Scope and Contents
The James Blue papers document both Blue's professional work as a filmmaker and educator, and facets of his personal life. The collection includes production materials for Blue's films (e.g. scripts, correspondence, research and subject files, notes, and contracts); audio-visual material in a variety of formats that document produced films, personal projects, and interviews; photographs, both professional and personal; materials documenting Blue's teaching career at Rice University, the State University of New York at Buffalo, Yale, the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Houston, and the Museum of Modern Art; personal materials including correspondence, journals and notes, financial documents, contracts, and biographical material; and mementos, artwork, and ephemera.
Dates
- 1905-2014
- Majority of material found within 1960-1980
Creator
- Blue, James, 1930-1980 (Person)
Language of Materials
The majority of materials in the collection are in English. Some materials are in French.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open to the public. Collection must be used in Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room. Collection or parts of collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives in advance of your visit to allow for transportation time. Collection digital files may be requested through Special Collections and University Archives Reproductions and Permissions Request Form.
Conditions Governing Use
Property rights reside with Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries. Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs. All requests for permission to publish collection materials must be submitted to Special Collections and University Archives. The reader must also obtain permission of the copyright holder.
Biographical / Historical
James Blue was born in 1930 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and moved with his family to Portland, Oregon, in 1942. He graduated from Jefferson High School in Portland, where he participated in the Latin Club. As a teenager, he began experimenting with filmmaking with an 8mm film camera. While a student at the University of Oregon, he was active in theater and radio productions. In 1952, he produced a popular 8mm film parody of Shakespeare’s Hamlet with college friends. He earned a B.A. in Speech and Theater from the University of Oregon in 1953. He served in the Armed Forces for two years, then returned to the University of Oregon to pursue a M.A. in Theater Arts in 1955. From 1956 to 1958, he studied cinematography at the prestigious Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IHDEC) in Paris, thanks to a scholarship from the French government. At IHDEC, Blue took classes from Jean Mitry and Georges Sadoul, and alongside fellow students Costa-Gavras, Johan van der Keuken, and James Dormeyer.
Blue returned to New York in 1958 where he worked for an advertising agency producing television commercials. Two years later he left for Algeria to work with Studios Africa to produce short educational and documentary films for the Muslim population. Blue directed his only feature-length narrative fiction film Les Oliviers de la Justice (The Olive Trees of Justice) between December 1960 and September 1961 during the Algerian Revolution. Les Oliviers de la Justice won the Critics’ Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1962 and widespread recognition, including showings at the New York and London Film Festivals.
Blue’s success with Les Oliviers de la Justice attracted the attention of George Stevens, Jr., director of the motion picture service for the United States Information Agency (USIA). Blue directed several documentary films for the USIA: The School at Rincon Santo (1962), Letter from Colombia (1962), Evil Wind Out (1962), The March (1964), and A Few Notes on Our Food Problem (1968). His films for the USIA won major awards at international film festivals, including a Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and top prizes in both the Bilbao and Amsterdam Documentary Film Festivals. A Few Notes on Our Food Problem received an Academy Award nomination in 1969, and The March was selected to the U.S. National Film Registry in 2008.
In 1964, James Blue received a Ford Foundation grant to interview renowned international film directors, including Jean-Luc Godard, Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Shirley Clarke, and Satyajit Ray. The interviews were intended as research material for a book Blue planned to write on the use of nonprofessional actors in film.
While a filmmaker in residence at the Media Center at Rice University, Blue collaborated with David MacDougall to produce a feature-length film study of an African tribe for the National Science Foundation, Kenya Boran (1974). From 1976 to 1979, Blue produced Who Killed Fourth Ward and Invisible City, multi-part documentaries that examined Houston’s housing crisis, poverty, and racism. In Houston, Blue also helped create the Southwest Alternative Media Project (SWAMP), one of several U.S. regional media centers established in the early 1970s.
Blue taught filmmaking at the American Film Institute, UCLA Film School, Fordham University, Rice University, and SUNY Buffalo. He also lectured at Yale University, the British Film Institute, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
James Blue passed away on June 14, 1980 in Buffalo, New York.
Extent
191 linear feet (112 containers)
Abstract
James Blue (1930-1980) was a filmmaker and educator. The collection contains production materials, film, videotape, audiotape interviews, photographs, research materials, teaching materials, personal and professional correspondence, mementos, and news clippings.
