The City
Sign in to track this film in your collection or want list.
"A neon wilderness of shoppers where mounting tensions added to frustrations, scurrying pedestrians, sadistic drivers, sex mad movie displays, hamburgers, questionable bargains and no money down add to a psychotic beat seeking a tranquilizing cocktail." – Filmmakers Distribution Catalog, Center Cinema Co-op, 1969.
Credits
Maurice Bailen (filmmaker)
Complete catalog record
Date: circa 1961
Cfa collection: Maurice Bailen Collection
Notes: An experimental silent film made in the mid-1960s providing an intimate look at the citizens of Chicago. The film combines tongue-in-cheek footage of street advertisements, movie theatres, and other signifiers of city life, with scenes depicting the daily goings on of Chicagoans. The City borrows from traditional documentary film aesthetics, yet the narrative is complicated towards the end by fictional flourishes in what can be best described as a post-modernist take on the stressors and violence inherent to city life. Major thoroughfares and landmarks are heavily featured, such as Maxwell Street and Lincoln Park.
Subjects: Politics and government; City and town life; Sexuality and culture; Popular culture
Places: North America > United States > Illinois > Chicago > Near West Side; North America > United States > Illinois > Chicago > Loop; North America > United States > Illinois > Chicago > Lincoln Park
Language: English
Cfa elements: Reversal Positives, 338 feet; Preservation picture negative, 450 feet
Cfa records: https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objects/25573; https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objects/34737
Cfa collection: Maurice Bailen Collection
Notes: An experimental silent film made in the mid-1960s providing an intimate look at the citizens of Chicago. The film combines tongue-in-cheek footage of street advertisements, movie theatres, and other signifiers of city life, with scenes depicting the daily goings on of Chicagoans. The City borrows from traditional documentary film aesthetics, yet the narrative is complicated towards the end by fictional flourishes in what can be best described as a post-modernist take on the stressors and violence inherent to city life. Major thoroughfares and landmarks are heavily featured, such as Maxwell Street and Lincoln Park.
Subjects: Politics and government; City and town life; Sexuality and culture; Popular culture
Places: North America > United States > Illinois > Chicago > Near West Side; North America > United States > Illinois > Chicago > Loop; North America > United States > Illinois > Chicago > Lincoln Park
Language: English
Cfa elements: Reversal Positives, 338 feet; Preservation picture negative, 450 feet
Cfa records: https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objects/25573; https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objects/34737
Sources
- Chicago Film Archives · record ↗ — title, year, creator, length, format, color, sound, genre, description, credits, catalog record, video
Record added 2026-11-08 21:25:24