Your Astronauts

Or you can watch the whole film over on the archive website:

Enjoy these excerpts from Tom Palazzolo's 1969 film "Your Astronauts," an observational portrait of the August 13, 1969 parade held in Chicago to celebrate Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr., and Michael Collins a few weeks after their return from the moon.

An Easter-themed, portrait-style home movie, circa 1941, featuring young Bob Sommerfeld, his parents and baby brother, his cousins Sheldon and Diane Glick, and his uncle Jack Glick.

📽️ From a 16mm Kodachrome home movie in CFA's Glick-Berolzheimer Collection.

Glick - Berolzheimer Collection The Glick-Berolzheimer Collection contains home movies by Diane Berolzheimer's father Jacob Glick from the mid 1930s through the early 1960s. It also includes home movies made by Diane and her husban...

This film is from CFA's Glick-Berolzheimer Collection.

A home movie from the Glick family's Passover Seder, c. 1939, likely shot in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood in the two-room apartment at the New Lawrence Hotel where Jack & Dorothy Glick lived with their two children. Jack immigrated to Chicago from Ukraine and ran a bar and cigar shop at the hotel.

1927: Odds + End Black-and-white 9.5mm home movie shot in the Wisconsin Dells region, Lake Pistakee (Illinois), and Chicagoland. Features a woman playing the banjolina as a plane flies overhead, a woman in Romani dres...

9.5mm (!!) home movie from 1927 now streaming from the newly published Helstrom Family Collection finding aid: collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objec...

The Poet and the Pond

5 more experimental Super-8 films by Norm Bruns are now streaming, including:

THE POET AND THE POND (ca. 1982, B&W, silent): collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objec...

&

BINGO (ca. 1980, color, sound): collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objec...

John Nash Ott Collection The John Nash Ott Collection spans decades of Ott’s prolific filmmaking hobby-turned-career, including episodes of his weekly 1950s television series <i>How Does Your Garden Grow?</i>, elements from h...

See more from CFA's John Nash Ott Collection here:

Time-lapse footage of spring flowers blooming, shot in 16mm circa 1957 by John Nash Ott of Winnetka, Illinois, whose elaborate greenhouse and camera system was called "ingenious" by American Cinematographer in 1947.

James Giovannetti Collection A collection of home movies depicting the life of the Giovannetti family of Chicago, Illinois. Films in the collection document celebrations of birthdays, weddings, Christmas, and an ordination.

New finding aid (including three newly streaming films) for the James Giovannetti Collection:

[1943: Home Movies Reel 4] A home movie reel consisting of four parts spliced together, one in color and the following in black and white. In the first, color segment, a Rockford, IL family enjoys dancing and a "waffle supper" ...

Watch the whole reel here: collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objec...

♫ Batter up! Hear that call! Now's the time... to plaaay ball! ♫

The real-life Rockford Peaches make an appearance in this 1943 home movie from the Dean Collection. The family brought their 8mm camera to this All-American Girls Professional Baseball League game during the Peaches' inaugural season.

[Summer 1980 #2 - Great America 8/1980] Home movie depicting a family visit to an amusement park, likely the Great America amusement park in Gurnee, Illinois.

Home movie depicting a family visit to an amusement park, likely the Great America amusement park in Gurnee, Illinois. From the Lieb-Hootnick Family Collection.

The Same Old Story: 3 Act Play With Epilogue An ultrashort comedy in three parts, with title cards and credits. It appears to be an amateur or student film.

An ultrashort comedy in three parts, with title cards and credits. It appears to be an amateur or student film. A 16mm film from the James Giovannetti Collection.

Ruth Page Collection This collection documents the dance legacy and artistic circle of choreographer, Ruth Page, named by the Dance Heritage Coalition as one of America’s 100 Irreplaceable Dance Treasures. As the largest ...

Our Ruth Page Collection finding aid includes hundreds more digitized films and videotapes documenting Page's life and work:

Ruth Page Birthday Party No. 18 [March 22, 1985]

You can watch the whole digitized tape here:

This weekend we're celebrating the 127th birthday of Ruth Page, midwestern ballerina, choreographer, and founding mother of the Chicago dance community!

Enjoy the very 1985 ambiance of this clip from a Betacam tape of her 86th birthday party:

Maxwell Street A documentary about Chicago's Maxwell Street Market.

A short documentary about Chicago's Maxwell Street Market made in 1970 by Maria Moraites and produced by the Northeastern Illinois University Department Of Learning Services.

And there's a lot more Chicago St. Patrick's Day parade footage where that came from: collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Search/Objec...

St. Patrick's 1977 Loosely assembled footage documents the 1977 Chicago St. Patrick’s Day Parade as its floats pay tribute to the late Mayor Richard J. Daley and proceeds south along State Street. Footage also captures ...

The clip above features excerpts from "St. Patrick's 1977" (Super 8, sound, Bill Stamets Collection). Watch the whole reel over here on the archive website!

It's St. Patrick's Day AND Election Day, Illinois! ☘️🗳️

Politics and politicians have long been a staple of Chicago's downtown St. Patrick's Day parade. In 1977, many floats were dedicated to the recently deceased and famously Irish Mayor Richard J. Daley.

This morning, flowers were scattered at Chicago's Jackson Park Lagoon to commemorate the death of lawyer and civil libertarian Clarance Darrow, a tradition dating back to the 1950s. This contemplative Super 8 reel from our Bill Stamets Collection documents the ceremony as it took place in 1977.

Aikido Mag Piece Kinescope A kinescope of a local Chicago NBC News segment depicting NBC reporter Sidney White visiting the Illinois Aikido Club in Chicago. The segment features senior instructor Isao Takahashi and includes bri...

A kinescope of a local NBC News segment depicting reporter Sidney White visiting the Illinois Aikido Club in Chicago. The segment features senior instructor Isao Takahashi and includes brief interviews with students at the dojo.

Kirby was a regular on television variety shows in the 1970s and was known for his impressions (he mastered over 100!). In this clip from the same film, he appears as Santa Claus and in drag.

Learn more about George Kirby on our finding aid: collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/colle...

This 16mm home movie from the George Kirby Collection contains footage from the filming of "A Time for Laughter: A Look at Negro Humor in America," a 1967 TV special. This clip features Richard Pryor, Harry Belafonte, Redd Foxx, and Sidney Poitier.
collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objec...

Title card from "Hey Girls," drawn by cartoonist Heather McAdams

Join us at the Wisconsin Film Festival on April 12 for a program of shorts by filmmaker Tom Palazzolo!

Tickets on sale now: wifilmfest.eventive.org/schedule/699...

Browse amateur films from CFA's collection: collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Browse/Objec...

CFA is so excited that many of the great amateur films from our collection (including the iconic OBEY YOUR AIR RAID WARDEN) will be seen around the world for #AmateurMovieDay2026!

Find an AMD event near you: www.amateurcinema.org/index.php/amd

This short clip from CALIGARI'S CURE features Andy Somma, Heather McAdams, David West, and an as-yet unidentified performer.

A new 16mm preservation print is available for loan to qualified curators and film programmers.

MANY thanks to The Film Foundation , the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation, the National Film Preservation Foundation, and Colorlab for their help in preserving this film for the future!