Film 50: Chicago’s Screen Gems 2019

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Hannibal Buress
Founder, Melvina Masterminds
Hannibal Buress has brought his act back to Chicago. His multimedia comedy career continues, including a 2010 Emmy nomination for writing for “Saturday Night Live,” “Broad City,” an appearance in season one of “Easy” as a Newcity reporter, and his Boston comedy turn that started the avalanche that ended with Bill Cosby in prison. The West Side native is developing an Austin nonprofit, Melvina Masterminds, a center for art, science and technology, for a 2020 launch. “When we have these different workshops and you put it within three, four blocks of people, they’re gonna check it out. Whereas they might not at a neighborhood on the other side of the city,” he told Block Club Chicago in August. “So I think that the access itself will just help out a kid that might not have seen that as a real option… [I]f you can allow youth at a very young age to feel powerful in the standpoint of like, what they’re doing matters beyond a grade, it starts to do something to their self-esteem.”

Patrick Friel and Kathleen Sachs/ Photo: Sally Blood

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Patrick Friel and Kathleen Sachs
Managing Editor and Associate Editor, Cine-File
The weekly Cine-List newsletter produced by the volunteer-run Cine-File provides the most comprehensive non-commercial listing of alternative and non-mainstream work from the past century or so showing in neighborhoods across Chicago. “Our focus is writing about films that we like or recommend, rather than writing negative reviews of ones we don’t,” Patrick Friel says. “Much, but certainly not all, film reviewing gravitates toward mainstream films, with better or more interesting smaller work not getting the attention it deserves. We fill a gap, letting audiences know about a wider range of filmgoing options, and steering them toward smaller venues, and toward places where they will find a community to engage with.” Kathleen Sachs, a programmer, critic and one of the most frequent contributors over the past seven years, edits copy and manages back-office needs of the site, including coordinator of festival coverage. “Chicago film lovers—of which I am obviously one—are fortunate to live in a city with so many critics dedicated to covering all facets of film life. Cine-File is just one more resource. As cheesy as it may sound, Cine-File is, after my family and friends, the most important thing to me.” Friel sees Cine-File as an extension of his support for films and filmmakers and presenting them to audiences, as in past work at Chicago Filmmakers, in independent film programming, teaching, writing, and coordinating film listings for the Reader.  As a lifelong advocate, he says, “I’ve been lucky. My only worry for the state of film in Chicago in future years is how much of it will actually be shown on film. The DCP-ification of film exhibition, or, worse, the Blu-Ray-ification, continues, even as venues and series such as the Chicago Film Society, the Music Box, Doc Films and Block Cinema fight the good celluloid fight. There will be new venues, new faces, and new filmmakers, adding to those still around and taking up from those who are not.”

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Drew Weir
Sound Designer and Mixer, Another Country
“If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?” Drew Weir says by way of describing the work of a sound designer and mixer. “If the microphone was nowhere near the tree… then, no. It has to be added in post. That’s the sound design part. We make environments of films feel real or otherworldly. The mixing side is more like making a cocktail: You’ve got dialogue, music, sound effects and backgrounds and all of it has to be balanced in a way that best tells the story for that particular moment. As the mixer, you’ve got these ingredients in front of you. How you put them together is a matter of style and taste.” Weir describes the Chicago film community as “a hearty beast.” “The people who decide to stake their claim here know that it’s a huge task to connect to the industry as a whole, but our location allows for a level of artistic expression that the machines on the coasts are less able to do,” he says. “You have to be a generalist here, wear many hats. But the payoff when it all comes together is so rewarding. I see the pace of decentralization of media of the last ten years accelerating. It’s hard to know if we’ll ever feel like the white-hot center, but it’s beginning to feel less like a remote island.” Collaborators matter. “It has been a blessing to work with so many talented directors and producers. They put their faith in me to realize their vision through sound. It’s equally fantastic to be part of an organization, like Cutters/Another Country, which has a film mixing facility and level of service comparable to what’s on the coasts. We are in a renaissance of content, and indie films are a big part of that. It’s important for filmmakers to have the choice to stay local through the finishing process.” Weir calls that process “very special,” “as a film comes together in finishing. The filmmakers have seen it and believed in it for years. The film takes on a form that any audience member can appreciate. It’s amazing to be there for that final transformation.”

