Joe Was Not So Happy

A portrait film about a Kentucky drag queen who ran his own club on Main Street in downtown Lexington, Kentucky.

An early Super 8 film by Heather McAdams, made while she was an MFA student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Heather McAdams films herself in (none-too-convincing) drag while lip-syncing to a record claiming to spur breast growth through hypnosis in this early Super 8 experiment.

A profile of Chicago's greatest Presley impersonator, Jay Elvis

The preview format has always appealed to me: short, sweet and action packed. I decided to make my own to a fictitious film never to be made called 'Blondie + the Sheik,' starring Hester McMarkup and Angelo Q. Trashwad. –H. M.

A portrait of the filmmaker's father.

Scratched lines and shapes float around this footage of a military spokesperson

"Inspired by a record to help women with beauty problems. I tried dubbing the voice of the man on the record into the mouth of some fat dude in a Spanish laxative commercial I had laying around. Lots of bits and pieces of unusual footage are used to further illustrate how ridiculous things can get." – Heather McAdams

Based on a comic Heather McAdams created for the Chicago Reader, the short comedic film was made by Tom Palazzolo's 1990 film production class at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Set in downtown Chicago on S Columbus Dr & E Congress Pkwy, McAdams demonstrates tips on how to ward off unwanted attention from men on the road.

Scratched lines and shapes bloat around this footage of an unknown businessman, sometimes forming hats, clown noses, arrows, etc. He becomes a kind of pawn in my cruel little game. Sound is a musicbox which helps lift this once painfully boring footage to the level of high art. –H. M.

This film started out as a sort of music video to a wonderful old song by Pat Suzuki (also known as 'Miss Ponytail'). The song is called Black Coffee. Shots of me crawling the walls and old coffee commercials. –H. M.

A teenage projectionist's fever dream.

The zany and the funny facets of American popular culture.

Experimental mash-up of circus and sideshow footage.

A caustic send-up of adolescent anxiety, as seen through a barrage of clips from sex ed and social hygiene films of the 1950s and '60s.

Apocalyptic experimental film incorporating found footage, including from the 1962 educational film of the same name.