If you’ve spent any time in the Chicago neighborhood of Logan Square, you’ve likely come across a small tudor-style building peculiarly placed on the promenade of the square. If you aren't from the hood, you’ve likely walked past during an art installation, a zine fest, or a screening on the lawn, wondering what it was, but if you live in Logan, you are likely familiar with this neighborhood gem.
Originally constructed in the 1920’s, The Comfort Station is one of only two public transportation rest stations that still stands. It was then intended as a place to keep travelers warm, and continues its mission by bringing warmth to the public through music, art, film and community.
Last fall, I sat down with Raul Benitez, the Comfort Film Programmer to talk a little about their beloved Silent Movies and Loud Music series, which typically runs throughout August/September of every year…
Nikki: I love the history of the Comfort Station, and I love how you've embraced that and made it a place for artists, exhibitions, performances, music... there are so many programs that you offer - the Silent Films and Loud Music series has become my favorite summer happening in Chicago. I was wondering how it was conceived.
Raul: Me and the old Co-Programmer, Nando Espinosa, we were just coming up with ideas, because the previous programmer was doing screenings, but wasn't getting the film rights. When I came in, we made sure that we were able to get rights for those films to show, because you can get busted. They have busted people in the city before for showing films with no screening rights. And so, we were trying to see what we could show without having to pay for rights or as small a fee as possible. One of the ideas was to show silent films, because a lot of silent films are in the public domain.
I think it was Nando who was like, ‘Why don't we pair it with some local bands? I know some bands that might want to do it.’ So, that's how we started that off, in 2013. The first one we had was I believe this Italian film series about this strong man called Massete, and we showed the one where he goes to hell. We paired it with this DJ, called Scene Ripper. That's what kicked it off - and part of our thinking too, was that we wanted to bring in younger people to watch silent films, and this was a way to bring them in because they're coming in for the music to see a film that they've never seen before.
And, over the years we've had a lot of great interactions with audiences, because they're like, ‘I came for the band, but I've never seen this movie before. This movie is amazing.’ So, for us, it was an easy way to get younger people to come in and watch something they typically would not seek out. The music is what's bringing them in.
The irony of this, is that a lot of the stuff that we've shown in the past is getting re-shown at bigger venues. For example, the screening with Faust will be screening at The Chicago Film Society. And actually, the public radio station is doing a silent film series as well, with movies that we've already shown. But all of these venues use the traditional score. We show untraditional music, because that's what we wanted.
Nikki: It's funny that you say that the music brings in the people to see the film, because for me it does the opposite. I go to see the film, and sometimes I forget to actually pay attention to the film, because I'm in such awe of just the happening of it all, like the band and the audience. And then, I find myself diving into the bands after. So, that's really cool, too, that it goes both ways.
So, right now you're partnering with the Goethe Institut. How did that become a collaboration?
Raul: Goethe Institut actually reached out to us last year because they have this collection of German silent films, and they're like, ‘Can we collaborate? I know you guys do these outdoor screenings...’ In the past, we used to just give all the donations to the bands, but over the past four or five years, we've had enough money to pay them a stipend. The Goethe Institut agreed that if a band chooses a German silent film, they'll pay them the stipend, and they give us rights to show the film.
The way the process works for the series, is that we reach out to a band, and they agree to do it. We let them choose the film. We give them our spreadsheet of films and then we give them the German spreadsheet, and then we let them choose the movie. Whatever movie they feel fits for their music, we let them choose, and then we give them total artistic license. We don't know what they're going to play until that night. We don't ask them, ‘What are you working on?’ Nothing. We let them just do what they want to do, and then the night of the performance is when we are listening to it new, just like you guys are.
Nikki: That's another collaboration, in itself! In some way, the musicians collectively have a hand in choosing the summer series, and introducing the audience to films that many of them will be experiencing for the first time. When you seek out the musicians, they're just ones that you know personally, or how do you find them?
Raul: Yeah, you know the past, when Nando used to be a Co-Programmer, he was very locked into the local music scene, because he was a photographer for shows. So, he brought a lot of those bands in. Since he's moved on, we rely on our Music Programmer to give suggestions, or if my other two Co-Programmers know somebody, they'll just suggest some and then we just reach out. And, there's no rhyme or reason or anything, we don't care what kind of band you are. If you're interested in doing it, we'll let you do it.
Nikki: Are you open to bands contacting you if they’re interested?
Raul: Yeah, we've had bands over the years contact us. And, even some very professional bands have contacted us... there's some that tour and just do silent films. And, we had them reach out to us, but we normally don't do those, because we want local stuff. We've had a diverse lineup… We've had traditional piano music, we've had chiptune bands, which did music on Gameboys, we had a punk band do a Western, we had DJs... we had a six piece chamber orchestra once. A lot of bands take it very seriously and do their own unique score. Some bands just use what they have. One we showed Joan of Arc, and the musicians that we invited, one of them was an opera singer and he just started singing an opera song. We had no idea that he was going to do that.
Nikki: I don't remember who they were, but there was one who was performing with, I want to say… a table saw?!
Raul: I can't remember what movie that was, but yeah, that one was a cool one. We had a big turnout for that one, if I remember. Yeah, we've had really popular bands, too. We had a cyberpunk band do it, and this guy used to live across the street from the Comfort Station, and he started coming to our events, so we asked if he wanted to do it. He said yes, and when we started promoting it, people were coming to me asking, ‘How did you get this band to do this? ‘Cause they're huge in the industrial cyberpunk circuit! They did the Nosferatu screening. The name of the band is called Angel Spit. He had a QR code and they made people download an app, a music file, and everybody played the music file and it was the background noise.
Nikki: I was curious, for anyone that is not in Chicago, what advice would you have for anyone that wants to create a similar community or film series?
Raul: If you want to start your own series, just do it. Don't ask for permission, just do it. I think we got ours at Walmart for a hundred bucks. Our projector is a little bit more expensive, because it's a short throw projector, so that way I can keep it really close to the screen. But yeah, I mean - look, sometimes you have an idea and you can't get any partners. Just do it on your own, because if you wait for people, you're gonna be waiting forever. That's happened to me, where I've had an idea and nobody wanted to come on board, so I just did it myself, and then later on, people were like, ‘Oh, I would love to have been a part of this.’ In the end, if you make good work, people will notice. You know, in the past, we've won best outdoor film screenings in the city. We beat out the city's own series.
Nikki: That's amazing. Thank you for the insider info. Really love everything you guys are doing. Is there a way that the community can support you to keep this all going strong?
Raul: We offer memberships that start at five dollars, and that helps pay for all the programming and stipends in Comfort Station. We also get operational grants. This year's been tough for those kinds of grants and support. That's just across the board for every non profit these past couple years. But, just come to us for a screening or show. We have music every Thursday and then we have this, monthly art shows, and then we have a whole bunch of other stuff. I think last year we did 275 events…
The Comfort Station will be hosting their next Silent Films and Loud Music feature on Wednesday, August 27th at 8pm, showing Journey into the Night (1921) with live musical score by Chicago-based band, Ira Glass. The film is following a release party for the new anthology RED LINE: CHICAGO HORROR STORIES, which will feature readings by some of the authors and a DJ set by Plastic Crimewave (6pm).
Check out Comfort Station's other upcoming events
Thanks for reading!
