Bringing together two powerhouses in Chicago’s independent film landscape, we pair two features from Kartemquin Films with two shorts from Full Spectrum Features.  

 We all know Chicago is an established theater town. Our Second City status is part of our regional identity. But it wasn’t until this past decade, with the explosion of commercial films and TV shows being produced in our own backyard (thanks Dick Wolf!), that Chicago became known as a film production hub. While there is a lot to celebrate here, we’d like to put a spotlight on the independent film production houses that are and have been doing groundbreaking work here in Chicago for quite some time. 

Celebrating the talent, artistry, and progressiveness of independent film production in Chicago, we present the Kartemquin Films X Full Spectrum Features film series on Saturday and Sunday, May 21-22, 2022, at 5:00 pm, including a feature length film from Kartemquin Films paired with a short film from Full Spectrum Features. 

The first screening in this series presents Bing Liu’s breakthrough Kartemquin Films documentary Minding the Gap (2018) with Linsey Martin and Julia Fuller’s experimental short film Every Speed (2010) distributed by Full Spectrum Features, two films that approach navigating urban environments in different, impactful ways. Followed by two films that explore political activism, the Kartemquin Films produced documentary Unapologetic (2019), a deep look into the Movement for Black Lives from Chicago filmmaker Ashley O’Shay, and Latham Zearfoss’s Something to Move In (2014), a music manifesto that remixes late 1960s dialogue with modern dance to resuscitate a bygone revolutionary thrust, included in Full Spectrum Feature’s Chicagoland Shorts Vol. 4. 

Sparking democracy through documentary since 1966, Kartemquin Films is a collaborative community based in Chicago that empowers documentary makers who create stories that foster a more engaged and just society. 

Full Spectrum Features is a Chicago-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to driving equity in the independent film industry by producing, exhibiting, and supporting the work of women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ filmmakers.