Alex Thompson, James Choi and Kelly O’Sullivan/Photo: Sally Blood

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Kelly O’Sullivan, James Choi and Alex Thompson
Screenwriter, Lead Actor, Executive Producer; Producer; and Director, “Saint Frances”
“The culmination of six tons of work” is how “Saint Frances” screenwriter Kelly O’Sullivan describes the premiere, SXSW 2019 audience award and jury recognition for breakthrough voice, and a theatrical pickup by Oscilloscope Laboratories. “Saint Frances” portrays an out-of-sorts thirty-four-year-old woman who takes a much-needed job nannying a six-year-old before her life is complicated by an unwanted pregnancy. “I wanted to tell stories with female protagonists from a female perspective,” O’Sullivan says. “We put all we had into this movie, a decade of collaborative relationships, big asks and countless favors, hoping it would get finished and that some people would see and like it. We shot fast, but only because of the slow work done before,” she says, with fifteen years of Chicago theater behind her. “I’m proud of the time I spent working and learning as an actor. Being around so many smart playwrights, actors and directors served as a practical grad school and helped me think about storytelling in a critical, curious way.” Can it be done again and again? “I’m terrified the next thing, whatever it is, won’t live up to this experience, but it also makes me want to make a hundred movies.” Producer James Choi says a key to “Saint Frances” is how the work understands that filmmakers have to “be honest and passionate with your choices but also understand the cultural zeitgeist. If you can create with a higher purpose in mind and walk this fine line between art and commerce, good things will always happen… and it did. Chicago is budding with reckless filmmakers making bold choices and creating with abandon. I absolutely love it. The time is now.” Director Alex Thompson calls the whole experience “gratifying.” “It probably looks like perseverance, but it’s simply that nothing else comes close to making movies. Telling entirely personal stories in this way is all I ever want to do. I’ve worked with plenty of horrible people. I’ve made mistakes that would, and should, and will make great in-depth analyses of what not to do. But ultimately I’ve been lucky in the collaborators who’ve stayed in touch, stayed friends, stayed invested. ‘Saint Frances’ wouldn’t be the success it was if it weren’t for all the folks who’ve been serendipitously available and willing to say ‘Yeah, we can do this,’ over and over again for the eight years I’ve spent in Chicago.” Thompson adds, “My job on ‘Saint Frances’ was to take Kelly O’Sullivan’s perfect script and not fuck it up.”

Morgan Elise Johnson/Photo: Sally Blood

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Morgan Elise Johnson
Independent Filmmaker; Co-Founder and Creative Director, thetriibe.com
“My purpose is black liberation,” says Morgan Elise Johnson. “My work is my picket line, petition or protest song. Whether it’s journalism or documentary, I use narratives to explore truths often forgotten, hidden or buried. I focus on impact first, and then craft stories that will move people to action.” One form that takes is The TRiiBE, “a production company and distribution platform and publication designed to shape the narrative of black Chicago and giving ownership back to the people through journalism and art.” Her first documentary feature, “There Are Jews Here,” was distributed through PBS World Channel Stations, “a huge accomplishment for me as a budding filmmaker. I was twenty-five during production with barely any feature film experience.” A short documentary about exposure to violent crime in Chicago is under wraps, and “Unapologetic,” a documentary Johnson is producing for 2020 release “will shake up Chicago, so I’d say it’s my most exciting project in the works.” She describes its turf: “During the height of the Movement for Black Lives in Chicago, ‘Unapologetic’ captures a community of millennial organizers confronting an administration complicit in state violence against its black residents. Janaé and Bella, two black queer women organizers, provide an intimate peek into the personal and political battles that transformed Chicago, from the police murder of Rekia Boyd to the election of Mayor Lori Lightfoot.” Five years ago, she says, “I was a baby in the game and didn’t understand the landscape of the film community.” But today she sees a conscious push to build the film and TV community and to develop creatives who will stay and do the work in Chicago. “By 2025, I’m expecting more soundstages and big productions in Chicago. I think there’s going to be an explosion of black, queer and women-led productions with the support of budding organizations like Sisters in Cinema, OTV, VAM and—of course—The TRiiBE! The mere existence of The TRiiBE, as a black women-led publication in Chicago is radical. I can’t think of any greater honor than serving black Chicago and giving our community a platform to tell stories.”

