We’re thrilled to share one of the exhibits from our “Expanding Film Culture’s Field of Vision” website! The Chuck Kleinhans, Julia Lesage, and Jump Cut collection at the WCFTR documents the careers of two celebrated film scholars and filmmakers. Through their decades of teaching—Kleinhans at Northwestern University and Lesage at the University of Oregon—they influenced generations of students who were challenged and inspired by their creative, expansive approaches to teaching film and media studies. In 1974, they co-founded the journal Jump Cut, taking a political approach to critical writing on film and, later, media more broadly.
The WCFTR collection features records from their research, teaching, and creative projects, as well as their work as co-founders and co-editors of the journal Jump Cut. Materials in the collection represent the vast range of Kleinhans and Lesage’s scholarly interests, including experimental film, women/gender/sexuality in film, mass media, cross-cultural media, and much more. The collection contains clippings, publications, and notes related to their research and teaching, as well as catalogs and programs from film festivals and distributors. Flyers and brochures from screenings show how Kleinhans and Lesage’s films, which typically featured some combination of experimental, documentary, and home movie strategies, were distributed and exhibited across the United States and in Chicago in particular.
Our online exhibit about Kleinhans, Lesage, and Jump Cut highlights digitized materials from the WCFTR collection. With class syllabi, screening flyers, and Jump Cut publicity materials, the exhibit showcases different aspects of Kleinhans and Lesage’s career. It also features a few sample films by Kleinhans, courtesy of our friends at the Chicago Film Archives. Dig in and enjoy some film and media history from some of the greats!
The exhibit is part of our “Expanding Film Culture’s Field of Vision” project, which was funded by a two-year grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. The full collection is available for research at the WCFTR, and the finding aid will be online soon.