JoAnn Elam Collection
Inclusive Dates
1967 – 1990
Preservation Sponsor
Susan Elam
Kenneth Belcher & Sandy Ihm
Abstract
The JoAnn Elam collection primarily consists of films made by independent filmmaker JoAnn Elam. Elam primarily shot on 8mm film, although she did work extensively with 16mm, Super-8mm film and early video. A number of 8mm films have been printed to Super-8mm stock, and films like Rape (1975) and the unfinished Everyday People employed multiple formats (16mm, video, and 8mm). This collection also contains several historically important medical films made by James O. Elam, M.D., JoAnn Elam's father, which document his development of the "rescue breathing" technique and numerous other advances in clinical anesthesiology and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Additionally, there are at least two titles by experimental filmmakers and artists Dan Perz and Ruth Klassen. This collection is sponsored by Susan Elam, Kenneth Belcher and Sandy Ihm.
Description
The JoAnn Elam collection primarily consists of films made by independent filmmaker JoAnn Elam. Because no list of completed works or comprehensive record of exhibitions exists, one of the challenges this collection poses is determining what constitutes a "finished" film. JoAnn primarily shot on 8mm film, although she did work extensively with 16mm, Super-8mm film and early video. A number of 8mm films have been printed to Super-8mm stock, and films like Rape (1975) and the unfinished Everyday People employed multiple formats (16mm, video, and 8mm).
The collection contains 240 8mm films and 19 Super-8mm films. Elam's 8mm films often documented aspects of her everyday life and local events ranging from the Palmer Square Art Fair in the 1970s to the Blizzard of '79. She shot a number of reels of 8mm film while she was living in San Francisco in the summer of 1967, and during her time at Antioch College and in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
Elam's most well known 16mm films, Rape (1975) and Lie Back and Enjoy It (1982) are probing feminist examinations of sexual assault and the representation of women. Both films utilize experimental techniques in order to call into question the way in which women are depicted on screen. These two films are referenced in numerous texts on documentary and feminist cinema, and are fascinating examples of Elam's interest in merging radical form and technique with radical political content. The collection contains multiple production elements for each of these titles, including A & B rolls, workprints, negatives, mag tracks, and exhibition copies.
Elam's unfinished project, Everyday People (1979-1990), is based on her experiences as a letter carrier for the US Postal Service in Chicago, the various people she met while on the job, the political struggles they faced with the administration and the union, and larger issues related to the history of labor struggle and activism in the United States. Elam's notes and journals for the film, as well as the approximately 250 film, video and audio elements associated with it, provide an unparalleled level of access to her creative process, political and artistic ideas, and the practical, economic, and ethical issues that impacted her work as an independent artist and filmmaker.
The collection also includes 3 boxes of papers which include press and publicity material for Rape, lab and technical information, and hundreds of documents and ephemera related to Everyday People. The Elam collection also contains several historically important medical films made by James O. Elam, M.D., JoAnn Elam's father, which document his development of the "rescue breathing" technique and numerous other advances in clinical anesthesiology and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Additionally, there are at least two titles by experimental filmmakers and artists Dan Perz and Ruth Klassen.
The collection contains 240 8mm films and 19 Super-8mm films. Elam's 8mm films often documented aspects of her everyday life and local events ranging from the Palmer Square Art Fair in the 1970s to the Blizzard of '79. She shot a number of reels of 8mm film while she was living in San Francisco in the summer of 1967, and during her time at Antioch College and in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
Elam's most well known 16mm films, Rape (1975) and Lie Back and Enjoy It (1982) are probing feminist examinations of sexual assault and the representation of women. Both films utilize experimental techniques in order to call into question the way in which women are depicted on screen. These two films are referenced in numerous texts on documentary and feminist cinema, and are fascinating examples of Elam's interest in merging radical form and technique with radical political content. The collection contains multiple production elements for each of these titles, including A & B rolls, workprints, negatives, mag tracks, and exhibition copies.
Elam's unfinished project, Everyday People (1979-1990), is based on her experiences as a letter carrier for the US Postal Service in Chicago, the various people she met while on the job, the political struggles they faced with the administration and the union, and larger issues related to the history of labor struggle and activism in the United States. Elam's notes and journals for the film, as well as the approximately 250 film, video and audio elements associated with it, provide an unparalleled level of access to her creative process, political and artistic ideas, and the practical, economic, and ethical issues that impacted her work as an independent artist and filmmaker.
The collection also includes 3 boxes of papers which include press and publicity material for Rape, lab and technical information, and hundreds of documents and ephemera related to Everyday People. The Elam collection also contains several historically important medical films made by James O. Elam, M.D., JoAnn Elam's father, which document his development of the "rescue breathing" technique and numerous other advances in clinical anesthesiology and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Additionally, there are at least two titles by experimental filmmakers and artists Dan Perz and Ruth Klassen.
Series In this Collection
Intellectual organization and arrangement
The JoAnn Elam Collection is organized into seven Series:
SERIES I: Finished Films, Home Movies and Sketches by JoAnn Elam
SERIES II: Rape - Finished Film, Workprints, Elements, and Original Audio
SERIES III: Lie Back and Enjoy It - Finished Film, Workprints, Elements, and Original Audio
SERIES IV: Everyday People - Work Prints, Elements and Outtakes
SERIES V: Medical Films by James O. Elam, M.D.
SERIES VI: Collected Films, Videos and Audio
SERIES VII: Papers, Ephemera & Equipment
SERIES I (S.2011-01-0001) contains 16mm and 8mm films made by JoAnn Elam. These include finished 16mm films, such as Daytime Television as well as numerous 8mm works, including Chocolate Cake (c. 1973) and Grains (c. 1973). Also included in this series are home movies and unedited films, or sketches, made by Elam. These films feature aspects of her everyday life and local events ranging from the Palmer Square Art Fair in the 1970s to the Blizzard of '79. She shot a number of reels of 8mm film while she was living in San Francisco in the summer of 1967, and during her time at Antioch College and in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
SERIES II (S.2011-01-0002) contains the finished film, workprints, elements, audio, and other material affiliated with Elam's film Rape (1975).
SERIES III (S.2011-01-0003) contains the finished film, workprints, elements, audio, and other material affiliated with Elam's film Lie Back and Enjoy It (1982).
SERIES IV (S.2011-01-0004) contains workprints, elements, audio, and outtakes affiliated with Elam's unfinished film, Everyday People (1979 - 1990). During the production of this title, Elam employed multiple formats, including 16mm, 8mm and various video and audio formats. To the best of our knowledge, the most complete cut of Everyday People is a VHS dupe.
