JoAnn Elam
Nacimiento : 1949-04-20,
Muerte : 2009-06-25
Historia
JoAnn Elam (April 20, 1949 – June 25, 2009) was a Chicago-based filmmaker. Her films explored the themes of feminism and she was best known for her film Rape (1978). Elam also worked on other political and social documentaries such as her unfinished film Everyday People (1979–1990).
Not only did Elam's work focus on these themes but she also focused on everyday life in her films. While living in San Francisco,California, and Yellow Springs, Ohio, where she attended Antioch College, Elam had completed these everyday life documentary films. These films and her other films were produced on 16mm and 8mm films, but mainly 8mm.
Her films Rape and Everyday People have been subjects of great interest. Rape has been seen and applauded by many including authors of feminist film criticism journals and reviewers of the film. It has given women the power to speak up about experiences with rape and allowed them to be angry instead of keeping it all in. Everyday People has been on the art and film worlds’ interests because of its uncompleted state and the insight into the postal service, which she used to work for.
Description above from the Wikipedia article JoAnn Elam, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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JoAnn Elam's unfinished project, EVERYDAY PEOPLE (filmed from 1979 to 1990), is based on her experiences as a letter carrier for the US Postal Service in Chicago (primarily the Logan Square neighborhood). Camera in hand, Elam follows co-workers as they deliver the mail throughout various Chicago neighborhoods. Elam's construction of this film-in-progress creates a lovely cadence and rhythm that transforms the repetitive motions of the postal worker -- pushing the mail cart, carrying the bag, avoiding the dogs, opening the gates, and climbing the steps to the front door -- to something poetic yet startlingly familiar. Their stories (heard mostly in voice-over) are those of everyday people who at the time struggled with issues of race and gender in relationship to their work.
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JoAnn Elam plants collards.
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This footage is almost entirely black, save for a few shots possibly showing electric poles outside.
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Elam films her close friend, Chuck Kleinhans.
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Two women gardening on a sunny day.
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Contrasting environments, in and outside.
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Images of a shadow puppet play, intermittent rapid editing, and sweeping shots of a farm, dogs playing outside, plants, kitchens and interiors, provide a naturalistic portrait of peaceful spaces and friends. Date of production unknown.
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At home, outdoors. Street shots.
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Lie Back & Enjoy It is a dialectical film about the politics of representation. Its image track consists of technologically manipulated images of women, and some printed titles. Its soundtrack consists of a dialogue between a Man (a filmmaker) and a Woman (of whom he's going to make a film).
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Elam records several men moving boxes and furniture as they track across her backyard.
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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 of the film, it was likely mostly filmed by Elam's husband Joe Hendrix, who also appears at the end of the film. During the visit, the friends relax on Elam's back porch and film her garden, both frequent locations in her work. A group of friends and colleagues that included Elam, Kleinhans, and Lesage adopted the name "The Rhinos" after walking to a screening at Kartemquin Films on a cold winter evening, and having a group of kids throw snowballs at them and tell them that they looked like a group of rhinos.
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Filmed during the 52nd National Convention of the American National Association of Letter Carriers in August 1980.
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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.
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An outdoor gathering.
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Footage documenting Chicago's famed "Blizzard of '79," including some early examples of parking "dibs," people digging out their cars, and postal carriers delivering mail. Shot in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood.
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A series of home move style shots of a mother and her young child crawling outdoors. Scenes include a mother and toddler playing in a Chicago backyard, a young family boating in a small lake, toddlers playing & bathing outdoors, a young girl and her stuffed animal and a children's birthday party with a pi?ata. Exact date of production is unknown.
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8mm. experimental film shot by JoAnn Elam in Sanibel, Florida.
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USPS workers go bowling.
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Farm work and nature.
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Sprocket holes moving across the screen.
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Similar to her "Back Porch" films, JoAnn Elam's "Front Porch" documents the scenes of life in her neighborhood in Chicago. The film pays especial attention to the light flowing through different branches and leaves of plant growth and the rhythm of a gentle breeze swaying the blinds on the window. These patterns and abstractions repeat themes found throughout Elam's films.
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Footage of trees swaying in the sunlight, as seen from a window. A windchime in silhouette periodically obscures the trees.
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“Tai Chi II,” similarly to Elam’s “Tai Chi Bowling” and “Tai Chi,” focuses on movement. Through a sequence of close-ups, Elam coyly records portions of several individuals practicing tai chi, primarily focusing on the practitioners’ extremities as they float about. Distinct from its affiliates, “Tai Chi II” finds the action taking place outside.
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Rape has three victims discussing their emotional, physical and intellectual responses, then and now, highlighted and commented upon by a series of visual interpolations.
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Two pumpkins.
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Abstract direct animation film made by JoAnn Elam.
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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.
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Shot from the inside of a house and through a window's curtains, one can sometimes distinguish the colorful flowers in the yard outside. But, as in much of her other film work, JoAnn Elam is apparently more interested in filming textures, light, and colors. Panning over the curtains at various speed, the camera captures their rhythm and the effect of the light on their fabric at close range, until it becomes difficult to identify the object turned pure light and movement.
