ART AND PEP: Salem Film Fest

Civil rights leaders Art Johnson and Pepe Peña opened Chicago’s celebrated gay bar, Sidetrack, in 1982 as a small single storefront. Now 16,000 sq.ft., it is a pillar of Halstead Street and a community hallmark where neighbors sing show tunes on Sundays and help elect local progressives. The activist couple fought on the frontlines of the AIDS crisis, helped co-found Equality Illinois and have continued to serve as guiding lights for equal rights through the pandemic and beyond.

Filmmaker Mercedes Kane brings together a wealth of archival video footage, photographs and lively animated sequences to create a loving tribute to an iconic Chicago establishment and the generations of advocates who transformed Illinois into one of the most progressive protectors of LGBTQ+ rights in the country.

A Q&A with Director Mercedes Kane and Film Subjects Arthur Johnston and José Pepe Peña follows screening at Cinema Salem.