Synopsis

One of the most powerful Chicagoans of the 20th Century, Edward Jones built a $25 million empire as the brains and brawn behind Policy, an illegal racketeering syndicate in the 1930s and ’40s. The “Policy King” went head-to-head with Al Capone’s “Outfit” at the same time as he hobnobbed with celebrated artists including Josephine Baker, Frida Kahlo, and Duke Ellington. Using lively animated sequences and interviews with the likes of Quincy Jones and others who knew Jones’ story, filmmaker Harriet Marin Jones, the kingpin’s granddaughter, delves deep into her own extended family’s past to tell this remarkable and thrilling story of a legendary African American who rose to the heights of financial and political prominence, reclaiming his legacy as a man fighting for respect in a racist society.

Winner

58th Chicago International Film Festival Chicago Award. Learn more…

Synopsis

Art Johnston and Pepe Peña are civil rights leaders whose celebrated gay bar Sidetrack has helped fuel movements and create community on Chicago’s Halsted Street for decades. Bringing together a wealth of archival video footage, photographs, and lively animated sequences, Art and Pep chronicles the story of Sidetrack, beginning with its humble origins in 1982 as a single storefront, and the lives of its proprietors. The couple fought on the frontlines of the AIDS crisis, helped co-found Equality Illinois, and have continued to serve as a beacon for equal rights through the pandemic and beyond. Mercedes Kane (2015 Festival hit Breakfast at Ina’s) returns with another loving tribute to an iconic Chicago establishment and the individuals who have transformed the site into a haven of joy and solidarity.

Synopsis

In 2021, Evanston, Illinois became the first city in the United States to approve a reparations program for some of its Black residents. How did it get there? Captivating and urgent, The Big Payback follows the dramatic journey of rookie Alderman Robin Rue Simmons as she fights to redress the wrongs of “redlining” and the legacy of slavery. Filmmakers Erika Alexander (John Lewis: Good Trouble) and Whitney Dow (Two Towns of Jaspar) chart Simmons’ emotional and political path from the onset of the pandemic through the racial protests of 2020, as she faces detractors who criticize her legislation for doing too little and supporters who herald the bill as an important first step into the future. An inspiring story of the early signals of seismic change, one citizen and then one city at a time.