2019 Oregon Film History Conference, in pictures

This set of photos was taken by Oregon Cartoon Institute event photographer Ned Thanhouser.

One exception: Kohel Haver took the shot of Bill Plympton and Marne Lucas.

2019 oregon film history conference:in pictures from AnneRichardson11

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Founded in 2007 by Anne Richardson and Dennis Nyback, Oregon Cartoon Institute uses new media, archival film, research, networking, and cross disciplinary discussion to explore Oregon film, animation, and print cartooning history.  It has no brick and mortar presence, and always works in partnership with organizations which do.

Oregon Film History Invitational/May 8, 2015

Buster Keaton, Cottage Grove 1926 (Photo: Basil Wolverton)

On May 8, 2015, Oregon Movies, A to Z is holding a one day Oregon film history conference specifically designed for educators, historians and museum professionals.

Sheldon Renan, Pacific Film Archives 1970

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.

The conference is very low key and conversational. The point is just for people to hear about the wide variety of work being done.

Here is the list of presenters.

The day is split into two halves: Silent Era in the morning/Sound Era in the afternoon.

Silent Era

Steve Stone & Gary Lacher, authors of Theatres of Portland
Electrified, movie mad Portland: Mapping the 1910’s/1920’s streetcar/movie theater infrastructure

Gus Frederick, Homer Davenport Project
The political connections of Oregon’s first cartooning superstar, Homer Davenport, contradict his self description as “country boy”

Ben Truwe, Southern Oregon Historical Society
Voice artist Pinto Colvig, one of Oregon’s earliest pop culture practitioners, directed an early feature length animated film (now lost, save a handful of archived 35mm frames), in San Francisco in 1916

Walt Dimick, filmmaker
Second generation filmmaker/inventor Walt Dimick describes the business strategy of Norm Dimick, one of Portland’s first full time film entrepreneurs.

Lunch

Sound Era

Dennis Nyback, Dennis Nyback Film Archive
George Olsen, Del Porter, Louis Kaufman, Mel Blanc, Phil Moore (pictured above), Johnnie Ray, Jane Powell: Portland talent hits sound era Hollywood

Anne Richardson, Oregon Movies, A to Z
James Ivory & James Blue: the Third World debuts of Oregon’s first sound era directors

Sheldon Renan & Brooke Jacobson, filmmakers/educators (the above photo is of Brooke Jacobson and Bob Summers, found on Heather Petrocelli’s wonderful @ReelPDX)
Portland’s film community in 1970-71: The birth of Northwest Film Study Center

Richard Blakeslee & Tom Chamberlin, filmmakers
Teknifilm Lab nurtures the return of Portland independent film

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

It will be a whirlwind of information, but that would be the point. To bring everybody up to speed with each other’s work (in a rough way) within one day.

The conference is by invitation. It is designed for educators, historians and museum professionals.

Seating is limited.

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

 Dennis Nyback, co-founder of Oregon Cartoon Institute, will show a Portland film so rare that when we contacted the people who made it, they said it didn’t exist.

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This conference was inspired by the deluge of new information unleashed during the recent Mid Century Oregon Genius screening series which was supported by Kinsman Foundation and Miller Foundation, and fiscally sponsored by Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission.

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

Laura Berg, writer-editor
Richard Blakeslee, filmmaker
Richard Blue, James and Richard Blue Foundation
Bill Bowling, film locations consultant, founder of the Deinum Prize
David Bryant, filmmaker
Libby Burke, Bonneville Power Administration Archives
Mac Burns, Oregon Film Museum
Tom Chamberlin, filmmaker
John Concillo, Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission
Laurence Cotton, writer-filmmaker
Walt Dimick, filmmaker
Bill Failing, Oregon Historical Society
James Fox, UO Knight Library
Gus Frederick, Homer Davenport Project
Kohel Haver, Swider/Haver
Brooke Jacobson, educator
Jerry Ketel, Leopold Ketel
Gary Lacher, film preservationist
Taz Loomans, Blooming Rock
Frann Michel, Willamette University
David Milholland, Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission
Dennis Nyback, independent archivist
Elizabeth Peterson, UO Knight Library
Ingrid Renan, Exploding Green
Sheldon Renan, writer
Anne Richardson, Oregon Cartoon Institute/Oregon Movies, A to Z
Patrick Rosenkranz, author/historian
Jennifer Stoots, art historian/appraiser
Steve Stone, historian
Randall Stuart, Cerimon House
Ben Truwe, Southern Oregon Historical Society
Eric Underwood, City of Oregon City
Kate Wagle, School of Architecture and Allied Arts, UO

Thank you, all!

