JoAnn Elam

Portraits of Chuck’s cats and friends, as well as a self-portrait.

Underexposed scenes from a backyard barbecue likely at the home of JoAnn Elam and Joe Hendrix, featuring members of the "Logan Square Rhinos" — a group of small gauge filmmakers that included Elam and filmmaker Chuck Kleinhans. Elam's husband Hendrix is seen grilling chicken while Elam (in a red "VOTE" shirt) talks in the yard with her mom and brother. Kleinhans' fellow Jump Cut co-founder John Hess can be seen helping at the grill.

Similar to her "Back Porch" films, JoAnn Elam's "Front Porch" documents the scenes of life in her neighborhood in Chicago. The film pays especial attention to the light flowing through different branches and leaves of plant growth and the rhythm of a gentle breeze swaying the blinds on the window. These patterns and abstractions repeat themes found throughout Elam's films.

Gardening was an essential part of Elam’s life; she not only tended to her own, quite impressive, backyard garden, she also attained the status of Master Gardener and then helped Chicago communities develop gardens and landscape neighborhoods. Elam’s garden features prominently in many of her films, and here is captured with devotion and blended beautifully, through use of double exposure, with other elements of her home.

Abstract images of flames and fire.

Cleaning supplies and flames.

Experimental home movie documenting a visit by filmmakers Wayne and Eleanor Boyer and their nine-year-old son Brett to JoAnn Elam's home in Logan Square, Chicago, for a summer barbecue. Later in the film, Chuck Kleinhans and Julia Lesage, co-founders of the cinema journal Jump Cut join the group. Since Elam is on screen for much of the film, it was likely mostly filmed by Elam's husband Joe Hendrix, who also appears at the end of the film. During the visit, the friends relax on Elam's back porch and film her garden, both frequent locations in her work. A group of friends and colleagues that included Elam, Kleinhans, and Lesage adopted the name "The Rhinos" after walking to a screening at Kartemquin Films on a cold winter evening, and having a group of kids throw snowballs at them and tell them that they looked like a group of rhinos.

Intimate portrayal of children at home and outsde in a park. At the start, a baby rolls around on the floor of a living room and bounces in a standing jumper. This is followed by two separate bursts of frames in rapid succession, combining shots of children, parents, a rooster, buffalo, plants, scenes of what appears to be San Francisco, and much more. The longest stretch of the film then focuses on many children in a park on a sunny day: playing, climbing, and jumping. The exact date of production and location of the park scenes are unknown.

8mm. experimental film shot by JoAnn Elam in Sanibel, Florida.

Chicago streets.

This footage is almost entirely black, save for a few shots possibly showing electric poles outside.

Experimental filmmaker JoAnn Elam guides (or limits) the viewer's eyes down a rural, wooded path.

A covered bridge and the nature surrounding it.

An outdoor gathering.

Rape has three victims discussing their emotional, physical and intellectual responses, then and now, highlighted and commented upon by a series of visual interpolations.

Sprocket holes moving across the screen.

Abstract short.

A myriad of purple and blue markings flicker hypnotically across the screen in “Filmabuse.” Periodically a blue screen flashes, disturbing the trance induced by the colorful smudges. The rhythm of the colors gathers steam and accelerates as the film continues. Near the conclusion, for the entirety of one second, a woman appears; she is “put together” without a stray hair; however, her face appears scarred and swollen, juxtaposing the slight grin her lips muster.

"Closet Film" flickers hues of white and yellow intermittently. Stretching to its halfway point, the frame cuts to black as a myriad of blues barrage across the frame, before returning to the film’s original abstract yellow and white sequencing. Near the end, a lone human actor opaquely appears. The film concludes on a shot of what is seemingly a marred closet wall.

"Pup Birth" captures the excitement, chaos, and tenderness between a dog and her newly-born litter of puppies. In intimate close-up, the puppies crawl around and nuzzle with their mother, mirroring JoAnn Elam's own affection for dogs and animals in general. The date of production remains unknown.