STREETERVILLE — A short film festival featuring only Chicago filmmakers is coming to the Museum of Contemporary Art next week.
"Chicagoland Shorts Vol. 3" will showcase 11 films in 1 hour and 15 minutes at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Streeterville art museum, 220 E. Chicago Ave. Admission is free to Illinois residents.
Led by Chicago-based non-profit Full Spectrum Features, the festival celebrates the stories of Chicagoans that aren't always told, stories by queer filmmakers and women and people of color.
"It's a breathtaking panorama of how diverse and how different the different scenes in Chicago’s independent film scene are," said Dane Haiken, program director at Full Spectrum. "We want to celebrate Chicago, the film scene and encourage filmmakers to stay in the city and keep creating."
Qihui Wu's "Chosen People" looks at the daily lives of the parishioners of a South Shore church. [Provided]
Filmmakers include Steve Socki, an Emmy-winning producer for "The Simpsons" and other animated shows, and Elliott Chu, a graduate student at DePaul University.
Haiken said the festival was curated through fielding more than 100 submissions as well as gleaning the best films small independent cinemas have to offer. The curators include local filmmaker Jim Vendiola as well as officials from the Chicago Film Office and Logan Square art house Comfort Station.
Here are the films being shown:
• "ZWISCHEN," 3 minutes, 2006, by Lori Felker. "ZWISCHEN (German for between) exists on the thin line between opposing forces. Dirt moves over light to a hand-drawn soundtrack of noise and space."
• "BLOKD," 5 minutes, 2016, by Martin Mulcahy. "Through the voices and tools of early avant-garde filmmakers, a man explores the world as if we are living inside a movie set."
• "Yo No Soy Esa," 6 minutes, 2014, by Diana Delgado Pineda. "On an ordinary winter afternoon, a mother does laundry and her daughter puts her clothes away. What could happen when Mom isn't looking?"
• "Ant House," 2 minutes, 2016, by Valia O'Donnell. "The house of a family torn apart by domestic strife is eaten by termites as a manifestation of the tension within."
• "Thrill of the Chase," 12 minutes, 2016, by Jeanne Donegan and Jennifer Fagan. "An appropriated look at American cinema’s lust for the thrill of the chase."
• "Giants Are Sleeping," 11 minutes, 2014, by Amanda Gutierrez. "The identity, transformation, and ownership of one Chicago electrical substation is explored through interviews and charcoal drawings to reveal the relationship between human memory and architecture."
• "Selfie," 1 minutes, 2015, by Valia O'Donnell. "A multimedia animation contrasts tourism in Rome with the experience of a Bangladeshi immigrant selling selfie sticks."
•"Chosen People," 18 minutes, 2016, by Qihui Wu. "An experimental documentary depicting the daily activities of the Israel of God Church on the South Side of Chicago."
• "Grandma & Me Dancing with Hibari," 2 minutes, 2016, by Elliott Chu. "Elliott's grandma is awakened to dance with her favorite Japanese singer."
• "Hail Mary," 16 minutes, 2016, by Emily Esperanza. "Part of a nonverbal video series that explores female sexuality and morality, HAIL MARY is an exercise in holding space (vulnerability)."
• "Sparrow Duet," 4 minutes, 2014, by Steve Socki. "Animated abstract shapes and gestures dance together in patterns suggesting ritualistic, bird-like action."
The films will be screened in the museum's Edlis Neeson Theater.
