1893 Chicago’s Columbian Exposition Documentaries Accepted to Lift-Off Film Festival

1893 Chicago’s Columbian Exposition explores the World’s Fair via a collection of photos taken during the event as well as through the words and modern photography taken by Media Engineer Michael Finney. The project began in 2018 and has spread across social media networks, a paperback book with accompanying ebook and audiobook versions, and a line of merchandise.

Now the documentary film has been accepted to a film festival, the Lift-Off Global Network showcases new filmmakers in its First-Time Filmmaker Series.

Finney remarked, “Lift-Off Global Network’s collection of film festivals is an excellent opportunity for writers, actors, and directors. Giving independent producers the channels to celebrate DIY film projects of all kinds is incredible, one I’m very proud to say the 1893 Chicago’s Columbian Exposition documentary is now a part of in two categories — Features and Shorts.”

This project started when the author acquired a book of official photographs published in 1893 to document the first Chicago World’s Fair from a client that is an antiquarian book dealer. After creating a thread of images and commentary on Twitter, Finney decided to gather up the entries and attempt to craft a narrative from the individual posts. “Delving into this history has been a really organic process that I just sort of fell backwards into without the foresight to create an object with physical permanence. It’s really amazing to hold the finished products while exploring this event over the last two years”, he remarked.

Each category of the contest will be available on Vimeo which voting ending at 10pm (BST) Sunday 11th October — tickets to view each category are $15.

The documentary is available in Features for the Full Length and Program 4 for the Short Length version via the link below.

Watch the contest now: https://liftoff.network/first-time-filmmaker-sessions-september-2020/

The documentary is also available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Chicagos-Columbian-Exposition-Michael-Finney/dp/B08JCPFJ54

About Michael Finney

Michael Finney is a full spectrum content producer from the Midwest. He has explored music, audio, video, photography, and writing over a twenty year career that has taken him across the United States as well as overseas. Michael has provided the skills required for media production to a wide range of clients in many industries as an independent contractor. Additionally, he has a deep interest in technology and has worked within the telecom industry in a variety of applications.

Connect with him at: https://michael-finney.com