Home » Video Makers Choice (Page 9)

• 

  Image Union: The Other M.J.

  American Way, Black, Chicago, Communities, Image Union, Skip Blumberg, Video Makers Choice, Voices of Cabrini

  Documentary about an African American man named Michael Johnson, who works on the floor crew at United Center, the home of the Chicago Bulls. (The title refers to this connection between the subject and basketball star Michael Jordan.) Johnson struggles to make ends meet on a minimum wage job amidst the pomp and circumstance of the 1996 Democratic National Convention. Through his candid reflections, one sees the struggle of many workers across the country as they are faced with limited employment options, no benefits, and no room for advancement. Some of the original footage was used in a program called “None of the Above,” which investigated Americas non-voters.

• 

  [Studs Terkel with Bill Veeck at Billy Goat Tavern]

  Chicago, NHPRC, Outside Agitators, Sports, Studs Terkel, Tom Weinberg, Video Makers Choice

  Studs Terkel and Bill Veeck sit down for a beer at Billy Goat Tavern to talk about Solidarity Day and the condition of unions today.

• 

  Cars And Owners

  Ant Farm, CLIR, Guerrilla Television, Video Makers Choice

  Chip Lord interviews Skip Blumberg about his 1978 Plymouth Valiant. In February of 1990 Lord and friends travel to Berlin to view the Berlin Wall during its destruction.

• 

  [Rostenkowski raw #205]

  Chicago, Chicago Politics, Dan Rostenkowski, NHPRC, Politics, Video Makers Choice

  Raw footage from the 1981 documentary “Rostenkowski,” a portrait of House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, a powerful figure in Chicago (and national) politics. At a rally for Rostenkowski in the field house in Chicago’s Pulaski Park (which sits in Rostenkowski’s district on Chicago’s northwest side), a candidate for judge is giving a speech offscreen while the camera captures various audience members. Next Rostenkowski gives a speech. In the speech, he discusses various issues, including: the importance of voting; the late Mayor Daley; social programs proposed by the Democrats; the importance of staying in a “changing neighborhood”; commitment to one’s neighborhood; extending the “L” to O’Hare airport (and telling the residents that it will raise the property values); and his family’s decision to stay in Chicago rather than move to Washington D.C. At around eleven minutes, a member of the camera crew on the stage knocks something over, startling Rostenkowski during his speech. The tape abruptly ends at just over fifteen minutes.

• 

  Image Union, episode 1102: impressions of Harold

  Bill Stamets, Black, Chicago, Chicago Politics, Communities, Harold Washington, Image Union, NHPRC, Politics, Studs Terkel, Video Makers Choice

  Image Union episode featuring “Impressions of Harold: 1983-1987” by Bill Stamets.

• 

  [Studs Terkel with Nelson Algren]

  Anda Korsts, Chicago, CLIR, Guerrilla Television, NHPRC, Studs Terkel, Tom Weinberg, Video Makers Choice

  Studs Terkel chats and jokes with Nelson Algren. Algren had recently moved from Chicago to New Jersey, and this move was the subject of most of the conversation, told mainly through deadpan jokes.

• 

  [Wired In raw #100: Bill Murray]

  American Way, Video Makers Choice

  Raw footage for “Wired In,” a never completed series on the technological trends and innovations of the 1980s. Raw tape of Bill Murray doing takes for a promo. He rants about technology. “People have hands… Watches should have hands.”

• 

  [Rostenkowski raw #302]

  Chicago, Chicago Politics, Dan Rostenkowski, NHPRC, Politics, Video Makers Choice

  Raw footage from the 1981 documentary “Rostenkowski,” a portrait of House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, a powerful figure in Chicago (and national) politics. This tape takes place on election day, 1980. Rostenkowski is interviewed in his office. Rostenkowski discusses his family’s history in politics. His grandfather and father were both politicians; his father was a Chicago alderman and served in the Illinois State legislature. He then discusses his own history in politics. He discusses how Mayor Richard J. Daley discouraged him from running for a U.S. House seat that was being vacated in his district. Rostenkowski tells how in order to win Daley’s blessing (and the nomination) he had to promise Daley that he would continue to service the Chicago Democratic Party even from Washington D.C. Rostenkowski touches briefly on the new roles that congress has taken on in his 22 years as a member, saying that congress now has revenue sharing deals in place with cities. In an especially progressive moment, Rostenkowski says that if the federal government really wants to conserve natural resources, they must invest in the cities in order to reduce suburban sprawl. He also says that this investment must bring young people who will make roots in the city’s old neighborhoods.