WATCH

Movies to Binge at Home

Here at CHF, we love a good movie list anytime (and especially now). Even better if the list helps us revisit old favorites and explore new finds as we get ready for the 56th Chicago International Film Festival this upcoming October. Our partners and friends at the Film Festival have curated a list of past selections from each year of the festival. Check out these movies you can view from the comfort of your couch, while supporting Chicago’s very own Music Box Theatre. And The Chicago Tribune is keeping us up-to-date on all the 2020 releases that are now being streamed online.

CHF Archival Video: Behind the Scenes of Movies and TV Shows

Of course, no round-up would be complete without CHF archival video! Go behind the scenes with our CHF programs to learn about what goes into the making of a tv show or movie. Hear about the ethics of making a documentary from Gordon Quinn or life after being on television with John Hodgman. Learn about the impact of the classic film Candyman and Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s experience filming the Hulu adaptation of High Fidelity.

LISTEN

Seminary Co-op’s Open Stacks Podcast

There is no shortage of great podcasts focused on the political dynamics of our current global health crisis. For a more humanistic perspective we love our partner Seminary Co-op’s Open Stacks Podcast. Open Stacks brings you conversations with scholars, poets, novelists and activists on subjects as eclectic as the books on Seminary’s shelves. Recorded live at Seminary when that was possible, Open Stacks presciently invites us to reflect on the relationship between social space and novels as well as to connect with our existential dread through “fictions of anxiety”.

New Books Network

Are you someone who turns to history to make sense of contemporary life? The New Books Network is a consortium of author-interview podcast channels covering 80+ subjects, disciplines, and genres - including a History channel - dedicated to introducing scholars to a wider public. We found historian Laura Spinney’s gripping narrative history of the Spanish Influenza fascinating for the light it shed on our current dynamics and got nostalgic listening to Daniel Aaron Silver and University of Chicago professor Terry Nichols Clark discuss how the qualities of place - churches, cafes, restaurants, parks, galleries, bowling alleys - shape social life.

Fiction Podcasts

If you just want to sit back, close your eyes, and get immersed in a great story, go for a fiction podcast. The genre has seen a revival in the last decade and has excelled in post-apocalyptic, science fiction-y plots perfect for our moment. From Night Vale Presents, there is Adventures in New America, self-described as the “first sci-fi, political satire, Afrofuturistic buddy comedy serialized for New Americans in a new and desperate time.” Sounds familiar, amirite? Closer to home, Our Fair City is a campy sci-fi series composed by a team of Chicago theater veterans. And, last but certainly not least - except for the least dystopian - Hello From The Magic Tavern is one of the giants of the fiction podcasting genre. Arnie Niekamp was a regular dude living in Chicago before he fell into a magical realm out the back of a Burger King and landed in the world of Foon. Now he runs a podcast teaching Earth about Foon, with hilarious results.

CHF Archival Video: Podcasters and Radio Hosts

On a podcast kick? Check out CHF programs from your favorite podcasters and radio hosts including Mo Rocca of NPR’s Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me!, local celebrity Greta Johnsen of Nerdette, and Franny Choi and Danez Smith of Poetry Foundation’s VS.

READ

Following our digital content? We invite you to read the work of our featured spring presenters. If, like for some of us, the thought of committing to a novel feels overwhelming right now, may we suggest the April issue of Poetry magazine. Published by our longtime partner The Poetry Foundation and featuring “House of Unending” by CHF presenter Reginald Dwayne Betts, this month’s issue is free to view online. Forgot how to read a poem? Not to worry, The Poetry Foundation has thoughtfully made available the first chapter from the book How to Read a Poem by Edward Hirsch.

CHF Archival Video: Programs About Books

CHF loves books as much as you do! Take a dive into some of our favorite book-related programs including conversations with Ta-Nehisi Coates, George R.R. Martin, and more!