Film
PHOTOGRAPH: JACLYN RIVAS
Write your Film
own review at
timeout.com/ reviewchicago
Edited by Zach Long
zach.long@timeout.com film.chi@
timeout.com
The world outside our doors
Legacy of film Quinn, one of Kartemquin Films’ three founders.
Kartemquin Films celebrates 50 years of award-winning documentary filmmaking. By Laura Rote
ordon Quinn walks from one creaky-floored old room to the next, sipping green tea and chatting with filmmakers, editors and interns, giving feedback on everything from the latest film edits to updates needed on his nonprofit’s website. He’s the cofounder and artistic director of Kartemquin Films, the Chicago documentary filmmaking powerhouse that is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Inside the organization’s labyrinthine headquarters, films like Hoop Dreams and the Roger Ebert biopic Life Itself have taken shape as masterful works that ask tough questions while embracing diverse voices. “We see ourselves as playing a vital role in the process of democracy,” says Quinn. “We are about social change.” Kartemquin was started in the ’60s by Quinn and two other University of Chicago film grads
G
who dreamed of making movies— Jerry Blumenthal and Stan Karter (the latter of whom left for California soon after). Others also joined, and the group began to consider itself a collective. “They were left-wing intellectual Marxists back then,” says Tim Horsburgh, Kartemquin’s director of communications and distribution. The organization has been in the same building on Wellington and Wolcott avenues for 40-plus years; Quinn bought it in the 1970s for $21,500. Since then, the center has produced more than 50 films and earned an enviable host of accolades—two Peabody Awards, three Emmys, a Sundance award, Quinn’s International Documentary Association Lifetime Achievement Award and many others. All sit unobtrusively, gathering dust on a mantel. How has Kartemquin survived, and thrived, for so long? The team
says it comes down to steadfast values—keeping alive the commitment to make great Chicago films that confront difficult issues. “They wanted to make films about real people, ordinary people going through struggles
“
They wanted to make films about real people... going through struggles.
group’s mission is supporting outside filmmakers. Once a month, filmmakers are invited to show their work at the Kartemquin screening room—a modest basement space with a couple of old meeting tables and assorted chairs—and hear feedback from the team. Called KTQ Labs, the program is so popular that there’s a six-month waiting list. You may have heard of some of the filmmakers whom
that illuminated wider social issues,” says Horsburgh. “That’s still what we do.”
”
Kartemquin will always be a production company that makes films, but another large part of the
Kartemquin has helped—does the hit Netflix series Making a Murderer ring a bell? “They [Making a Murderer filmmakers Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi] screened with us five years ago and we were like, ‘You need to make this a series,’” says Horsburgh. Back then, the crew was still thinking the doc would be a feature-length film, but it wasn’t quite working. “It’s a real testament to documentary
March–May 2016
TIMEOUT.COM/CHICAGO 51
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76