We promise this is the last time we’ll ask you this year… please, if you can, donate. And thank you. There are thousands of videos in Media Burn’s collection. Which ones have made an impact on you? This is Adam Hart, Media Burn’s curator. Our collection is idiosyncratic and unique, and it’s huge – thousands of videos from throughout the history of the medium. They tell the stories of people and communities ignored by mainstream film and television, and preserve […]
On December 16, 2023, renowned sculptor Richard Hunt passed away. Hailing from Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood, Hunt’s career spanned decades. According to the Smithsonian Institute of Art, Hunt became “the foremost African-American abstract sculptor and artist of public sculpture.” Hunt had over 150 solo exhibitions, and even former president Barack Obama stated “Hunt [was] one of the greatest artists Chicago had produced. Hunt showed an interest in art from an early age, and took up sculpture as a teenager, even turning […]
Dear Media Burn friends, We wouldn’t be able to survive without your generous support. Please, if you can, make an end-of-year contribution today. As always, thank you from the whole Media Burn family. When you support Media Burn, what are you supporting? We have, over the course of the past 20 years, preserved thousands of tapes and made those videos freely available, sharing the work of artists whose work we love, of activists whose social and political movements we remain […]
An ongoing series reflecting on our favorite videos from the Resurrecting Guerrilla Television project. In 2021, Media Burn, along with the University of Chicago and other partners, began the “Resurrecting the 1970s Guerrilla Television Movement” project, which is funded by the Council on Library and Information Resources. That grant has funded the digitization, cataloging, and sharing of hundreds of essential tapes from the early history of video, with hundreds more to come. This is “the people’s television” – a version […]
Prohibition had just been repealed in Illinois on Thanksgiving 1933. At age 21, Studs Terkel had his first taste of what he calls “the devil’s brew.” His first drink was alongside the residents of the Wells-Grand Hotel, a men’s hotel near Washington Square Park that his mother owned. His mother decided to have Thanksgiving dinner with everyone that year since many of them didn’t have anyone else to celebrate with. Technically, Prohibition was officially repealed at the federal level on […]
An ongoing series reflecting on our favorite videos from the Resurrecting Guerrilla Television project. In 2021, Media Burn, along with the University of Chicago and other partners, began the “Resurrecting the 1970s Guerrilla Television Movement” project, which is funded by the Council on Library and Information Resources. That grant has funded the digitization, cataloging, and sharing of hundreds of essential tapes from the early history of video, with hundreds more to come. These tapes range from abstract visual studies to […]
Bill Veeck and Media Burn founder Tom Weinberg at the White Sox’s spring training in 1978. This week saw the release of The Saint of Second Chances on Netflix, the new documentary from acclaimed filmmakers Morgan Neville (Won’t You Be My Neighbor) and Jeff Malmberg (Marwencol). The film is a lively portrait of Mike Veeck, son of Chicago royalty Bill Veeck (1914-1986), who inherited his father’s passion for baseball and for the ballyhoo and PT Barnum-esque stunts that endeared his teams to their […]
An ongoing series reflecting on our favorite videos from the Resurrecting Guerrilla Television project.