economics majors, as well as Public Policy, Art History, and Physics students. “I think it’s great, because the kind of organizations we work with have diverse [services and goals],” she says.
Judy Hoffman is also bringing inspiration from the city to her Documentary Film Production class. As part of this two-quarter-long sequence, students will work in groups to document either a portrait of a Chicagoan, a social issue, or an historical narrative.
“This is a cinematic social inquiry, using the city as a laboratory for investigation,” Hoffman says. “I try to encourage [my students] to get off campus and look at the city and its people, to figure out what really needs to be said.”
Past projects have ranged from profiles of Chicago political figures to more experimental meditations on the city’s landscape. Hoffman considers her students fortunate to have the entire city as inspiration and stomping-grounds for their documentary shooting.
“Chicago has I don’t-know-how-many ethnic groups, around 140; so it’s an opportunity to clearly to explore the landscape of the city and how a built environment informs how people live. Ranging from Mies Van der Rohe to the Chicago Housing Authority, there’s a lot of different ways to look at the city,” Hoffman says.
Chicago’s diverse landscapes also inform Michael Conzen’s upper-division class, “Urban Geography.”
According to Conzen, the course will examine the role cities play in national and regional urban networks. He will lead students to the Regenstein library to view its collection of historical Chicago maps and documents, and on a hundred-mile field trip along the historical Illinois-Michigan Canal.
Why make Chicago a focal point of the course? Conzen says the benefits are clear.
“Being a geographer, I believe very strongly that the visual landscapes around us [help students] put their book learning on the line; they see what works terms of the consequential landscapes and environments that have been created as a result of the forces that they’re reading about.”
This winter, UChicago students will advise local non-profits, drive along 100 miles of the Michigan-Illinois Canal, and study the community organizing tactics of Saul Alinsky.
These are just a few of the topics covered in next quarter’s Chicago Studies courses. The classes will allow students to engage with the city of Chicago through everything from geography to philosophy.
According to Bart Schultz, the director of the Civic Knowledge Project and the teacher of next quarter’s “What is Civic Knowledge?” and “The Chicago School of Philosophy” the city of Chicago is a critical resource for students of political and social movements.
Schultz is team-teaching “What is Civic Knowledge?” a special course in the Big Problems department, with Margot Browning, Assoc. Dir. of the Franke Institute for the Humanities.
“We’re not interested in teaching ‘here are the three branches of government.’ [“Civic Knowledge”] is about the actual basis for community organizing, civic friendship, a healthier and more participatory democracy,” Schultz says.
“We really range across the history of Chicago and the history of the University of Chicago from the original settlements in the Pottawattamie to looking at future plans for 2020 and 2040,” he explains. “We read a lot of absolutely wonderful material, everything from [President Barack] Obama’s Dreams From My Father, to classic Chicago authors with an emphasis on political mobilization.”
In Debra Schwartz’s class, “The Business of Non-Profits,” students will do more than study community activism. They will consult with and advise local non-profits, then present their work to the rest of the class, she said. Schwartz will also bring local non-profit leaders to speak to the class, which is limited to members of the RSO-branch of the non-profit consulting group Campus Catalyst.
Like Schultz, Schwartz links her course material to Chicago’s rich history of public service work and University research.
“Some of the most influential leaders were Jane Addams and her colleagues, some of whom were on our faculty. One of the great insights they had at the time was that Chicago was tremendous urban laboratory. [This city] gives us the opportunity to really see upfront the kinds of problems we’re trying to address through social policy,” Schwartz explains.
“I don’t think you can get quite the depth of experience without this hands-on piece, if you want to really understand the role that a nonprofit plays and how difficult it is to do nonprofit work well,” she adds.
The non-profits range from the Hyde Park Art Center to tutoring and childcare organizations. Because of this diversity, Schwartz said the class attracted a broad range of students, including Economics majors, as well as Public Policy, Art History, and Physics students. “I think it’s great, because the kind of organizations we work with have diverse [services and goals],” she says.
Judy Hoffman is also bringing inspiration from the city to her Documentary Film Production class. As part of this two-quarter-long sequence, students will work in groups to document either a portrait of a Chicagoan, a social issue, or an historical narrative.
“This is a cinematic social inquiry, using the city as a laboratory for investigation,” Hoffman says. “I try to encourage [my students] to get off campus and look at the city and its people, to figure out what really needs to be said.”
