Director’s Open House featuring Demetrius Witherspoon January 23rd, 2024
Winter Break is approaching fast, and Spring 2024 is following close behind. After you settle into the semester, stop by the BFCA to see us again! We’re hosting a Director’s Open House Tuesday, January 23rd at 11:30am in the Phyllis Klotman Classroom. Indianapolis-based filmmaker Demetrius Witherspoon will share his talk “How to Build a Sci-Fi Film Franchise on a Low Budget.” Please see the flyer for more information and join us for great conversation over great food. Make yourself at home!
Staff Updates
We are so excited to officially welcome Jason Byrne as the Project Archivist and Sarah Petras as the Assistant Project Archivist in our NEH grant-funded positions to process the Paulin S. Vieyra collection!
Jason Byrne has an MFA degree in filmmaking from California Institute of the Arts. He has been an archivist for over 11 years, which includes an audiovisual archivist position at the United Nations Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the Academy Awards archivist at the Academy Film Archive in Hollywood, and photo archivist at 20th Century Fox Photo Archive. He is also a filmmaker that highlights the archive in his experimental documentaries. In 2010, Jason was named one of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film” by Filmmaker Magazine. He also served as an adjunct professor of film history at Rice University.
Sarah Petras is a graduate assistant working on processing the Paulin S. Vieyra collection at the BFCA. She is pursuing a dual master’s degree in library science and English literature, and is hoping to pursue a career as an archivist after graduation. She is particularly interested in reparative archival work and uncovering the lives and stories told in the margins of preserved ephemera. Sarah has worked for the Lilly Library as a digitization assistant and a manuscript processing assistant.
We look forward to their work on the Vieyra collection and all that they discover and uncover, together!
In other staffing news, Amber Bertin resigned from her position as BFCA archivist. We are conducting a search to fill the vacancy. If you’re interested in applying, the archival position is now posted on the Jobs@IU website. We are currently accepting applications and are excited to welcome a new member to our team! Please click here to apply or share this opportunity with your networks!
I’m No Expert podcast features BFCA Director, Dr. Novotny Lawrence
Dr. Novotny Lawrence, the Black Film Center & Archive Director and Media School associate professor, explored important pieces of Black film history on the latest episode of ‘I’m No Expert.’
Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
Special thanks to host Avi Forrest and producer Karl Templeton. Original music was created by Avi Forrest and Natalie Ingalls.
St. Louis International Film Festival
BFCA Director, Dr. Novotny Lawrence, attended the St. Louis International Film Festival where he facilitated a screening and discussion of Pam Grier’s blaxploitation classic, Coffy (1973). Released 50 years ago, the film established Grier as a lead actor, and changed film and popular culture by ushering in women action heroes. After American International Pictures released Coffy, a host of movies and TV shows ensued, including Cleopatra Jones (1973), Get Christie Love! (1974), TNT Jackson (1974), Police Woman (1974-1978), Charlie’s Angels (1976-1981), and Alien (1979), among others. Today, Coffy’s legacy lives on in movies such as Salt (2010), Columbiana (2011), Atomic Blonde (2017), Proud Mary (2018), and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022).
PERF at the Bloomington Alternative Media Fest
Black Film Center & Archive Publications and Programming Associate, Essence London, and Student employee, Eva Stuart, created PERF, a zine geared toward IU undergraduate students. It’s colorful and scrappy, accessible, and is packed with a perfect blend of academic and fun personal information!
The first weekend in December, we shared PERF with the community at the Bloomington Alternative Media Fest. We distributed nearly 100 copies throughout the day! Monroe County Public Library, among the other participants, picked up each issue to add to their zine collections, so soon you’ll have the option to “check us out” downtown! Publications & Programming Associate Essence London also debuted her zine, How to Use Home Movies as a Rememory Tool, alongside many other awesome do-it-yourself creatives.
We invite students—and all who are interested–to use the archive for their research projects and to enjoy our amazing events! The BFCA and PERF are for everybody!
BFCA Vault Update
Throughout 2023, the BFCA archival team has been working to transfer some of our materials from our internal vault to the Ruth Lilly Auxiliary Library Facility (ALF). Located on the Indiana University campus, the ALF is a secure, climate-controlled, special storage repository that ensures that the BFCA’s collections (including film reels, videos, papers, books, and other objects) will remain at ideal conditions for long-term conservation. ALF staff can pull and deliver these items to our office by request, so they remain accessible to students and researchers for many decades to come!
