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  Rugby Women

  Chicago, Eleanor Boyer

  By 1972, rugby football as an organized sport for women, was played at three universities in the U.S., including the University of Illinois. In 1977 the Lake Shore Ale-wives became the second women’s rugby team in Chicago. This video contains Interviews with the players, footage from practice sessions and scenes of their first home game. The women reflect on the problems they must overcome in playing a traditionally male sport and the benefits they derive from it. SILVER PLAQUE, Chicago International Film Festival, 1978

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  Bonne Bell: 10,000 Meter Race For Women

  Chicago, Eleanor Boyer, Videomakers

  This video documents Chicago’s first 6.2 mile race for women. Organized and hosted by the Loop Center YWCA in April,1978, it was billed as one of the largest, if not the largest, sporting event for women to that date. Over 2000 entrants completed the race. The tape vividly captures the excitement of women of all ages, races and economic status, many of whom were motivated to run by the desire to do something ‘just for themselves.’ Loop YWCA organizers, Sharon Mier and Erma Tranter appear in the tape as does then mayor of Chicago, Michael Bilandic.

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  Joann: My Sister The Mail Carrier

  Chicago, Chicago Slices, Eleanor Boyer, Videomakers

  A brief portrait of Joann Elam who delivers the mail in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood. She talks about being a woman in a traditionally male job. She comments on responses from job supervisors and how she derives personal benefit from this kind of employment. Produced for the Chicago Video Makers’ Coalition program, SLICES OF CHICAGO, a show for broadcast consisting of small format “alternative” videos on subjects not normally seen on broadcast television.

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  Getting Strong: Self Defense For Women

  Chicago, Eleanor Boyer, Videomakers

  In the early 1970’s Chicago’s Loop Center YWCA implemented a variety of anti-rape programs to combat societal beliefs and institutional practices that negatively impacted women. Self defense for women was one of these programs. In this video, comments by men, women and interviews with women self-defense instructors, Carol Whiteside, Sue Gould and Andra Medea, document prevailing attitudes about women’s ability to defend themselves from physical attack. The video shows techniques taught in the women’s self-defense classes at the Loop YWCA.

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  Women Working: Pioneers in Carpentry

  Chicago, Eleanor Boyer

  Jobs in construction carpentry and cabinet making, and the good pay derived them, traditionally have been the domain of men. This video gives a first-hand look at carpentry apprenticeship as experienced by some of the first women to enter these trades in the 1970’s. The camera follows women carpenters at work on job sites including a high-rise under construction, a carpentry shop at a sewer project and in a production cabinet shop. They talk about the training they receive, the working conditions, the kinds of responses they get from male co-workers and the benefits derived from their support-group, Chicago Women Carpenters. Produced by Audrey Denecke for the Women’s Pre-Apprenticeship Project, Midwest Women’s Center, Chicago. Certificate of Merit, Chicago International Film Festival, 1981.

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  La Maestra: Maria Luisa Michel Almonte

  Chicago, Communities, Eleanor Boyer, Latinx, Videomakers

  Maria Almonte immigrated from Mexico to Chicago’s Pilsen–Little Village neighborhood in 1950. An
  artist/teacher, she supported her family from her flower shop business and became a leader in the
  educational and cultural life of the community. She taught traditional arts, crafts, and practical skills

  like dress-making in settlement houses, in community workshops and in her own studio. At the age of
  70 she continued to teach and act on her belief that artistic expression is a powerful tool for
  developing cultural identity and individual self-esteem. The video shows Ms. Almonte in community-
  sponsored workshops teaching neighborhood residents how to make traditional cut-paper ornaments
  and how to design clothing. In the hall of a local church her students model their creations and receive
  recognition. Produced, directed and edited by Eleanor Boyer and Karen Peugh. Partially funded by
  the Illinois Arts Council and the Center for New Television with a Joyce Foundation grant.
  Gold Can Award, Chicago Access Corporation, 1986; Certificate of Merit, Chicago International
  Film Festival, 1984

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  Rosana Leicht Speaks

  Chicago, Eleanor Boyer, Guerrilla TV, Videomakers

  Rosina Leicht recounts the events she and her family experienced being forced from their home in the midst of the political chaos and violence of WWII. She describes their flight by horse-drawn wagon from their small village of Lowas, Yugoslavia to avoid advancing Russian forces. Sheltering in Austria, first on a farm and then in a displaced persons camp, they immigrated to the US. in 1956. There, with determination and hard work, she and her husband created a secure life for themselves and their three children.

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  In Memory of Frank Sullivan (1930-2021)

  Black, Blog, Chicago, Chicago Politics, Communities, Politics, Tom Weinberg

  Frank Sullivan, press secretary for Mayor Richard J. Daley from 1971-1976, died June 18 at the age of 91.  Prior to working for Daley, he served as spokesperson for the Chicago Police Department during the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests. Television viewers around the world then were shocked at live broadcasts of police beating anti-imperialist demonstrators. This was unprecedented violence and the origin of the now-famous protest cry, “The whole world is watching!” The independent Kerner Commission report determined that […]