Experimental home movie documenting a visit by filmmakers Wayne and Eleanor Boyer and their nine-year-old son Brett to JoAnn Elam’s home in Logan Square, Chicago, for a summer barbecue. Later in the film, Chuck Kleinhans and Julia Lesage, co-founders of the cinema journal Jump Cut join the group. Since Elam is on screen for much
Images of Christmas lights at night, a group of baton-twirlers in the street, postal carriers, kids walking down the street, etc. Exact date of production unknown.
The film was made in response to an evening during which a number of male members of Chicago’s experimental film scene gathered at JoAnn’s house and proceeded to ignore both her and the chocolate cake she made for the occasion. The film consists of a series of shots documenting the making of a chocolate cake,
Experimental filmmaker JoAnn Elam guides (or limits) the viewer’s eyes down a rural, wooded path.
Abstract direct animation film made by JoAnn Elam.
Abstract images of flames and fire. Date of production is unknown.
Set to the Beatles 1965 song “You Like Me Too Much,” Daytime Television consists of a series of close-up handheld pans of cleaning supply labels and packaging. Elam refuses to pull back and the abstracted visual effect is both dizzying, hypnotic, and full of rapidly flashing colors. The film looks at the feminist discourse of
Altered lyrics to the song “Chains” sit atop animated images of grains. Exact date of production unknown. “Chains” was composed by the Brill Building husband-and-wife songwriting team Gerry Goffin and Carole King and was a major hit for Little Eva’s backing singers, The Cookies (#17 U.S. Pop, #7 R&B), and later covered & popularized by
Joann Elam captures urban residents on the go in various seasons. The film begins in winter, as JoAnn captures sleepy neighborhood scenes from her snowy Logan Square windowsill. This is followed by manipulated summer scenes of a fast paced marathon. Through light flares and in-camera editing, marathon runners deconstruct into colorful forms.
Abstract, direct animation consisting of triangular shapes that flow past the frame. Apparently the source for ” Filmabuse ” (F.2011-01-0262) and ” Filmabuse Loop ” (F.2011-01-0263), this original painted material is presented in an edge-to-edge scan to replicate the look of the unslit double 8mm object. Although no date information is available, it was likely