Tom Palazzolo

Chesterton, Indiana's annual WIZARD OF OZ parade (as well as their many Oz-themed festivities) provides the backdrop for I MARRIED A MUNCHKIN, Tom Palazzolo's study of the life and career of Mary Ellen St. Aubin. Self-described as "normal, but little," Mary Ellen details her early start in show business as a performer in an all-dwarf vaudeville act, her brief appearance in 1946's THREE WISE FOOLS, her 1948 marriage to former Munchkin Parnell St. Aubin and their subsequent retirement from entertainment to run a bar (called the Midget Club) in the South Side of Chicago. Two other former Munchkins (Margaret Pellegrini and Clarence Swensen) briefly appear among the day's revelry. Also included is a postscript (shot some time after the initial film) featuring Mary Ellen briefly describing the original size of her role in THREE WISE FOOLS, which originally featured a line and an ill-fated "flying" effect. - Tom Fritsche

Hot Nasty is a humorous documentary short set entirely inside a Chicago massage parlor called Big Bertha’s. The film features interviews with the women who work there, openly sharing funny stories about how they got into the business, dealing with different patrons, and so on.

A music and costume filled portrayal of the 1976 Gay Pride Parade by filmmaker Tom Palazzolo. All is fun and games until a bystander hurls an egg at Palazzolo's camera lens. It resumes quickly though.

A documentary about a man who wins a million dollars in the Illinois lottery. Takes place at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, IL.

The once teeming Riverview Park was shut down in 1967. The Tattooed Lady of Riverview is a portrait of its final occupant, Jean Furella, the titular tattooed lady of Riverview's sideshow.

A short documentary on wet t-shirt contests at a Chicago bar.

Lisa Gottlieb's Oscar-winning spoof of misogynist film noir.

A documentary on a Neo-Nazi rally in Marquette Park, Chicago, on July 9, 1978 features footage from inside the Neo-Nazi headquarters in Chicago (led by Frank Collin) and protesters in Marquette Park. In the headquarters they discuss logistics, chit-chat, and organize themselves for the rally. In the park beforehand we see people gathering (both anti-Nazis and Neo-Nazis) and police organizing themselves for the rally. Filmed by Tom Palazzolo and Mark Rance.

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Filmmakers Tom Palazzolo, Jeff Kreines, and Bernie Caputo attend the annual Chicago Senior Citizens Picnic hosted by the Democratic Party. Shot in the style of direct cinema, they spend the afternoon in a Chicago park following the seniors as they have a musical revue, hula dance, listen to speeches, play organized games and generally seem to have an all around fabulous time.

Silent footage of an amateur circus performance in a backyard in the Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen in the 1980s.

Palazzolo's cameras are there as Mayor Richard Daley reveals the Picasso gifted to the city from the famed artist. Nicknamed "the Bride" and bad mouthed almost universally upon its unveiling, we get some of that social commentary here, as well as lots of souvenirs.

Surreal film melding documentary footage of Chicago and its residents, featuring fast paced montage sequences set against a rollicking 1960s musical backdrop. The film aptly deconstructs the absurdities of contemporary American life, particularly the thick fog of patriotism engulfing the country at the time.

Lillie Santangelo had for most of the 20th century owned and operated a wax museum at New York's Coney Island. She leads us on a final tour, just before her museum is closed and her wax figures and exhibits are auctioned off. Old age and declining attendance have forced her to close and sell everything. This film deals with the loss of her "friends" (the wax figures), she has known for so long. She reminisces about her years as a Coney Island fixture as she visits the ocean boardwalk one last time.

An experimental silent film by Tom Palazzolo documenting the comings and goings of Chicago's "El" rapid transit system in the 1970s. Exact year unknown.

JERRY'S DELI is a testament to a bygone era when shrieking lunatics could run successful (even popular) businesses. Shot on film-stock leftover from television cameramen, Tom Palazzolo's portrait of Jerry Meyer offsets sequences of the tyrannical deli owner (seen berating his employees and physically dragging customers to the counter) with personal interviews in which a soft-spoken Meyer calmly describes his decorated military service in World War II, his early stand on civil rights and this one time when he stabbed an employee in the arm. - Tom Fritsche

"Fears and thrills... Part structure (the centerpoint): part improvisation."

Tom Palazzolo films the goings-on at Labor Day festival in East Chicago.

Pigeon Lady is an observational documentary centered around the everyday comings and goings of an elderly woman in Chicago, Clara Miller. Palazzolo films her walking, carrying a shopping bag, and stopping to toss bread crumbs to pigeons and other birds. Palazzolo’s distance from her renders the film a portrait of the city as much as it is of the “pigeon lady.” Set to classical music including Ottorino Respighi’s “The Birds,” Gustav Mahler’s “Symphony No. 1 in D Major,” and Richard Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde,” the film is tender and sensitive, yet hints at the humor and penchant for oddball subjects that would come to define Palazzolo’s later films. Roger Ebert called Pigeon Lady a “masterpiece” and “one of the most moving experimental films” he had ever seen.

I've always been interested in recording Chicago's history, particularly its offbeat and unofficial aspects. In a way, I consider myself a renegade home movie maker for the city. This piece focuses on Sox Park and my memories of it, which go way back. I've been documenting these moments for at least 25, maybe even 30 years—longer than I initially realized. I'm not entirely sure why I feel compelled to record these events, but I believe they represent an intriguing and unique history of the city. It's a history you wouldn't typically hear about or know unless someone like me took the time to document it.