about us  

Fire Escape Films is a community of student filmmakers that seeks to increase the production of movies at the University of Chicago. Through education, experience, and collaboration with other arts organizations, it promotes creative expressions of the moving image for exhibition within the university and beyond. In the past years, Fire Escape Films has experienced huge growth and fundamental change, producing a variety of shorts every year, as well as longer-length narrative films, such as the recent 'Crime Fiction' (2006). The essence of the organization remains, however, rooted in the concept of freedom for its filmmakers, providing them with the training, equipment, and support they need to create their own films.

Fire Escape creates narrative, documentary, experimental, music video, and animated movies that are screened regularly on campus at the Max Palevsky Cinema in Ida Noyes Hall, the Film Studies Center in Cobb Hall, and other locations in and outside of campus. Fire Escape films have been featured and awarded at numerous film festivals.

To learn more about how the organization operates, please visit the FAQ section of the site. To get a sense of the types of events we sponsor, take a look at our quarterly calendar.