In 1932 University of Chicago students started an organization called the Documentary Film Group. Fast forward a little over seventy years and the Documentary Film Group has become a 485 seat, state-of-the-art cinema. Thanks to the work of countless volunteer students and a donation from Max Palevsky, this organization has grown into Doc Films, an entity unmatched in the rest of the city.
All shows are $4 (cheap, cheap, cheap!) and you can buy a season pass for $24. For the algebraically impaired, that season pass pays for itself after six movies. Heck, if you went to every show with a pass you'd pay about thirty cents a show.
Doc Films is open to the public and is located at 1212 East 59th Street inside Ida Noyes Hall (part of the U Chicago campus). They show a different film every evening, roughly 80 films per quarter. I sat down with Ben Chandler and Noah McKittrick to get the inside scoop on Doc. Both seniors at UC, they, along with the other 100 volunteers on staff, spend countless hours making Doc an asset to the city.
What do all those people do? Running a theater is no easy feat, as I learned. Outside of the obvious jobs like ticket saler, fire marshall, projectionist, and a few other positions that make each show happen, Doc has a program committee that spends an entire quarter planning out what films they will show and making arrangements to get those films.
With the wide variety of films Doc shows, all that coordination is no walk in the park. They were very modest during my interview, but I am sure they have many woes to tell about difficulties working with different distributors in order to fill their aggressive schedule. Regardless, this organization manages to pull it off every night.
Friday and Saturday night, you'll find Doc showing second run films like "Lost in Translation", "Bubba Ho-Tep", and "Kill Bill". For other days of the week, the program committee selects different themes. This quarter posted French Women Directors and 70's New York, just to name two.
Doc is 85% self-funded with ticket and pass sales. I'm pretty impressed with this budget given that they take considerable risk showing some films that may only appeal to a small audience.
If you're interested in Doc, what you really need to do is go to a show. Any show will do. On the way out, pick up one of their free schedule posters. They print anywhere between 12 and 16 thousand every quarter so don't feel bad grabbing one or two for your cheap skate friends. Not only will it be a tasteful addition to any poster covered wall, but it will keep you in the know on what's happening with Chicago's best movie deal.
Incidentally, Doc Films is hosting some of the screenings of the Chicago Independent Film Festival later this year. Stay tuned to CheapChicago.net and we'll get you the inside scoop on this event as the time gets closer.
Links:
Doc Films Home Page
FOOTNOTE:
You can always get your own Doc schedule poster or check their web site for showings, so we list only a small selection of films our staff is especially fond of.
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