Carl and Anna live together. Carl has just been fired from yet another job, and is trying to pursue his chances as a boxer. Anna his girlfriend is trying to support him, even though she has very little faith in his boxing or boyfriend skills. She tries to balance her dreams and desires with what she wants and what is good for the both of them. A life altering boxing match changes the balance of things and they must decide what matters most.

Virginia wants to move to the big city from Indiana. Her high school sweetheart Charlie wants something else for the both of them. After they decide to go their separate ways, fate intercedes to bring them back together in a different way. This story deals with the current political landscape and makes a statement about the price of war.

Barbara is a landlady who spends her days alone and meddling in the lives of her tenants. Until one day when she meets a handsome stranger who wants to rent a storefront from her to stage his play “Chicago Poems”. What looks promising as a romance runs into the foibles of the human heart. Can we change ourselves enough to be happy, or are we destined to repeat the same old mistakes.

All three stories play out in the underground of Chicago. This is the real Chicago, its, streets, its buildings, its music, its heart. Filmed in and around the neighborhood where Carl Sandburg wrote “Chicago Poems”

Combining the intimate aesthetic of Dogme 95 style production, mixed with edgy, black and white photography, Chicago Poems has a look all its own. It features an original score which also gives it a mood of the underground. The story is an interesting mixture of realism and classic character study. Expectations are flipped on its head as a quirky, humorous set of characters play out their own personal drama in relation to the world of the film. Shot in Digital Photography, the producers wish to blur the lines of new media.