About 50 Wards
Chicago from above. Contiguous. Glittering. Bordered only by vast, shimmering Lake Michigan. A city connected.
Chicago at street level. Blocks sliced into 50 circuitous, disparate districts. A city splintered.
Practiced in “connection,” our artistic collective hits the pavement with cameras, curiosity, and storytelling savvy to bring you a series of multi and mixed media pieces from each of Chi-town’s 50 municipal parcels.
50 Wards: A Civic Mosaic is an ambitious attempt to make our town feel like it looks from above: linked, complete. Watch as we weave together a dazzling tapestry of hometown experiences, bridge the distance between neighborhoods, and plot the line from our fascinating history to our complex present on through to tomorrow’s promise, beginning with these first ten (of 50!) films.
Ward 3: “Bud Billiken Day!”
Filmmakers: Ensemble Member and Mellon Playwright in Residence J. Nicole Brooks, with Director Latesha Dickerson
Neighbors. Colors. Break beats. Bass drums. The scent of BBQ wafts. A picnic to taste and talk. A full communal and sensory experience, the south side knows how to do Back to School…it’s Bud Billiken Day! Mill about with Latesha Dickerson and Ensemble Member J. Nicole Brooks as they hear from the folx who know about what it means for generations upon generations to be engaged in the largest, longest running African American parade in the country, dating back to 1929.
LEARN MOREWard 5: “The Garden of the Phoenix”
Filmmakers: Connor Lifson and Sam Linda
A modern myth of resilience and rebirth set in an origami-cut, watercolor-splashed toy theatre version of Jackson Park featuring evocative strains from MiYUMI Project Reduction Ensemble.
LEARN MOREWard 8: “Regal Promise”
Filmmaker: Ensemble Member Anthony Irons
The X-boys are just muddling through, till they encounter the abandoned Avalon Regal theater and uncover, through imagination, its extraordinary history, its importance to Black culture, and what promise lives inside their youth.
LEARN MOREWard 16: “Englewood Arts Collective”
Filmmaker: Pugs Atomz
A trü & tite doc on how EAC came to be and how its founders, through a communal, multi-disciplinary approach to artmaking, are changing long-existing narratives on Englewood and forging the shape of Chicago to come.
LEARN MOREWard 25: “I Remember Chinatown”
Filmmaker: Lookingglass Ensemble Member Matthew C. Yee
A man returns to Chinatown, Chicago, after 50 years away, and pieces together snapshots of his childhood: Sunday school, dim sum, and the dentist office where Novocaine’s a no-go. A tunnel leads you out of the neighborhood, but what lies beyond? Find out as Lookingglass Artistic Associate Matthew C. Yee uses the technique of rotoscoping, a meticulous animation technique, to illustrate stories, ideas, and imaginings from his family’s history in the 25th ward.
LEARN MOREWard 30: “Time InStep”
Filmmaker: Lookingglass Ensemble Member Kasey Foster
At the intersection of Pulaski and Belmont stands the Shoemaker Lofts Condominiums. But before that structure became a series of kitchens and dens, it was a place where Chicago’s most famous shoes were manufactured: an old Florsheim Shoe factory. Lookingglass Ensemble Member Kasey Foster slips into the shoes of a filmmaker as she takes to the streets and sidewalks around the historic building to shoot an expertly choreographed tap number featuring Chicago phenom Time Brickey… in a pair of Florsheims!
LEARN MOREWard 39: “this sylvan secret”
Filmmaker: Ensemble Member Kareem Bandealy
The view from the other wards affords stunning skyscrapers, prized parks for gathering, and rows of restaurants resplendent. But here, nature reigns. In his ambles through the heart of the 39th Ward – pre and post pandemic, by sunrays and moonrise, with Venus in spring skies, and winters when Saturn flies – Ensemble Member Kareem Bandealy has forged a deep connection with LaBagh Woods. A contemporary fable of love and loss, he showcases its many faces: “this sylan secret,” where the urban meets wilderness.
LEARN MOREWard 40: “Next Door to Kopi (My Favorite Place)”
Filmmaker: Artistic Associate Sully Ratke
There are dogs and dragons and turtles and bees and the sea…and all can be found in a whirl of stop-motion whimsy at this long-standing Andersonville storefront.
LEARN MOREWard 47: “Essanay Studios: Chicago and the Dawn of Movies”
Filmmakers: Ensemble Members Raymond Fox & Phil Smith
“In the beginning,” there was Argyle Street and Oscar Micheaux and a Hollywood ancestor they called Chicago. Adam Selzer narrates this brief retrospective on the days when Essanay Studios was rolling out reel after reel to our rolling globe.
LEARN MOREWard 49: “the messenger”
Filmmaker: Ensemble Member Phil Smith
Wards aren’t buildings. Or streets. Or lines on maps. Wards are people. Characters even, like the subject of Lookingglass Ensemble Member Phil Smith’s short film. Follow his keen eye as he enters Le Piano (a Rogers Park Institution) to soak up the unparalleled jazz percussion chops of Ernie Adams (an institution himself.) Ernie’s hard-earned wisdom? People are here for the music…he’s just the messenger.
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