Harry Mantel’s Vignettes: Art Fair
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Footage of goods for sale, vendors, shoppers, and ambiance at an art fair on a sunny morning in a Chicago-area suburb. The soundtrack is a '60s pop ballad, "Water Color Days" by Bobby Goldsboro. Most colors have faded, except magenta and some yellows.
Credits
Harry Mantel (filmmaker)
Complete catalog record
Date: circa 1970
Cfa collection: Harry Mantel Collection
Notes: Begins with close-up shots of crafted goods — a hanging macrame pot-holder, a woven rug, an abstract painting. A young man and woman in sunglasses examine a print. A shot from waist-level of members of the public milling about. A sequence of close-ups of people of different ages, races, genders, some smiling at and aware of the camera, others shot candid, from a distance, one child seen blowing up balloons with gusto. A vendor, a man in his thirties, is relaxing in a lawn chair next to his booth, shirt barely buttoned. An old woman gives a child a peck on the cheek. A painting with a prize ribbon, shown in a medium shot, then a close-up on the ribbon. A close-up of a clay sculpture with an artfully misshapen face. This film contains impressionistic close-up shots of balloons, flowers, and other bright and cheery things interspersed throughout, often dissolving into shots of people or crowds of people. Many shots emphasize crowds and people in motion and at leisure, and the faces of children.
Subjects: Flea Markets; Art
Places: North America > United States > Illinois
Language: English
Cfa elements: Print, 115 feet; Distribution Print, 115 feet
Cfa records: https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objects/6622; https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objects/16659
Cfa collection: Harry Mantel Collection
Notes: Begins with close-up shots of crafted goods — a hanging macrame pot-holder, a woven rug, an abstract painting. A young man and woman in sunglasses examine a print. A shot from waist-level of members of the public milling about. A sequence of close-ups of people of different ages, races, genders, some smiling at and aware of the camera, others shot candid, from a distance, one child seen blowing up balloons with gusto. A vendor, a man in his thirties, is relaxing in a lawn chair next to his booth, shirt barely buttoned. An old woman gives a child a peck on the cheek. A painting with a prize ribbon, shown in a medium shot, then a close-up on the ribbon. A close-up of a clay sculpture with an artfully misshapen face. This film contains impressionistic close-up shots of balloons, flowers, and other bright and cheery things interspersed throughout, often dissolving into shots of people or crowds of people. Many shots emphasize crowds and people in motion and at leisure, and the faces of children.
Subjects: Flea Markets; Art
Places: North America > United States > Illinois
Language: English
Cfa elements: Print, 115 feet; Distribution Print, 115 feet
Cfa records: https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objects/6622; https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objects/16659
Sources
- Chicago Film Archives · record ↗ — title, year, creator, length, format, color, sound, genre, description, credits, catalog record
Record added 2026-11-08 21:25:09