This year, with the assistance of BFCA student workers Eva Stuart and Polina Saburova, the BFCA has moved over 250 film cans, 3,200 videotapes, 200 audio reels, 300 LP records, and 100 boxes of paper to the ALF.
Click here to take a virtual tour of ALF and see the picture example below.
Smile4Kime IU Cinema premiere
On November 29, Smile4Kime (2023) graced the big screen at IU Cinema! Director Elena Guzman is an Assistant Professor in the African American & African Diaspora Studies and the Anthropology departments, a fellow at the Harvard Divinity School, and a dear friend of the BFCA. In February, following the screening of Naked Acts (1996), Professor Guzman moderated a lovely conversation with the film’s director and BFCA guest, Bridgett Davis. This time, we had the opportunity to support Guzman’s work, and our very own, Essence London, led the post-screening Q&A session!
Thanks to Dr. Guzman for sharing her film to the attendees and to IU Cinema for providing the beautiful venue and amazing staff to help make the screening a success! Also, thanks to Dr. Solimar Otero and the entire Latino Studies team for the opportunity to partner with them on this event.
2023 Acquisitions
As a living and breathing archive, the BFCA regularly acquires new materials via private donations and institutional purchases. Several highlights from the BFCA’s 2023 acquisitions include:
- The Jerald Harkness Collection, comprises films, raw interviews, and outtakes from the 30-year career of IU alumnus and award-winning documentarian Jerald Harkness. Read more here.
- Nearly 300 DVDs and Blu-rays, including 35 Criterion Collection releases, including Black Girl (1966, dir. Ousmane Sembene), Buck and the Preacher (1972, dir. Sidney Poitier), and Eve’s Bayou (1997, dir. Kasi Lemmons); various rare and new commercial releases like Aaron Loves Angela (1975, dir. Gordon Parks Jr.), Just Another Girl on the IRT (1992, dir. Leslie Harris), Serigne Lambe (2009, dir. Moussa Diop), and A Thousand and One (2023, dir. A.V. Rockwell); and independent short films donated by filmmakers, such as Hadassah: Queen Esther (2021, dir. Ira Mallory) and Mino: A Diasporic Myth (2019, dir. Ashunda Norris)
- 15 born-digital AV files of shorts like Angela’s Tale (2022, dir. Deonna Weatherly), Midnight Oil (2020, dir. Bilal Motley), and Sub Eleven Seconds (2021, dir. Bafic).
- 11 bound promotional press kits and press books.
Over 15 newly published scholarly books and journals about Black cinema history, including the 3-volume African Cinema: Manifesto and Practice for Cultural Decolonization (edited by Michael Martin and Gaston Kabore) and The Othering of Women in Silent Film (by Barbara Lupack).
BGSA, BSU, & BFCA collaboration
The Black Graduate Student Association, Black Student Union, and Black Film Center & Archive collaborated to host a Black Holiday Movie Night. Students filled the room. Some students camped out with comfy blankets in the front of the room while others filled the back rows, so they could do homework and enjoy the film. Some students may argue that the best part was the movie night snacks, which included a small popcorn maker that filled the air with the best smelling (and best tasting) popcorn!
Think of us, for your next event! Email us at bfca@IU.edu with your event idea!
115th Indiana Memorial Union Board Installation
On December 8th, 2023, Ja Quita Joy Roberts was among the Board of Directors that participated in the installation ceremony for the directors that will serve for the 115th year in 2024. Congratulations to all of the directors selected! The work continues!
and IMU Administrative Representative Director
Black Camera News!!
The Black Camera staff is pleased to announce the publication of the new issue of Black Camera which features a tribute to the late Jim Brown, a peer-reviewed article, Close-Ups on The Harder They Come and Jordan Peele’s films, a new dossier by Olivier Barlet on FESPACO, as well as a new entry by Beti Ellerson in the African Women in Cinema Dossier. For more information on the contents of the new issue, please see the Table of Contents below.
