Two Media Burn Screenings in March!

This month, we’d like to invite you to two exciting Media Burn events.

As part of the “50 Alderman/50 Artists” project, Media Burn is presenting two screenings of rare archival videos paired with our always insightful commentary. The art show features photographs, paintings and posters of all 50 current aldermen (with substitutes for the two vacant seats), paired with biographical information. It’s a fascinating look at the politics of this city, and you shouldn’t miss it! The exhibition and the screenings will take place at Johalla Gallery, 1561 N. Milwaukee. Admission is free, so please come out and join us.

Saturday, March 20 at 3pm.

The Media Burn Archive presents: A look back at the Chicago City Council

This 16 minute screening of rare footage from 1971-1987 presents a unique glimpse at three of the biggest characters in the Chicago City Council.

Leon Despres, 5th Ward, 1955-1975
This fiery reformer from Hyde Park was a frequent irritant to the late Mayor Richard J. Daley, who frequently turned off Despres’ microphone to silence him during city council meetings.

William Singer, 44th/43rd Ward, 1969-1975
This alderman managed to unseat Daley’s delegation to the 1972 DNC and replace it with a coalition of independent Democrats, and ran unsuccessfully against the mayor in 1975.

Ed “Fast Eddie” Vrdolyak, 10th Ward, 1971-1987
This former head of the Cook County Democratic Party turned Republican was one of “The Eddies” opposing Mayor Harold Washington during the Council Wars of the 1980s.

Sara Chapman, Executive Director of the Media Burn Archive, will introduce the screening.

Saturday, March 27 at 2pm.

Screening: VITO by Tom Weinberg, 1978, 60 minutes.

Nobody exemplified the old-style machine politics of the Richard J. Daley era better than Alderman Vito Marzullo, who ruled the West Side 25th Ward virtually unchallenged from 1953 to 1985. This documentary classic reveals how the business of Chicago politics was conducted in that era, with an inside view of the legendary alderman fielding requests for jobs and street cleaning in his ward office, doing tit-for-tat deals with his fellow aldermen on the floor of the City Council, and revealing his personal life in his modest home with his wife of 65 years, Letizia.

Director Tom Weinberg will be present to talk about what went on behind the scenes of the 25th ward and the making of this remarkable video portrait.