Renée Baker visits and shines a light on multitalented composer Phil Moore
From May 16-20, the BFCA was honored to welcome back acclaimed composer Renée Baker onsite at our office. Ms. Baker spent the week researching hundreds of original musical manuscripts, correspondence, and other materials from our Phil Moore Collection, named after the prolific musician who was the first Black composer contracted to a major Hollywood studio. As Ms. Baker powerfully reflects on the visit, Phil Moore was an under-acknowledged Renaissance man of American popular music throughout the 20th century, mentoring and collaborating with an array of superstars that includes Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, The Supremes, Aretha Franklin, Quincy Jones, Diahann Carroll, and many, many others.
BFCA staff thanks Ms. Baker for her visit and efforts to shine more light on the career and legacy of an unjustly forgotten talent. Check out her new blog post and learn more about the life of Phil Moore in this 2017 post by Elijah Pouges.
The BFCA is thrilled to welcome Essence London to our team!
Essence has an MFA in Creative Writing and is currently studying home movies and mythmaking at the IU Media School. After writing for the BFCA blog in the past, she is excited now to collaborate on programming alongside Dr. Akin Adesokan. Keep an eye out for her name in literary magazines and film credits–she’s hard at work on upcoming projects!
Stéphane Vieyra discusses the legacy of Paulin Vieyra in MoMA interview
In summer 2021, the BFCA acquired the personal papers of pioneering Senegalese filmmaker and writer Paulin S. Vieyra, courtesy of a generous donation by his youngest son Stéphane Vieyra. BFCA staff continue to do the considerable work of cataloging this collection for future researcher access. This past month, Stéphane was interviewed by Josh Siegel, film curator, and Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi, Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, in advance of the museum’s May 14 & 16 screening of Vieyra’s landmark film Afrique sur Seine (1955). Stéphane reflects on his father’s legacy and the challenges faced by postcolonial African filmmakers. Read the full interview here!
Social media highlights
Kathe Sandler
On May 11, we wished a happy birthday to educator, scholar, and Guggenheim award-winning filmmaker Kathe Sandler, born in 1959! Dr. Sandler’s film work includes Remembering Thelma (1982), a portrait of silent film comedian Thelma Hill, and A Question of Color (1992), a pioneering documentary exploring attitudes about hair texture, skin color, and personal appearance within African American communities. Dr. Sandler donated her original production negatives and interviews from both films to the Black Film Center & Archive in 2010, where they remain preserved as time capsules of Black perspectives on self-appearance and identity in the last decades of the 20th century.
(Photo credit: Keith Bedford via Getty Images, 2003)
Annazette Chase
On May 20, we wished happy birthday to actress Annazette Chase, born in 1943! Over her 16-year film career from 1966 to 1982, Ms. Chase starred in multiple Blaxploitation releases now recognized as high-water marks of the period, including The Mack (1973), Truck Turner (1974), and Black Fist (1974). In 1977, she appeared opposite Muhammad Ali in his self-starring biopic The Greatest, where she played his wife Belinda Boyd.
(The Mack promotional photo from the BFCA African American Contributions to Film Collection; The Greatest promotional photo from the BFCA General Collection.)
Pam Grier
On May 26, we wished a happy birthday to the legendary Pam Grier, born in 1949! Ms. Grier cemented a reputation as one of film history’s great action stars during an extraordinary run of Blaxploitation roles throughout the 1970s, including Cool Breeze (1972), Black Mama White Mama (1973), Coffy (1973), Scream Blacula Scream (1973), Foxy Brown (1974), Sheba, Baby (1975), Bucktown (1975), and Friday Foster (1975). She has continued to work steadily in the industry since the 1980s, taking a high-profile star turn in Jackie Brown (1997) and recurring cast roles in series like Miami Vice, The L Word, and Smallville.
(Publicity photo from the Mary Perry Smith Collection; posters from the BFCA General Collection.)
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