Wednesday, December 10 at 8:00 PM — Constellation — 3111 N Western Ave
Tickets: $15 at the door or purchase in advance
Uncle Nick and the Chicago All-Stars:
Newly Preserved Films from the Filipino American Historical Society of Chicago
Nicholas G. Viernes (1902–1991) migrated to the US from the Cagayan Valley region of the Philippines in 1926 and, after a stint as a farmworker, settled in Chicago, where he worked as a pipefitter for General Motors. He also became a dedicated amateur filmmaker and community documentarian, shooting hundreds of 16mm reels that capture Filipino diasporic life with sensitivity and affection. On both Kodachrome and vivid black-and-white reversal stocks, his films animate an underrepresented history of migrant social club picnics and baseball leagues, thriving multiracial families, and everyday life in the city and country. Today, his films live in the collections of the Filipino American Historical Society of Chicago (FAHSC), founded in 1986 by Viernes’s niece Estrella Ravelo Alamar (1936–2022). The FAHSC has been working to inspect, catalog, and preserve “Uncle Nick’s” films so that they can be seen again. The Chicago Film Society has been involved with this project since 2019, providing film inspection training for FAHSC volunteers and working closely with FAHSC Collection Manager Ashley Dequilla to advocate for the collection. We are pleased to present five of Viernes’s earliest films, recently preserved on 16mm by FAHSC with support from the National Film Preservation Foundation: Little Farmers of Reynoldsburg (1936), Chicago All-Stars (1939), Calumet Park (1939-1951), Chicago of Today (1936), and Reynoldsburg Pt. 2 (1937). This program will be accompanied by an all-vinyl Original Pilipino Music soundtrack curated by Les The DJ. (JA/RFH)
Approx 80 min • 16mm from the Filipino American Historical Society of Chicago
NEXT UP: THE UNHOLY THREE on Tuesday, December 16 at the Film Center