A NICE PLACE TO LIVE (1974, Maria Moraites, 55 min)
Presented by Chicago journalist Natalie Moore and followed by a post-screening conversation.Maria Moraites’ documentary A Nice Place to Live (1974) examines neighborhood roots, property values, urban revitalization, gentrification, and race relations from the perspectives of both well-established and incoming residents of Chicago’s Austin community area. Her observations come amid a rapid demographic turnover propelled by the Federal Housing Authority, real estate interests, mortgage lenders, and insurance companies’ redlining and blockbusting tactics imposed upon the neighborhood through the early 1970s. Moraites says of the film, “It was a labor of love to document how both the lives of White and Black people were impacted by outside interests. This, of course, is not unique to Austin”.
Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 6:30pm
A NICE PLACE TO LIVE (1974, Maria Moraites, 55 min)
Presented by journalist Natalie Moore and followed by a post-screening conversation.Wednesday, September 23, 2026 at 6:30 pm
MI RAZA: PORTRAIT OF A FAMILY (1972, Susan Stechnij, 30 min)
Presented by journalist Alexandra Salomon and followed by a post-screening conversation with director Susan Stechnij.Wednesday, October 7, 2026 at 6:30pm
STREET SIGNS: HISPANIC MURALS IN CHICAGO (1990, Susan Dobinsky & Julia Kurtz, 30 min)
Presented by journalist Alexandra Salomon and followed by a post-screening conversation with director Susan Dobinsky, artist Sandra Antongiorgi, and photographer Ivan Justiniano.Wednesday, October 14, 2026 at 6:30pm
BURNT ORANGES (2005, Silvia Malagrino, 90 min)
Presented by Nissa Rhee, journalist and cofounder of Borderless Magazine, and followed by a post-screening conversation with director Silvia Malagrino.
Presented by Chicago journalist Natalie Moore and followed by a post-screening conversation.Maria Moraites’ documentary A Nice Place to Live (1974) examines neighborhood roots, property values, urban revitalization, gentrification, and race relations from the perspectives of both well-established and incoming residents of Chicago’s Austin community area. Her observations come amid a rapid demographic turnover propelled by the Federal Housing Authority, real estate interests, mortgage lenders, and insurance companies’ redlining and blockbusting tactics imposed upon the neighborhood through the early 1970s. Moraites says of the film, “It was a labor of love to document how both the lives of White and Black people were impacted by outside interests. This, of course, is not unique to Austin”.
ABOUT THE INSIDE/OUT SERIES
Displacement implies a concept of home. At its best, home is a place where love, belonging and safety comfortably reside.Chicago Film Archives presents Inside/Out: Stories of Origin and Dis/Placement, a series of four extraordinary films made by four Chicago-based women who by nature are adventurous, deeply curious, and brave. They are also mostly unheard of until now. The concept of “displacement” is securely embedded in each of their stories, whether it resides within the communities they film or within their own lived experience. Although each filmmaker offers a narrative distinctly different from the others, individuals’ efforts to survive and adapt to displacement run constant through all of their films.To better understand the effects of displacement, it may be useful to consider the concept of home: What does it mean to “feel at home”? Is “belonging” synonymous with “home”? Is having a sense of “home” essential to the well-being or understanding of self? Does “home” reside in a structure, a person(s), a country or a culture? What might be lost or gained when one is displaced? To explore these concepts and considerations, Alexandra Salomon, Senior Editor with Chicago Public Media, Nissa Rhee, cofounder of Borderless magazine and a seasoned writer, editor and entrepreneur in the field of journalism, and Natalie Moore, a Chicago-based journalist and author of The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation, will facilitate conversations around these four films and how “displacement” and its consequences are woven throughout lives in each story.PROGRAMS IN THIS SERIES
All screenings will take place in The Sanctuary at the Epiphany Center for the Arts (201 S Ashland Ave in Chicago).Admission is FREE.Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 6:30pm
A NICE PLACE TO LIVE (1974, Maria Moraites, 55 min)
Presented by journalist Natalie Moore and followed by a post-screening conversation.Wednesday, September 23, 2026 at 6:30 pm
MI RAZA: PORTRAIT OF A FAMILY (1972, Susan Stechnij, 30 min)
Presented by journalist Alexandra Salomon and followed by a post-screening conversation with director Susan Stechnij.Wednesday, October 7, 2026 at 6:30pm
STREET SIGNS: HISPANIC MURALS IN CHICAGO (1990, Susan Dobinsky & Julia Kurtz, 30 min)
Presented by journalist Alexandra Salomon and followed by a post-screening conversation with director Susan Dobinsky, artist Sandra Antongiorgi, and photographer Ivan Justiniano.Wednesday, October 14, 2026 at 6:30pm
BURNT ORANGES (2005, Silvia Malagrino, 90 min)
Presented by Nissa Rhee, journalist and cofounder of Borderless Magazine, and followed by a post-screening conversation with director Silvia Malagrino.
