Film 50 2018: Chicago’s Screen Gems

Jennifer Reeder/Photo: Sally Blood

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Jennifer Reeder
Jennifer Reeder, living and making films in Chicago for over twenty-five years, has forty-seven shorts to her name. “I have built a reputation which has meaningful impact on my creative process,” she says. “Last year I shot a film in Germany and two films in L.A., but I happily returned home to Chicago after.” Her first feature, the poppy multiculti lesbian romantic comedy, “Signature Move” was released in 2017 and shown at over a hundred festivals worldwide. She is in post production on her second feature, a haunted midwestern teen tragedy, “Knives and Skin,” which is closer in tone and mood to her prize-winning body of work. [Newcity’s Chicago Film Project produced “Signature Move” and “Knives and Skin.”] Reeder remains ambitious, finishing revisions on the script for “All The Small Bodies,” which she co-wrote and is directing. She describes it as “a dystopian speculative fiction story in the distant future at the ruins of the U.S.-Mexico border wall, following two young refugee girls as they come of age alone in the Mexican desert.” This past summer, “I had no other life than making ‘Knives and Skin,’” she says. “But I am also a professor at UIC, teaching film writing and production, and I am a single mother of three young boys.” Reeder would like to see more series jobs in Chicago go to Chicago-based directors and cinematographers. “Productions that commit to shooting here should commit to the people as well, specifically creative and department heads. I’m not saying that I’m dying to direct an episode of ‘Chicago P.D.,’ but I would like to be asked!” The city and region are finally getting respect from the industry, she says. “Chicago has that Midwestern belief that slow and steady wins the race. It’s not a competition, but we are winning.”

Leslie Simmer/Photo: Sally Blood

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Leslie Simmer
“One of the hallmarks of working on a Kartemquin film is being able to edit for long periods of time on a single documentary,” “America to Me” co-editor Leslie Simmer says, “in order to allow for complexity and to bring an organic flow to intercutting multiple stories from many hours, even many years of production.” Simmer completed work on “Raising Bertie,” and in the two-and-a-half years since, she’s worked on the ten episodes of “America to Me.” “Working from around 1,500 hours of footage, it took a team of five editors [Steve James, David E. Simpson, Rubin Daniels, Jr., Alanna Schmelter] to sculpt it into an inquiry into how a well-funded and well-intentioned high school is failing to provide an equitable education and high-school experience for its students of color. We laughed, we cried, we sweated and problem-solved. I’m not completely emotionally over that experience, having fallen in love with the families and teachers whose stories I came to know so well.” Simmer is co-directing, with Gordon Quinn, “Left-Handed Pianist,” a portrait of a retired Chicago music teacher who was paralyzed on his right side and who played piano through a body of music composed for the left hand. “We’re hoping this film will transcend traditional ‘inspirational’ films.” Simmer says. “Everything factors into editing,” she observes of over twenty years with her “tribe” at Kartemquin Films. “I started out in life wanting to be a writer, and discovered that vérité documentary editing is writing. Every day. Using the vocabulary of the footage that was shot and shaping these pieces into compelling stories is multi-dimensional writing. Not only is the editor using spoken language, we combine that with the potency of visual language as well.” Simmer meets up-and-coming filmmakers constantly via KTQ. “It’s not easy to be optimistic when the constant barrage of news about our country’s leadership is so deeply disturbing and so filled with hate and lies. But I get to work with and among people who are changing the world in all the right ways, and I feel like in the long run, it’s their vision that will triumph, their desire for progress and humanity that will win the day. Eventually.”