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An affectionate and humorous portrayal of the relationship between a woman and her dog. As the dog explores the world and meets other dogs on their many walks together, the film shakes and mirrors the excitement and chaos of a dog's life. Many of these scenes are repeated and reprinted, lending a distinct rhythm of image and color to the edit. At other times, the focus falls on intimate moments shared between the dog and the woman, with emphasis on touch and comfort. The film concludes with the dog giving birth to a litter of puppies and her own subsequent relationship to her offspring. Exact date of production is unknown.
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“Windows” documents the views of and out from windows around JoAnn Elam’s Logan Square neighborhood in Chicago. The first section begins at an El train stop, capturing the station itself and the views of people playing tennis as seen from the moving train. A switch approximately halfway through the runtime moves the action to downtown Chicago’s Buckingham Fountain and then Logan Square as filmed through Elam’s window screen. The shapes of the buildings finally abstract into geometric forms on film.
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Chicago streets.
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Abstract images of flames and fire.
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Experimental filmmaker JoAnn Elam guides (or limits) the viewer's eyes down a rural, wooded path.
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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, followed by a shot of JoAnn's sandaled foot stepping in the middle of the cake. When JoAnn screened the film in homes or loft spaces in Chicago, she would always serve chocolate cake as an accompaniment. Date of production unknown (likely 1973).
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This film celebrates the frenzy of light and color found amid exploding fireworks and the speeding headlights of cars on a nighttime road. In the first half of the film, it appears that JoAnn Elam experiments with projecting film of fireworks and filming it again off the screen, superimposing the explosions. At different parts, the projection zooms in and out, adding pulsating boxes to the other forms and colors illuminating the dark. In the second half, headlights join the fray, and the film builds to chaos before slowing down to capture the streaking lights at the very end.
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Experimental film by Chicago filmmaker JoAnn Elam (1949-2009). 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 The Beatles.
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The ancient art of Tai Chi transitions seamlessly into the fluid movements of bowling. Exact date of production unknown.
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Filmed at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, OH, "Woman's Place & Dance" features a group of young women and men running around and enjoying themselves on the grass outside. Among their activities are jumping rope, posing in different positions, and wearing colorful masks, but the film is primarily concerned with capturing the sense of free play and communal joy among the people. JoAnn Elam herself is a participant and can be identified by her dark green t-shirt and keys around her neck. Other, unidentified people can be seen holding cameras, but it's not always clear if their footage has been included in this film. Elam attended Antioch and lived in Yellow Springs until moving to Chicago in 1972.
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It's nice outside, take a stroll in the woods but be careful.
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This footage by JoAnn Elam was probably shot in San Francisco, where Elam spent the “Summer of Love” in 1967 and which she perhaps visited again later. First rapidly edited, the footage then slows down to focus on rows of houses, the street numbers on their façades, and their mail slots. As 37th Av. & S.F. CA and many other elements about the US Post Office in this collection evidence, what seems to have fascinated Elam about the mail was the way it circulated within neighborhoods, from one house to the next, thereby connecting the people who lived in them together. At the end, one handwritten note reads: “To be looked at one frame at a time,” some directions possibly referring to the following series of rapidly edited shots of nature and dogs running in a park.
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Elam turns in place while filming nature.
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A covered bridge and the nature surrounding it.
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Digging in the woods.
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Abstract short.
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Cleaning supplies and flames.
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Elam's husband prepares vegetables at the sink.
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Consists of frantic and (mostly) uninformative pans sprinting across Elam's lawn.
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Filmed in extreme close-up, the lit-up pine needles of a Christmas tree are abstracted into forms of line and contrast. “Christmas Tree” then moves around the living room to focus on JoAnn Elam stringing popcorn, a playful dog, a tapestry on the wall, and a curly-haired man playing guitar.
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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 the "politics of housework," and of the anti-consumer discourse of the counterculture and left of the day.
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Abstract images of flames and fire, including wide shots of the fireplace itself. This film appears to be an 8mm test or outtake for JoAnn Elam's 16mm work " Firelight " (F.2011-01-0277). The date of production remains unknown.
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The title of this fast paced experimental film presumably refers to the American counterculture catalog published by Stewart Brand between 1968 and 1972. The film quickly edits and overlaps scenes from various rural and urban landscapes, creating a strong postcard "wish you were here" feeling. Exact Date of production is unknown.
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Intimate portrayal of children at home and outsde in a park. At the start, a baby rolls around on the floor of a living room and bounces in a standing jumper. This is followed by two separate bursts of frames in rapid succession, combining shots of children, parents, a rooster, buffalo, plants, scenes of what appears to be San Francisco, and much more. The longest stretch of the film then focuses on many children in a park on a sunny day: playing, climbing, and jumping. The exact date of production and location of the park scenes are unknown.
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"Pup Birth" captures the excitement, chaos, and tenderness between a dog and her newly-born litter of puppies. In intimate close-up, the puppies crawl around and nuzzle with their mother, mirroring JoAnn Elam's own affection for dogs and animals in general. The date of production remains unknown.
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"Popcorn" begins with a teenaged boy reading from an unknown text inside a living room. JoAnn Elam is seen knitting, presumably nearby, before entering the kitchen and proceeding to cook popcorn on the stovetop. Each step is filmed in extreme close-up, with an emphasis on hands and tactility. This attention to process is similar to other films from Elam, notably " Chocolate Cake " (F.2011-01-0166). At the end of "Popcorn," following a flurry of light leak and mis-aligned optical printing, the boy happily eats the popped and seasoned kernels. The exact date of production remains unknown.
