2025 Avant-Garde Masters Grants
Better Be Careful
(1986),
personal film by Heather McAdams that mines educational films, kung-fu features, home movies, and industrial reels, punctuated with scratch animation captions to espouse a litany of denunciations
(Chicago Film Society).
The Dream
(1978),
Heather McAdams’s surrealist parody of a psychodrama featuring original and reappropriated footage
(Chicago Film Society).
Dr. Loomis
(1978),
student film by Heather McAdams that humorously depicts an eccentric doctor’s advice for breast growth using recontextualized sound and scratch animation
(Chicago Film Society).
Flight of Shadows
(1973),
film by Michael Mideke that uses high contrast black and white imagery to depict tree branches and their shadows
(Anthology Film Archives).
Jay Elvis
(1991),
documentary about an Elvis impersonator by Heather McAdams
(Chicago Film Society).
Mr. Glenn W. Turner
(1990),
found footage film by Heather McAdams comedically juxtaposing a soundtrack from a motivational album called Dare To Be Great! with images of struggle, misfortune, disaster, and calamity
(Chicago Film Society).
My Postcard Collection
(1999),
animated film by Heather McAdams setting selections from her extensive postcard collection to “I’ve Been Everywhere” by Hank Snow
(Chicago Film Society).
Phi Textures
(1975),
Michael Mideke’s study of the grain inherent to all film material to explore the “Phi Phenomenon”—the appearance of movement from a rapid succession of similar images
(Anthology Film Archives).
Scratch Dance
(1972),
Michael Mideke’s film made with sections of hand-scratched black leader joined through a complex series of fades and superimpositions
(Anthology Film Archives).
Shadow Game
(1964),
abstract film by Michael Mideke featuring organic materials such as plants and leaves printed directly to the surface of the film
(Anthology Film Archives).
The Space Cadets
(1979),
found footage film by Heather McAdams ironically pairing the soundtrack from a 1950’s children’s television show with disparate images of combat, atomic weapons tests, and other footage in a playful critique of American imperialism
(Chicago Film Society).
Susan Through Corn
(1974),
experimental film by Kathleen Laughlin that follows a brightly clothed woman frolicking through the cornfields of St. Paul, Minnesota in what Amos Vogel called “an original vision, of summer, youth, a moment”
(Walker Art Center).
Twig
(1966),
frenetic collage of ink drawings and printed organic material by Michael Mideke
(Anthology Film Archives).
Wintering
(1973),
Michael Mideke’s record of bucolic surroundings as autumn turns to winter
(Anthology Film Archives).