Tom Palazzolo

Chicago filmmaker Tom Palazzolo turns his lens to film a very different portrait of Vivian Maier, the mysterious Chicago photographer whose work was only discovered posthumously.

Black and white film made by Tom Palazzolo, 2001. Rita, a young high school student recounts and reflects on her life in a monologue played over footage of her wandering through various beautiful and often strange Chicago locations. The filmmaker's daughter Amy plays the young woman, with a voice-over by Deborah King.

Black and white film made by Tom Palazzolo, 2001. Rita, a young high school student recounts and reflects on her life in a monologue played over footage of her wandering through various beautiful and often strange Chicago locations. The filmmaker's daughter Amy plays the young woman, with a voice-over by Deborah King.

Chesterton, Indiana's annual WIZARD OF OZ parade (as well as their many Oz-themed festivities) provides the backdrop for I MARRIED A MUNCHKIN, Tom Palazzolo's study of the life and career of Mary Ellen St. Aubin. Self-described as "normal, but little," Mary Ellen details her early start in show business as a performer in an all-dwarf vaudeville act, her brief appearance in 1946's THREE WISE FOOLS, her 1948 marriage to former Munchkin Parnell St. Aubin and their subsequent retirement from entertainment to run a bar (called the Midget Club) in the South Side of Chicago. Two other former Munchkins (Margaret Pellegrini and Clarence Swensen) briefly appear among the day's revelry. Also included is a postscript (shot some time after the initial film) featuring Mary Ellen briefly describing the original size of her role in THREE WISE FOOLS, which originally featured a line and an ill-fated "flying" effect. - Tom Fritsche

Chesterton, Indiana's annual WIZARD OF OZ parade (as well as their many Oz-themed festivities) provides the backdrop for I MARRIED A MUNCHKIN, Tom Palazzolo's study of the life and career of Mary Ellen St. Aubin. Self-described as "normal, but little," Mary Ellen details her early start in show business as a performer in an all-dwarf vaudeville act, her brief appearance in 1946's THREE WISE FOOLS, her 1948 marriage to former Munchkin Parnell St. Aubin and their subsequent retirement from entertainment to run a bar (called the Midget Club) in the South Side of Chicago. Two other former Munchkins (Margaret Pellegrini and Clarence Swensen) briefly appear among the day's revelry. Also included is a postscript (shot some time after the initial film) featuring Mary Ellen briefly describing the original size of her role in THREE WISE FOOLS, which originally featured a line and an ill-fated "flying" effect. - Tom Fritsche

A portrait of the Chicago street market.

“(T)he difficulty with which an adult represents his own childhood--let alone another's--is the running gag of Tom Palazzolo's Caligari's Cure. In Palazzolo's cosmos, the kids are even played by grownups; he's recast incidents from his Catholic midwestern working-class boyhood with personnel recruited from the Chicago Art Institute.... The brazen, comic-book mise-en-scène resembles that of Red Grooms or the Kuchars; the tacky, off-kilter sets--houses as ostentatiously ramshackled as Frank Stella's recent sculpture, wallpaper like Lucas Samaras's quilt-shard collages, decrepit furniture painted pale pink or dusty green--are a kind of arty-idiot Toonerville Trolley Americana.” –J. Hoberman (Village Voice)

Lisa Gottlieb's Oscar-winning spoof of misogynist film noir.

Tom Palazzolo films the goings-on at Labor Day festival in East Chicago.

A short documentary on wet t-shirt contests at a Chicago bar.

A film by Tom Palazzolo and Mark Rance documenting neo-Nazi activity in the Marquette Park neighborhood of Chicago on August 21, 1976. The day marked one of many conflicts between black civil rights marchers and white supremacist neighborhood groups who were mobilizing to prevent black residents from moving into the neighborhood.

We traveled to Indiana back roads to see and shoot the annual Miss Nude Universe Contest held at a “notorious” nudist camp. They wanted $15 a head at the gate so we parked down the road and crawled through the brush. Once in, we encountered truckers and hundreds of Sunday photographers straining for a shot at the contestants. Afterward we joined the quest for stray women willing to pose. After a quick success we headed home with our catch in the can.

A music and costume filled portrayal of the 1976 Gay Pride Parade by filmmaker Tom Palazzolo. All is fun and games until a bystander hurls an egg at Palazzolo's camera lens. It resumes quickly though.

Filmmakers Tom Palazzolo, Jeff Kreines, and Bernie Caputo attend the annual Chicago Senior Citizens Picnic hosted by the Democratic Party. Shot in the style of direct cinema, they spend the afternoon in a Chicago park following the seniors as they have a musical revue, hula dance, listen to speeches, play organized games and generally seem to have an all around fabulous time.

