The Act of Recording is an Act of Love: The South Side Home Movie Project
July 11 - August 24, 2025
Reception
Friday, August 15
6-8PM
Image of Althea Gibson from the Ramon Williams Collection, courtesy of SSHMP.
Logan Center Exhibitions and Arts + Public Life is pleased to present The Act of Recording is an Act of Love: The South Side Home Movie Project.
This exhibition traces the 20-year history of the South Side Home Movie Project (SSHMP), an archival and community engagement initiative that preserves and shares amateur films and the stories of local everyday life that they uniquely capture. Founded in 2005 at the University of Chicago by Cinema and Media Studies professor Jacqueline Stewart, SSHMP is dedicated to collecting, preserving, digitizing, exhibiting, and researching the rich tapestry of home movies created by Chicago's South Side residents..
Now part of UChicago’s Arts + Public Life, SSHMP holds more than 1,200 reels of 16mm, 8mm and Super-8mm footage shot by South Siders spanning from the 1930s to the 1980s. In partnership with the Film Studies Center, the South Side Home Movie Project preserves these films, makes them accessible online, and collaborates with the filmmakers, educators, artists and community members on a wide range of public programs, educational resources and creative reuse opportunities.
Musician and poet Jamila Woods, inspired by the images she saw in the South Side Home Movie Project archive, observed that “The act of recording is an act of love. To press record is to say, 'I want to remember you, I wish you to be remembered.’”
As the South Side Home Movie Project begins to celebrate two decades of conserving and sharing these memories, this exhibition gives visitors a glimpse into its research and preservation processes while highlighting stories of joy, love, and the intimacies of everyday life through the lens of the home movies. Join us for an engaging journey into the distinct ways that home movies can activate community memories and provide affirming resources for imagining our futures.l
PROGRAMS AND EVENTS
Digital Storytelling Initiative’s Mothering on Screen Film Series
Sunday, July 13 | 1 PM
Logan Center Screening Room, 201
Down in the Delta (1998)
Closing Reception
Friday, August 15 | 6-8 PM
Logan Center Gallery
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION TEAM
Arts + Public Life / South Side Home Movie Project Staff: Sabrina Craig, Avery LaFlamme, Alfredo Nieves, Jacqueline Stewart, Rai Mckinley Terry, Camille Townson, Liu Yang
Logan Center Programming and Production Staff: Jan Brugger, Ben Chandler, Jaden Dueñas, Emily Hooper Lansana, Kal Haile, Adelina Mejia, Bill Michel, Ben Ruder, Anika Steppe, Marcus Warren
The Act of Recording is an Act of Love: The South Side Home Movie Project, presented by Arts + Public Life and Logan Center Exhibitions, is curated by Jacqueline Stewart and Sabrina Craig. Additional support is provided by the Ng Family Visiting Artist Fund, the Office of the Provost’s Diversity & Inclusion Initiative at the University of Chicago, the Revada Foundation, and Friends of the Logan Center.