Home » Page 19

• 

  Image Union, episode 0910

  Chicago, Communities, Image Union, LGBTQIA

  Compilation episode of Image Union featuring five music videos by Dan Dinello. Music is from Fela Kuti, Knightklub, Magnum Force, Stations, and a composite of various radio broadcasts.

• 

  Bus Riders Union

  Studs Terkel

  Documentary about an activist group called the Bus Riders Union. Their focus is on improving the public transportation system in Los Angeles. The bus system there is in a sorry state. Busses are overcrowded. A rider will routinely see three busses pass her by, completely full, before being able to board. Handicapped riders find that the lift system on most busses is broken. Many riders need to take three or more busses to arrive at their destinations, and late night service on some routes is discontinued without any notice. On top of this, the MTA was planning a massive fare increase and focusing their energy on subways and trains that are costly and benefit mainly upper class white people. The B.R.U. views this struggle over Los Angeles busses as the new civil rights battle. The bus system is utilized almost exclusively by minorities and low income residents. Since the busses are so unreliable, workers are not able to predictably arrive on time and therefore have trouble holding jobs. This means that an already disadvantaged segment of the population is being further held back. Kikanza Ramsey, B.R.U. organizer, describes her organization as “an experiment to see if we can create a multi-racial, bi-lingual, gender-balanced mass movement of working class people.” The tape follows the legal struggles of the group throughout the 90’s as they battle with the city and the MTA for service improvements.

• 

  Dovie Thurman, A Conversation with Studs Terkel

  Black, Communities, NHPRC, Peoples Video Theater/Survival Arts Media, Studs Terkel

  Dovie Thurman, community organizer & the “heart” of Uptown speaks with Studs Terkel about her work as a civil rights and welfare rights activist in a North Side Chicago neighborhood. Produced just one month before Thurman died of heart failure on April 7, 1997, Thurman retells her struggle against racist and classist powers, her meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and how she found redemption as a Christian preacher.

• 

  Murder of Fred Hampton, reel 2

  Black, Chicago, Communities, Outside Agitators, Video Makers Choice

  Documentary about the death of Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party. The film started out as a simple portrait of Hampton and features lots of footage of his powerful speeches. However, in 1969, Hampton was murdered in his bed at the Panther headquarters by the Chicago police. The event was extremely controversial as the police and the Black Panthers told drastically different versions of the events. The film became instrumental in proving the Panthers’ story that the police broke in to headquarters without warning and killed Hampton without resistance.

• 

  [Studs Terkel in three industrial films]

  Chicago, NHPRC, Studs Terkel

  Three industrial films from the 1940s and ’50s that feature Studs Terkel. In an excerpt from “Beginning to Date” (1953) Terkel plays a high school diving instructor and offers advice to students on proper dating etiquette. The second film on this tape, “No Vacancies” (1946), is about the crisis that plagued many returning WWII soldiers who could not afford housing. Terkel is the narrator in this piece and for the final piece, “The Living City” (1953), which deals with urban issues.

• 

  [Rocking the Boat raw: Bughouse Square #1]

  Chicago, NHPRC, Outside Agitators, Studs Terkel

  Footage of Bughouse Square in August 1998. Studs Terkel briefly appears in this video.

• Save Our School

  Uncategorized

  A documentary about the efforts of local families to save St. John Berchman’s, a Catholic primary school in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, from closing down.

• 

  [The 90’s Election Specials: Vote – Witness]

  Politics, THE 90's

  Segments for The 90’s election specials. “Vote” by Ann Carlson and Mary Ellen Strom and “Witness” by Mary Ellen Strom.