"Fears and thrills... Part structure (the centerpoint): part improvisation."

Surreal film melding documentary footage of Chicago and its residents, featuring fast paced montage sequences set against a rollicking 1960s musical backdrop. The film aptly deconstructs the absurdities of contemporary American life, particularly the thick fog of patriotism engulfing the country at the time.

A film by Tom Palazzolo and Mark Rance documenting neo-Nazi activity in the Marquette Park neighborhood of Chicago on August 21, 1976. The day marked one of many conflicts between black civil rights marchers and white supremacist neighborhood groups who were mobilizing to prevent black residents from moving into the neighborhood.

Tom Palazzolo's rapid-fire, seemingly spontaneous documentary style captures Chicago with pizazz. For more than ten years, Palazzolo has been delivering to us his captured visions – body builders, senior citizens, erotic parlours, weddings, deli owners, and the like – as if he had harnessed them in a cinematic butterfly net. AMERICA'S IN REAL TROUBLE is a patriotic film with music and sound by some of the great unknowns of the past. Lots of overtones, undercurrents, innuendoes, visual similes, counterpoints, puns and contrapuntal movement. Filmed in Chicago, it covers several years of parades and civic events. If you're not moved by this film there's no hope for you.

A short documentary on wet t-shirt contests at a Chicago bar.

We traveled to Indiana back roads to see and shoot the annual Miss Nude Universe Contest held at a “notorious” nudist camp. They wanted $15 a head at the gate so we parked down the road and crawled through the brush. Once in, we encountered truckers and hundreds of Sunday photographers straining for a shot at the contestants. Afterward we joined the quest for stray women willing to pose. After a quick success we headed home with our catch in the can.

JERRY'S DELI is a testament to a bygone era when shrieking lunatics could run successful (even popular) businesses. Shot on film-stock leftover from television cameramen, Tom Palazzolo's portrait of Jerry Meyer offsets sequences of the tyrannical deli owner (seen berating his employees and physically dragging customers to the counter) with personal interviews in which a soft-spoken Meyer calmly describes his decorated military service in World War II, his early stand on civil rights and this one time when he stabbed an employee in the arm. - Tom Fritsche

Lillie Santangelo had for most of the 20th century owned and operated a wax museum at New York's Coney Island. She leads us on a final tour, just before her museum is closed and her wax figures and exhibits are auctioned off. Old age and declining attendance have forced her to close and sell everything. This film deals with the loss of her "friends" (the wax figures), she has known for so long. She reminisces about her years as a Coney Island fixture as she visits the ocean boardwalk one last time.

A fascinating and touching portrait of isolation in big cities, Roger the Dodger features an extended interview with a man who was arrested by the police for loitering near a train station. The man shares his discontent with the local government, and American politics at large. An avowed Marxist, he thinks that carrying a picture of Fidel Castro when arrested probably did not endear him to the police. He discusses his thoughts on loneliness, specifically the ways in which big cities such as Chicago and New York contribute to feelings of isolation, particularly for those who do not enjoy popular pastimes such as sports and rock music.

Hot Nasty is a humorous documentary short set entirely inside a Chicago massage parlor called Big Bertha’s. The film features interviews with the women who work there, openly sharing funny stories about how they got into the business, dealing with different patrons, and so on.