Heather McAdams

A portrait film about a Kentucky drag queen who ran his own club on Main Street in downtown Lexington, Kentucky.

Based on a comic Heather McAdams created for the Chicago Reader, the short comedic film was made by Tom Palazzolo's 1990 film production class at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Set in downtown Chicago on S Columbus Dr & E Congress Pkwy, McAdams demonstrates tips on how to ward off unwanted attention from men on the road.

A documentary profile of Lester Brodzik and his alter ego Lestushka

An experimental film by Heather McAdams

The zany and the funny facets of American popular culture.

Scratched lines and shapes bloat around this footage of an unknown businessman, sometimes forming hats, clown noses, arrows, etc. He becomes a kind of pawn in my cruel little game. Sound is a musicbox which helps lift this once painfully boring footage to the level of high art. –H. M.

A teenage projectionist's fever dream.

The preview format has always appealed to me: short, sweet and action packed. I decided to make my own to a fictitious film never to be made called 'Blondie + the Sheik,' starring Hester McMarkup and Angelo Q. Trashwad. –H. M.

Scratched lines and shapes float around this footage of a military spokesperson

This film is made out of found footage and stuff that I shot. It starts out like a real documentary and gets increasingly more absurd. Probably good to watch if you're on mushrooms.

Experimental mash-up of circus and sideshow footage.

"Inspired by a record to help women with beauty problems. I tried dubbing the voice of the man on the record into the mouth of some fat dude in a Spanish laxative commercial I had laying around. Lots of bits and pieces of unusual footage are used to further illustrate how ridiculous things can get." – Heather McAdams

Apocalyptic experimental film incorporating found footage, including from the 1962 educational film of the same name.

Heather McAdams films herself in (none-too-convincing) drag while lip-syncing to a record claiming to spur breast growth through hypnosis in this early Super 8 experiment.

A caustic send-up of adolescent anxiety, as seen through a barrage of clips from sex ed and social hygiene films of the 1950s and '60s.

This film is a good example of 'wrong' picture/sound juxtapositions. Uncanny collisions and combinations of sound and picture make this film one of my favorite films that I have made. –H. M.

This film started out as a sort of music video to a wonderful old song by Pat Suzuki (also known as 'Miss Ponytail'). The song is called Black Coffee. Shots of me crawling the walls and old coffee commercials. –H. M.

A profile of Chicago's greatest Presley impersonator, Jay Elvis

A scratch film set to music by J. J. Cale.

“Made entirely from found footage and found sound deep in the midnight hours when most good law-abiding citizens are sawing logs, the film was made “to amuse myself and prove to myself that you can make films on nothing and out of nothing.” - H.M.