Past projects have ranged from profiles of Chicago political figures to more experimental meditations on the city’s landscape. Hoffman considers her students fortunate to have the entire city as inspiration and stomping-grounds for their documentary shooting.
“Chicago has I don’t-know-how-many ethnic groups, around 140; so it’s an opportunity to clearly to explore the landscape of the city and how a built environment informs how people live. Ranging from Mies Van der Rohe to the Chicago Housing Authority, there’s a lot of different ways to look at the city,” Hoffman says.
Chicago’s diverse landscapes also inform Michael Conzen’s upper-division class, “Urban Geography.”
According to Conzen, the course will examine the role cities play in national and regional urban networks. He will lead students to the Regenstein library to view its collection of historical Chicago maps and documents, and on a hundred-mile field trip along the historical Illinois-Michigan Canal.
Why make Chicago a focal point of the course? Conzen says the benefits are clear.
“Being a geographer, I believe very strongly that the visual landscapes around us [help students] put their book learning on the line; they see what works terms of the consequential landscapes and environments that have been created as a result of the forces that they’re reading about.”
Monday, July 27, 2009
Bigger plans for "No Small Plans"
Just a reminder, you can visit my other blog, No Small Plans, for original reporting on South Side community issues and the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid. The latest story is about a planning meeting in Washington Park, the neighborhood just west of the University of Chicago.
Blow-up advertisement for the 2016 Olympics in Washington Park, proposed site for a stadium and aquatic center
Blow-up advertisement for the 2016 Olympics in Washington Park, proposed site for a stadium and aquatic center
Finally, a clip! Or, Rudy Nimocks brings deep local knowledge to new job
Here's my first clip as an intern with the University's News Office: Enjoy, and please visit the original site to watch the former chief of UCPD give a video tour of Woodlawn!
Watching Rudy Nimocks drive his bright-red Mini Cooper to a recent neighborhood redevelopment meeting, you could trace the arc of his career from policeman to the University’s Director of Community Partnerships.
Nimocks once helped provide security at the meeting place, the Gary Comer Youth Center in Grand Crossing, when the Comer Foundation first broke ground on the building. Now he is a leader in the University’s efforts to help grassroots groups revitalize neighboring communities.
The transition to neighborhood ambassador seems natural for Nimocks, who says outreach was always part of his police jobs, first with the Chicago Police Department, where he retired as a deputy superintendent, and then as chief of the University of Chicago Police Department.
“Part of being a police chief means you can hardly separate yourself from the community you serve,” Nimocks says. “You have to be innovative and try to discover ways you can be helpful and increase the public safety.”
Photo by Jason Smith, for the University News Office
One thing that hasn’t changed is Nimocks’ restless energy. The Grand Crossing meeting begins at 8:30 a.m. By lunch, he will have met with the director of the Woodlawn New Communities Program and the organizers of two on-campus summer programs for high school students, and helped coordinate Mayor Richard Daley’s visit to Woodlawn for an anti-violence rally.
But a slower pace wouldn’t suit Nimocks, who sets his watch 35 minutes fast and “relaxes” by driving a motorcycle every summerto Fairbanks, Alaska, playing Louis Armstrong or Antonin Dvorak on the bike’s radio.
“I’ve been getting by on five, six hours of sleep for a long time,” Nimocks says. “When I was a homicide detective [with the CPD], I’d just climb up on a table and sleep for a little while, then get up and get back to work. And that was for three or four days at a time.”
Unique Perspective on Local Development
A resident of the nearby Woodlawn neighborhood for more than a half-century, Nimocks seems to know a story for every building he passes on his frequent drives through the community. One new apartment building summons memories of his days with the CPD, when he worked with local residents to drive drug dealers from that spot. Driving down 63rd Street, he describes how the area has changed for the better since the city tore down the El tracks that used to hang over the strip.
Such street-by-street knowledge of local neighborhoods gives Nimocks a unique perspective, says Ann Marie Lipinski, Vice President for Civic Engagement.
“Rudy is both a community and University treasure,” Lipinski says. “He has an enthusiasm for his work that is contagious, and he is tireless in looking for ways to connect the University with its neighbors. I've learned a lot from Rudy and feel very fortunate to have him working in this new role.”
His background also helps Nimocks understand how South Side communities view the University—an interaction that has been difficult at times. Nimocks says the relationship has changed for the better since his days as a homicide detective in the CPD, when Woodlawn, Grand Crossing, and Washington Park faced worsening local economies and rising crime rates.
