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  Golden Anniversary of Guerrilla Television!

  Blog, Politics, Roots of Video, TVTV

  Video art and video documentary began in the mid-1960s, but the first shots of the TV/Video revolution can be traced back to 1972. The summer of 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of TVTV and the Guerrilla Television movement. It was the start of a radical, exciting new form of documentary that critiqued and questioned mainstream television. Seen by a small number of viewers all over America, it invented new ways to make television and changed what television could look like. … Continue reading →

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  Media Burn Presents: David E. Simpson’s Tom Chicago on Location

  Blog

  Newly available for the first time in decades! Media Burn is proud to have digitized a remarkable short-form documentary on one of the godfathers of independent film in Chicago: Tom Palazzolo. David E. Simpson’s 1990 work Tom Chicago on Location presents a playful and engaging portrait of Tom’s work, life, and idiosyncratic humor. To introduce the documentary, here are a few words from David:   “I first became aware of Tom Palazzolo in high school, when a renegade student teacher from the … Continue reading →

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  Richard Stamz, Pervis Spann, and Carl Wright: They Don’t Make ‘Em Like That Any More.

  Black, Blog

  Blues & More was a local Chicago talk show on cable channel 25 during the 1980s and 1990s. It combined host and entertainment entrepreneur Pervis Spann’s offbeat sense of humor with music videos from R & B and blues artists. In this 1994 episode of Blues & More, Spann talks with movie actor and performer Carl Wright and longtime Chicago radio personality Richard Stamz, about Stamz’s career across a changing entertainment industry. Carl Wright was 59 at the time of … Continue reading →

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  Reflecting on Media Burn’s Past and Future

  Blog

  By Sara Chapman, executive director If you value the work that Media Burn does to save and create access to history and culture, please consider a year-end donation by clicking HERE.We are deeply grateful for the hundreds of people like you who contribute to help make this work possible. Friends, As we close out 2021, I wanted to thank you for being part of Media Burn’s journey. During my winter break from college in 2003, I first visited the storefront … Continue reading →

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  Newly uncovered 1940s footage of Harold Washington

  Blog

  How I met Harold Washington By Jeff Spitz, independent filmmaker When I moved from LA to Chicago in 1983 my goal was to meet Mayor Harold Washington. I had to figure out how to get into City Hall so I could make a documentary film showing the mayor’s remarkable back story which few people knew. I learned that he was a student at Roosevelt College (now Roosevelt University) in the 1940s. I found a 16mm can of film in the … Continue reading →

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  In Memory of Roland Hemond (October 26, 1929 – December 12, 2021)

  Blog

  He actually WAS one of the truly nice guys, in baseball or anywhere else.  Continue reading →

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  A Video Celebration of Black Chicago

  Black, Blog, Chicago, Communities

  This video showcases Media Burn’s videos documenting Black life in Chicago. It includes everything from neighborhood cultural festivals to jazz and blues legends to trailblazing politicians. Follow the links to watch the full programs from which these excerpts were taken. 0:09 Journalist Vernon Jarrett (1918-2004) describes the intersection of 47th and Martin Luther King Drive in Bronzeville as the “terminal point of the great dream that so many Black people [from the South] envisioned,” from Omnibus: Studs Terkel’s Chicago (1985, … Continue reading →

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  In Memory of Scott Jacobs (March 27, 1950 – October 21, 2021)

  Blog

  He was hooked on video journalism until Thursday, October 21, 2021. Continue reading →