The late Chicago AIDS activist Danny Sotomayor didn’t just open doors at City Hall. He was also a political cartoonist and an organizer who used civil disobedience to wage war on city officials marginalizing the LGBTQ+ community.
Documentary
While modern pro baseball draws its players from all over the globe, America’s pastime wasn’t always so diverse. The new documentary “The League” gives an in-depth look at how Black baseball players and the Negro Leagues forever changed the game.
Amid the chaos that characterized the last decades of the Robert Taylor Homes in Bronzeville, an ambitious early education program helped the children who lived there flourish.
“Surviving R. Kelly Part III: The Final Chapter” is a two-part look at the legal fallout Kelly has faced.
Through interviews with his grandfather and others who lived through the neighborhood’s rise and fall, filmmaker Steven Walsh shows what he says is the forgotten story of the area in his documentary “Southeast: a City Within a City.”
September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month — a time professionals and community voices raise awareness of this stigmatized, and often taboo, topic. A new film explores powerful stories of those impacted by suicide and takes viewers to the front lines of research with scientists whose work is leading to better prevention and treatment.
After the sudden, unexpected death of her husband, Scott, Naperville resident Sarah Potter has made it her mission to complete his documentary about a rare but serious neurologic condition that can cause paralysis while also exploring her own loss and a future she never imagined.
At an early age he identified himself as “The Greatest” and backed up his words inside and out of the boxing ring. Filmmaker Ken Burns joins “Black Voices” to discuss the sweeping new four-part documentary “Muhammad Ali.”
He was bigger than boxing and larger than life — a true icon of the 20th century. Filmmaker Ken Burns and Donald Lassere of the Chicago History Museum join us to discuss the sweeping new four-part documentary on the life and legacy of Muhammad Ali.
Walter McCrone championed the light microscope — and used it to analyze art world treasures and frauds. The late scientist is featured in the recently released Netflix documentary series “This Is a Robbery” and appeared years ago on WTTW’s “The New Explorers.”
The Chicago nightclub helped launch the early careers of music and comedy acts like Barbra Streisand and Richard Pryor, while achieving status from established jazz artists such as Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn, who both recorded live albums at the Rush Street venue.
Journalist and activist Ida B. Wells took great risks to expose the horrors of racism and fight injustice through her investigative writings. Wells’ life and groundbreaking work are the subject of a new WTTW Chicago Stories documentary airing Friday.
The life of the Oak Park native is the subject of Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s newest PBS documentary. The six-hour, three-part series explores the writer’s complex life behind the carefully cultivated public image as well as his influence on generations of writers who followed him.
Premiering Tuesday, a new documentary from WTTW senior producer Daniel Andries analyzes how reporters, producers and staff at WTTW News adapted to report the story of a year unlike any other.
“The Last Dance” was filled with hot dishes about Michael Jordan’s time with the six-time champion Chicago Bulls. Now, some proceeds from the Emmy-winning documentary will go toward hot dishes for the nation’s hungry.
For more than a year, documentary filmmaker Steve James and his collaborators fanned out across Chicago at a pivotal moment. James tells us about the resulting five-part series that premieres this week on NatGeo and Hulu.
