Media in the Movies: ‘The Times of Bill Cunningham’

The Times of Bill Cunningham photo

The Chicago Headline Club is proud to partner with the Gene Siskel Film Center for our Media in the Movies series.

The documentary this month is: “The Times of Bill Cunningham,” about the iconic New York Times street photographer and fashion historian.

For Feb. 28-March 12, Headline Club members using the code GSFCPARTNER (note: all caps, no spaces) will pay $7 instead of $12 per ticket, available for purchase either online or in-person at the Gene Siskel Film Center box office.

Synopsis:
This chronicle of the creative journey of New York Times “On the Street” photographer and fashion historian Bill Cunningham (1929-2016) might well bear the alternate title “Tales of Lost New York.” The evolution of the city as the cradle of great personalities, fascinating eccentrics, and true originals is compellingly woven through Cunningham’s story, based on an extended 1994 interview conducted by director Bozek. Following a conservative Catholic upbringing in Boston, where he was distracted in church by the ladies’ hats, Cunningham was transplanted to the city he came to love with a passion, along with anything and everything that signaled personal style. Ensconced in one of the famed Carnegie Hall studios, he went from milliner to the likes of Ginger Rogers and Marilyn Monroe to journalist, becoming a self-taught photographer after the gift of a small camera opened up the world of street style. Although shy and self-effacing, no one drops names and tells stories quite like Cunningham. Names like Marlon Brando, Leonard Bernstein, Jacqueline Kennedy, Diana Vreeland, Liza Minnelli, Andy Warhol, Balenciaga, and Dior roll off his tongue, accompanied by hundreds of stunning and essential candid photos, many never made public during his lifetime.

Showtimes vary through the run.

Where:
Gene Siskel Film Center
164 N State St.
Chicago, IL 60601
(312) 846-2800
https://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/

Get your tickets online here.

Trailer: