Tom Palazzolo Movies

A profile of Chicago's greatest Presley impersonator, Jay Elvis

Chesterton, Indiana's annual WIZARD OF OZ parade (as well as their many Oz-themed festivities) provides the backdrop for I MARRIED A MUNCHKIN, Tom...

A music and costume filled portrayal of the 1976 Gay Pride Parade by filmmaker Tom Palazzolo. All is fun and games until a bystander hurls an egg at...

VHS compilation of two Tom Palazzolo documentaries - Marquette Park (1976) and Marquette Park II (1978) - about the American Nazi party and its...

Based on a comic Heather McAdams created for the Chicago Reader, the short comedic film was made by Tom Palazzolo's 1990 film production class at the...

Lisa Gottlieb's Oscar-winning spoof of misogynist film noir.

I've always been interested in recording Chicago's history, particularly its offbeat and unofficial aspects. In a way, I consider myself a renegade...

Footage documenting a toy drive – “Toys for Tots” – held at a leather bar / motorcycle club in Chicago, called the Baton...

Hot Nasty is a humorous documentary short set entirely inside a Chicago massage parlor called Big Bertha’s. The film features interviews with...

Tom Palazzolo's rapid-fire, seemingly spontaneous documentary style captures Chicago with pizazz. For more than ten years, Palazzolo has been...

JERRY'S DELI is a testament to a bygone era when shrieking lunatics could run successful (even popular) businesses. Shot on film-stock leftover from...

Silent footage of an amateur circus performance in a backyard in the Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen in the 1980s.

"Fears and thrills... Part structure (the centerpoint): part improvisation."

Rita, a young high school student, recounts and reflects on her life in a monologue played over footage of her wandering through various beautiful...

Pigeon Lady is an observational documentary centered around the everyday comings and goings of an elderly woman in Chicago, Clara Miller. Palazzolo...

On August 13, 1969 thousands of Chicagolandians flocked to downtown Chicago to get a glimpse of the first humans on the Moon (Neil A. Armstrong,...

“(T)he difficulty with which an adult represents his own childhood--let alone another's--is the running gag of Tom Palazzolo's Caligari's Cure....

The two filmmakers use the style of direct cinema to film the Italian/Polish backyard wedding shower of a young couple, Ricky and Rocky. The pair...

Venus and Adonis offers a playful retelling of the Classical myth. Filmed at Chicago's North Avenue Beach, filmmaker Tom Palazzolo plays the handsome...