Past Film/Video | Visiting Filmmakers

“We Made It!”: 50 Years of African American Amateur and Home Movies

Introduced by Ina D. Archer, Media Conservation and Digitization Assistant at The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

Image of couple laying on a picnic blanket

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Ohio State’s Department of African American and African Studies, the Wex is honored to welcome artist, writer, and media conservator Ina Archer, who’ll introduce a program of rare amateur and home movies by African American filmmakers.

Drawn from the collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the program includes family motion pictures spanning the 1940s through the 1990s gathered from sources that include jazz great Cab Calloway, Maryland’s Highland Beach community, Bedford-Stuyvesant Youth in Action, Elder Lightfoot Solomon Michaux and The Church of God, and participants in the museum’s Great Migration Home Movie Project. (program approx. 90 mins., digital video)

Image of couple laying on a picnic blanket

Couple on the Grass (Foye Family Home Movies, c. 1970)
Image courtesy The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture

Family standing by car

Lena Horne and friend (Cab Calloway Home Movies, Gift of Cabella Calloway Langsam, c. 1940)
Image courtesy The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture

Father holding child

Cab Calloway and baby (Cab Calloway Home Movies, Gift of Cabella Calloway Langsam, c. 1940)
Image courtesy The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture

Two men posing for photo

Cab Calloway and friend (Cab Calloway Home Movies, Gift of Cabella Calloway Langsam, c. 1950)
Image courtesy The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture

Woman in Red Swimsuit

Woman in Red Swimsuit (Lathan Family Highland Beach Home Movies, c. 1950)
Image courtesy The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture

Person standing by car, image with We Made it text overlay

We Made It (McQueen Family Home Movies, c. 1980)
Image courtesy The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture

Person in glasses, image with We Made it text overlay

We Made It (McQueen Family Home Movies, c. 1980)
Image courtesy The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture

Person in glasses, image with We Made it text overlay

We Made It (McQueen Family Home Movies, c. 1980)
Image courtesy The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture

Cosponsored by Ohio State’s Department of African American and African Studies and the Wexner Center for the Arts; special thanks to Department Chair, Dr. Simone Drake.

SEASON SUPPORT FOR FILM/VIDEO
Rohauer Collection Foundation

SUPPORT FOR THE FILM/VIDEO STUDIO PROGRAM
Institute of Museum and Library Services

SUPPORT FOR ARTS ACCESS AT THE WEXNER CENTER
Cardinal Health Foundation
Huntington Bank

GENERAL OPERATING SUPPORT FOR THE WEXNER CENTER
Greater Columbus Arts Council
Ohio Arts Council
The Columbus Foundation
Nationwide Foundation

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Past Film/Video

“We Made It!”: 50 Years of African American Amateur and Home Movies