Media Burn Archive - Documentaries with a social justice lens

Latest Blog Posts

Historic Happy Hour with Chicago Detours + Media Burn: 6/15 at 6pm

June 10, 2020 at 9:28 am / Blog

Since 2010, Chicago Detours has been offering fun and educational guided walking tours and bus tours of Chicago architecture, history and culture to public and private groups. Their cool Chicago walking tours bring curious people to explore stories and places locals don’t even know. They were voted “Best Tour of Chicago 2019”! As part of their Historic Happy Hour series, Chicago Detours Executive Director Amanda Scotese will talk with Media Burn Executive Director Sara Chapman about Media Burn’s work preserving … Continue reading →
August 29,1968: The Whole World Was Watching

June 4, 2020 at 3:48 pm / Blog

In light of worldwide protests following the murder of George Floyd, it’s valuable to put these radical times in context with the demonstrations in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The independent Kerner Commission report determined that it was a “a police riot.” Television viewers around the world were stunned to see police beating anti-war demonstrators after the city had become an armed camp. The video is from the two-and-a-half-hour special broadcast on WTTW / Channel 11 on the tenth … Continue reading →

New Videos

Virtual Talks with Video Activists: Ira Schneider

June 24, 2020 at 4:23 pm / Virtual Talks with Video Activists

Join Media Burn Archive for a digital screening and discussion of the radical power that video can have in enacting social change. Continue reading →
#BlackLivesMatter

June 2, 2020 at 2:57 pm / Blog

We at Media Burn are saddened and horrified by the continued acts of violence against the Black community perpetrated by an unjust and rigged system. Our hearts go out to those grieving the loss of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, David McAtee and too many others. We acknowledge that the change that needs to occur is within the institutions and minds of white Americans, including ourselves. We are relying on Black organizations and activists on the front lines … Continue reading →
High Schoolers: apply now for a paid summer job at Media Burn

May 14, 2020 at 1:38 pm / Blog

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Join us for a livestream of Ghosts in the Machine May 18-22

May 12, 2020 at 4:00 pm / Blog

Can you trust the images and videos you see on TV and through social media? Ghosts in the Machine is a collaborative work by American and Russian filmmakers that questions our ability to tell fact from fiction in media. This experimental documentary also investigates the outsized role that the Russian-American rivalry plays in both nations’ collective imaginations and how that provides fertile ground for manipulation. The four filmmakers– Americans Dimitri Devyatkin and Lori Felker, and Russians Dmitrii Kalashnikov and Mikhail … Continue reading →
Ghosts in the Machine

May 8, 2020 at 11:45 am / Blog

Ghosts in the Machine is a collaborative work by American and Russian filmmakers that questions our ability to tell fact from fiction in media. The documentary also investigates the outsized role that the Russian-American rivalry plays in both nations’ collective imaginations and how that provides fertile ground for manipulation. The four filmmakers–Americans Dimitri Devyatkin and Lori Felker, and Russians Dmitrii Kalashnikov and Mikhail Zheleznikov–used archival footage from Media Burn to create the 65-minute film. The film was produced by Media … Continue reading →
May 1: Media Burn in Conversation with Chicago Collections Consortium

April 30, 2020 at 9:18 am / Blog

Friday, May 1, 2020 12:00 – 12:30 p.m Free Webinar Register HERE This Friday, Media Burn’s executive director Sara Chapman will be giving a virtual behind-the-scenes tour of our collections and work in a talk with Jeanne Long of the Chicago Collections Consortium. CCC is a consortium of libraries, museums, and other institutions with archives that collaborate to preserve and share the history and culture of the Chicago region. This will be the debut of their “Conversations with Chicago Collections” … Continue reading →
Bill Veeck’s Exploding Scoreboard

April 29, 2020 at 11:57 am / Blog, Recommended Videos

A Media Burn video is featured in “The Day in Baseball History,” an NBC Sports site. In this piece, Bill Veeck – creator of the iconic Wrigley Field manual scoreboard – recounts his unveiling of the world’s first EXPLODING SCOREBOARD at Comiskey Park, home of the White Sox, 60 years ago today. This footage comes from a 1984 episode of Time Out, the Emmy-winning Chicago sports commentary and documentary program. Produced by Tom Weinberg with Joel Cohen and Jamie Ceaser, it … Continue reading →
A sunny day, Italian ice, and the old neighborhood: Ben Hollis on “stoop talk”

April 3, 2020 at 11:43 am / Blog

Almost everywhere in the world, we are building new routines that keep us in a very limited geographic orbit. But, we are still finding ways to connect with friends, family, and neighbors. People are spending more time on porches, balconies, and yards chatting, singing, eating, and dancing with whoever passes by. In many ways, we are becoming friendlier than ever before. In this 1995 video, Chicago favorite Ben Hollis hangs out with residents of Taylor Street as they sit on … Continue reading →