SERIES V (S.2011-01-0005) contains medical films associated with JoAnn's father, James O. Elam, M.D (1918-1995). Dr. Elam contributed significantly to the development and understanding of modern rescue breathing, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and brought it to the attention of the medical community and the general public. The films in this series document his development of the "rescue breathing" technique and numerous other advances in clinical anesthesiology and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. More on Dr. Elam and his achievements here, via Anesthesiology, the Journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Inc.
SERIES VI (S.2011-01-0006) contains films, videos and audio tapes that JoAnn Elam collected over the years. Included in this series are experimental films by Dan Perz and Ruth Klassen.
SERIES VII (S.2011-01-0007) contains filmmaking equipment, papers and other materials related to Elam's films and life.
SERIES I: Finished Films, Home Movies and Sketches by JoAnn Elam
SERIES II: Rape - Finished Film, Workprints, Elements, and Original Audio
SERIES III: Lie Back and Enjoy It - Finished Film, Workprints, Elements, and Original Audio
SERIES IV: Everyday People - Work Prints, Elements and Outtakes
SERIES V: Medical Films by James O. Elam, M.D.
SERIES VI: Collected Films, Videos and Audio
SERIES VII: Papers, Ephemera & Equipment
SERIES I (S.2011-01-0001) contains 16mm and 8mm films made by JoAnn Elam. These include finished 16mm films, such as Daytime Television as well as numerous 8mm works, including Chocolate Cake (c. 1973) and Grains (c. 1973). Also included in this series are home movies and unedited films, or sketches, made by Elam. These films feature aspects of her everyday life and local events ranging from the Palmer Square Art Fair in the 1970s to the Blizzard of '79. She shot a number of reels of 8mm film while she was living in San Francisco in the summer of 1967, and during her time at Antioch College and in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
SERIES II (S.2011-01-0002) contains the finished film, workprints, elements, audio, and other material affiliated with Elam's film Rape (1975).
SERIES III (S.2011-01-0003) contains the finished film, workprints, elements, audio, and other material affiliated with Elam's film Lie Back and Enjoy It (1982).
SERIES IV (S.2011-01-0004) contains workprints, elements, audio, and outtakes affiliated with Elam's unfinished film, Everyday People (1979 - 1990). During the production of this title, Elam employed multiple formats, including 16mm, 8mm and various video and audio formats. To the best of our knowledge, the most complete cut of Everyday People is a VHS dupe.
SERIES V (S.2011-01-0005) contains medical films associated with JoAnn's father, James O. Elam, M.D (1918-1995). Dr. Elam contributed significantly to the development and understanding of modern rescue breathing, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and brought it to the attention of the medical community and the general public. The films in this series document his development of the "rescue breathing" technique and numerous other advances in clinical anesthesiology and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. More on Dr. Elam and his achievements here, via Anesthesiology, the Journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Inc.
SERIES VI (S.2011-01-0006) contains films, videos and audio tapes that JoAnn Elam collected over the years. Included in this series are experimental films by Dan Perz and Ruth Klassen.
SERIES VII (S.2011-01-0007) contains filmmaking equipment, papers and other materials related to Elam's films and life.
Collection Items
![Everyday People [Rough Cut]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/1/6/94389_ca_object_representations_media_1664_large.jpg)
![Post Office: [JoAnn] 7252 Original](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/4/9/32943_ca_object_representations_media_4932_large.jpg)
![[Postal Service]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/7/83930_ca_object_representations_media_3744_large.jpg)
![[Syrup Production]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/4/2748_ca_object_representations_media_3404_large.jpg)
![[Fall]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/4/32347_ca_object_representations_media_3469_large.jpg)
![[Christmas Lights & Snowy Morning]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/3/77429_ca_object_representations_media_3306_large.jpg)
![[Family Gathering]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/4/30743_ca_object_representations_media_3470_large.jpg)
![[Farm]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/4/65245_ca_object_representations_media_3471_large.jpg)
![[Garden & Joe]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/4/33039_ca_object_representations_media_3499_large.jpg)
![[Sports Car + Farm]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/4/31873_ca_object_representations_media_3472_large.jpg)
![[Black Cat & Green Garden]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/3/49324_ca_object_representations_media_3307_large.jpg)
![[Farm + Cat]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/4/73028_ca_object_representations_media_3473_large.jpg)
![[Snowstorm]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/4/71013_ca_object_representations_media_3474_large.jpg)
![[Nature + Gardening]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/4/80089_ca_object_representations_media_3475_large.jpg)
![[Garfield Park Conservatory]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/4/80087_ca_object_representations_media_3476_large.jpg)
![[Plants]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/4/40013_ca_object_representations_media_3477_large.jpg)
![[Postal Workers’ Washington DC Protest]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/4/99666_ca_object_representations_media_3438_large.jpg)
![[Kids Playing on the Street]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/5/7161_ca_object_representations_media_3502_large.jpg)
![Tai Chi II [Outdoors]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/3/43395_ca_object_representations_media_3313_large.jpg)
![[Black Cats]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/6/99746_ca_object_representations_media_3673_large.jpg)
![[City Council 1]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/5/10125_ca_object_representations_media_3500_large.jpg)
![[City Council 2]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/5/82774_ca_object_representations_media_3501_large.jpg)
![[City Council 3]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/7/52291_ca_object_representations_media_3746_large.jpg)
![[Postal Workers' Washington DC Protest]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/7/19195_ca_object_representations_media_3748_large.jpg)
![[Garden & Joe] (2025 Preservation Print)](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/6/7/83675_ca_object_representations_media_6784_large.jpg)
![[Title Cards + Beware What You Wear Ad]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/3/6/41721_ca_object_representations_media_3670_large.jpg)
![[Chocolate] Cake Outs](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/6/4/54108_ca_object_representations_media_6469_large.jpg)
![[Chocolate] Cake Outs](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/6/4/66237_ca_object_representations_media_6470_large.jpg)
To request more information about the items in this collection, please contact the archive at
info@chicagofilmarchives.org.
Items with Viewable Media
- Audition Tape: Susan Elam (Audio)
- 1st NALC Convention
- 3 Goats and a Gruff
- 3 Goats and a Gruff (2020 Preservation Print)
- 3 Goats and a Gruff: Color Negative
- 7/4/77
- 7/4/77 (2025 Answer Print)
- 7/4/77 (2025 DI Film Out Color Negative)
- 7/4/77 (2025 Preservation Print)
- 8/82 L.A.
- 8/82 L.A.
- 8/82 L.A.
