Friday 9/20 – Thursday 9/26
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Railway enthusiast Ray DeGroote took his first trip to Cuba in 1956. He vowed to return, but not until it was again legal to do so. That was in April of this year, when he and a group from the Central Electric Railfans Association were granted permission to go there and track down old American steam engines. “Life there seems to have in some respects stood still,” says the retired international freight transportation manager. On both visits, he saw equipment that was used in the U.S. in the 1920s and ’30s. It’s “still running, but not too well.” Most of what he saw this time around was of a more recent vintage–the 1950s and ’60s–“but even with the greatest of care, it begins to wear out.” Off the rails, there were some changes, though. “Health and education are much better than they were before. On a passenger train I sat next to a ten-year-old boy who spoke a little English. I had a map of the Cuban railway and he could read it. He was obviously very well educated. But unfortunately other things have gotten worse. Many buildings are in decay–it gets overwhelming at times. And we haven’t helped with the embargo.” He’ll show slides from both trips tonight at a meeting of the Railroad Club of Chicago. It’s at 7:30 in the Chicago Temple’s Pierce Hall, 77 W. Washington. A $3 donation is requested (847-251-2262).
21 SATURDAY Blurring the line between fiction and reality, Abel Ferrara’s disturbing 1993 movie Snake Eyes stars Harvey Keitel as the director of a film within a film, with Madonna as his leading lady. It was recut, sanitized, and renamed Dangerous Game for American audiences; Norman Mailer called the result a “bad, hysterical, messed-up film.” Ferrara, perhaps best known for 1992’s Bad Lieutenant, will discuss his oeuvre today at 1 at a two-hour workshop sponsored by Independent Feature Project/Chicago at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State. It’s $10, and reservations are recommended (312-435-1825). At 7:45 he’ll introduce his own uncensored print of Dangerous Game at the Film Center; admission is $8 (312-846-2800). Afterward there will be a free opening reception for an exhibit of artwork by Nancy Ferrara (Abel’s ex-wife, who also appears in the film) at David Leonardis Gallery, 1346 N. Paulina (773-278-3058).
25 WEDNESDAY In the 1950s Alice Peurala worked the swing shift at U.S. Steel to support her daughter and in 1979 became the first woman president of a United Steelworkers of America local–Local 65 at the South Works plant on 83rd Street, which closed a few years later. The writers of the multimedia performance piece Women of Heart and Steel interviewed Peurala’s daughter as part of their research; they also spoke to those who knew the other women profiled in the piece–labor organizer Florence Criley and labor and civil rights leader Sylvia Green Woods. The show, sponsored by the Working Women’s History Project, will be presented tonight at 7:30 as part of the Chicago Labor and Arts Festival. It’s at the Guild Complex at the Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division; tickets are $5, $3 for students. Call 773-227-6117.
