Everyday People (1990)

JoAnn Elam's unfinished project, EVERYDAY PEOPLE (filmed from 1979 to 1990), is based on her experiences as a letter carrier for the US Postal Service in Chicago (primarily the Logan Square neighborhood). Camera in hand, Elam follows co-workers as they deliver the mail throughout various Chicago neighborhoods. Elam's construction of this film-in-progress creates a lovely cadence and rhythm that transforms the repetitive motions of the postal worker -- pushing the mail cart, carrying the bag, avoiding the dogs, opening the gates, and climbing the steps to the front door -- to something poetic yet startlingly familiar. Their stories (heard mostly in voice-over) are those of everyday people who at the time struggled with issues of race and gender in relationship to their work.