“Minding The Gap” is a 2018 feature documentary nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Shadowproof managing editor Kevin Gosztola offers a review. The documentary revolves around three characters, who dealt with trauma in their home during adolescence by turning to skateboarding. It grapples with issues of toxic

The more you put into fighting the bosses, the more you get. In this 15-minute film from Kartemquin, which was produced in the late 1970s, the United Electrical Workers Union engage in an organizing drive at the Wells Foundry in Chicago. African American, Hispanic, Arab, Polish, and Jewish workers form

In this 1974 film, Kartemquin filmmakers present a portrait of Pam and Scott Taylor, their family, their friends, and their Lincoln Park neighborhood. It is another entry in a catalog of films from the collaborative group, which document transformations in the city of Chicago over the past decades. Lincoln Park

A number of films from Kartemquin go into working or lower class neighborhoods and humanize the people living in those neighborhoods. “Winnie Wright, Age 11” is a short film about a working class family living in Gage Park, Chicago. The neighborhood’s population is shifting from white to black. Winnie’s mother is

This short film is about ten minutes long, and it captures some of the early rise of the mural movement in Chicago’s Pilsen community in the mid-1970s. For those not from Chicago, Pilsen is well-known for its Hispanic population. It did not have a prevalent Latino population until the University

Kartemquin Films continues to celebrate its 50th Anniversary with this short film on racism among working class Chicagoans in the 1970s.

In 1969, it was against the law in Chicago for fathers to be in the delivery room with mothers during childbirth. Natural childbirth was also taboo. Kartemquin Films co-founder Jerry Temaner, his wife, Barbara, and Kartemquin cameraman and co-founder Gordon Quinn created a documentary, “Marco,” that captured a beautiful experience

A student wearing a cape and a hood somewhat casually paints, “What the Fuck are these Red Squares?” in broad daylight. A man walking by says aloud, “I got to call a cop on you. That’s beautiful.” In the next shot, it is clear the words were painted on the brick

At the University of Chicago, during the winter quarter of 1968-1969, students protest the firing of Professor Marlene Dixon and occupy an administration building. They sing “We Shall Not Be Moved” and appear on film describing how they view student power. A number of the students see their action as

In the early years of Kartemquin Films, the group produced cinéma vérité documentaries. Co-founders Gordon Quinn and Jerry Temaner were interested in “cinematic social inquiry.” And, at its core, the concept was films could be created to promote social change. One of the pioneering films produced in 1967 is “Thumbs