Yesterday I attended the mini-ceremony welcoming James Blue’s papers and films to the University of Oregon’s Knight Library.

When I started Oregon Movies, A to Z,  I was alarmed that no one was paying attention to Oregon’s film history. I no longer have that feeling. James Fox, the head of Special Collections at Knight Library, has collected the papers of three Oregonians who made significant contributions to American  film history:  James Ivory, Ken Kesey and James Blue. The Cinema Studies department faculty were present and fully engaged in celebrating the acquisition of James Blue’s papers and films.

Oregon Movies, A to Z is no longer needed.

I will continue advocating for support for Oregon film history scholarship.  I want to see one of the Oregon University System schools choose to develop a specialty in animation studies, including animation history, and for that school to begin a scholarly collection of books on that subject. It is not possible today to research Oregon’s animation history with the teachers and the library resources we currently possess. I am interested in changing this.

If we have world class artists, we should have world class scholars.

Speaking of which, thank you to the people who wrote in with information which helped deepen my understanding of Oregon film history!

AR