Arrangement
Material within this collection is intellectually arranged. Any arrangement is either derived from the records' creators or custodians or from staff at the time of initial processing. It may be necessary to look in multiple places for the same types of materials.
Collection is intellectually arranged into the following series:
Series I: Films: Produced
Subseries A: A Few Notes on Our Food Problem
Subsubseries 1: Correspondence
Subsubseries 2: Contracts
Subsubseries 3: Research and Subject files
Subsubseries 4: Ephemera
Subsubseries 5: Scripts
Subseries B: Who Killed Fourth Ward?
Subsubseries 1: Correspondence
Subsubseries 2: Research and Subject files
Subseries C: A Letter from Columbia/The School at Rincon Santo
Subsubseries 1: Correspondence
Subsubseries 2: Clippings
Subsubseries 3: Research and Subject files
Subseries D: The School at Rincon Santo
Subsubseries 1: Correspondence
Subsubseries 2: Publications
Subsubseries 3: Ephemera
Subsubseries 4: Scripts
Subseries E: Amal
Subsubseries 1: Correspondence
Subsubseries 2: Scripts
Subsubseries 3: Publications
Subsubseries 4: Miscellaneous
Subseries F: The Olive Trees of Justice
Subsubseries 1: Scripts
Subsubseries 2: Research and Subject files
Subsubseries 3: Showings
Subsubseries 4: Ephemera
Subseries G: The Invisible City
Subsubseries 1: Correspondence
Subsubseries 2: Publications
Subsubseries 3: Research and Subject files
Subseries H: The March
Subsubseries 1: Correspondence
Subsubseries 2: Scripts
Subsubseries 3: Publications
Subsubseries 4: Research and Subject files
Subsubseries 5: Showings
Subseries I: Kenya Boran
Subsubseries 1: Correspondence
Subsubseries 2: Scripts
Subsubseries 3: Research and Subject files
Subseries J: Filmmaker in Residence / USIA
Subsubseries 1: Correspondence
Subsubseries 2: Contracts
Subsubseries 3: Research and Subject files
Subseries 4: Other James Blue Films - Produced
Subseries K: Dog Soldiers
Series II: Films: Not produced
Subseries A: The Midwest film
Subseries B: Watch for the Razor Act
Subseries C: Other films: Not produced
Series III: Teaching Files
Subseries A: Rice University
Subseries B: The State University of New York at Buffalo
Subseries C: Yale
Subseries D: Museum of Modern Art
Subseries E: University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Subseries F: University of Houston
Subseries G: Other teaching files
Subseries H: Articles and class materials about filmmaking
Series IV: Personal
Subseries A: Biographical material
Subseries B: Correspondence
Subseries C: Contracts
Subseries D: Financial documents
Subseries E: Journals
Subseries F: Bound volumes
Subseries G: Meeting minutes
Subseries H: Notes and writings
Subseries I: Presentations and interviews
Subseries J: Publications
Subseries K: Subject files
Subseries L: Clippings
Subseries M: Miscellaneous
Subseries N: Ephemera
Subseries O: Film showings
Series V: Film Festivals
Series VI: Audio Files
Series VII: Video
Series VIII: Photographs
Subseries A: Professional
Subsubseries 1: Film Stills
Subsubseries 2: Head shots and Publicity photos
Subsubseries 3: Other work photographs
Subseries B: Family/Personal
Subseries C: Miscellaneous
Series IX: Artwork and Ephemera
Subseries A: Artwork
Subseries B: Certificates and Awards
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Richard Blue, Gerald O'Grady, James Dormeyer, and John Ptak.
Existence and Location of Copies
Selected sound and video recordings in this collection are available as digital audio files from Special Collections and University Archives.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Anna Fleming, Oscar Melgarejo, Elizabeth Peterson, Stephanie Kays, and Rachel Lilley.
This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
Descriptive information is drawn in part from information supplied with the collection and initial surveys of the contents.
- Africa Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Audiocassettes Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Audiotapes Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Audiovisual materials Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Documentary films -- Production and direction Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Mini-DV Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Motion picture plays Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Motion picture producers and directors -- United States Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Motion pictures (visual works) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Motion pictures -- Production and direction -- United States Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Motion pictures -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Oregon -- Eugene Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Motion pictures -- United States -- History -- 20th century Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Tape reels Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- VHS Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Videotapes Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Title
- Guide to the James Blue Papers
- Status
- Revise Description
- Author
- Elizabeth Peterson
- Date
- 2015-2017
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid is written in English
Repository Details
Part of the University of Oregon Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives Repository