Harry + Homer: Mid Century Oregon Genius @ Hollywood Theatre/Jan. 16 & 17

 On Friday Jan. 16 and Saturday Jan. 17, 2015, the Mid Century Oregon Genius series returns to the Hollywood Theatre to celebrate Harry Smith (1923-1991) and Homer Groening (1919-1996).

Harry Smith was born in Portland. He grew up in Bellingham, Washington, a second generation black sheep whose paternal grandmother was a member of the most powerful family in town, the Deming family, whose Pacific American Fisheries had more than 30 canneries in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. An artist from childhood, he began making abstract animated films in San Francisco as an extension of his painting.

This screen shot of Oregon Cartoon Institute’s 2013 screening of Heaven And Earth Magic at the Hollywood Theatre was taken by Paul Wolfe.

On Jan. 16, 2015 at 7:00 PM, film historian Dennis Nyback will return to the Hollywood with his multi-projector recreation of Harry Smith’s 1962 expanded cinema masterpiece HEAVEN AND EARTH MAGIC. Using meticulous cut out animation and a sound track composed entirely of sound effects, Smith tells an eerie, austere story of a woman, a toothache and a watermelon.

After HEAVEN AND EARTH MAGIC, Mississippi Records owner Eric Isaacson and Harry Smith historian Chuck Pirtle will join Dennis Nyback onstage to discuss Harry Smith’s dual identities as collector and artist, and to explore the connection between collecting and creating.

Homer Groening, Harry Smith’s generational cohort, grew up in Albany, Oregon, and spent his entire adult life in Portland. He opened his own advertising agency in 1958, and began making award winning short art films on the side in the early 1960s.

On Jan. 17, 2015 at 7:00 PM, Mid Century Oregon Genius will present a program of Selected Short Films Of Homer Groening. Two time Oscar nominee Bill Plympton will introduce. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Lisa Groening. She will discuss her father with three people who knew him as friend, colleague and role model: Tom Shrader, Ted Mahar, and Bill Plympton.

Thank you to the Groening family for their generous loan of films for this program!

Strange but true: although their lives and career paths diverge in every other way, Harry Smith and Homer Groening were both, in the early 1960s, making non narrative experimental films. A STUDY IN WET, by Homer Groening, uses a sound track composed of found sounds of water dripping, just as the score for Harry Smith’s stop motion animated feature, HEAVEN AND EARTH MAGIC, is composed entirely of sounds taken from one (1) sound effects record.

Just as Harry Smith appropriated images from 19th century mail order catalogs to populate his dream landscape, in A STUDY IN WET, Homer Groening turns an ordinary object, his surfboard, into Japanese calligraphy.

Harry Smith and Homer Groening are a study in contrasts. One similarity: Both remained independent artists who chose their own projects, and reaped their own rewards. Since this was true for  James Blue and James Ivory, the other two filmmakers celebrated in Mid Century Oregon Genius,  it appears the independent writer-director-producer is, like wine, beer, salmon, stripping, and rain, a regional specialty.

Posters and video by Josh Winsor. Thank you, Josh.

Tickets for the Jan. 16 screening of Harry Smith’s Heaven And Earth Magic and the Jan. 17 screening of Selected Short Films Of Homer Groening are available at www.hollywood.org.

See you there!

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Mid Century Oregon Genius is supported by grants from Kinsman Foundation and Miller Foundation, and is fiscally sponsored by the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission.

The Jan. 17 screening of Selected Short Films Of Homer Groening is co-sponsored by MovieMaker Magazine.