Bowling ’82 belongs to a series of elements in the JoAnn Elam collection featuring JoAnn Elam and her coworkers from the US Post Office at the bowling alley near Logan Square where they worked. In this footage from around 1982, the camera first focuses on Elam, as she throws the ball down the lane. The
This footage by JoAnn Elam was probably shot in Michigan around 1976. It shows a man working on a farm and the nature, insects, and chickens around. Like many other titles in this collection, especially the ones from Elam’s trips to Monterey, MA, Michigan reveals Elam’s fascination for both natural beauty and farm labor.
Back Porch (left),” along with its counterpart ” Back Porch (right),” appears to be a version of ” Backyard (Original) ” edited for presentation as double projection, in which the left and right portions of the film would be presented side by side simultaneously. In the film, JoAnn Elam documents the gardens, neighbors, and views
This film from the JoAnn Elam collection was probably shot by JoAnn Elam’s second husband Joe Hendrix at their home in Chicago around 1985. But this does not diminish Elam’s authorial imprint. Almost certainly under Elam’s direction, Hendrix films her tending to her collards garden in a time-lapse fashion, from the moment she arranges the
The beginning of this film by JoAnn Elam appears to be a duplicate of another element in this collection titled Airplane (F.2011-01-0051). Shot from a flying airplane around 1974, the footage consists of a series of views showing the ocean, snowy mountains, the geometrical grids of American suburban neighborhoods, and open fields (location unknown). Elam
This footage from the JoAnn Elam collection is almost entirely black, save for a few shots possibly showing electric poles outside. JoAnn Elam was an avid filmmaker, who often filmed the inside of her house, its surroundings, and the nearby streets in her Chicago neighborhood, which this footage perhaps features.
This footage by JoAnn Elam was possibly shot around 1984 in Springfield, IL, which Elam might have visited for a postal workers’ union meeting. In the 1970s and 1980s, Elam worked as a letter carrier in Logan Square in Chicago and she was involved in the National Association of Letter Carriers fighting for the postal
This 8mm film by JoAnn Elam was shot in Chicago around 1984. It features an unidentified woman, perhaps a neighbor, and (very briefly) Chuck Kleinhans, a film scholar who founded Jump Cut and a close friend of Elam’s to whom the title refers. Elam films Kleinhans outside a garage, walking on the street, and standing
This slightly underexposed home movie from the JoAnn Elam Collection features Elam and film scholar Julia Lesage talking outside by the barbecue grill, before other friends join them, including film scholar and Lesage’s partner Chuck Kleinhans. In 1974, Kleinhans, Lesage, and John Hess had founded the film journal Jump Cut, which engaged critically with the
This footage by JoAnn Elam is partly filmed from inside a car riding in the streets of Chicago. Elam captures the houses around, the statues of Fritz Reuter and of the bronze bison in Humboldt Park, to which the truncated title might refer, a basketball game, and a child playing on the street and smiling