- 8mm See It
- 37th Avenue & S.F. CA
- 84 Garden 2
- 84 Garden 3
- 84 TV
- 1000 Making Tea
- Airplane
- Airplane / Wolfram
- Ala - Dad
- Alabama
- Armitage & Western
- Atlanta Nat Convention
- B/W Mich, NY + Mass
- Back Porch
- Back Porch
- Back Porch
- Back Yard (left)
- Back Yard (Original)
- Back Yard (right)
- Backyard Winter
- Backyard Zooms
- Barbeque
- Barbeque 2X
- BC
- Beauty and the Beast (2020 Preservation Print)
- Beauty and the Beast: Color Negative
- Beauty and the Beast (Original)
- Belden & Kimball
- Belden Manor / Curtains & Walls
- [Black Cat & Green Garden]
- [Black Cats]
- Blizzard of '79 (2025 Answer Print)
- Blizzard of '79 (2025 DI Film Out Color Negative)
- Blizzard of '79 (2025 Preservation Print)
- Blizzard of '79 (Original)
- Bowl
- Bowl
- Bowling ‘82
- Boyers & Rhinos
- Cars
- Cats
- Cats 4/82 - Joe
- Cats & Kittens
- Cats Garden / Birds
- Cats on Bed
- Celebrated Royal Fireworks (Original)
- CF Porn
- Chocolate Cake [2020 Preservation Print]
- Chocolate Cake: Color Negative
- Chocolate Cake (Original)
- Christmas Lights
- [Christmas Lights & Snowy Morning]
- The Christmas Story
- Christmas Street
- Christmas Tree
- City Council
- [City Council 1]
- [City Council 2]
- [City Council 3]
- Closet Film
- Cold Day with Chuck
- Collards Garden 1985
- Corduroy
- Corduroy (Original)
- A Country Mile (2025 DI Film Out Color Negative)
- A Country Mile (2025 Answer Print)
- A Country Mile (2025 Preservation Print)
- Country Mile (Original)
- Covered Bridge
- Curtains & Walls
- D.C. Blizzard
- Dark BBQ
- David
- Daytime Television
- DC ‘82 Home
- DC Museums #2
- Derek 10-70
- Disabuse
- Dogs & Cats
- El
- El Shots
- Elkhart
- ELM Animation
- Elma + Deans
- [Fall]
- [Family Gathering]
- [Farm]
- [Farm + Cat]
- Fence
- Filmabuse
- Filmabuse Loop
- Filmabuse (Original)
- Fire on Wayne
- Firelight
- Firelight Original
- Focus On
- Front Porch
- Garbage
- Garden #2
- Garden ‘82
- Garden 84
- Garden 85
- Garden & Alley
- [Garden & Joe]
- [Garden & Joe] (2025 Answer Print)
- [Garden & Joe] (2025 DI Film Out Color Negative)
- [Garden & Joe] (2025 Preservation Print)
- [Garfield Park Conservatory]
- Girl in Dome
- Going Places (Original)
- Grains (Original)
- Groundwork
- Groundwork / Backyard 2
- Groundwork (Original)
- Haight-Ashbury Street Fair
- Headlights
- Highway
- Hockey
- Humb
- I Can Almost See It
- Ice Lakes - Garden 1 ‘84
- Interior
- Jack-O-Lanterns
- Janssen Porch/Garden '79
- Jessie’s Cat
- JoAnn & Susan x2
- Joe & Apples
- Joe & Greens
- Joe Cutting Tree
- Joe Cutting Tree (2025 Answer Print)
- Joe Cutting Tree (2025 DI Film Out Color Negative)
- Joe Cutting Tree (2025 Preservation Print)
- K.C.
- [Kids Playing on the Street]
- LA Cigith Gato Con Julia - B&W Fireworks - Julia & Kittens
- Lake & Planetarium - Garden - Go Bears
- [Lakeside Women]
- Landscape
- Last Whole Earth Catalog (Original)
- Laura in Paris
- Letters & Dishes
- Light Leak
- Light Leak
- Love Me, Love My Dog (Original)
- Mail Men / YS O 2
- Marlboro
- Memphremagog
- Memphremagog (2025 Answer Print)
- Memphremagog (2025 DI Film Out Color Negative)
- Memphremagog (2025 Preservation Print)
- Men & Lines
- Michigan
- Monterey ‘80
- Monterey ‘84
- Monterey ‘84 All Underexposed
- Monterey 85
- Monterey Goats
- Monterey Maple Farm 81
- Monterey Maple Farm Outs
- Monterey Maple Farm Wasp & Bird Feeder
- Moody Movie (Original)
- Moon
- Moon Rock
- Moving
- [Nature + Gardening]
- Other People's Children (Original)
- Palmer Square
- Palmer Square
- Palmer Square Art Fair
- Palmer Square Art Fair ‘85
- Peggy
- Peggy / Centenniel
- Piano & Kitty
- [Plants]
- Plants & Shadows
- Popcorn
- Post Office Picnic
- Post Office Picnic
- Post Office Picnic (Original)
- [Postal Workers’ Washington DC Protest]
- [Postal Workers' Washington DC Protest]
- PS Art Fair
- Rhino Souffle
- Rhinos & Black
- Ric & Jane & Avery
- S & J Garden #5
- Sailboat
- Sanibel (Original)
- See It
- Skaters / California Culture
- Snow 83
- [Snowstorm]
- [Sports Car + Farm]
- Springfield Hotel
- Sprockets
- Staten Island Ferry
- Struggle
- Susan in Europe: 1/2 Double X
- Susan in Europe: Beach
- Susan in Europe: Laura Python, 1/2 Black
- Susan in Europe: London, Ireland, Germany
- Susan in Europe: Tourists & Beach
- Susan in Europe: Train & Dark Alleys
- Susan Riding
- [Syrup Production]
- Tai Chi
- Tai Chi Bowling (Original)
- Tai Chi II [Outdoors]
- Total Mystery
- Tree & Southport
- V’s Dogs
- Wendy & F. Wharf
- Windchimes, Window, Tree
- Windows
- Windows
- Winter Garden
- Woman’s Place & Dance (Original)
- Bonner and Joe’s Christmas Tape ‘94 (Audio)
- Do It Any Way You Want to Do It (Audio)
- JoAnn’s Chart (Audio)
- Mary Ellen Bute Speaks in Chicago at the Art Institute, May 7, 1976 (Audio)
- Moya Shea (Audio)
- [Untitled] (Audio)
- [Untitled] (Audio)
- [Untitled] (Audio)
- [Untitled] (Audio)
- [Untitled] (Audio)
- [Untitled] (Audio)
- [Untitled] (Audio)
- Weird (Audio)
- 8mm See It / Carena Test
- Backyard Outs
- Beauty and the Beast (Outs)
- Beauty and the Beast (Outs)
- Children S/S Race Outs
- Children S8 Outs
- [Chocolate] Cake Outs
- [Chocolate] Cake Outs
- Christie & Wepa [sp?] Babies Outs
- Christmas Outs
- Country Mile (Outs), A
- DT Outs
- Fire
- Fireworks & Fire Outs & Titles
- Fireworks Test
- Garden #8, 10, 11 Outs
- Grains Outs
- J. E. Titles
- JE Titles
- Misc
- Pup Birth
- Pup Film Outs
- Pup Outs
- Pup Outs
- Pup Outs
