Spencer Tracy was Oscar nominated for his role as Chief Judge Dan Haywood, a fictionalized character based on James T. Brand, the Oregon judge who actually presided over the Justices Trials at Nuremberg in 1947.

James T. Brand was Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Oregon when he was tapped to travel to post -war Germany to conduct the trial of German judges who had cooperated with the Nazi regime.

From an obituary of James T. Brand:

James Tenney Brand, 77, retired Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, died on February 28, 1964, in Phoenix, Arizona, where he and his wife were vacationing. Justice Brand was born in Oberlin, Ohio, on October 8, 1886, where his father, a Congregational minister, was Oberlin College chaplain. In 1914 he received the LL.B. degree from Harvard University, and in 1916 he married the former Irene Morley, of Cleveland.
Following early private practice Justice Brand’s life became increasingly one of public service. He was city attorney of Marshfield, Oregon. In 1927 he became circuit judge in the Second Judicial District in Oregon. In 1941 he was appointed a justice of the Oregon Supreme Court and was Chief Justice, 1951-58. As a Supreme Court judge he participated in a number of important decisions. In 1947 Willamette University awarded him the Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree.
That same year he was appointed a judge in the war crimes trials in Nuremberg, Germany, and through much of the trial period he was the presiding judge. In Oregon he was a member of a gubernatorial committee to study improvement of the State’s judicial system. He earned distinction in the fields of constitutional and international law.
Following retirement from the Oregon Supreme Court in 1918, he taught constitutional law for three years at Stetson University in Florida. He also lectured in jurisprudence for a time at the University of Oregon. He was president of the Oregon Bar Association, 1934-35, and had served as a director and president of the Coos Bay National Bank. He served both Oberlin College and Reed College as trustee. He contributed significantly to many professional journals and wrote frequently for the Portland Oregonian as an editorial columnist.

James T. Brand joins an elite group of Oregonians who have inspired characters in films.

I hereby claim Judgement At Nuremberg as an Oregon film, based on the role James T. Brand played in inspiring the character of Dan Haywood, played by Spencer Tracy.

James Chasse lived independently with severe and persistent mental illness in downtown Portland. On Sept. 17, 2007, he died in the custody of Portland police.

The sound of the impact of two bodies crashing against pavement attracted the attention of diners at Bluehour. Autopsy revealed that 16 of James Chasse’ ribs had been fractured. Was it from the weight of police officer Christopher Humphreys? Or could it have been the punches and kicks, witnessed by the horrified diners, which he received once he was down?

Tasered and hog tied, Chasse lay in a pool of his own blood while cops and medics wrote up the incident. They described him to bystanders as a drug using transient with a police record. Chasse was thin and filthy, but he had no drugs in his system nor in his possession. He had no police record.

Nevertheless, in his report Officer Humphreys faithfully recorded what his imagination told him about the bleeding man hogtied at his feet. Who would object if he entered the word “transient” where he could have entered the address plainly stated on Chasse’s ID? As it turns out, Chasse’s parents took exception to having their son beaten to death in broad daylight and took the City of Portland to court.

Brian Lindstrom’s approach as a documentarian has always been to use his camera to amplify the voices of people we ignore, a self effacing tactic which showcases his ability to listen, not to speak. In Kicking and Finding Normal, he focused on people struggling with substance abuse. In Pay My Way With Stories, he followed students in a writing workshop for at risk teens. His focus was always on his subject, not on his reaction to his subject. Embracing the stripped down visual aesthetic of cinema verite, he was attentive, patient, and heroically compassionate, if a little emotionally remote.

In Alien Boy, he steps away from all that. His fury animates every frame.

Lavishly made, Alien Boy is a visually sumptuous, riveting narrative. For the first time, Lindstrom does not lead with his compassionate heart. He leads with his eye. A very smart choice. The filmmaking is so strong that by the time  (3/4 of the way in) you are watching the video surveillance footage – shot by one of those Orwellian overhead cameras in the police station – of the moments when Chasse, still hog tied and close to death, begs for water, you are in too deep to turn away. Alien Boy is a horror film in that sense.

Brian Lindstrom is furious that James Chasse died at the hands of Portland police. But he doesn’t romanticize his fury. Too canny for that! Instead, he prioritizes the storytelling. Is it possible to make a film in which a grieving mother’s tearful halting narrative is not the most heartbreaking primary source material? Grief, yes. Facts, yes. Lies, yes. Poetry (written by Chasse), yes. Lindstrom shows us everything. Stylistically, it is a tour de force.

Such focus. Such discipline!

