Home » Posts tagged 'It’s a Living'

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  It’s a Living: The Unemployment Line

  Anda Korsts, Chicago, Communities, Latinx

  Part of the “It’s a Living” series created by Videopolis based on Studs Terkel’s book Working, which focuses on workers in Chicago. This tape is the record of a single hour at the state unemployment compensation office in Logan Square on the city’s northwest side. People in the line talk about what it’s like to be out of work as they deal with bureaucratic entanglements of their cases. As the program progresses, a family finally receives the check they needed to survive–after eight attempts.

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  It’s a Living: Paper Wagon

  Chicago

  Part of the It’s a Living series created by Videopolis based on Studs Terkel’s book Working, which focuses on workers in Chicago. This tape unfolds practically in real-time in the bowels of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Station. It features discussion and interaction with the workers on newspaper delivery trucks and railway workers wheeling wagons to commuter trains.

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  Very few people get to see this part of the station (rough edit)

  Chicago, Guerrilla TV, Nancy Cain, NHPRC, Roots of Video, Studs Terkel

  This video contains a half-hour rough cut of the program “It’s A Living: Paper Wagon.” The focus is on a group of newspaper and railroad workers who share their personal thoughts about their jobs, dreams, and hopes for the future. There is also a brief interview with Studs Terkel towards the end of the tape. Terkel’s book “Working” was the inspiration for the “It’s A Living” television series.

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  [Old Town party] – [It’s a Living raw]

  Anda Korsts, Chicago, NHPRC, Roots of Video, Tom Weinberg

  This tape features footage from a party at videomaker Tom Weinberg’s home in Chicago. Party goers are seen celebrating with one another in the small apartment. The last quarter of the tape includes raw footage inside the Erie Cafe for the documentary “It’s a Living.”

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  [Tom Weinberg video for Silver Circle Award]

  Black, Chicago, Communities, Outside Agitators, Roots of Video, Tom Weinberg, TVTV

  Short highlight reel of Tom Weinberg’s career for his Silver Circle Award presented by the Chicago / Midwest chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

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  It’s A Living: Paper Roses

  American Way, Guerrilla TV, Roots of Video, Studs Terkel, Video Makers Choice

  In 1975, the Chicago video collective Videopolis produced a documentary called “It’s a Living.” The tape was loosely based on Studs Terkel’s book, “Working,” which was a collection of interviews with ordinary people talking about their jobs. This hour-long program was shown on Channel 11 (WTTW) in Chicago. After the success of this tape, the videomakers were commissioned to make six half-hour shows that had the same type of mission. “Paper Roses” featured residents of the Chicago Housing Authority’s Clark-Irving Apartments, which provided low-rent housing for senior citizens. The tape is not a traditional documentary with formal interviews, rather, it is a simple collection of real people talking about themselves. The subjects seem very comfortable talking to the camera and speak honestly about aging and retirement.

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  It’s A Living: Barney

  American Way, Guerrilla TV, Roots of Video

  Part of a series called It’s a Living, based loosely on Studs Terkel’s book Working. This tape follows a sanitation worker named Barney as he does his work.