Chicago Film Archives (CFA) is a regional moving image archive located in Chicago, Illinois. CFA is a tax-exempt nonprofit organization dedicated to identifying, collecting, preserving and providing access to films that reflect Chicago and the Midwest region of the United States. Since its founding in late 2003, the archive has expanded to include over 160 film collections, which combined contain nearly 30,000 films and elements. CFA safeguards its moving image collections through stabilization, digitization, and climate-controlled-storage.
CFA was established as a non-profit 501(c)(3) institution in late 2003 in order to preserve and catalogue over five thousand 16mm films donated by the Chicago Public Library. Director Nancy Watrous and a few devoted film archivists then conceived a plan to create a regional film archive that preserves, promotes, and exhibits moving image materials that reflect Chicago and Midwest history and culture. In May 2004, CFA moved to its permanent home at 329 West 18th Street in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago.[1]
In 2020, CFA staff rediscovered a lost silent film from 1923 in the Charles E. Krosse Collection, The First Degree (film).[2]
CFA's collections consist of both professional and amateur films. The genres and forms of CFA's collections include educational films, industrial films, documentaries, advertisements, newsreels, experimental films, amateur films, and home movies.[3] The majority of the collections consist of small gauge film formats, including 16mm, 8mm, and Super 8mm motion picture film. CFA's Collection Portal hosts CFA collection finding aids as well as over 1,500 streaming digitized films from CFA's collections.
Don Klugman Collection: experimental and educational films made by Chicago-based filmmaker Don Klugman
Don McIlvaine Collection: home movies and short films shot by Chicago African-American artist and muralist Don McIlvaine
Ruth Page Collection: films and videotapes that document the dance legacy and artistic circle of dancer and choreographer, Ruth Page
Rhodes Patterson Collection: films that document the rapidly developing city of Chicago during the mid-century and the life of Rhodes Patterson, a designer, cinematographer, photographer, and writer who worked for Container Corporation of America