Oregon Film History Invitational/May 13, 2016

 

Helen Gibson in Hazards Of Helen (1915-1917)

What is the history behind, and the meaning behind, Oregon’s regional strength in creating independent film artists? Where does this longstanding strength fit within the overall intellectual and cultural identity of the Pacific Northwest?

Three examples, among many others: Dark Horse founder Mike Richardson, twelve time Emmy award winner Matt Groening, and two time Oscar nominee Bill Plympton. All three artist-entrepreneurs move between film and print cartooning/comics, and are part of the history covered in Oregon Historical Society’s upcoming exhibit, Comics City, USA, in 2016.

On Friday, May 13, 2016, Oregon Movies, A to Z presents the second annual one day Oregon film history conference.

The conference is designed to showcase the complexity and diversity of Oregon film history for educators, historians, and museum professionals.

Here is the list of the 2016 presenters.

Larry Telles/Ranch Girl On A Rampage: Helen Gibson, Hollywood’s first professional stuntwoman, performs in the 1913 Pendleton Round Up.

Writer, producer and film historian, Larry is one of the founding members of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Niles, California. He is the author of Helen Gibson: Silent Serial Queen, and serves on the board of Film Alliance Northwest.

Dennis Nyback/B. F. Shearer & Portland’s Film Row. Hollywood’s distribution infrastructure on NW 19th, which supported an analog media empire, includes a perfectly miniaturized showcase theater designed by Seattle based B. F. Shearer.

Dennis Nyback advocated for the preservation of the Seattle Film Building in 1990. His chapter, Art and Grind in Seattle, appears in From The Arthouse To The Grindhouse: Highbrow And Lowbrow Transgression In Cinema’s First Century from Scarecrow Press. Master projectionist and film archivist, he is co-founder of Oregon Cartoon Institute.

Patrick Rosenkranz/Carl Barks: The Oregon comic book auteur who invented Uncle Scrooge McDuck and inspired Robert Crumb.

One of the premier scholars of the underground comics movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Patrick Rosenkranz has been writing about comics since 1969. His Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution 1963-1975, chronicles the inception and development of the artistic revolution that changed comics forever.

 

Libby Burke, librarian & archivist/Citizen Kahn: Stephen B. Kahn at BPA.

Woody Guthrie recorded “Roll On, Columbia, Roll On” for the first time in NE Portland, just blocks from where Libby Burke supervised the restoration of the Stephen B. Kahn film (“The Columbia”) for which it was commissioned. Libby Burke, MLIS, CA, came to the Bonneville Power Administration Library from the Lyman Museum and Mission House in Hilo, Hawai’i, where she participated in the pilot project for “’Ulu’ulu: The Henry Ku’ualoha Giugni Moving Image Archive of Hawai’i.”

Lunch – on your own (Alberta is one block away)

Harry Dawson will speak about his decades long collaboration with artist Bill Viola.

Harry Dawson attended the Pacific Northwest’s first film school, PSU’s Center For The Moving Image (1969-1981). His credits as director and cinematographer include National Geographic Explorer, The Guggenheim, NBC, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Paris Opera, National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, Leverage, MOMA, Discovery Channel,  The Whitney, The Plains Indian Museum, TNT, The Getty Villa, Tate Modern, PBS, Grimm, National Portrait Gallery, Twilight. From McMinnville.

 

Richard Blue gives an update on the international search for the lost negative of James Blue’s THE OLIVE TREES OF JUSTICE (1962).

Like his older brother James Blue (1930-1980), Richard spent much of his life in working outside the USA. He worked in Eqypt, India and Bangkok, first as a political scientist for USAID and later as an officer for the US Foreign Service, retiring as Senior Foreign Service Minister Counselor. He founded the James Blue Alliance in 2013. James Blue, Oregon’s first Oscar nominated director, made films in India, Africa, and South America. A member of the founding faculty of AFI, James Blue was the founding director of Rice Media Center in Houston. Both Blues graduated from Jefferson High School. From Portland.

Mike Richardson will tell us about the transition he made from publisher to producer with DR. GIGGLES in 1992.

Graduating from PSU with a degree in art, Mike Richardson always knew he wanted to make movies. He founded  Dark Horse Comics in 1986, and in 1992 made the move from the page to the screen by co-producing a low budget thriller, DR GIGGLES, in Portland. Dark Horse Comics was now Dark Horse Entertainment. In 1994, he was an executive producer on THE MASK, starring Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz, and based on characters he had created in 1985.  A steady stream of comics, films, comics based on films, and films based on comics, followed. In 2004, HELLBOY consolidated his place on Hollywood’s A list. From Milwaukie.

Mike Richardson’s next film, THE LEGEND OF TARZAN,  opens on July 1, 2016.

We will limit the length of each presentation to leave lots of time for Q & A and discussion.

The day will be a whirlwind of information, designed to encourage open ended conversation, interdisciplinary engagement and professional networking.

It is by invitation only.

Seating is limited.

Contact me if you feel you have been left off the invitation list by mistake.

The second annual Oregon Film History Invitational is brought to you by Oregon Movies, A to Z, a project of Oregon Cartoon Institute, which in turn is fiscally sponsored by Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission, a 501 c3 non profit organization.

This year we also receive support from Oregon Film, aka the Governor’s Office of Film and Television. Thank you, Tim Williams!

Oregon Cartoon Institute/Oregon Movies, A to Z was founded to raise awareness of Oregon’s rich film, animation, and cartooning history. It has no brick and mortar presence, and always partners with organizations and institutions which do.

“Heroes are not giant statues framed against a red sky. They are people who say; This is my community, and it’s my responsibility to make it better.” Tom McCall

Thank you in advance to all our presenters!

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The second one day Oregon film history conference was made a success by the following presenters and participants.

Richard Blue, James Blue Alliance
Libby Burke, Bonneville Power Administration
Mac Burns, Oregon Film Museum
John Concillo, Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission
Harry Dawson, filmmaker
Damon Eckhoff, artist/UX designer
Bill Failing, Oregon Historical Society
Michael Friend, Columbia Gorge Discovery Center
Laurie Gabriel, filmmaker
Gretchen Gruber, writer
Abigail Howard, Bonneville Power Admistration
Brooke Jacobson, educator
Michele Kribs, Oregon Historical Society
Gary Lacher, film preservationist
Lois Leonard, filmmaker/historian
Ross Lienhart, PSU Foundation
Matt McCormick, Portland State University
Zach Margolis, animator
Tom McFadden, Oregon Film Museum
Frann Michel, Willamette
Marc Mohan, Oregonian/Oregon Arts Watch
Karen Munro, University of Oregon
Dennis Nyback, Oregon Cartoon Institute
Phil Oppenheim, Lionsgate/Comic Con
John Patterson, Willamette
Ben Popp, Northwest Film Center
Anne Richardson, Oregon Cartoon Institute
Mike Richardson, Dark Horse
Brad Robison, systems designer
Patrick Rosenkranz, writer/historian
Charlotte Rubin, Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission
Kaye Silver, Bonneville Power Administration
Khris Soden, artist
Larry Telles, writer/historian
Andreas Wallach, filmmaker
Tim Williams, Film Oregon

Thank you all!