Hatboxes: Coming Full Circle

Full Circle 1

In the early '80s I was a bright-eyed film student at the University of Iowa. During my time there our department moved into an eye-popping state-of-the-art building, complete with floating floors in the production zone to guard against vibrations, but we were still shooting and editing on analogue stock.

Cutting 16 mm negatives remains one of the most nerve-racking tasks ever.

I made a dark, formalistic short about a woman in solitary confinement—the SHU in Orange is the New Black has nothing on its stark set design!

The shift from analogue to digital over the past couple of decades has had enormous impact on filmmaking. Shooting Hatboxes digitally in 2012 took the film far beyond its original modest parameters – plans rooted in my analogue training at Iowa – but that's a good thing.

Getting word that Hatboxes had gotten into the Landlocked Film Festival in Iowa City, my movie-making birthplace, was a particular thrill.

Hatboxes will screen on Sunday, 24 August, at 2:15 pm at the Iowa City Public Library alongside the feature One: A Story of Love and Equality. Come join us – admission is free!

Full Circle 2

Chicago itself plays a vital role in Hatboxes. The germ of the story formed years ago here, and its setting here was never in question. The entire film was shot in eleven locations in the city, ten in the North Side's Andersonville neighborhood and one in the Daley Plaza in the heart of the Loop.

So learning that Hatboxes had been accepted into the Chicago Park District's Chicago on Screen Local Film Showcase was especially gratifying. If you're not observing the Sabbath at 7:30 pm on Friday, 12 September (we tried to tell them...), come join us for an outdoor screening in Union Park at 1501 West Randolph. 

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Susana Darwin