David Simpson/Photo: Sally Blood

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David E. Simpson
Of his recent creative life, editor David Simpson says, “I’ve been slaving over a hot Avid as one of two lead editors, with Leslie Simmer on ‘America to Me,’ which debuted in August on Starz.” Simpson is rightly proud of the substantial achievement. “The labor of crafting it kept us locked in the edit room for nearly two-and-a-half years. The project even ran out of post money at the end of April, but I kept showing up at audio mix into July—joking with Steve that paid or not, I couldn’t allow him to fuck it up alone.” Simpson made his first trip to the Oscars this year, for James’ “Abacus: Small Enough To Jail,” which he edited with John Farbrother. He also made his fourth Sundance trip with a film: the first half of “America to Me” premiered in the festival’s inaugural episodic programming section. While recovering from the ten-and-half-hour series, Simpson has edited the first phase of a film about young-adult survivors of cancer, with an upcoming stint cutting the Kindling Group’s upcoming documentary, “The Last Strike,” showing the 1981 events around Ronald Reagan firing 13,000 striking air traffic controllers “and how that moment led to today’s working world.” Spring brings Steve James’ documentary on the upcoming Chicago mayoral election to the edit suite. “Insofar as we’re known for our windy politics and being the nation’s largest air hub, I’ll be editing two projects likely to keep this city in the crosshairs of documentary world conversation next year.” Simpson develops relationships with young filmmakers, much of it in the context of Kartemquin lab screenings or the Diverse Voices in Docs program. The generations collide and collaborate at Kartemquin. “For me, Kartemquin is still at the nexus of the Chicago documentary scene and a large part of my satisfaction in working here. Gordon Quinn is a national treasure. I learn something every time we’re in a room together,” Simpson says. “I’ve had multiple queries about editing in Los Angeles. I could see relocating for a finite time if a project is good enough. But there’s something about how projects are seen as product that keeps me coming back to a circle of colleagues in this town, where it feels like films, documentaries at least, are made with different motivations. We may lack the volume of opportunity generated by the hungry beast; but in a way this guarantees that independent docs made here are made for the right reasons.”

Sam Bailey/Photo: Sally Blood

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Sam Bailey
“Chicago is my soul,” says filmmaker Sam Bailey. “Over the last year, I realized that not having my roots in Chicago hinders my creative process so I’m splitting my time between two cities. I consider L.A. my office and Chicago my incubator. I talk about how Chicago has a blue-collar approach to its art and that’s still true. So many people here are committed to making the work—not just talking about making the work.” The “Brown Girls” HBO series is in development, as well as a film about Houston Texas’ DeAndre Hopkins’ mother, Sabrina Greenlee. Bailey is directing a digital series, “East of La Brea,” for Paul Feig’s new production company, as well as “Masculine/Masculine,” a short that debuted at the L.A. Film Fest. Bailey she sees more work by more hands in the offing: “With the acceptance of web series as a calling card, a lot more voices are being invited to the table. Or, better yet, they’re making their own tables. I fuck with that. People are not waiting around for Hollywood to validate them. I want to figure out how we create a sustainable film community. A couple of shows here are helping, but we need more. A lot of people in the community have the skills and work ethic to make this their careers, not just a hobby. How do we support the local industry so that there’s more of a clear pipeline from work you do with the homies on the side to the work that pays your bills, without killing your soul?”

Scrappers Film Group: Brian Ashby, Colette Ghunim, Giorgia Harvey, Naeema Torres, Amber Love, Luis Perez, Ben Kolak (front), /Photo: Sally Blood

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Scrappers Film Group
Brian Ashby, Peter Galassi, Colette Ghunim, Giorgia Harvey, David Jacobson, Ben Kolak, Yana Kunichoff, Amber Love, Luis Perez, David Schalliol, Naeema Torres
Scrappers Film Group, one of multitple productive Chicago documentary groups, premiered their six-years-in-the-making “The Area” at Siskel in September. Directed by David Schalliol, the vibrant doc dives into displacement, public housing and structural disadvantage. Members of the group have become go-to shooters for out-of-town documentary directors; Ben Kolak was cinematographer for six episodes of Morgan Neville and David Chang’s Netflix series, “Ugly Delicious,” while Brian Ashby shot on the presidential campaign trail for AJ Schnack’s Vanity Fair series “NomiNation.” A documentary about the crisis and hoped-for comeback of Chicago State University is in the works, and post-production is wrapping on “Stateville Calling,” about the incarceration of the elderly. A doc about the roots and legacy of David Foster Wallace in central Illinois and a project in collaboration with a dozen high schoolers from Chicago and Beijing about education, democracy and John Dewey are current projects. “We aspire to a funding model independent of the pressures of corporate media and the whims of foundations,” Ben Kolak says, “which works by crafting strategic projects for nonprofits, and using the margins to create our own work. We continue our commitment to making documentaries that inspire audiences to question the familiar and build empathy. Our community is here; it would be inconceivable for us to work anywhere else. We’re optimistic Chicago will continue to be an easy place to score work and find mutual support, just don’t let the secret out! Our region has daunting issues, and we’re committed to documenting Chicago for Chicago.”

