The late UO alumnus James Blue, an independent filmmaker renowned for his socially engaged documentaries and teaching, will be honored with a six-month tribute to his career.
The tribute will kick off Nov.13 and Nov. 14 with Schnitzer Cinema’s presentation of Blue’s ”The March.” The screening event includes remarks from Gerald O’Grady, visiting scholar and former colleague of Blue, and UO journalism professor Daniel Miller who will present Blue’s classic 33-minute film in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington.
The screening of “The March,” is Wednesday, Nov. 13, at 7 p.m. and Thursday, Nov. 14, at 4 p.m., at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Cost is free to JSMA members and $5 for general admission.
Fifty years ago, Blue directed a team of 14 sound and camera operators in documenting the landmark civil rights event, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his legendary “I Have a Dream” speech.
Blue wrote and narrated the script and edited the footage, producing, in the words of preservation specialist Christina Kovac of the National Archives, “a visually stunning, moving, and arresting documentary of the hope, determination, and camaraderie embodied by the demonstration.”
The film won acclaim at international film festivals, including Bilbao and Venice, and was named to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2008.
“James Blue’s commitment to making film and television more democratic, accessible and socially engaged has inspired many respected filmmakers who studied with him or simply viewed his important works,” said Herskowitz. “He deserves greater recognition, beginning in Oregon at the university and state where his remarkable career was launched.”
Born in 1930 in Oklahoma, Blue moved to Portland in 1942 and attended the University of Oregon from 1948 to 1953. He received a bachelor’s degree in Speech and Theater. After two years of military service, he returned to UO for an master’s degree in Theater, and received a scholarship to complete his studies at the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC) in Paris from 1956-58.
Blue was a filmmaker and an educator who taught filmmaking at the American Film Institute; was a member of the faculty at UCLA where his students included Francis Ford Coppola, Paul Schrader, and Joan Churchill; co-founded the Rice University Media Center; and taught in the Media Study Program at the University of Buffalo.
The series of UO events to honor Blue will culminate in April 2014 with the Cinema Pacific film festival and the UO School of Journalism and Communication’s “What is Documentary?” conference.
Cinema Pacific and the JSMA’s James Blue Tribute is supported by a JSMA Academic Support Grant and is cosponsored with the Clark Honors College, UO Libraries, and the UO Cinema Studies Program.