The South Side Home Movie Project (SSHMP) is a five-part initiative to collect, preserve, digitize, exhibit, and research home movies made by residents of Chicago’s South Side neighborhoods. The SSHMP seeks to increase understanding of the many histories and cultures comprising Chicago’s South Side, and of amateur filmmaking practices, by asking owners of home movies (shot on 8mm, Super8mm, 16mm film) to share their footage and describe it from their personal perspectives.

The project brings materials that are typically kept in private collections into public light and discussion. We aim to build an alternative, accessible visual record, filling gaps in existing written and visual histories, and ensuring that the diverse experiences and perspectives of South Siders will be available to larger audiences and to future generations.

Above: Ellis McClelland. Still from “The Kids 1953”, Ellis McClelland Collection, SSHMP.2007.MCCLELLAND.00003. South Side Home Movie Project, Chicago, Illinois. https://sshmpportal.uchicago.edu/index.php/Detail/objects/1073.

Top: Wireframe image of the tessellated 3D digital model of the South Cave, Northern Xiangtangshan. Xiangtangshan Caves Project, Center for the Art of East Asia, Department of Art History.