Vol. 15, No. 1 Table of Contents:
Tribute
- A Tribute to Jim Brown: As Athlete, Actor, and Activist, by Joseph E. Roskos
Call for Close-Up Submissions
- “Oh, The Places It Did Go”: The Diasporic Journeys of Blaxploitation
- Revisiting Sara Gómez
Articles
- Make Way for Tomorrow: Documenting the Struggle in Madeline Anderson’s Integration Report 1 (1960), by Matthew Eng
CLOSE-UP: The Harder They Come: The Legacy Continues
- Introduction, by Allison J. Brown
- Fear, Sufferation, and Mythology in the Metamorphosis of Ivan to Rhygin, by Nicole Plummer
- The Postcolonial Jamaican Outlaw Hero in Perry Henzell’s The Harder They Come, by William A. Heade
- “I wanted to combine realism with a sort of lighter touch”: An Interview with Perry Henzell, Director of The Harder They Come, by Bruce Paddington
- Casting, Music, and Logistics in The Harder They Come: A Conversation with Robert Russell, by Allison J. Brown
- A Pioneer of Jamaican Film: A Conversation with Raymond Edwards, by Alpha Obika
- Dossier: The Harder They Come, 50th Anniversary Exhibition, by Allison J. Brown
CLOSE-UP: Jordan Peele, the “Looking Trilogy”
- Introduction, by David C. Wall
- Horror and Loss in Samuel Fuller’s Shock Corridor and Jordan Peele’s Get Out, by Alice Mikal Craven
- Horrifying Whiteness and Jordan Peele’s Get Out, by Julia Mollenthiel
- Black Identity and Resistance Revisited through Jordan Peele’s Get Out and Us, by Jayson Baker
- The Work of Horror after Get Out, by Catherine Zimmer
Olivier Barlet Dossier
- FESPACO, Pt. 1: A Cinema in Response Terrorism, by Olivier Barlet
- FESPACO, Pt. 2: Women in African Cinema, by Olivier Barlet
African Women in Cinema Dossier
- “I Dared to Make a Film”: A Tribute to the Life and Work of Safi Faye, by Beti Ellerson
Review
- Book Review: Telling Migrant Stories: Latin American Diaspora in Documentary Film, by Álvaro Ibarra
- Film Review: Atlantis (2021), by Babatunde Onikoyi
Lastly, Black Camera recently made several staff changes. Allison Brown will step down as the managing editor to complete and defend her dissertation (Spring ‘24) but will remain on the editorial team while Cole Nelson will become the Managing Editor. On behalf of the editorial team, we salute Allison for her expert management of and continuing devotion to the journal and we welcome Cole to this demanding post.
Now, as always, we thank you for your support and continued participation with Black Camera. And now, we move on to Black Camera Volume 15.2!
– The Black Camera Team
Social Media Highlights
Arthur Jafa
November 30 marked the birthday of cinematographer and multimedia artist Arthur Jafa (born 1960)! As a director of photography, Jafa helped construct the iconic visuals of Spike Lee’s Crooklyn (1994) and Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust (1991), the latter of which Jafa shot Spike Lee’s despite having never previously worked with a 35mm camera. More recently, Jafa has shot or co-directed music videos for Jay-Z and Solange, in addition to pursuing his career as an experimental filmmaker, visual essayist, and collage artist. Jafa continues to examine race relations and expand Black cinematic offerings in shorts like Slowly This (1985), Dreams Are Colder Than Death (2014), Love Is the Message, the Message Is Death (2016), and The White Album (2018).
(Headshot by Jindřich Nosek in 2019; 35mm screenshot from Daughters of the Dust and VHS screenshot from Slowly This from the Black Film Center & Archive’s General Collection)
Sammy Davis, Jr.
On December 8, we recognized the birthday of legendary actor/singer Sammy Davis, Jr. (1925-1990)! One of the most popular American entertainers of the latter half of the 20th century, Davis helped break the color barrier in the film, TV, stage, and recording industries. His career spanned six decades during which he appeared in films such as Rufus Jones for President (1933), Anna Lucasta (1958), Porgy & Bess (1959), Ocean’s 11 (1960), A Man Called Adam (1966), and The Cannonball Run (1984).
(Headshots, including autographed portrait, from the Black Film Center & Archive’s Mary Perry Smith Collection; lobby card for Convicts 4 and 16mm screenshot from Porgy & Bess from the BFCA General Collection)
In Memoriam
Andre Braugher
The Black Film Center & Archive remembers beloved character actor Andre Braugher (1962-2023), who passed on December 11 at age 61. A veteran of film and TV for over 30 years, Braugher’s film credits include Glory (1989), The Tuskegee Airmen (1995), Get on the Bus (1996), and She Said (2022). He won wider recognition for his extensive television work as Det. Frank Pembleton on Homicide: Life on the Street (1993-98) and Captain Raymond Holt on Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013-21). Our condolences to his loved ones.
(DVD screenshots from The Tuskegee Airmen (1995) and 10,000 Black Men Named George (2002) from the BFCA General Collection)
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