A key lesson of that time is that a lack of engagement hurts both the University and nearby communities, Nimocks says.
“In the ’50s and ’60s, these were very desirable, stable neighborhoods,” Nimocks says. “But with riots going on all over the city, violence and drugs were able to degrade them,” and the University withdrew more from its neighbors.
Part of Nimocks’ current job is rebuilding the trust that was damaged in those previous decades. He says there’s a special value in programs that take College students into the community or bring local students to the campus for learning opportunities.
“I think the greatest asset the University has is worldwide expertise—bright students and programs that can reach into neighborhood communities,” Nimocks says. He cites the University’s Collegiate Scholars program, which offers summer enrichment classes to Chicago Public School students, as one example of how the University is extending its resources to local youth.
A Community Ambassador
The role of ambassador suits Nimocks well as he greets familiar faces at the Gary Comer Youth Center in Grand Crossing, southwest of campus. He and close to 50 community members have assembled to hear the findings of 12 researchers from the Urban Land Institute, who spent the week in Grand Crossing observing the neighborhood and writing recommendations for a community revitalization proposal.
The team of urban planners and academics recommended that Grand Crossing redevelop local parklands into a vibrant community center, and find other ways to increase community spirit in the small neighborhood through community gardening and educational youth programs.
After the researchers finished their presentation, Nimocks stood up and offered the group a word of advice:
“Based on my experience as Chief of Police for UCPD, I can tell you that when you see a neighborhood start to redevelop along the lines that you have outlined here, you will see public safety increase dramatically. The two go hand in hand.”
Nimocks has tried to live his own advice in his off-duty life by joining the boards of community organizations like Blue Gargoyle and the Woodlawn New Communities Program.
Arvin K. Strange, director of WNCP, noted Nimocks’ dedication in their late-morning meeting. “Rudy is really an unsung hero here in Woodlawn … and I’m very sure Washington Park and Kenwood feel that way as well.”
Soon Nimocks was off to Grove Park Plaza, a housing development where he is working to bring children to campus for another summer program. In the long run, he believes, such efforts can help local kids view the University not only with trust, but with hope.
“That’s what a university can do in a neighborhood—get its kids to think differently about their future.”
Watching Rudy Nimocks drive his bright-red Mini Cooper to a recent neighborhood redevelopment meeting, you could trace the arc of his career from policeman to the University’s Director of Community Partnerships.
Nimocks once helped provide security at the meeting place, the Gary Comer Youth Center in Grand Crossing, when the Comer Foundation first broke ground on the building. Now he is a leader in the University’s efforts to help grassroots groups revitalize neighboring communities.
The transition to neighborhood ambassador seems natural for Nimocks, who says outreach was always part of his police jobs, first with the Chicago Police Department, where he retired as a deputy superintendent, and then as chief of the University of Chicago Police Department.
“Part of being a police chief means you can hardly separate yourself from the community you serve,” Nimocks says. “You have to be innovative and try to discover ways you can be helpful and increase the public safety.”
Photo by Jason Smith, for the University News Office
One thing that hasn’t changed is Nimocks’ restless energy. The Grand Crossing meeting begins at 8:30 a.m. By lunch, he will have met with the director of the Woodlawn New Communities Program and the organizers of two on-campus summer programs for high school students, and helped coordinate Mayor Richard Daley’s visit to Woodlawn for an anti-violence rally.
But a slower pace wouldn’t suit Nimocks, who sets his watch 35 minutes fast and “relaxes” by driving a motorcycle every summerto Fairbanks, Alaska, playing Louis Armstrong or Antonin Dvorak on the bike’s radio.
“I’ve been getting by on five, six hours of sleep for a long time,” Nimocks says. “When I was a homicide detective [with the CPD], I’d just climb up on a table and sleep for a little while, then get up and get back to work. And that was for three or four days at a time.”
Unique Perspective on Local Development
A resident of the nearby Woodlawn neighborhood for more than a half-century, Nimocks seems to know a story for every building he passes on his frequent drives through the community. One new apartment building summons memories of his days with the CPD, when he worked with local residents to drive drug dealers from that spot. Driving down 63rd Street, he describes how the area has changed for the better since the city tore down the El tracks that used to hang over the strip.
Such street-by-street knowledge of local neighborhoods gives Nimocks a unique perspective, says Ann Marie Lipinski, Vice President for Civic Engagement.
