Full Zoom: Doc Productions 2020 Screening

This event has passed but the films are still available for viewing through Nov 15:
Full Zoom films
Full Zoom films with captions

Captioning will be provided for this event. Captions for the films will appear below the picture; captions for the introduction and Q&A can be viewed at this link.

Four short documentaries highlight the creative work made by University of Chicago students. Produced during Professor Judy Hoffman’s Documentary Production class during fall 2019 and winter 2020 quarters, these films provide an enlightening and entertaining panorama of life in Chicago. Chick-Ago profiles a Mexican-American family who raises chickens in their backyard; 19 addresses the legacy of the 1919 race riot; the UChicago Womxn’s Rugby Team prepares for its final game of the season in Ball’s Out; and Gu Dao: Chinatown follows the lives of four people in Chicago’s Chinatown as the Covid-19 pandemic hits; 

Filmmakers will take part in a Q&A after the screening.

Full program:

Chick-ago
Julia Gerdin, Andres Leland, Eliana Melmed, and Athena Muzumdar  

Chick-ago follows a Mexican-American family living in Chicago as they raise chickens in their home. Xoychil Vasquez, along with her parents Leti and Marcos, have developed their own form of sustainability informed by their immigrant experience. However, constantly hovering overhead is the threat of a proposed city ordinance that, if passed, will prohibit ownership of chickens in private residences. (19 min.)

19
Alexis Stanley, Audrey Fromson, Harris Schwartz, and Sarah Fineman 

Where are the ghosts of the 1919 race riots in Chicago today? A meditative and lyrical reflection on South Side history and the legacies of trauma, this film traces them to a home in Bronzeville that was bombed four times 100 years ago. To the high school racial slurs two middle-aged Black men recount. To the pain and beauty of poetry that memorializes a still-breathing past. (21 min.)

Ball's Out
Livia Miller, Clarissa Mullig, Theo Evans, Mary Martha Maclay 

The UChicago Womxn's Rugby Team prepares for and plays its last game of the season, and its members reflect on the toll it takes on their bodies, their comradery through wins and losses, and love of the sport. (23 min.)

Gu Dao: Chinatown
Anastasia Liu, Tom Kristensen, Teddy Debreu, Xiaoyu Yin, and Jinghong Miao 

Chinatowns in the West have been mythologized, overlooked, and misunderstood by Westerners and Chinese nationals for as long as they have existed. By following the lives of four people in Chicago’s Chinatown––a beauty salon owner, a waitress, a restauranteur, and a college student––this documentary finds the root of being a Chinatown resident. It sets aside the neighborhood’s stereotypes and observes the quiet perseverance of the immigrants making a niche in the strange space between China and America. (21 min.)