JERRY'S DELI is a testament to a bygone era when shrieking lunatics could run successful (even popular) businesses. Shot on film-stock leftover from television cameramen, Tom Palazzolo's portrait of Jerry Meyer offsets sequences of the tyrannical deli owner (seen berating his employees and physically dragging customers to the counter) with personal interviews in which a soft-spoken Meyer calmly describes his decorated military service in World War II, his early stand on civil rights and this one time when he stabbed an employee in the arm. - Tom Fritsche

A 14-minute almanac of Midwestern America and its funky Americana at the end of the Love Generation, Love It / Leave It begins with proudly naked people parading about for all the world to ogle at the annual Naked City beauty pageant in Roselawn, Indiana, before returning to Chicago, where families literally draped in American flags are found wilting under the heat of the sun along a downtown parade route.

A documentary about a man who wins a million dollars in the Illinois lottery. Takes place at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, IL.

Hot Nasty is a humorous documentary short set entirely inside a Chicago massage parlor called Big Bertha’s. The film features interviews with the women who work there, openly sharing funny stories about how they got into the business, dealing with different patrons, and so on.

The two filmmakers use the style of direct cinema to film the Italian/Polish backyard wedding shower of a young couple, Ricky and Rocky. The pair show off their wedding gifts and guests and relatives express their approval of the shower to the filmmakers.

On August 13, 1969 thousands of Chicagolandians flocked to downtown Chicago to get a glimpse of the first humans on the Moon (Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin, Jr.). Chicago Filmmaker Tom Palazzolo captures the Chicago Apollo 11 Parade with wit and charm, highlighting the hoards of suburbanites who made the journey into the city.

Chicago was the host for the 1968 Democratic Convention, and the surrounding hype and horror that resulted. Mayor Daley called out the cops on the various protestors and hippies attempting to influence the proceedings, and resulting riot remains a stain on the city's reputation. Palazzolo combines footage of the various youth leaders as well as press comments from candidate Hubert Humphrey and Daley to illustrate the divide between the factions.

Tattooed Lady of Riverview

Palazzolo's cameras are there as Mayor Richard Daley reveals the Picasso gifted to the city from the famed artist. Nicknamed "the Bride" and bad mouthed almost universally upon its unveiling, we get some of that social commentary here, as well as lots of souvenirs.

"The once teeming Riverview Park was shut down in 1967 (with Tom Palazzolo on hand to document the bitter end). The Tattooed Lady of Riverview is a portrait of its final occupant, Jean Furella, the titular tattooed lady of Riverview's sideshow. Furella first tells how she used to work at the sideshow as a bearded lady but fell in love with a man who asked her to shave. Then gives her carnival barker's spiel one more time for the camera. Quick cuts between frenetic shots of Riverview Park, in use and full of life, and later images of its demolition-in-progress lend to the carnival atmosphere of this early Palazzolo film." —Tom Fritsche (Fandor)

"Fears and thrills... Part structure (the centerpoint): part improvisation."

Tom Palazzolo's rapid-fire, seemingly spontaneous documentary style captures Chicago with pizazz. For more than ten years, Palazzolo has been delivering to us his captured visions – body builders, senior citizens, erotic parlours, weddings, deli owners, and the like – as if he had harnessed them in a cinematic butterfly net. AMERICA'S IN REAL TROUBLE is a patriotic film with music and sound by some of the great unknowns of the past. Lots of overtones, undercurrents, innuendoes, visual similes, counterpoints, puns and contrapuntal movement. Filmed in Chicago, it covers several years of parades and civic events. If you're not moved by this film there's no hope for you.

Venus and Adonis offers a playful retelling of the Classical myth. Filmed at Chicago's North Avenue Beach, filmmaker Tom Palazzolo plays the handsome young Adonis who is seduced by Venus, the goddess of love, depicted by Natalie Jarnstedt.

Venus and Adonis offers a playful retelling of the Classical myth. Filmed at Chicago's North Avenue Beach, filmmaker Tom Palazzolo plays the handsome young Adonis who is seduced by Venus, the goddess of love, depicted by Natalie Jarnstedt.

Surreal film melding documentary footage of Chicago and its residents, featuring fast paced montage sequences set against a rollicking 1960s musical backdrop. The film aptly deconstructs the absurdities of contemporary American life, particularly the thick fog of patriotism engulfing the country at the time.

A fascinating and touching portrait of isolation in big cities, Roger the Dodger features an extended interview with a man who was arrested by the police for loitering near a train station. The man shares his discontent with the local government, and American politics at large. An avowed Marxist, he thinks that carrying a picture of Fidel Castro when arrested probably did not endear him to the police. He discusses his thoughts on loneliness, specifically the ways in which big cities such as Chicago and New York contribute to feelings of isolation, particularly for those who do not enjoy popular pastimes such as sports and rock music.

Lillie Santangelo had for most of the 20th century owned and operated a wax museum at New York's Coney Island. She leads us on a final tour, just before her museum is closed and her wax figures and exhibits are auctioned off. Old age and declining attendance have forced her to close and sell everything. This film deals with the loss of her "friends" (the wax figures), she has known for so long. She reminisces about her years as a Coney Island fixture as she visits the ocean boardwalk one last time.

Civil Rights marchers without a permit plan to march into an all-white area. The National Socialist Party plans to stop them.