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
As its name suggests, “Lake & Planetarium – Garden – Go Bears” consists of three distinct sections: The first features JoAnn Elam and an unidentified cameraperson walking around Museum Campus in Chicago, where the waves of Lake Michigan, the Adler Planetarium, and the Field Museum of Natural History are visible. In the second part, Elam
One of the longest of the garden films in the JoAnn Elam Collection, “Garden 85″ appears to document the entirety of the 1985 growing season of Elam’s backyard garden in Logan Square, Chicago. From the beginning, Elam is shown preparing the land and planting the crops, with some of the earliest footage directly related to
“Peggy” begins by surveying the yard of an unidentified rural setting, with bushes, cars, and piles of rocks-most significantly, broken-open geodes-visible. The film then focuses on growing artichokes and a woman tending to them before preparing a plot of land for new plants. Her work complete, the woman walks toward the door of her home,
“Test Backyard” explores the different views of the area surrounding and within JoAnn Elam’s Logan Square backyard (a frequent locale in her work). The perspective on her neighbor’s back porches, trees, and Elam’s own garden changes from indoors and outdoors, close-up and from a distance, and in and out of crisp focus. Although its title
Similar to other garden films in the JoAnn Elam Collection, “Garden 84” features Elam and, briefly, her second husband Joe Hendrix, at work in Elam’s Logan Square garden. Occasionally utilizing experimental techniques like fast-motion or rapid editing, the film shows different stages of gardening, from preparing and planting plots of land to reaping the harvest
Ice Lakes – Garden 1 ’84” begins with footage of ice clinging to docks along Lake Michigan on the north side of Chicago, the cityscape visible in the background. An unidentified man walks along the shore. Approximately halfway through its runtime, the film switches to show JoAnn Elam planting seeds in her garden in the
Garden #2″ documents JoAnn Elam, her second husband Joe Hendrix, and an unidentified man in the backyard garden of Elam’s Logan Square apartment in Chicago. The camera appears to be passed from person to person as it records them tending the garden, barbecuing, and drinking Old Style beer while playing with a cat. This film
84 Garden 2″ documents JoAnn Elam working in the garden of her Logan Square residence in Chicago. Based on her consistent outfit, the film appears to have been shot during a single day at work and primarily features Elam tending to young sprouts previously planted in the plots of land. The relationship of the film
Back Porch (right),” along with its counterpart ” Back Porch (left),” 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