Diane Quon/Photo: Sally Blood

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Diane Quon
Diane Quon’s career includes a stretch in the studio system in Los Angeles, where she was VP of marketing at Paramount. She worked on marketing and outreach for several Kartemquin films in 2015, and those projects gave her insight into what it takes to get a social justice documentary into the world. “My first years at Kartemquin, I was learning and being mentored myself! But my marketer’s skills translated well to producing, so it was a fast learning curve. Unlike working at Paramount where we would automatically release a film into hundreds of theaters, I had to scrap for every screening. On the other hand, every screening became meaningful.” Quon came on as producer of Bing Liu’s “Minding the Gap” in 2016, and is co-producing upcoming Kartemquin Films “Left-Handed Pianist” and “The Dilemma of Desire.” “What’s meaningful to me,” Quon says, “is that I have had a lot of requests from first-time filmmakers to review their projects or ask for career advice. I can do that from anywhere. My goal has been to respond to every request, as I will always remember those who were kind enough to respond to me when I was trying to break into the doc world. I may not come on board as a consultant/producer, but I try to give constructive input and a lot of encouragement!” Quon was born and raised in Chicago and her parents and siblings are here, so she considers this her home. “I loved marketing, but always wanted to produce my own films. When my husband had a great job opportunity in Chicago, we made the decision to move back here with my four children. With that change, my hope was to start producing in Chicago, but as they say, life happens. I lost my son almost nine years ago and it devastated me. I struggled to even leave the house. One of my best friends in L.A. invited me to attend Sundance. I fell in love with documentaries and realized what a difference film could make. How better to honor my son—and also to make an impact on young people including my three daughters? So I went back home with a desire to produce documentaries and luckily I discovered Kartemquin right in my backyard.”

Bob Hercules/Photo: Sally Blood

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Bob Hercules
Bob Hercules and Keith Walker’s Media Process Group turned thirty-three this year, and Walker, the “go-to” D.P. for Oprah Winfrey, shot frequently for “60 Minutes.” But a high note for Hercules this year was the Peabody Award for his film, “Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise,” which has accrued nineteen festival awards on three continents across two years, as well as broadcast on PBS’ American Masters. He’s working on his first narrative feature film toward a 2019 start, a comedy he co-wrote with Second City alum Jeff Rogers, “Waiting for the Clash,” a comedy based loosely on his days as a college radio deejay in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1978. Hercules is also directing and co-producing (with Greg Kinczewski and Sanford Horwitt) a documentary for early 2020 delivery about liberal icon Abner Mikva, one of the few people to have served in all three branches of government. He is executive producing two additional docs: “Flannery,” about Southern writer Flannery O’Connor, directed by Elizabeth Coffman and Mark Bosco; and “Punch 9: Harold Washington for Chicago,” by Joe Winston. “I would love to see more funding opportunities for independent films in Chicago. Funding is almost always the biggest obstacle we face. But I love the collaborative nature of the independent film scene and the emergence of a new generation of committed filmmakers. I also love the never-ending political theater of Chicago,” Hercules says. “Never a dull moment.”

Bea Cordelia and Daniel Kyri/Photo: Sally Blood

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Bea Cordelia and Daniel Kyri
Bea Cordelia and Daniel Kyri co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in “The T,” a web series featuring Jo and Carter, a trans woman and queer black man, former lovers and best friends, searching for love, sex and friendship in Chicago. “Is ‘The T’ the Queer TV Show We’ve All Been Waiting For?” the Daily Beast asked of its July premiere, reporting that it “shows queer and transgender people dealing with real human problems, yes, but still just living.” “I practice art as activism,” Cordelia says, “and weaponize vulnerability to yield empathy, and so change people’s hearts about marginalized communities. This has been true of my solo work, and has only grown more multifaceted in my collaboration with Daniel: we make intersectional work that uplifts the voices of many communities at once.” Cordelia’s career has been largely as a solo performance artist, in scores of performances, including “Chasing Blue” at Steppenwolf in 2017. Cordelia is working on a full-length book, a memoir titled “D: a great american romance,” about experiences as a trans woman in the Trump years, as well as a book of poetry. “People have responded incredibly well to ‘The T,’ and that was true before it even came out,” Cordelia says. “Nobody has seen anything like it before. People are hungry for it. There’s finally an audience. Daniel and I are working on future iterations of ‘The T’ other ideas. We’re excited by the prospects of film and television.” Kyri’s stage work includes roles at the Goodman, Steppenwolf, Chicago Shakespeare, Lookingglass Theatre and Writers Theatre, and he co-starred in Stephen Cone’s “Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party.” Until recently, Kyri worked as art curator at his own multicultural interdisciplinary arts space in Pilsen. “The accountability and intersectional outlook required to responsibly run and maintain a safe space for art created by marginalized people helped me to discover and cultivate my own artistic voice,” he says. “It helped me identify my role and purpose in what I do: hold space for people like me to be seen, heard, and to express the full range of their humanity without having to apologize for it.” (Cordelia and Kyri are the filmmakers-in-residence for the Chicago Film Office’s inaugural Independent Film Initiative.)

