(Re)Focus: Black America 1968 and 2018

The BFC/A explores race, film, and campus life in collaboration with Indiana University Archives, IU Libraries Moving Image Archive, and Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Library. Our event on Oct. 24 starts at 6 pm with conversation and artifacts from IU’s 1968 Focus: Black America program then moving on to screen two films on race and education.  (Re)Focus: Black America 2018 is supported by an Indiana Humanities grant. The interactive exhibition, screenings and post-film discussions take place in Wells Library 048, the IULMIA Screening Room.

(RE)FOCUS: Black America 2018 revisits and re-examines the content, archival material, and public reception of FOCUS: Black America, a year-long program of screenings, lectures, and courses that Indiana University administrators, faculty, and students organized in 1968.

Students, Faculty, Librarians and Archivists from University Archives, the Black Film Center/Archive, the Moving Image Archive, and the Neal-Marshall Black Cultural Center will showcase materials related to the original 1968 event and early 1970s IU history in an open-door archive.

Wednesday, October 24, 2018 in Wells 048

6:00 PM Open-Door Archive

6:30 PM Heritage of the Negro (1965)

7:00 PM Facing the Façade (1994) with director IU Alum Jerald Harkness present.

Following interactive sessions with these materials, the BFC/A will host a screening of the short educational film HERITAGE OF THE NEGRO, 30 min. (1965), narrated by actor, activist, and director Ossie Davis.

Part of a film series from the original Focus 1968 program, HERITAGE opens with scholars, writers, and artists who unpack the film’s title and reflect upon the educational experiences they received in the 1950s and 1960s.

Fast forward to IU in the early 1990s, with a screening of the documentary FACING THE FAÇADE 55 min. (1994). Directed by IU alumnus, Jerald Harkness, the film features interviews with African American students about their education. Harkness will be present to discuss the film.