- Sanibel Outs
- See It Outs
- Soap + Fire
- Test Backyard
- [Title Cards + Beware What You Wear Ad]
- Title Outs
- Titles CH JE
- Whole Earth Outs
- Mis-cel-lan-eous & Rape Tape Outs (Audio)
- Rape
- Rape (Audio)
- Rape Outs: [2 Years] Reaction
- Rape Replacement Head Minus Titles
- Rape Replacement Tail Section
- Rape Replacement Tail Section
- Rape Tape Dub (Audio)
- Bruce & Shirley Outs (Audio)
- Lie Back ad Enjoy It: Duplicate Negative
- Lie Back ad Enjoy It: Negative Optical Track
- Lie Back and Enjoy It (Audio)
- Lie Back and Enjoy It
- Lie Back and Enjoy It
- Lie Back and Enjoy It (2020 Preservation Print)
- Lie Back and Enjoy It: A Tail
- Lie Back and Enjoy It: B Tail
- Lie Back and Enjoy It: C Tail
- Lie Back and Enjoy It Cassette Tape (Audio)
- Lie Back and Enjoy It Original
- Lie Back and Enjoy It Original
- Lie Back and Enjoy It: Out
- Lie Back and Enjoy It: Out
- Lie Back and Enjoy It: Out
- Lie Back and Enjoy It: Out #1
- Lie Back and Enjoy It: Out #2
- Lie Back and Enjoy It: Out #3
- Lie Back and Enjoy It: Out #4 & 5
- Lie Back and Enjoy It: Out #6
- Lie Back and Enjoy It: Out #7
- Lie Back and Enjoy It: Outs
- Lie Back and Enjoy It: Outs
- Lie Back and Enjoy It: Silent Print
- Lie Back and Enjoy It: Song Out
- Lie Back and Enjoy It: Titles Out
- Lie Back and Enjoy It: Tricks Tail
- Lie Back and Enjoy It: Tricky Face Tail
- CK - JE on 41 #1 Outs
- Everyday People [Rough Cut]
- Everyday People Workprint
- Joe #3 Outs
- Junk Outs
- Post Office: 20 Sec
- Post Office: 06579
- Post Office: 07458
- Post Office: 30136
- Post Office: Arch Outs
- Post Office: Archive 5 - Casing, Unloading Mailtruck
- Post Office: Archives
- Post Office: Archives MH
- Post Office: Archives Nixon
- Post Office: Archives / Original
- Post Office: B 1 1/2
- Post Office: BIA 3 B-1
- Post Office: Big Trucks
- Post Office: Boss
- Post Office: Bulk Mailing
- Post Office: C & J Opening Mail
- Post Office: C + Jopeh Mail
- Post Office: C1
- Post Office: Cart
- Post Office: Casing
- Post Office: Casing Mail
- Post Office: CK / JE on 52
- Post Office: Copr. JE 1982
- Post Office: D / C2
- Post Office Demonstration 7/12/78
- Post Office Demonstration 7/12/78
- Post Office: Donnelly Collections
- Post Office: Donnelly Collections
- Post Office: Donnelly Orig
- Post Office: DP Garbage / Visual Effects
- Post Office: Elam 2
- Post Office: Elam 3
- Post Office: Elam 3
- Post Office: Everyday People
- Post Office Film 8mm Original
- Post Office: Inside Casing
- Post Office: Inside Tie Out
- Post Office: Inside Tie Out
- Post Office: Inside Tie Out
- Post Office: J J Load - Orig Out
- Post Office: Jack 1
- Post Office: Jack 2
- Post Office: Jack O - EFA #79256 - Shutter
- Post Office: Jack O - VNX - Shutter
- Post Office: Jack Walk
- Post Office: Jack WK 6-5 (Jumpy)
- Post Office: JE 25116 ON 32
- Post Office: JE on O1 / RK
- Post Office: Jerry
- Post Office: Jerry Orig
- Post Office: Jerry X
- Post Office: Jessie
- Post Office: Jessie
- Post Office: JJ
- Post Office: JJ
- Post Office: JJ 3
- Post Office: JJ 4
- Post Office: JJ 5 Load
- Post Office: JJ & Nancy
- Post Office: JJ Dogs
- Post Office: JJ Orig Outs
- Post Office: JJ Samples
- Post Office: Joan
- Post Office: Joan #1 Outs
- Post Office: Joan #2
- Post Office: Joan #3
- Post Office: Joan Jumpy Outs
- Post Office: JoAnn
- Post Office: [JoAnn] 7252 Original
- Post Office: Joe
- Post Office: Joe 1
- Post Office: Joe 1 - Original Ektachrome
- Post Office: Joe 2
- Post Office: Joe 2
- Post Office: Joe 4
- Post Office: Joe 4 - jn
- Post Office: Joe 28299
- Post Office: Juan
- Post Office: Juan 1 & 2
- Post Office: Juan 3
- Post Office: Juan & Manuel WK Outs - Jumpy
- Post Office: Jumpy - Hand Lotion, Poster, Trays
- Post Office: Junk Mail
- Post Office: Junk Mail Workprint
- Post Office: L. of C. Titles
- Post Office: Loading Dark
- Post Office: Mable
- Post Office: Mable
- Post Office: Mable #2
- Post Office: Mable #3
- Post Office: Mable 3 - Summer 1
- Post Office: Mail - X-mas - Tax Form
- Post Office: MANU 1
- Post Office: MANU 2
- Post Office: Manuel #0 Jumpy Orig
- Post Office: Manuel / 44
- Post Office: Maps
- Post Office: McNeil Lehrer
- Post Office: McNeil / Lehrer Re & Post Office
- Post Office: MD Outs #1,2
- Post Office: Michelle
- Post Office: Michelle Mailing
- Post Office: Mike
- Post Office: Mike Orig
- Post Office: N 7911 Open
- Post Office: N2 & N3 Outs
- Post Office: NALC Convention
- Post Office: NALC Parade Outs
- Post Office: Nancy
- Post Office: Nancy
- Post Office: Nancy 1
- Post Office: Nancy 1 & 2, Get Mail from Cart
- Post Office: Nancy 2 + 1
- Post Office: Nancy #3
- Post Office: Nancy #4
- Post Office: Nancy WK
- Post Office: O.T.C. Outs
- Post Office: Old Time Carriers
- Post Office: Old Time Carriers
- Post Office: Old Time PO
- Post Office: Old Timers Orig
- Post Office: Orig. Forms & Torn Letter
- Post Office: Orig JJ Dogs & Mable
- Post Office: Orig. Stamps - Mail Manual
- Post Office: Out 0208
- Post Office: Outs JE 1, 2, 3, 4 Original
- Post Office: Outs, Shirt / Stamp, 06226
- Post Office: P.O. Footage
- Post Office: Parade
- Post Office: Pete
- Post Office: Pete 1
- Post Office: Pete #2 Orig
- Post Office: PO Demo
- Post Office / Postal Worker Demonstration 6/19/96
- Post Office: Poster Out
- Post Office: Rich 2
- Post Office: Rich 3
- Post Office: Rich 5
- Post Office: Rich Jumpy Outs
- Post Office: Rich-O, 18887...