Brian Lindstrom spent the six years which have passed since James Chasse died making a film which tells that story so powerfully it will be seen around the world. In Alien Boy, he comes into his own as an artist.

I hereby claim Alien Boy as an Oregon film, on the basis of every possible qualifying criteria.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Director: Brian Lindstrom. Cinematographer: John Campbell. Score: Charlie Campbell. Writer: Matt Davis. Editor: Brian Lindstrom. Asst. Editor: Andrew Saunderson. Animation: Andrew Saunderson. Producer: Jason Renaud.

Cast:

Randy Moe, Brian Lee, Steve Doughton, Mike Lastra, Eva Lake, Marian Drake, Betty Mayther, Rozz Rezbeck, Sam Henry, Michael Brophy, Brian Wasserman, Odette Dunbar, Yvonne Ingram, Russell Sacco, Richard Elliot, all James Chasse’s friends.

Linda Gerber and James Chasse, Sr. – James Chasse’s parents

Constance Doolan, Randall Stuart, Jamie Marquez, David Lillegaard – eyewitnesses

Matthew Charles Davis – Portland Mercury
Anna Griffin – The Oregonian

Karen Gunson, MD – Multnomah County Medical Examiner

Scott Westerman – Portland Police Association president

Tom Steenson – Chasse family attorney

Bob Joondeph – Disability Rights Oregon

Dan Handelman – Portland Copwatch

Karl Brimner – Director, Multnomah County Mental Health

Sam Adams – Mayor of Portland

Ted Wheeler – Multnomah County Commission chair

Alien Boy screens Feb. 24 – Mar. 7 at Cinema 21 in Portland, Oregon.

The first person to tell me about Oregon filmmaker James Blue was James Ivory.

Then Penny Allen told me that James Blue was the first Oregonian to take a film to Cannes. Blue was awarded the Critics Prize at Cannes  in 1962 for his first feature length film, The Olive Trees Of Justice.

I don’t know much about Blue! He grew up in Portland and graduated from University of Oregon in 1953.

Richard Engeman did a little sleuthing:

The Oregonian reported on February 1, 1953, that James Blue was starring in “Death of a Salesman” at U. of O, where he was a senior in speech. Earlier, on October 14, 1951, he was noted as the chief carpenter for a U. of O. production of “The Madwoman of Chaillot. He also won the Oregon State Broadcasters outstanding performance award, give at the U. of O. May 14, 1953 (Oregonian, May 15). There are a number of Oregonian pieces about, or mentioning him, 1962-1980. He’s buried in Willamette National Cemetery.

The Olive Trees Of Justice, Blue’s only narrative film, was based on the novel of the same name by Algerian novelist Jean Pelegri. It was shot in Algiers, with Pelegri playing a leading role in a cast of non-professional actors. The score is by Maurice Jarre.

Here’s a description from TCM.

Jean, a young Frenchman born and reared in Algiers, returns to his native land from Paris to be with his dying father. It is during the Algerian war of independence, and as Jean sits at his father’s bedside, he recalls his happy childhood in the family vineyards, where he played with French and Arab friends. Later he walks through the strife-torn Algerian streets and feels the terrible presence of war. One day his father dies peacefully in his sleep, and relatives and friends, both French and Arab, come to pay their respects. Jean has a long discussion with an Arab friend and attempts to explain why he must return to the peaceful life he has made for himself in Paris. After his father’s funeral Jean sees his normally chauvinistic aunt hasten to help an Arab boy who has been struck by a passing truck. Moved by this genuine expression of human concern regardless of nationality, Jean decides to remain in Algeria.

James Blue was born in 1930 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He arrived with his family in Portland in 1942. He was nominated for an Oscar in 1969. He died in 1980.

I hereby claim  The Olive Trees Of Justice as an Oregon film, on the basis of James Blue’s contribution as director.

“I think history was written today which will have its effect on coming generations with respect to our democracy, with respect to our ideals, with respect to the great struggle of man toward freedom and human dignity.” A. Philip Randolph

One hot August day in 1963, 200,000 American citizens traveled to Washington DC to exercise their Constitutional right to demonstrate.

The full title of the event, now known as the March on Washington, was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke. Mahalia Jackson, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Marian Anderson sang. The demonstration was covered live on television.

Of the estimated five hundred cameras covering the event, twelve were under the direction of a young filmmaker from Oregon. James Blue directed and edited The March, wrote the voiceover narration, and performed it. A production of the United States Information Agency, The March was translated into 52 languages and seen all over the world.

It was not at that time, however, seen in this country.

