ITC presents Black History Month film festival
(Feb. 2, 2004)--The Institute of Texan Cultures (ITC) celebrates Black History
Month (February) with a festival of films from the Tyler, Texas Black Film
Collection, a discussion of black filmmaking and the Black History Homework
Depot for students.
The Tyler, Texas Black Film Collection, a series of films featuring black
actors, producers and directors, was locked in a Tyler warehouse and forgotten
for nearly half a century. The feature-length "race films," newsreels
and shorts are entertaining and historically significant. Earley B. Teal and
Mary Grace Ketner will provide insight and context as they co-host screenings
of six of the classic films from the 1930s and 1940s.
The film festival at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings in
February includes:
The documentary, "A Century of Black Cinema," will be shown each
week in February at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, and Sunday
at 2 p.m.
"Fast Forward, Rewind…Focus on Films" will be presented at
1 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 21. Carol Adams-Means, UTSA professor of communication,
will lead a discussion on the history of black filmmaking. The discussion
is included with admission and is free with a come-back coupon from the film
series.
According to the Handbook
of Texas Online, in the summer of 1983, the last remaining film prints
of more than 100 works in the original 35-millimeter format made between the
1920s and the early 1950s were found in a Tyler warehouse. Some of them were
intended strictly for black audiences. Though most of the films in the collection,
now dubbed the Tyler, Texas Black Film Collection, were in various stages
of deterioration from nitrate decomposition, several were restored.
Students in grades 1 through 12 can explore ITC's African-American exhibit
and utilize the adjoining Black History Homework Depot resource center in
February from 3 to 6 p.m., each Tuesday and Wednesday; 3 to 8 p.m., Thursday
and Friday; 10 a.m.-8 p.m., Saturday and noon-5 p.m., Sunday.
The Homework Depot is an extension of the ITC library which includes Black
History vertical files, historical photographs, resource books, Internet connections
and a listening center in a work area for student homework assignments, complete
with a photocopier and an ITC docent to guide students.
Free tickets can be printed from the Black History issue of the Crossroads
of Culture newsletter. Students can present the tickets with their
teacher’s signature at the ITC admissions desk.
All films are included with admission: $6.50, adults; $3, children (3-12
years); $4, seniors (65 years or older); $4, military personnel with ID; and
free for members, UTSA students and employees, and children 2 years and under.
For more information, call 210-458-2330.
--Tina Luther
Printable format
E-mail this story
RSS Feeds