Melissa Chapman/Photo: Sally Blood

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Melissa Chapman
Music Supervisor, President, Groove Garden
The sound of a movie should be as seductive as its images, but the work isn’t noticed unless it’s a Quentin Tarantino jukebox. Melissa Chapman, who has worked on movies like “Premature,” “Knives & Skin” and “The Hottest August,” says a music supervisor, “oversees all music-related aspects of film, television, advertising and other visual media. I work with the decision-makers and creative team to determine a musical vision, style, tone and realistic timeline, while strategically budgeting for the music. I get the appropriate approvals in place, draft and issue paperwork, and get rights holders paid.” She sees Chicago film on a fast track for growth, but still needing to “embrace and lift up new voices and unheard stories. The community is compartmentalized, but it’s getting better. It would be amazing if the productions filming in Chicago used post-production resources here, instead of sending everything back to the West Coast.” In the last decade, Chapman says she’s “spent most of my time privately educating filmmakers about the realities of using music in film. My ultimate goal is to help facilitate Chicago’s music and film industries’ growth and to help create a strong framework to become autonomous within the next ten years. Chicago should be viewed as a major player in the creative industry; it is a budding hub for music and film. Talented creative professionals should be able to make their homes and have long careers in Chicago without having to relocate.”

Chris Johnson/Photo: Sally Blood

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Chris Johnson
Owner, Founder, Johnsonese Brokerage LLC
“We’re in the business of entertainment insurance and our biggest market is film,” Chris Johnson says. “During the production process, we provide insurance that covers things like injuries to cast and crew, damage or theft of equipment, and damage to locations. After the film is completed we provide insurance that covers claims like copyright infringement or defamation of character against the filmmakers. There are also more exotic insurance products relating to film such as adverse weather coverage, and failure-to-appear coverage for temperamental stars. We also insure all types of stunts like explosions or use of exotic animals.” Johnson sees Chicago’s film community overcoming an inferiority complex relative to Los Angeles and New York in the past decade. “This was partially due to our Midwestern modesty, and partially due to the reality that the film business was not mature. Some major components to a sustainable industry are still missing, but I think most of these will be in place in the coming decade. We need more distributors and more investors and more writers’ rooms in Chicago. And how about a film market? All of these pieces could be in place by 2029. We also need to take more advantage of our strengths like the deep pool of talent in the Chicago theater and improv communities, and the diversity of our city. I founded Johnsonese Brokerage back in 2008, and I’d like to think that we’ve helped get more projects done here by educating a lot of local people about how insurance relates to film, and being a local resource to get things done faster. We’ve also insured many tiny student films and first-time films that might not otherwise have gotten made. We may have been the first agency to apply insurance commissions to the Illinois Film Services Tax Credit. This helps make filmmaking more cost-effective. I’ve also been on the board of IFP Chicago for a few years, and we’ve put together a lot of programming to help filmmakers find resources and collaborators to get more films made. I plan to continue expanding Johnsonese Brokerage to work with more filmmakers and bigger film productions.”

Alan Medina and Malia Haines-Stewart/Photo: Sally Blood

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Alan Medina and Malia Haines-Stewart
Co-Directors, Co-Founders, and Co-Programmers, filmfront
“filmfront is a free community cine-club that we have operated out of a storefront in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood over the last four years,” Alan Medina says. “Our work takes the form of film series and collaborations, making an effort to showcase global, classic, documentary, experimental and local cinema. We believe in the importance of sharing dialogue with our audience about what they have witnessed on the screen and how they perceive the work or themselves in relation to it.” Haines-Stewart adds, “As a microcinema, we see ourselves as a small, intimate space but with a goal of wide-ranging programming that opens up to a large audience across the city, with the hope that what we do never feel niche. We are committed to collaboration. In this vein, we plan to continue developing generative entanglements between individuals, unofficial groups and organizations in order to support a sense of connection in the cinema and arts community.” Medina continues, “This is why we place an emphasis on making room for conversations following our screenings as a way of continuing our larger, more personal project of deciphering the visual cultures presented through film and video. We are committed to a space that is free and open, which we believe serves a critical need for our immediate and greater communities. Throughout the years, we’ve found that opening a space to collaboration with fellow curators and viewers alike works to substitute the idea of cinema and the cinema-going experience as an enclosed or even institutional field into one that is open for critical engagement and public opinion.” (filmfront press also provides perspective through an ongoing series of books.) “In our last four years of programming series and organizing events around movies,” Haines-Stewart says, “Chicago’s filmgoing community has always struck me as deeply involved with movie-watching and actively in search of spaces for shared experiences. All of which gives me confidence that Chicago’s cinema culture and the audience that creates it will continue to preserve classic screening dynamics, privileging high-quality viewing experiences of important films, while also supporting more experimental projects that expand our understanding of the medium.”

