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Research and Education

Home movies provide a unique visual record that enriches our understanding of culture, history, and aesthetics. Through our research practices and educational partnerships, we hope to study, describe and share this unique resource with new audiences and new generations.

Participants in the Teen Arts Council, an after school program at Arts + Public Life, toured SSHMP's work station and film vault at the Logan Center for the Arts in February, 2020.
A student at Lab School tests out a pilot version of the SSHMP Curriculum/Student Guide in May, 2023.
The Teen Arts Council at Arts + Public Life collaborated with SSHMP to produce an episode of Spinning Home Movies, featuring a series of vignettes connected by themes and soundtracks, created by participants as an homage inspired by the families and collections of SSHMP, centering respect, honor and collective work (April 2022).
Members of Global Girls, a performing arts organization for young African American women in Greater Grand Crossing, shared their insights into contemporary modes of self-representation in a public conversation and screening with SSHMP donors about the role that sisterhood has played in their lives, moderated by SSHMP director Jacqueline Stewart, at the Logan Center for the Arts, May 2019.

SSHMP CURRICULUM

What Home Movies Reveal: A Guide for Exploring the South Side Home Movie Project Archive

An imaginative, engaging and joy-filled curriculum for classrooms, teaching artists and student researchers.

The South Side Home Movie Project curriculum is a toolkit for exploring the power of home movies as primary sources. It's not just about watching videos; it's about understanding how these snippets of history tell the American story. The SSHMP curriculum guides students as they dive deeply into topics like the Great Migration through home movies and oral histories, making history come alive for young people in a familiar format. Through interactive lessons and creative projects, they will discover the essential role archives play in preserving these precious memories, and how they can use these artifacts today. It's a fun, interactive way to connect kids with their past while teaching critical skills. The curriculum includes a wealth of activities created by teachers for teachers so classrooms can dive right in.

curriculum details

Community-Engaged Research

Cataloguing & Descriptive Practices

Our descriptive and cataloguing practices are informed by moving image archival standards while also centering the contextual and lived experience of our film donors, their families, and fellow community residents. This blended approach enriches our keyword-searchable digital archive and facilitates the discovery of material for special projects. If you would like to support this effort, please reach out to us!

Become a Community Cataloger

Educational Partnerships

Providing access and multiple entry points to this unique resource for students and educators is also key to SSHMP’s mission as a community-engaged archive. If you are interested in incorporating the South Side Home Movie Project into your course or classroom, we would love to connect.

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Talks & Presentations

Over the years, we have been honored to share South Side Home Movie Project's methods within the moving image archival field as well as contribute to other fields, including memory & cultural preservation, community archiving, film history, migration studies, black culture & aesthetics, and Chicago studies.