Ines Sommer/Photo: Sally Blood

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Ines Sommer
Documentary mainstay Ines Sommer completed her doc feature “Seasons of Change On Henry’s Farm” this year, which looks toward climate change through a bio-diverse family farm in central Illinois where over 650 varieties of organic vegetables are raised. “We hosted feedback screenings when we got close to the editing finish line and audience members were taken by the quiet beauty of the farm and farmer Henry’s personality and philosophy.” “Seasons” begins as an idyllic farm-to-table story, “while the climate-change aspect of the story slowly sneaks up on viewers.” Sommer began a new doc this summer, talking to community members on Chicago’s Southeast Side to explore ongoing environmental justice issues in their neighborhood.” Sommer also directs and produces commissioned projects through her own company and works full-time at Northwestern, where she is the associate director of the MFA in Documentary Media as well as teaching in the Radio/TV/Film department. The city remains attractive to her for several reasons. “I’ve lived here for three decades and still love Chicago! For a documentarian, the city presents a treasure trove of stories. It’s unpretentious and the city is so large that there’s space for many different filmmakers, media arts organizations and even a great many different film communities.” Sommer has been surveying her peers toward creating change: “Advocacy for our field has always been close to my heart. It’s difficult to build economically sustainable careers here—doc filmmakers in the Midwest are at a disadvantage when it comes to funding and access to decision-makers. I recently started conversations with other doc filmmakers and nonprofit film organizations across the Midwest to explore how we can strengthen regional connections and support, especially for filmmakers who work solo and are not affiliated with one of the large production companies. When I sent out a survey about the ‘state of the doc’ in the Midwest in late June, well over a hundred documentarians responded within just a few days, many expressing an interest in having a stronger regional support network. I feel passionately about the potential of this work and invite other doc filmmakers to reach out to me directly to weigh in and become involved.”

Ruth Leitman/Photo: Sally Blood

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Ruth Leitman
“I remember for so many years that documentaries were unpopular among cineastes. They were thought of as a stepping-stone to fiction filmmaking,” Ruth Leitman says. “For me, it has always been the pursuit to tell the stories of those who have been underrepresented.” “Lady Parts Justice in the New World Order,” a documentary series on reproductive rights, made with Kartemquin and “The Daily Show” co-creator Lizz Winstead, which “barnstorms our country with boots on the ground,” came up as she was adapting her female wrestling documentary, “Lipstick & Dynamite” to other formats. “Then the election of Trump changed everything for me. I woke up the next day knowing I needed to put that script aside to work on something more urgent,” she says. “Where we are right now? There is no shortage of things to make work about right now. I have found myself at the center of many political football issues as a filmmaker, from immigration to income inequality and now with reproductive rights and bodily autonomy. As documentary filmmakers, we make a tremendous commitment to the work that we do to help inform, but it’s also about inviting people into a conversation about things that are difficult to talk about. We have a tremendous duty to tell these stories with empathy and ethical responsibility.” “Lady Parts Justice” will premiere November 11 at DOC NYC, with a broadcast or streaming home to follow. “I am so excited,” Leitman says. “It has challenged me as a filmmaker, following the tireless Winstead and a lovely, passionate erratic group of subjects in an insane political landscape. Why are we allowing our government to take away healthcare and bodily autonomy for half of the population? Where is the outrage?”