- Post Office: Richard #1
- Post Office: Richard #4
- Post Office: RJ #2 EF WK
- Post Office: RJ / 42 #2 ...
- Post Office: RJ / 42 Wk Outs
- Post Office: RJ Loading Outs
- Post Office: RJ on 42 LP # 1-2-3
- Post Office: RJ on 42 LP # 4
- Post Office: RODN 2
- Post Office: Rodney
- Post Office: Rodney on 30 Orig / RODN 1
- Post Office: Route Inspection
- Post Office: Roy
- Post Office: S8 Blow-Up Test
- Post Office: Stan 1
- Post Office: Stan 2
- Post Office: Stan 2
- Post Office: Stan-O Shutter Outs
- Post Office: Stan WK Out Jumpy 347
- Post Office: Stanley / Roy
- Post Office: Talk to People / Mable (+?)
- Post Office: Tie Out
- Post Office: Truck Orig
- Post Office: Truk Only Outs
- Post Office: Tying Out
- Post Office: Union Parade
- Post Office: [Untitled]
- Post Office: [Untitled]
- Post Office: WK Outs Joe
- [Postal Service]
- Stamps
- Stan 2
- Union Parade
- DC July 12 March #2 (Audio)
- DC March Speeches (Audio)
- Doggie Outs
- Everyday People (Audio)
- Everyday People #1 (Audio)
- Everyday People, Joe (Audio)
- JJ Outs
- JJ Outs
- Joan Outs
- Joan Outs
- Joe & JJ Presence (Audio)
- Joe Outs
- Joe Sample (Audio)
- Joe Union Outs
- Mag Track: Every Day People
- Man At Desk Film
- N Outs
- Nancy Outs
- National Mail Users Conference (Audio)
- On the Days ... Out There
- Paul Roose: Supervisors; Mailbox Blues (Audio)
- Post Office: 2. Bonner (Audio)
- Post Office: Blank (Audio)
- Post Office: Charley - Hotlines #1 (Audio)
- Post Office: Cleary (Audio)
- Post Office: DC March 7/12/78 (Audio)
- Post Office: Disco (Audio)
- Post Office: Disco 1 (Audio)
- Post Office: Disco 3 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Disco 4 (Audio)
- Post Office: Donald & Mary (Audio)
- Post Office: Donald & Mary Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Donald Route Pairing (Audio)
- Post Office: Hotline #2 (Audio)
- Post Office: Jerry W. 1 (Audio)
- Post Office: Jerry W. 2 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Jerry W. 3 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Jessie 1 (Audio)
- Post Office: Jessie 1 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Jessie 2 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Joan #1 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Joan #2 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Joan 208 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Joan 208 Outs A & B (Audio)
- Post Office: Joan Sailing (Audio)
- Post Office: Joan Script Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Joe (Audio)
- Post Office: Joe #2 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Joe #3 (Audio)
- Post Office: Joe #3 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Joe #3 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Joe #3 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Joe 208 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Joe Hendrix Outs 208B (Audio)
- Post Office: Joe Hendrix Roll 2 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Joe Hendrix Roll 3 & 4 (Audio)
- Post Office: Joe Reel 1 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Joe’s Tape (Audio)
- Post Office: Joe Script Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: John Thomas-Weger Songs (Audio)
- Post Office: Juan (Audio)
- Post Office: Juan 208 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Juan Ortiz, Roll 10-11 (Audio)
- Post Office: Juan Ortiz Roll 12 & 14 & Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Juan Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Juan Outs #14 (Audio)
- Post Office: Mable & Mary (Audio)
- Post Office: Nancy (Audio)
- Post Office: Nancy 1 & 2 Outs and Script (Audio)
- Post Office: Nancy 1 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Nancy 2 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Nancy 2 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Nancy Morgan, roll 6-7 (Audio)
- Post Office: Nancy Morgan Roll 8-9 (Audio)
- Post Office: Nancy Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Nancy Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Narrative Inside / Outside 1st Version (Audio)
- Post Office: Parade #1 (Audio)
- Post Office: Parade #2 (Audio)
- Post Office: Parade #3 (Audio)
- Post Office: Patrons Outs - Paul & Brian (Audio)
- Post Office: Paul (Audio)
- Post Office: Paul - Songs (Audio)
- Post Office: Pete 2, #2, #1 (Audio)
- Post Office: Pete & Tim #1 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Pete & Tim #2 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Pete the II Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Pete the II Outs [Duplicate] (Audio)
- Post Office: Richard 1, 2, 3, 4 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Richard 1 & 2 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Richard 2, 3, 4 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Richard 5, 6, 7 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Richard 5, 6 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Richard 6, 7 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Richard & Eddie #1, #2, #3, #4 (Audio)
- Post Office: Richard & Eddie #1, #2, #3, #4 (Audio)
- Post Office: Richard & Eddie #1, #2 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Richard & Eddie Subs Second Tape (Audio)
- Post Office: Richard Jackson (Audio)
- Post Office: Roll 9, Nancy Narr. (Audio)
- Post Office: Roll #13 Juan (Audio)
- Post Office: Songs (Audio)
- Post Office: Songs (Audio)
- Post Office: Tape #1 (Audio)
- Post Office: Tape #2 (Audio)
- Post Office: Tape #2 (Audio)
- Post Office: Tape #3 (Audio)
- Post Office: Tape #4 (Audio)
- Post Office: Tape #4 / Joan (Audio)
- Post Office: Ted #1, #2, #3 Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Ted #1 & Man Outs (Short) (Audio)
- Post Office: Ted #2 (Audio)
- Post Office: Ted & Jack #4 (Audio)
- Post Office: Ted & Jack Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Ted & Jack Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Ted Outs (Audio)
- Post Office: Top 40 #2 (Audio)
- Post Office: Top 40 #3 (Audio)
- Airway Rescue
- Code 4: Organizing a Hospital Resuscitation Program
- Fluothane for Oral Surgery
- Fluothane for Trans-Oral Procedures
- Medical Outtake
- Pole Top Rescue (Parts 1 & 2)
- Rescue Breathing
- Resuscitation from Drowning
- Selection of Methods of Expired Resuscitation
- Ventimeter, The
- ACDelco Footage / Mag Track 485
- Echo
- Gordon’s Epic
- Play
- Recording Monitor DP B/W
- Recording Monitor DP B/W
- Box 1: JoAnn Elam Papers (Paper or Photographic Materials)
- Box 2: Post Office (Paper or Photographic Materials)
- Box 3: Post Office Research (Paper or Photographic Materials)
SERIES I: Finished Films, Home Movies and Sketches by JoAnn Elam
SERIES II: RAPE - Finished Film, Workprints, Elements, and Original Audio
SERIES III: LIE BACK AND ENJOY IT - Finished Film, Workprints, Elements, and Original Audio
SERIES IV: EVERYDAY PEOPLE Work Prints, Elements and Outtakes by JoAnn Elam
SERIES V: Medical Films by James O. Elam, M.D.
