In the field of moving image archiving, lost films are not uncommon. This issue is especially pervasive in Black cinematographic culture due to the difficulties in accessing cameras, films, and archives to preserve the work created by filmmakers. These films, created by and about Black people of color, represent the history experienced through the eyes… Read more »
Entries by BFCA
New Black Camera Call for Submissions: SELMA Close-Up
Black Camera has announced a new call for submissions for a Close-Up section on Ava DuVernay’s film, SELMA: Close-Up: Selma: The Historical Record and the American Imaginary The 2015 release of the Oscar-nominated film Selma, directed by Ava DuVernay, offers the opportunity to revisit not only the significance of the historical figures and events depicted… Read more »
Q&A with OUT IN THE NIGHT’s Blair Dorosh-Walther and Giovanna Chesler
A year after its momentous world premiere at LA Film Festival, Blair Dorosh-Walther’s courageous documentary OUT IN THE NIGHT will kick off the new season of PBS’s landmark independent documentary series POV on June 22, 2015. OUT IN THE NIGHT follows four young African American lesbians who maintain their innocence following a homophobic attack in… Read more »
BLACK CAMERA Vol. 6, No. 2 Now Available
The latest issue of Black Camera: An International Film Journal is now available in print and online from the Indiana University Press. The Spring 2015 issue includes two Close-ups: One on John Akomfrah and the Black Audio Film Collective, from guest editors Matthias De Groof and Stéphane Symons, featuring articles by Stoffel Debuysere, Kobena Mercer,… Read more »
One People: Experiencing Media as Love Letter in Jamaica
“Media offers the means and material of an imagined community…Motion pictures coming out of Jamaica…convey content as they catalyze an imagined family reunion. ” – Terri Francis This week, Shadow and Act revives IU professor Terri Francis’s earlier essay, “Slow Jam, Experiencing Media as Love Letter in Jamaica or What I thought of the ‘One People’… Read more »
Celine Sciamma's GIRLHOOD at the IU Cinema this week, May 28-30
Girlhood is a mesmerizing exercise in the enlightenment that can happen when a filmmaker shifts the male cinematic gaze ever so slightly and uncovers what looks like a whole new world.”–Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post Director Celine Sciamma calls Girlhood (original title: Bande de Filles) the conclusion of her unplanned coming-of-age trilogy, following her 2006… Read more »
New IU Summer Research Fellowship Now Available through the Institute for Advanced Study
The Indiana University Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) has announced its Summer Research Fellowship, a new program offered in partnership with repositories on the Bloomington campus. The Black Film Center/Archive is pleased to be among the partner repositories for this program. Beginning in Summer 2015, IAS will fund a short-term Summer Research Fellowship for a… Read more »
Job Posting: Project Archivist, IU Black Film Center/Archive
13755 – Project Archivist, Communication and Culture (Black Film Center/Archive), Indiana University – Bloomington The Indiana University Black Film Center/Archive (BFCA) seeks qualified candidates for the position of Project Archivist. SUMMARY: Reporting to the Archivist and Head of Public and Technology Services, the Project Archivist will provide support for the project, Richard E. Norman and… Read more »
DVD Spotlight: Stanley Nelson's "Freedom Summer"
“The documentary is not only inspiring and instructive, it holds surprises even for those who believe they know this epochal American story.” – 2014 Peabody Awards The Murder of Fred Hampton, Howard Alk’s 1971 portrait of the Black Panther leader’s last days, turned Stanley Nelson onto the power of documentary as a tool to reach… Read more »
Ava DuVernay's SELMA Now Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Ava DuVernay’s acclaimed 2014 film Selma releases on DVD and Blu-ray today. The high-profile film garnered considerable attention for its complex account of the debates and strategies that led to the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, and for its humanizing portrait of its leaders, with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (played by David Oyelowo)… Read more »