Cartoon Girl: The Restored Films of Heather McAdams

Followed by a conversion between Heather McAdams and Chicago Film Society’s Kyle Westphal.

Co-presented by National Film Preservation Foundation & the Chicago Film Society, Canyon Cinema and San Francisco Cinematheque.

Heather McAdams is a cartoonist, performance artist, painter, sculptor, junk salesperson, film collector, and maker of some of the most charming and hilarious movies you’ll ever see. Working from a seemingly inexhaustible mountain of discarded and dismembered 16mm educational films, commercials, home movies, and musical clips, McAdams fashions pop culture x-rays and garage sale dispatches that uncover society’s most sordid secrets. McAdams often scratches and paints over the original footage, and synchronizes it anew with cartoon music, vintage sound effects, pyramid scheme pitches, and whatever else she can find lying around. Her films exist at the intersection of avant-garde cinema, underground comix, and gonzo documentary filmmaking.

Step right up and see The Scratchman, a businessman caught in an eternal loop of unwitting defacement. Meet…Bradley Harrison Picklesimer, the proprietor of Lexington’s finest drag bar, with the best records and the best decorations in town. Prepare to be dazzled by Holiday Magic, the revolutionary system that lets you stay young and healthy. All of these wonders and more will be on view in brand-new 16mm prints.

Screening line-up:

The Scratchman
Heather McAdams  | 1980 | 3 min | Color | Sound | 16mm

Scratchman #2
Heather McAdams  |  1982 | 3 min | Color | Sound | 16mm

You
Heather McAdams  | 1983 | 4 min | Color | Sound | 16mm

All Fucked Up
Heather McAdams  | 1983 | 8 min | B&W | English | 16mm

Holiday Magic
Heather McAdams  | 1985 | 7 min | Color | English | 16mm

Meet . . . Bradly Harrison Picklesimer
Heather McAdams  | 1988 | 32 min | Color | English | 16mm

Fetal Pig Anatomy
Heather McAdams  | 1989 | 7 min | Color | English | 16mm

The Lester Film
Heather McAdams, Chris Ligon  | 1995 | 14 min | Color | English | 16mm

Meet . . . Bradley Harrison Picklesimer preserved by Chicago Film Society through the National Film Preservation Foundation’s Avant-Garde Masters program and The Film Foundation. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. All other films preserved by Chicago Film Society with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation.

Warning: this program contains sequences that may trigger seizures for visitors with photosensitive epilepsy.