Maria Moraites Collection

Preservation Sponsor
Larry Shulman & Rhonda Rochambeau

Bulk Dates
1961 – 1979
Abstract
This collection contains production elements and prints related to films made by Maria Moraites and her collaborators. It includes material related to early projects, most notably Good Night, Socrates (1962), as well as films produced during her time as head of Northeastern Illinois University's Learning Services division, which produced films for NEIU's faculty and student community during the 1960s – 1980s.
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Collection Items

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Maxwell Street
Film
Maxwell Street
1970
Goodnight Socrates
Film
Goodnight Socrates
1962
Northeastern Illinois University Learning Services Bulletin - Film - Feb. 21st
Paper or Photographic Materials
Northeastern Illinois University Learning Services Bulletin - Film - Feb. 21st
Film Proposal for Greek Town
Paper or Photographic Materials
Film Proposal for Greek Town
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To request more information about the items in this collection, please contact the archive at info@chicagofilmarchives.org.
Items with Viewable Media
Collection Identifier
C.2025-11
Custodial History
This collection was donated to CFA by Maria Moraites and Northeastern Illinois University in 2025. The initial lot of films was kept at Maria Moraites's home prior to their donation to the archive.

A large second lot of materials was discovered in a storage closet at Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) by professor Shayne Pepper and was subsequently donated to CFA.

An additional release print of A NICE PLACE TO LIVE that once belonged to Jim MacDonald, a professor of anthropology at Northeastern Illinois University, was donated to CFA by the Chicago Film Society.
Creators
Moraites, Maria (was created by)

Maria Moraites was born in southeast Chicago in 1940 and grew up in Chicago's Marquette Park and Edgewater neighborhoods. She shot her first reel of film as a child, with an 8mm camera she received as a birthday gift.

 

Moraites attended Northwestern University, receiving both a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in Theatre and Film in 1961. Shortly after graduating, she and Northwestern classmate Stuart Hagmann independently produced Good Night, Socrates (1962), a short documentary film about a family in Chicago's Greektown being forced to move because of an urban renewal project. The film was co-directed by Moraites and Hagmann, and won awards internationally, including the Targa Leone di San Marco for Best Narrative Short Film at the Venice Biennale's 13th Venice International Documentary Film Festival.

 

Following the success of Good Night, Socrates, Moraites spent a few years outside of Chicago. In New York, she dabbled in acting, appearing in The Cry for Help (1962), an educational film directed by George C. Stoney. She then moved to Los Angeles hoping to find production work, but struggled to make her way into the competitive, male-dominated film industry. She returned to Chicago to work for Visual Educational Films, and in 1963, the company sent her to Europe, where she travelled, largely solo, through Greece and Spain shooting footage for children's films. These projects, Felipe and an untitled project shot in Greece, were never completed. After returning to the United States, she became a teacher, working for Chicago Public Schools as an elementary school teacher and English as a Second Language instructor.

 

In 1968, Moraites was hired by Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) as an Instructional Developer and Media Consultant, a "non-teaching faculty" position in the new Learning Services department. This was an in-house film production division meant to support NEIU faculty with the production of custom-made visual education resources to augment their teaching and research, as well as to document student and campus activities. Films Moraites made during her time in this role included Maxwell Street (1970), Chicago's Picasso (1972), and A Nice Place to Live (1974).

 

As video and television became the dominant forms of visual media in education she made fewer films at NEIU, eventually turning her focus fully to teaching. In 1988, Moraites became a Professor in NEIU's Department of Speech and Performing Arts. She received a Ph.D. in Comparative and International Education from Loyola University in 1997.