SERIES VI: Collected Films, Videos and Audio
SERIES VII: Papers, Ephemera & Equipment
Collection Identifier
C.2011-01
Extent of Collection
314 reels of 16mm film totaling approximately 80,000 feet
249 reels of 8mm film totaling approximately 18,700 feet
19 reels of Super-8 film totaling approximately 1,700 feet
111 1/4" open reel audio tapes
13 audio cassettes
46 VHS video cassettes
2 1/2" EIAJ open-reel videos
3 boxes of paper and ephemera
249 reels of 8mm film totaling approximately 18,700 feet
19 reels of Super-8 film totaling approximately 1,700 feet
111 1/4" open reel audio tapes
13 audio cassettes
46 VHS video cassettes
2 1/2" EIAJ open-reel videos
3 boxes of paper and ephemera
Language Of Materials
English
Subject
Custodial History
Most of the films in this collection were made by JoAnn Elam. In addition to Elam's films, the collection contains a number of films made by and/or for her father James O. Elam, M.D. and a few experimental films made by friends and peers (Bill Brand, Dan Perz, Ruth Klassen, etc.). The films were stored in Chicago by JoAnn Elam's husband, Joe Hendrix, following her death. Hendrix donated the collection to CFA in 2011.
Related Materials
Eleanor Boyer and Karen Peugh's video about Elam, JoAnn: My Sister the Mail Carrier (1977), is available through Media Burn Independent Video Archive.
Related Collections
Access Restrictions
This collection is open to on-site access. Appointments must be made with Chicago Film Archives. Due to the fragile nature of the films, only video copies will be provided for on-site viewing.
Use Restrictions
Chicago Film Archives holds the copyright for the films in this collection.
Creators
Elam, JoAnn
(was created by)
JoAnn Elam (1949-2009) was a Chicago-based experimental independent filmmaker. Her short experimental and documentary films capture the spirit and ethos of a politically active, feminist, and socially conscious artist.
Elam was born in Boston on April 20, 1949 to James and Elinor Foster Elam, and was one of eight children. Elam's father was a well-respected and successful physician who specialized in anesthesiology; he was a professor in Anesthesiology at the University of Chicago and is credited with developing a technique referred to as "rescue breathing" and numerous advances in clinical anesthesiology and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. He made a number of films that document and promote the medical techniques he developed, including Rescue Breathing (mid 1950s), in which JoAnn appears as a young child, demonstrating her father's rescue breathing technique on another child. Because of James' work, the family moved frequently when JoAnn was a child, from Boson to St. Louis to Buffalo to Baltimore to Kansas City. JoAnn was very close to her mother (who was long-time treasurer of a Head Start day-care center, and president of the Chicago League of Women Voters from 1972 to 1977).
After JoAnn graduated high school (which she attended in Kansas City, Missouri from 1964 to 1966), her family moved to Chicago and JoAnn attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio for one year. She soon lost interest in getting a college degree, but liked the politically progressive lifestyle of the school and artistic community, so she stayed in Yellow Springs. She met her first husband, filmmaker Bill Brand, at Antioch during this time. In the late 1960s, the experimental film community that developed in and out of Antioch College was extremely vibrant, active, and influential. Paul Sharits was teaching there at the time, and Brand was working with and for Sharits on various film and audio pieces. It is during this time that Elam began making films on 8mm, in addition to collaborating on some of Brand's films.
Elam traveled quite a bit during the late 1960s, and spent the summer of 1967 (the "Summer of Love") in San Francisco. While she was in San Francisco, Elam would crash with friends and occasionally on the street, following her own desires, passions, and ideas about life. She supported herself with knitting, which she would sell or trade to friends and the people she met in Haight-Ashbury. Throughout Elam's life she was very dedicated to making things from scratch – knitted clothes, bread, cake, etc.
After Brand graduated from Antioch, he and Elam moved to Chicago where Brand began the MFA program in film at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). The pair married in 1972. Although Elam wasn't a student at SAIC, she was very much a part of the community of experimental filmmakers that developed out of the film department at the School of the Art Institute in the early 1970s. Stan Brakhage was teaching at the school at the time, and JoAnn regularly attended his lectures. Some of Elam's friends and fellow experimental filmmakers during this time included Saul Levine, Coleen Fitzgibbon and Marjorie Keller, among others.
Filmmakers who were making films on 8mm and Super-8mm film at the time—such as Elam, Levine, and Keller—were considered a minority group within the experimental film community of Chicago. Some of the (mostly) male filmmakers who worked in 16mm film looked down on artists such as Elam, who chose to work in the less expensive, consumer, home movie format of 8mm. At the time Elam was shooting on 8mm film, it was already considered to be an outdated format (superseded by the introduction of Super 8mm film) and cameras and film stock were relatively inexpensive. Eight-millimeter cameras and editing equipment were portable and allowed the filmmaker to work at home, which was a part of the appeal for an artist without institutional access and support like Elam. The 8mm experimental film scene at this time was extremely vibrant and active, and filmmakers such as Levine, Keller and Elam developed a very particular aesthetic out of the constraints and possibilities afforded by the small gauge medium. In her own words, "Small gauge is not larger than life, it's part of life."
The 8mm films that Elam made during the 1970s and 80s captured various aspects of life in Chicago, domestic spaces, and everyday people. There wasn't a strong division between the styles of experimental cinema and documentary filmmaking in the community at this time, and Elam's films employed experimental shooting and editing strategies while simultaneously documenting of various aspects of her life, community of friends, filmmakers and artists, and the city of Chicago.
