Sergio Mims and Jacqueline Stewart at the Chicago Cultural Center/Photo: Sally Blood
The abundance of talent for a behind-the-scenes tally of Chicago film professionals rises from a sweeping landscape of creativity, both cultural and industrial. We could flash upon fifty good and worthy figures from each of these precious trades—production, education, finance, exhibition, programming and preservation—that generate not only careers, but a virtuous record of this moment, moments before and moments to come, and sustain the waking dream that is image-making, storytelling, the poetry of desire. A wind blows across the prairie, carrying hats on the wind.
These neighbors, whose work and avocations and philanthropy and their creation and sustenance of communities, catch and prize an abundance of these high-bouncing hats in all their ambitious, amazing, even astounding pursuits.
Film 50 2019 was written by Ray Pride.
All photos by Sally Blood with photo assistance by Hayley Osborn
Shot on location at the Chicago Cultural Center.
The Hall of Fame These Chicagoans, or the roles they play, are so well-established and essential to the film world of Chicago that they are always near the top of the list.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
Film 50 2022: Chicago's Screen Gems Behind the scenes of what constitutes "film"—industry and community, in Chicago and the Midwest—is circle upon circle, an ecstasy of Venn diagrams.
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Talking Screens: A Week in Chicago Film, February 12-18, 2021 OPENERS The delay of the Oscars until April 25 was one of many changes in the movie industry in the past year; movies released in the U. S. through February 28 are deemed eligible if there was an intention to have released them theatrically. The standard-bearers opening this week include Shaka King's sleek Chicago-set marvel, "Judas & The Black Messiah,"…
