No Permit Necessary: How a Group of Loyola Grads Brought Chicago's Hidden History to Life 

By: Bora Cecia  

 

A group of Loyola graduates from the Digital Media and Storytelling master’s program came together to create the Bug House Production company and along with that produced a documentary entitled, “No Permit Necessary.”  

 

Duncan Hoag, Marina Hart Donahue, Taylor Evans Ghosal, Christina Hoffmann, Lexie Garrett, and Keagan Hynes took their passion beyond the classroom and created something of their own which is now reaching new heights of success in Chicago.  

 

Two of the co-founders Taylor Evans Ghosal (producer & script supervisor) and Lexie Garrett (editor & producer) shared their experience in an interview where they uncovered the behind-the-scenes process of simultaneously being students and undertaking the daunting task of creating a professional documentary.  

 

This project began out of the “sheer wanting to learn and be with each other and create something together that we can call ours,” Garrett said. 

 

After brainstorming topics and the team landed on uncovering the history of one of the oldest parks in Chicago. “It's Washington Square Park’s story in 14 minutes, and we're just really excited to share that story. We’re so excited that Chicago Onscreen has selected it and now it's going to a wider audience and a Chicago audience because it really is a Chicago documentary,” Gosahl said. 

 

The documentary will be screened across numerous Chicago parks as part of the Chicago Onscreen Film Showcase in late August 2024.  

 

“These students pursued this project out of passion, enterprise, creativity and collaboration. These are all important values in the program” shared DMST program director, Richelle Rogers. Professor Rogers also served as the group’s advisor as the documentary was in the works. “What makes this project so special is that it wasn’t a class assignment. This documentary was planned and executed on top of their coursework, their capstone projects and their jobs.”  

 

The filmmakers expressed gratitude for the skills, support, and advising they received ce the Loyola community. “The digital media and storytelling program at Loyola was instrumental in letting us tell the stories we wanted, showing us that you’re the person to tell the story” shared Garrett. “Once we shared with Richelle [Rogers] that we were doing this documentary there was support. Loyola just has great resources and a supportive faculty,” added Evans Ghosal.  

 

“The end result was a high-quality digital project that they could be proud of but working together to create something they collectively believed in was far more valuable to their storytelling experience” concluded Rogers.  

 

The House of Bug Production team shared their next exciting documentary project. “We are currently in post-production for our second documentary right now. It's about The Wild Mile, which is a floating eco park on the North Branch of the Chicago River. We're doing another park documentary type thing and that should be coming out sometime in the fall,” announced Garrett.  

 

Don’t forget to watch “No Permit Necessary” at a Chicago park near you! View film schedule here.