The merging of documentary and experimental aesthetics would become more pronounced in the films that Elam is most recognized for, Rape (1975) and Lie Back and Enjoy It (1982). These two films are probing feminist examinations of sexual assault and the representation of women, and utilize experimental techniques in order to call into question the way in which women are depicted on screen. Both Rape and Lie Back and Enjoy It are referenced in several key texts on documentary and feminist cinema, and are fascinating examples of Elam's interest in merging radical form and technique with radical political content.
JoAnn Elam, Bill Brand, Warner Wada, and Dan O'Chiva formed Filmgroup at N.A.M.E. in 1973 with the intention of showing challenging contemporary experimental work and films that were being made by local artists - work which they felt were neglected by the more institutional and established venues in Chicago. Elam was actively involved in programming and the day-to-day operations (including keeping track of the group's financial records, since she was a gifted mathematician) of the group. One of the goals of these early screenings was to have the filmmaker in attendance to discuss their work, and filmmakers would often travel to these screenings in exchange for a small amount of money, a bed to crash on, and some dinner. The group later became Chicago Filmmakers.
Elam became friends with Chuck Kleinhans and Julia Lesage during this time, around 1974, as Kleinhans and Lesage were starting the cinema journal Jump Cut. The Film Center at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, headed by Camille Cook and B. Ruby Rich, had just started as well. About once or twice a month, Elam, Rich, Linda Williams (who was teaching at the UIC Circle Campus), Stephanie Goldberg, Lesage, Kleinhans, and various other artists, filmmakers, scholars, and enthusiasts associated with Jump Cut and Chicago Filmmakers would have a dinner party followed by a screening of films by the people in attendance. This group of colleagues and friends adopted the name "The Rhinos" after walking to a screening at Kartemquin on a cold winter evening, and having a group of kids throw snowballs at them and tell them that they looked like a group of Rhinos.
In 1973, around the time of her separation from Brand, Elam began working at the US Post Office. The Post Office has historically been an attractive workplace for intellectuals and artists, and Elam saw it as conducive to her artistic sensibility, her belief in supporting and working in a socially and racially diverse workplace, and her need to meet the economic demand of regular wage. Elam worked for the USPS, primarily in Logan Square, for 10 years. During this time she formed a strong social network with her fellow employees, and met her second husband, Joe Hendrix. There was a huge postal strike in 1980 and Elam was very politically engaged with the postal workers union and labor rights issues. She documented a number of union rallies and protests, as well as her fellow letter carriers during this time. She had a strong personality and set of personal ethics, and often questioned authority. Unwilling to be silent when faced with unjust practices, Elam would stand up for her beliefs even if this meant she faced resistance from post office management.
Elam's unfinished project, Everyday People (1979-1990), is based on her experiences as a letter carrier for the US Postal Service in Chicago, the various people she met while on the job, the political struggles they faced with the administration and the union, and larger issues related to the history of labor struggle and activism in the United States. Everyday People was influenced by Harry Braverman's analysis of the working conditions under capitalism, and Elam integrated these ideas into her study of USPS letter carriers, union members and protests, and the various ways in which USPS workers negotiated the system and the conditions of their employment. The form of the film changed as she continued to work on it, and combined experimental and observational documentary techniques in a radical manner. She screened the film in various stages of progress to both letter carriers and union members. She earned an American Film Institute-National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship to work on the film in 1984. Elam maintained numerous journals and notebooks on the film project, in additional to creating approximately 250 film, video and audio elements. These notes and materials provide an unparalleled level of access to her creative process, political and artistic ideas, and the practical, economic, and ethical issues that impacted her work as an independent artist and filmmaker.
After working at the Post Office, JoAnn went on to work as a tax preparator. This was initially seasonal work, and she would eventually complete a BS degree in accounting from Northeastern University in 1984. She worked as a bookkeeper for various artists, activists, local arts organizations and the League of Women Voters, and saw this work as part of a larger mission to encourage fiscal responsibility and stability for artists and arts organizations. She loved to garden and worked to attain status as a "Master Gardener." She worked to help landscape and develop gardens in various communities in the city of Chicago, and often spoke of a fantasy of letter carriers also being master gardeners, delivering the mail, seeds, and gardening advice to their neighborhood. As Chuck Kleinhans commented in his remembrance of JoAnn, "a perfect evening for her was a gathering of friends, a meal of fresh fruits and vegetables from her garden (supplemented by her husband's Southern style barbeque), and rhubarb pie or chocolate cake followed by several people screening past films and works-in-progress."
JoAnn passed away on June 25, 2009 following a struggle with cancer.
Elam, James O.
(was created by)
Elam was born in Boston on April 20, 1949 to James and Elinor Foster Elam, and was one of eight children. Elam's father was a well-respected and successful physician who specialized in anesthesiology; he was a professor in Anesthesiology at the University of Chicago and is credited with developing a technique referred to as "rescue breathing" and numerous advances in clinical anesthesiology and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. He made a number of films that document and promote the medical techniques he developed, including Rescue Breathing (mid 1950s), in which JoAnn appears as a young child, demonstrating her father's rescue breathing technique on another child. Because of James' work, the family moved frequently when JoAnn was a child, from Boson to St. Louis to Buffalo to Baltimore to Kansas City. JoAnn was very close to her mother (who was long-time treasurer of a Head Start day-care center, and president of the Chicago League of Women Voters from 1972 to 1977).
After JoAnn graduated high school (which she attended in Kansas City, Missouri from 1964 to 1966), her family moved to Chicago and JoAnn attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio for one year. She soon lost interest in getting a college degree, but liked the politically progressive lifestyle of the school and artistic community, so she stayed in Yellow Springs. She met her first husband, filmmaker Bill Brand, at Antioch during this time. In the late 1960s, the experimental film community that developed in and out of Antioch College was extremely vibrant, active, and influential. Paul Sharits was teaching there at the time, and Brand was working with and for Sharits on various film and audio pieces. It is during this time that Elam began making films on 8mm, in addition to collaborating on some of Brand's films.
Elam traveled quite a bit during the late 1960s, and spent the summer of 1967 (the "Summer of Love") in San Francisco. While she was in San Francisco, Elam would crash with friends and occasionally on the street, following her own desires, passions, and ideas about life. She supported herself with knitting, which she would sell or trade to friends and the people she met in Haight-Ashbury. Throughout Elam's life she was very dedicated to making things from scratch – knitted clothes, bread, cake, etc.
After Brand graduated from Antioch, he and Elam moved to Chicago where Brand began the MFA program in film at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). The pair married in 1972. Although Elam wasn't a student at SAIC, she was very much a part of the community of experimental filmmakers that developed out of the film department at the School of the Art Institute in the early 1970s. Stan Brakhage was teaching at the school at the time, and JoAnn regularly attended his lectures. Some of Elam's friends and fellow experimental filmmakers during this time included Saul Levine, Coleen Fitzgibbon and Marjorie Keller, among others.