Steven A. Jones/Photo: Sally Blood

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Steven A. Jones
Producer in Residence, DePaul University
Steve Jones’ career has shifted with changing times since his arrival as a producer in the storied 1980s and 1990s of Chicago filmmaking, often in partnership with director John McNaughton. Some observers have a picture of Jones as the grouchy keeper-of-wisdom, a proper Midwestern raconteur and skilled creative producer. “Grouchy? Fuck them!” Jones says, laughing. “I think I can say that I might be considered the voice of experience, having gone from DIY totally handmade indies to studio pictures and back again, a few times, and having made every mistake at least once. My origins as a commercial animation director and musician gave me a unique take on the creative process, and being thrown into the fire as a producer forced me to learn what it takes to mount a successful production. And I have had the pleasure of seeing some of my former DePaul students, whom I helped mentor, flourish and succeed and I expect that the future in film is really promising for many of them.” What virus are you passing along to the next generation—both students and filmmakers? “I have one thing I tell my students every year and that is that film production is hard work—the hours, the emotional commitment, the travel and the distance from loved ones adds up to a difficult career choice. That being said, it’s just as difficult to make a crappy film as it is to make a good one, so start with good material!” How do you convey what a producer does? “I tell the intelligent strangers that my job as I see it is first and foremost Creative Quality Control, starting with the story, overseeing along with the director the creative hires and then monitoring their work and the rest of production through to the final print. There is, of course, fiscal overview—I have to be aware of budgetary concerns. There is also a degree of being the on-set psychologist when dealing with the many varied personalities. Sometimes I describe myself as ‘the Complaint Department.’” Chicago, five years ago, Jones says, was “on the launching pad for the boom in production with the rise of Cinespace and the many shows in production. That generated opportunities for many people, and gives students real world experience, which may allow them to thrive in the industry. I fervently hope that in 2025 we continue as a major player in the film industry, but here is the most important goal. People think a ‘film studio’ is the shooting stage, like Cinespace. A film studio actually develops and funds productions, which often take place on the shooting stages, but also on location. Chicago does not at this time have an entity that is capable of discerning and developing a quantity of good material and getting films funded and distributed. The film studio model is based on numerous at-bats, so the home run pays for the singles and strikeouts. Still, the growth of the industry has given young filmmakers starting out a lot more confidence and hope which leads to more creativity, a feeling of community and ultimately I believe, better films.”

Ines Sommer/Photo: Sally Blood

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Ines Sommer 
Filmmaker; Organizer, DOC CHICAGO; Associate Director and Lecturer, MFA in Documentary Media Program, Northwestern University
“I’ve always straddled the worlds of making and presenting films,” Ines Sommer says, “while looking to create a supportive ecosystem for independent filmmakers.” Sommer worked for years as staff, programmer or board member for nonprofits like Chicago Filmmakers and IFP Chicago. But about ten years ago, she co-founded the nonprofit Percolator Films, which ran the popular Reeltime documentary-discussion series and the Talking Pictures Festival in Evanston. “Our programming approach was intentionally community-oriented, bringing filmmakers, local organizations, and audiences into conversation with each other and finding new ways for people to engage beyond the screening room.” Last year, Sommer took a similar tack with Percolator Films’ latest endeavor, a regional conference for documentary filmmakers. The initial DOC CHICAGO conference was in March, prompted by a “state of the documentary” survey that gathered responses from well over a hundred Midwestern documentary filmmakers. “Not surprisingly, career sustainability was the biggest concern, while a documentary conference ranked highest among the resources and events that people wanted to see. My approach to DOC CHICAGO was to make it participatory, cross-generational and encourage new connections across the region,” she says. “Sustainability shouldn’t hinge on having access to funders or the lack thereof. There’s strength in supporting each other as makers.” Chicago Filmmakers partnered in organizing DOC CHICAGO, and many local filmmakers served on panels, screened short docs and participated in a “community conversation” that focused on establishing more connections across the Midwest. “We even had filmmakers from Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio attend! It was encouraging to pull off a no-budget, bootstrapped event that had so many emerging makers engage with folks who have a few films under their belt or with a renowned documentarian like Kartemquin Films’ Gordon Quinn. I would love for the next DOC CHICAGO conference to bring together regional makers who work solo, media journalists, activists, younger and diverse makers, along with artists who create nonfiction work that’s not as easy to categorize. Chicago has an amazing documentary community, and we can learn from each other and keep building a resilient, supportive community.”