Rivers typically symbolize journeys, the passage of time and space. For director D.P. Carlson, the Chicago River was central to his two-year struggle to complete a 65-minute film: Chicago Filmmakers on the Chicago River. It’s an engaging and thoughtful study of local film culture as told by people in the industry. Carlson did numerous interviews–all while floating on the river.
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He surveyed prominent Chicago-born directors who work in mainstream studio features (Andrew Davis, Michael Mann, John Landis, Harold Ramis); filmmakers who shuttle between independent and studio work (John McNaughton, Steven A. Jones, Stuart Gordon); seminal cinematographer (Days of Heaven) and director (Medium Cool) Haskell Wexler, the godfather of Chicago’s independent film movement; and idiosyncratic, unconventional independents (Gordon Quinn and Jerry Blumenthal, Loretta Smith, Louis Antonelli, Zeinabu Davis, Katy Maguire, Heather McAdams, Tom Palazzolo, Jim Sikora), all of whom relate tales of struggle and accomplishment. Filming the directors against embankments and tree lines, drifting under bridges, Carlson used the settings to invoke personal recollections of how the city shaped their lives and art.
Chicago Filmmakers on the Chicago River originated in a barroom conversation Carlson had three years ago with a friend, filmmaker David Agosto, about how no one had ever fully realized the cinematic potential of the Chicago River. A gonzo video production they planned to make about the waterway never materialized, but the idea lingered in Carlson’s mind.
Chicago Filmmakers on the Chicago River screens at 8 this Saturday at the Film Center of the School of the Art Institute, Columbus Drive at Jackson. Carlson and some of the filmmakers interviewed will attend a postscreening question-and-answer session. Photographs by Jessica Feith chronicling the locations, setups, and interviews during the production will be exhibited in the lobby. Admission is $7. Call 312-443-3737 for information. The film will also be shown on Saturday, November 28, at 5 and 7 at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington (312-346-3278); both of those screenings are free. –Patrick Z. McGavin
