Discovering Black Film History: Tracing the Tyler, Texas Black Film Collection

Abstract

Discovering Black Film History: Tracing the Tyler, Texas Black Film Collection, by Jacqueline Stewart This paper focuses on how the Tyler, Texas Black Film Collection developed as an archival collection, andwhat this teaches us about contemporary constructions of film history and African American history. More specifically, it describes the appeals and dangers of framing these films within a lost-then-found narrative template, in which their acquisition by an archive is imagined to provide a satisfying sense of closure..

THE CxP TYPOLOGY

“…It is vast with a great many newspapers, and a number of published studies have focused solely on Texas and Texan issues (Conway 2006;Cope 2011;Jensen and Uddameri 2009;Kraeplin 2008;Lewis, Kaufhold, and Lasorsa 2009;Schweitzer and Smith 1991;Stewart 2011). It has more than 25 million residents, several of the most populous cities and metropolitan areas in the United States, and is politically influential.…”