Studs Terkel
For over 60 years, Studs Terkel elevated the voices and experiences of everyday Americans through his skillful interviews on radio, in books and on TV. This documentary takes a fond and illuminating look back at one of America's most influential authors and media personalities whose curiosity about people never dimmed over the course of a long and brilliant career.
Quearborn & Perversion: An Early History of Lesbian & Gay Chicago (2009, 109 min) is a documentary on LGBTQ life in Chicago from 1934 to 1974. Moving from the speakeasys and Henry Gerber’s founding of the Society for Human Rights in the 1930s, to the underground social structure of the 1940s and 1950s, to the dawn of consciousness-raising entities such as the Daughters of Bilitis and Mattachine Midwest in the 1960’s, and concluding with the emergence of the gay liberation movement with the first Pride March and opening of the first community center in the early 1970s.
On May 8th, 1945, writer, director Norman Corwin broadcast ON A NOTE OF TRIUMPH, an unforgettable homage to the end of war in Europe. This film shines a light on a lost work of genius, and examines it's haunting resonance to today's current events.
Documentary narrated by Paul Winfield, this documentary follows the course of Mahalia Jackson's extraordinary life - from her humble beginnings as a sickly child singing in New Orleans churches to her breakthrough with Columbia Records and her ascendancy to Carnegie Hall and Europe's great stages. Her story's told through archival footage and interviews with those who knew her best.
Harry Bridges: A Man and his Union chronicles the life of one of America's most important and controversial left-wing labor leader. He headed the International Longshoremen and Warehouseman Union from the 1930's to the 1970's and was a champion of workers' causes on an international scale. Harry Bridges (July 28, 1901 - March 30, 1990) was controversial as he was charismatic. He was prosecuted by FDR, Truman and Eisenhower alike, and convicted by a federal jury for having lied about Communist Party membership-a conviction which was set aside. On the West Coast, Bridges still excites passions both for and against the labor movement.
The great Chicago White Sox team of 1919 is the saddest team to ever win a pennent. The team is bitter at their penny pincher owner, Charles Comiskey, and at their own teammates. Gamblers take advantage of this opportunity to offer some players $ to throw the series (Most of the players didn't get as much as promised.) But Buck Weaver and the great Shoeless Joe Jackson turn back at the last minute to try and play their best. The Sox actually almost come back from a 3-1 deficit. 2 years later, the truth breaks out and the Sox are sued on multiple accounts. They are found innocent by the jury but baseball commissioner Landis has other plans. The eight players are suspended for life, and Buck Weaver, for the rest of his life, tries to clear his name.
Jane Fonda gives an Emmy-winning performance as Gertie Nevels, a pioneer woman and the mother of five from the Kentucky hills who is forced to uproot her children to follow her husband Clovis (Levon Helm) to Detroit when he finds work during World War II. One setback follows another and shattering tragedy strikes the family. It's all up to Gertie to find new strength, courage and determination to keep her family together and strong.
The story of an American Communist militia that fought for the Spanish Republicans in the 1936-39 Civil War.
Harley Cokeliss's Chicago Blues filmed in 1972 was a remarkable film; remarkable in that it was not just a competent documentary but a film crafted with care by professionals with a love and understanding of music and a respect for its history and artists. The music and its artists of Chicago Blues reflect faithfully the structure of the city's Blues activity of the late '60s from unknown amateur to world famous stars, from house to small bar, from traditional down home to modern city style. Thus Johnny Lewis, a housepainter who played for his own amusement at home and was almost a discovery of the film team, to Muddy Waters, Chicago Blues' most famous figure.
The world-famous Greyhound bus is almost as old as the Wild West. It is a symbol of North America, of progress, and of nostalgia. Reporter Stud Terkel travelled 2,000 miles across the United States by Greyhound. From Seattle to Chicago, he observes his fellow-passengers. He meets a number of travelers who appear to be very interesting people: a Native American boxer on his way to his birthplace in Montana, a bar owner who was a bank robber in a former 'career', a 99 year old woman who is still running a busy hotel, and, of course, a pedigree cowboy. The spectator of this film listens to their personal stories, watches the beautiful scenery, and is treated to famous feature film fragments in which the Greyhound bus plays a part. Seven states and two time zones later, he is back in his cinema seat.
