Radical Disciple: The Story of Father Pfleger
2009 · 58m · Documentary
The story of Catholic iconoclast Michael Pfleger who made it his mission to transform the drug ravaged south side Chicago community surrounding his parish. In so doing, Father Mike has run directly into conflict with the local Catholic hierarchy. The film explores issues of racism, the power of the media, and the tension between Pfleger's 'gospel of the streets' versus traditional Church theology.
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Into Great Silence
2005 · ★ 6.9
An intimate portrayal of the everyday lives of Carthusian monks of the Grande Chartreuse, high in the French Alps (Chartreuse Mountains). The idea for the film was proposed to the monks in 1984, but the Carthusians said they wanted time to think about it. The Carthusians finally contacted Gröning 16 years later to say they were now willing to permit Gröning to shoot the movie, if he was still interested.
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The Spider and the Fly
1938 · ★ 8
Few amateur films with sound were produced in the 1930s and fewer remain extant. A charming artifact that demonstrates the expressive possibilities and technical limitations of amateur talkies, "The Spider and the Fly" includes a backyard Labor Day gathering, a trip to the Riverview Amusement Park, and a homemade Halloween parade of witches and ghouls.
More info →The Book of Baptist
2024
Baptist Fernandes is an undertaker by trade, but he has dealt with death all his life.
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The First Rainbow Coalition
2019 · ★ 7.6
Chicago 1969: Activists from the Black Panthers, Young Lords, and Young Patriots united African Americans, Latinos, and poor whites to confront police brutality and unfair housing practices in one of America’s most segregated cities. A timely story of collective action, The First Rainbow Coalition tells this little-known chronicle of political struggle with insight and urgency using archival footage and interviews with those who lived it.
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Vera Klement: Blunt Edge
2010
As her 80th birthday is approaching, Vera Klement, an oil painter in Chicago, adamantly starts yet another new figure painting: a portrait of an artist under oppression, an homage to Russian composer, Dmitri Shostakovitch.
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United in Grief
2023
Suffering debilitating grief from the passing of his best friend who introduced him to the world of dance, Derrick must confront a monster that seeks to separate him from everything he loves.
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Life After People
2008 · ★ 7
In this special documentary that inspired a two-season television series, scientists and other experts speculate about what the Earth, animal life, and plant life might be like if, suddenly, humanity no longer existed, as well as the effect humanity's disappearance might have on the artificial aspects of civilization.
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Marshall Field's
2025
Discover the rise and fall of the legendary department store Marshall Field’s.
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Chicago 10
2008 · ★ 5.8
Archival footage, animation and music are used to look back at the eight anti-war protesters who were put on trial following the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
More info →GameChangers
A historical documentary, GameChangers sits at the intersection of sports, race and culture, tipping off with rare, 8mm footage taken from two high school basketball games played in Chicago in the mid-Sixties. These tense, playoff matchups featured some predictable storylines, city versus suburbs, black versus white, and both games were played against the backdrop of a very turbulent time. Plenty of pre-game and post-game drama surrounded this particular rivalry, with shattered backboards, some really good basketball, and incendiary headlines ... all taking center stage.
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