“Rudy is both a community and University treasure,” Lipinski says. “He has an enthusiasm for his work that is contagious, and he is tireless in looking for ways to connect the University with its neighbors. I've learned a lot from Rudy and feel very fortunate to have him working in this new role.”
His background also helps Nimocks understand how South Side communities view the University—an interaction that has been difficult at times. Nimocks says the relationship has changed for the better since his days as a homicide detective in the CPD, when Woodlawn, Grand Crossing, and Washington Park faced worsening local economies and rising crime rates.
A key lesson of that time is that a lack of engagement hurts both the University and nearby communities, Nimocks says.
“In the ’50s and ’60s, these were very desirable, stable neighborhoods,” Nimocks says. “But with riots going on all over the city, violence and drugs were able to degrade them,” and the University withdrew more from its neighbors.
Part of Nimocks’ current job is rebuilding the trust that was damaged in those previous decades. He says there’s a special value in programs that take College students into the community or bring local students to the campus for learning opportunities.
“I think the greatest asset the University has is worldwide expertise—bright students and programs that can reach into neighborhood communities,” Nimocks says. He cites the University’s Collegiate Scholars program, which offers summer enrichment classes to Chicago Public School students, as one example of how the University is extending its resources to local youth.
A Community Ambassador
The role of ambassador suits Nimocks well as he greets familiar faces at the Gary Comer Youth Center in Grand Crossing, southwest of campus. He and close to 50 community members have assembled to hear the findings of 12 researchers from the Urban Land Institute, who spent the week in Grand Crossing observing the neighborhood and writing recommendations for a community revitalization proposal.
The team of urban planners and academics recommended that Grand Crossing redevelop local parklands into a vibrant community center, and find other ways to increase community spirit in the small neighborhood through community gardening and educational youth programs.
After the researchers finished their presentation, Nimocks stood up and offered the group a word of advice:
“Based on my experience as Chief of Police for UCPD, I can tell you that when you see a neighborhood start to redevelop along the lines that you have outlined here, you will see public safety increase dramatically. The two go hand in hand.”
Nimocks has tried to live his own advice in his off-duty life by joining the boards of community organizations like Blue Gargoyle and the Woodlawn New Communities Program.
Arvin K. Strange, director of WNCP, noted Nimocks’ dedication in their late-morning meeting. “Rudy is really an unsung hero here in Woodlawn … and I’m very sure Washington Park and Kenwood feel that way as well.”
Soon Nimocks was off to Grove Park Plaza, a housing development where he is working to bring children to campus for another summer program. In the long run, he believes, such efforts can help local kids view the University not only with trust, but with hope.
“That’s what a university can do in a neighborhood—get its kids to think differently about their future.”
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Make No Small Plans
School's been out for a week and I haven't so much as touched this blog—but don't think I'm lying on a beach somewhere.
Nope, I've been working on a grant project; I'll be reporting on Chicago's 2016 Olympic Bid for the South Side and the University. I want to keep people up-to-date on what Mayor Daley and Chicago 2016 are up to, and do some original reporting on how community members, local organizations, and academics are responding to the prospect of this city getting the Games.
I'll eventually be collaborating with the Chicago Studies Program (In the vein of my coverage of the Obama Inauguration). Until then, you can follow my reporting at No Small Plans: Coverage of Chicago's 2016 Olympic Bid.
Bear with me please; I'm just getting started and not entirely confident how this will work out.
Bus stop at the corner of 57th and Cottage Grove in Washington Park, proposed site of the 2016 Olympic Stadium.
Nope, I've been working on a grant project; I'll be reporting on Chicago's 2016 Olympic Bid for the South Side and the University. I want to keep people up-to-date on what Mayor Daley and Chicago 2016 are up to, and do some original reporting on how community members, local organizations, and academics are responding to the prospect of this city getting the Games.
I'll eventually be collaborating with the Chicago Studies Program (In the vein of my coverage of the Obama Inauguration). Until then, you can follow my reporting at No Small Plans: Coverage of Chicago's 2016 Olympic Bid.
Bear with me please; I'm just getting started and not entirely confident how this will work out.
Bus stop at the corner of 57th and Cottage Grove in Washington Park, proposed site of the 2016 Olympic Stadium.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
South Side students say to IOC: "No Games!"
Please visit the Chicago Studies Blog that Works to ready my latest entry on the International Olympics Committee's visit to Chicago!
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