These USIA films were rarely seen in America because, fearing propaganda, the 1948 Smith-Mundt Act mandated that no USIA film could be shown domestically without a special act of Congress. These films are being rediscovered because a 1990 act of Congress (P.L. 101-246) authorized domestic screening 12 years after release.

I hereby claim The March as an Oregon film based on the contribution of the director, Oregonian James Blue.

It’s hard to call Payday a forgotten gem, because nobody saw it in the first place. But it stands with works like Fat City and Two-Lane Blacktop in depicting a seamy underbelly of America that most of us wouldn’t care to know about or see. It’s one of the most effective, searing dramas of the 1970s. Paul Mavis

I have not seen the infamously dark Payday, a film Kim Morgan calls “brilliantly brave”.

If you are ready to despise Rip Torn, and the human race in general, this is the film to see. Elizabeth Spiridakis, a big fan, gives you some reasons why you should.

I hereby claim Payday as an Oregon film based on the contributions of screenwriter-producer Don Carpenter who graduated from Wilson High School and Portland State University.

In 1921, William and Irene Finley pulled out a camera and documented their friendship with a hungry campsite visitor.

Here’s the filmmaker:

Finley was an early conservationist. Oregon’s first fish and game commission was set up in 1911, following his recommendation. You can visit William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, named in his honor, just south of Corvallis.

Here’s how short Oregon’s history is.

William Finley was born in Santa Clara California, on Aug. 9, 1876. That’s one month after Custer’s Last Stand. His parents, John Pettus Finley and Nancy Catherine Rucker, had traveled west by covered wagon. His uncle, William Asa Finley, was the first president of Oregon State University.

William himself was one of the first presidents of Audubon Society of Portland. Notice the birds on his head! He made this film the same year Rudolf Valentino appeared in The Sheik and Charlie Chaplin appeared in The Kid.

At the time Chumming With Chipmunks was made, all feature films were preceded by newsreels. So although William Finley’s chipmunk film did not win the international accolades which later came to Perri, an Oregon film with a similarly wild cast, it was seen by movie audiences across the country.

I hereby claim Chumming With Chipmunks as an Oregon film, based on the Oregon citizenship of the director William and camerawoman Irene.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Like all truly great movies, Drugstore Cowboy is a joyous piece of work. I believe the subject of a film does not determine whether it makes us feel happy or sad. I am inutterably depressed after seeing stupid comedies that insult my intelligence, but I felt exhilarated after seeing “Drugstore Cowboy,” because every person connected with this project is working at top form. It’s a high-wire act of daring, in which this unlikely subject matter becomes the occasion for a film about sad people we come to care very deeply about. Roger Ebert

It is my great honor to claim Drugstore Cowboy as an Oregon film.

In 1985, New York performance artist Eric Bogosian collaborated with Portland painter Tad Savinar on a performance art piece inspired by Savinar’s most recent gallery show of paintings Savinar did while listening to talk radio.

Savinar received NEA support through the Portland Center for the Visual Arts for a performance piece with sets by Savinar and a monologue by Bogosian. This stage version of Talk Radio was performed in Portland in 1985.

Bogosian took Talk Radio to New York, where Oliver Stone saw it performed at the Public Theater.

Oliver Stone made his film in 1988.

I hereby claim Talk Radio as an Oregon film, based on the role played by Tad Savinar who both inspired and co-created the original work.

S. W. Conser interviewed Tad Savinar on KBOO’s Stage and Studio about what it was like to work closely on with Eric Bogosian. Fascinating stuff!

Director James Ivory co-wrote (with Kit Hesketh-Harvey) this adaptation of E. M. Forster’s novel.  Maurice is my own personal pick for James Ivory’s best film.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Wilby, under Ivory’s direction, infuses the title character with a quiet sensitivity and an underlying sense of desperation to create a character who, as Forster wrote, has “an ingredient that puzzles him, wakes him up, torments him and finally saves him.” From the Merchant Ivory website.

I hereby claim Maurice as an Oregon film based on the Klamath Falls, Oregon origins of James Ivory, the director and co-writer.

The same year Stanley Kubrick cast Timberline Lodge in his screen adaptation of The Shining, French No Wave filmmaker Eric Mitchell cast Portland performance artist and free lance semiotician Duncan Smith as “The Shrink” in his East Village no budget feature, Underground USA.

Mitchell says he is trying to get a DVD release of Underground USA, which is otherwise out of print. I hope he suceeds. Smith has a small but mighty role as the turtlenecked psychiatrist who won’t let his patient ( Patti Astor ) get a word in edgewise.

With cinematography by Tom DiCillo and sound by Jim Jarmusch. I hereby claim Underground USA as an Oregon film, based on Oregonian Duncan Smith’s performance in it.