Local experimental filmmaker Thomas Comerford contemplates Rogers Avenue, a street on Chicago’s north side that once marked the dividing line between Native America and the Northwest Territory of the United States. In his 42-minute film, mundane street scenes are juxtaposed with leafy parks and historic plaques to mimic the encroachment of white civilization on Indian lands and culture, while offscreen narrators read the testimony of pioneers and their indigenous neighbors. Also screening is Comerford’s Land Marked/Marquette (2005, 23 min.), another exercise in subtle revisionism that suggests French explorer Jacques Marquette is no better remembered today than the Indians he encountered along the Chicago River in 1674.
The Indian Boundary Line
0 hour 42 min