A man using a riding lawnmower to pull a girl around a yard in a small wagon. From an 8mm home movie reel labeled "Iowa Vacation 1961" shot by Donna Adams.

Ladies of the Faust and Wyckoff families drinking Schlitz with their pooch by the Lake in Belgium, Wisconsin, circa Summer 1945. 📽️ From a reel of 16mm home movies labeled "Wisconsin Vacations At Wyckoffs - Part I" in CFA's Chester E. Faust Collection.

Fiesta del Sol starts today! This Pilsen tradition started in 1973. Here are some scenes from the 1988 iteration from our Susan Dobinsky Collection. Watch more on our website!: collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objec...

An older woman spinning wool and wearing a magnificently chunky knitted sweater vest, from a 16mm home movie shot in tiny, rural Bitely, Michigan circa 1929.

A loose montage of Chicago summer scenes from 1984 from a Super 8 reel labeled "Summer City Festivals" in the Bill Stamets Collection.

July 26, 1965: people gather for a civil rights march from Grant Park to City Hall in Chicago. The rally was led by Martin Luther King Jr. and sponsored by Chicago's Coordinating Council of Community Organizations (CCCO).

A bevy of clowns celebrate the US Bicentennial on 7/4/1976, seen through the eyes of Chicago filmmaker JoAnn Elam (excerpt from "Peggy / Centennial," 8mm, silent).

Superdawg, circa 1979. From a Super 8 film shot by Chuck Kleinhans.

Scenes from the 1974 #whitesox home opener at Comiskey Park, including fans buying Falstaff Beer for less than a dollar and a brief glimpse of a streaker in a bright red White Sox batting helmet. 16mm news footage from the Frank Koza Collection. Catch plenty more Sox footage on our website!

Chicago Mayor Harold Washington gives a speech in Lincoln Park as the 18th Annual Gay & Lesbian Pride Parade proceeds along N Broadway on June 28, 1987. From a Super 8 reel in the Bill Stamets Collection.

From the same reel, circa 1926: other new things along the Hyde Park lakefront, including Promontory Point under construction.

A terrier being stuffed into a little sweater in Chicago's Jackson Park. 🐕 This 16mm home movie was shot in 1926, just blocks from what is now the site of the Barack Obama Presidential Center.

9.5mm home movie shot at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair (A Century of Progress), featuring a strongman outside of the "Dungeon of Torture" (admission fee refunded for accredited scholars!) Originally donated to CFA by our friends at the Center for Home Movies.

🇵🇷 Chicago Mayor Harold Washington marches with the Puerto Rican Day Parade on June 9, 1984. From a Super 8 reel in the Bill Stamets collection.

Journalists, IL Governor Jim Edgar, and officials from other nations walk through Soldier Field (and kick a ball around!) as Chicago prepares to host the 1994 FIFA World Cup.  📽️ Super 8 from a reel labeled "Soccer" in the Bill Stamets Collection, digitized with support from @clirnews.bsky.social

Unidentified children trying to do headstands in an 8mm home movie from the John McNaughton Collection, likely shot in Chicago's Pullman neighborhood in 1956.

Legendary advertising filmmaker Joe Sedelmaier passed away earlier this month. His most famous work was the 1984 "Where's the beef?" TV commercial (shot right here in Chicago!) CFA's Bill Stamets Collection includes a few behind-the-scenes Super 8 moments from the "beef" campaign:

See you tonight at the Logan Center for the Arts!

Tomorrow night at the Logan Center for the Arts, come see HIGHLANDERS WEDDING (1961), a document of Chicago's Polish Highlander community featuring excellent music, brand new English subtitles — and a beautiful new 16mm print created with support from @filmpreservation.bsky.social!

Enjoy these excerpts from Tom Palazzolo's 1969 film "Your Astronauts," an observational portrait of the August 13, 1969 parade held in Chicago to celebrate Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr., and Michael Collins a few weeks after their return from the moon.

An Easter-themed, portrait-style home movie, circa 1941, featuring young Bob Sommerfeld, his parents and baby brother, his cousins Sheldon and Diane Glick, and his uncle Jack Glick. 📽️ From a 16mm Kodachrome home movie in CFA's Glick-Berolzheimer Collection.

A home movie from the Glick family's Passover Seder, c. 1939, likely shot in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood in the two-room apartment at the New Lawrence Hotel where Jack & Dorothy Glick lived with their two children. Jack immigrated to Chicago from Ukraine and ran a bar and cigar shop at the hotel.

Time-lapse footage of spring flowers blooming, shot in 16mm circa 1957 by John Nash Ott of Winnetka, Illinois, whose elaborate greenhouse and camera system was called "ingenious" by American Cinematographer in 1947.

♫ Batter up! Hear that call! Now's the time... to plaaay ball! ♫ The real-life Rockford Peaches make an appearance in this 1943 home movie from the Dean Collection. The family brought their 8mm camera to this All-American Girls Professional Baseball League game during the Peaches' inaugural season.

This weekend we're celebrating the 127th birthday of Ruth Page, midwestern ballerina, choreographer, and founding mother of the Chicago dance community! Enjoy the very 1985 ambiance of this clip from a Betacam tape of her 86th birthday party:

It's St. Patrick's Day AND Election Day, Illinois! ☘️🗳️ Politics and politicians have long been a staple of Chicago's downtown St. Patrick's Day parade. In 1977, many floats were dedicated to the recently deceased and famously Irish Mayor Richard J. Daley.

This morning, flowers were scattered at Chicago's Jackson Park Lagoon to commemorate the death of lawyer and civil libertarian Clarance Darrow, a tradition dating back to the 1950s. This contemplative Super 8 reel from our Bill Stamets Collection documents the ceremony as it took place in 1977.

Kirby was a regular on television variety shows in the 1970s and was known for his impressions (he mastered over 100!). In this clip from the same film, he appears as Santa Claus and in drag. Learn more about George Kirby on our finding aid: collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/colle...

This 16mm home movie from the George Kirby Collection contains footage from the filming of "A Time for Laughter: A Look at Negro Humor in America," a 1967 TV special. This clip features Richard Pryor, Harry Belafonte, Redd Foxx, and Sidney Poitier. collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objec...

Join us at the Wisconsin Film Festival on April 12 for a program of shorts by filmmaker Tom Palazzolo! Tickets on sale now: wifilmfest.eventive.org/schedule/699...