November symposium at Rice honors a

November symposium at Rice honors a ‘True Blue’
filmmaker
…………………………………………………………………

BY ELLEN CHANG
Rice News Staff

A three-day symposium
will honor James Blue, a former Rice film professor and
the founding director of the Rice Media Center and the Southwest
Alternate Media Project (SWAMP).

Co-sponsored
by the Department of Art and Art History and SWAMP, “True
Blue: James Blue, Community Activism and the Narrative Impulse,”
begins Nov. 1. The Segal Fund in the Department of Art and
Art History, the Office of the Dean of Humanities, the Center
for the Study of Cultures, the Provost’s Office and
the President’s Office also are sponsoring the event.

The symposium
kicks off with renowned documentary filmmaker and New York
University film professor George Stoney receiving the first
James Blue Achievement Award. There also will be a public
screening of Blue’s films “The March” and
“Kenya Boran” at the Media Center.

The first night
of the symposium is dedicated to celebrating the 25th anniversary
of SWAMP. National film scholars, filmmakers and community
activists will examine Blue’s work and legacy through
paper presentations, panel discussions, community talks
and film screenings.

An Academy Award
nominee in 1969, Blue was considered to be a legendary experimental
documentary and fiction filmmaker for his films that explored
contemporary issues from a socially conscious point.

He made films
around Houston and often with his Rice students, said Hamid
Naficy, the Nina J. Cullinan Professor in Art and Art History.

“He made
them about the underbelly of Texas,” he said.

Some of the films
documented the plight of the housing conditions in Houston’s
Third, Fourth and Fifth wards, including a documentary exploring
the lack of the housing conditions in one of Houston’s
oldest neighborhoods, “Who Killed the Fourth Ward?”

He also made
a television show called “Invisible City” that
was broadcast on PBS about the tension in the poor wards
of Houston.

Blue created
the Media Center to teach filmmaking to students and also
as a venue to show films to students and the public and

Opening the door to the community to make films, Blue allowed
people to borrow film equipment and helped train them to
create films, he said.

He also tried
to cross economic and social barriers by having his students
take a van filled with films and equipment to show movies
in various parts of Houston.

Blue also made
films about global issues, including “Olive Trees of
Justice,” which received the Critics Prize at the Cannes
Film Festival in 1962. This insightful film is an even-handed
treatment of the raging conflict between the French and
Arab communities in Algeria in the 1960s.

“The March”
was Blue’s hallmark film that chronicled the monumental
1963 civil rights march in Washington. It features footage
of Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream”
speech.

One of Blue’s
television shows, “The Territory,” which showcased
local talent and art and alternative cinema, still is being
shown on PBS stations in Texas.

“He was
the seminal figure in film because he combined film production
and film studies in his own teaching and practice,”
said Naficy. “He was not just one or the other. He
also made films about locally significant issues, such as
Houston’s housing problems in the Fourth ward and global
issues in the days when globalization was not a household
word.”

Blue also founded
SWAMP to help other filmmakers receive funding for their
films. He died in 1980 after a brief struggle with cancer.

For information
about the films and events of the symposium, contact the
Media Center, (713) 348-4882, or visit the Web site, <http://ricecinema.rice.edu>,
or contact SWAMP at (713) 352-8592 or visit <www.swamp.org>.