Filmmakers who were making films on 8mm and Super-8mm film at the time—such as Elam, Levine, and Keller—were considered a minority group within the experimental film community of Chicago. Some of the (mostly) male filmmakers who worked in 16mm film looked down on artists such as Elam, who chose to work in the less expensive, consumer, home movie format of 8mm. At the time Elam was shooting on 8mm film, it was already considered to be an outdated format (superseded by the introduction of Super 8mm film) and cameras and film stock were relatively inexpensive. Eight-millimeter cameras and editing equipment were portable and allowed the filmmaker to work at home, which was a part of the appeal for an artist without institutional access and support like Elam. The 8mm experimental film scene at this time was extremely vibrant and active, and filmmakers such as Levine, Keller and Elam developed a very particular aesthetic out of the constraints and possibilities afforded by the small gauge medium. In her own words, "Small gauge is not larger than life, it's part of life."
The 8mm films that Elam made during the 1970s and 80s captured various aspects of life in Chicago, domestic spaces, and everyday people. There wasn't a strong division between the styles of experimental cinema and documentary filmmaking in the community at this time, and Elam's films employed experimental shooting and editing strategies while simultaneously documenting of various aspects of her life, community of friends, filmmakers and artists, and the city of Chicago.
The merging of documentary and experimental aesthetics would become more pronounced in the films that Elam is most recognized for, Rape (1975) and Lie Back and Enjoy It (1982). These two films are probing feminist examinations of sexual assault and the representation of women, and utilize experimental techniques in order to call into question the way in which women are depicted on screen. Both Rape and Lie Back and Enjoy It are referenced in several key texts on documentary and feminist cinema, and are fascinating examples of Elam's interest in merging radical form and technique with radical political content.
JoAnn Elam, Bill Brand, Warner Wada, and Dan O'Chiva formed Filmgroup at N.A.M.E. in 1973 with the intention of showing challenging contemporary experimental work and films that were being made by local artists - work which they felt were neglected by the more institutional and established venues in Chicago. Elam was actively involved in programming and the day-to-day operations (including keeping track of the group's financial records, since she was a gifted mathematician) of the group. One of the goals of these early screenings was to have the filmmaker in attendance to discuss their work, and filmmakers would often travel to these screenings in exchange for a small amount of money, a bed to crash on, and some dinner. The group later became Chicago Filmmakers.
Elam became friends with Chuck Kleinhans and Julia Lesage during this time, around 1974, as Kleinhans and Lesage were starting the cinema journal Jump Cut. The Film Center at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, headed by Camille Cook and B. Ruby Rich, had just started as well. About once or twice a month, Elam, Rich, Linda Williams (who was teaching at the UIC Circle Campus), Stephanie Goldberg, Lesage, Kleinhans, and various other artists, filmmakers, scholars, and enthusiasts associated with Jump Cut and Chicago Filmmakers would have a dinner party followed by a screening of films by the people in attendance. This group of colleagues and friends adopted the name "The Rhinos" after walking to a screening at Kartemquin on a cold winter evening, and having a group of kids throw snowballs at them and tell them that they looked like a group of Rhinos.
In 1973, around the time of her separation from Brand, Elam began working at the US Post Office. The Post Office has historically been an attractive workplace for intellectuals and artists, and Elam saw it as conducive to her artistic sensibility, her belief in supporting and working in a socially and racially diverse workplace, and her need to meet the economic demand of regular wage. Elam worked for the USPS, primarily in Logan Square, for 10 years. During this time she formed a strong social network with her fellow employees, and met her second husband, Joe Hendrix. There was a huge postal strike in 1980 and Elam was very politically engaged with the postal workers union and labor rights issues. She documented a number of union rallies and protests, as well as her fellow letter carriers during this time. She had a strong personality and set of personal ethics, and often questioned authority. Unwilling to be silent when faced with unjust practices, Elam would stand up for her beliefs even if this meant she faced resistance from post office management.
Elam's unfinished project, Everyday People (1979-1990), is based on her experiences as a letter carrier for the US Postal Service in Chicago, the various people she met while on the job, the political struggles they faced with the administration and the union, and larger issues related to the history of labor struggle and activism in the United States. Everyday People was influenced by Harry Braverman's analysis of the working conditions under capitalism, and Elam integrated these ideas into her study of USPS letter carriers, union members and protests, and the various ways in which USPS workers negotiated the system and the conditions of their employment. The form of the film changed as she continued to work on it, and combined experimental and observational documentary techniques in a radical manner. She screened the film in various stages of progress to both letter carriers and union members. She earned an American Film Institute-National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship to work on the film in 1984. Elam maintained numerous journals and notebooks on the film project, in additional to creating approximately 250 film, video and audio elements. These notes and materials provide an unparalleled level of access to her creative process, political and artistic ideas, and the practical, economic, and ethical issues that impacted her work as an independent artist and filmmaker.
After working at the Post Office, JoAnn went on to work as a tax preparator. This was initially seasonal work, and she would eventually complete a BS degree in accounting from Northeastern University in 1984. She worked as a bookkeeper for various artists, activists, local arts organizations and the League of Women Voters, and saw this work as part of a larger mission to encourage fiscal responsibility and stability for artists and arts organizations. She loved to garden and worked to attain status as a "Master Gardener." She worked to help landscape and develop gardens in various communities in the city of Chicago, and often spoke of a fantasy of letter carriers also being master gardeners, delivering the mail, seeds, and gardening advice to their neighborhood. As Chuck Kleinhans commented in his remembrance of JoAnn, "a perfect evening for her was a gathering of friends, a meal of fresh fruits and vegetables from her garden (supplemented by her husband's Southern style barbeque), and rhubarb pie or chocolate cake followed by several people screening past films and works-in-progress."
JoAnn passed away on June 25, 2009 following a struggle with cancer.
James O. Elam (May 31, 1918 – July 10, 1995) was a well-respected and successful physician who specialized in anesthesiology. He was a professor in Anesthesiology at the University of Chicago and is credited with developing a technique referred to as "rescue breathing" and numerous advances in clinical anesthesiology and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. He made a number of films that document and promote the medical techniques he developed, including Rescue Breathing (mid 1950s), in which his daughter JoAnn Elam appears as a young child and demonstrates rescue breathing technique on another child.
Elam was born in Austin, Texas. He was married to Elinor Foster Elam, who was long-time treasurer of a Head Start day-care center and president of the Chicago League of Women Voters from 1972 to 1977. They had eight children.
Elam was born in Austin, Texas. He was married to Elinor Foster Elam, who was long-time treasurer of a Head Start day-care center and president of the Chicago League of Women Voters from 1972 to 1977. They had eight children.