Black cinema and media studies in print
Ever since Phyllis R. Klotman, our founding director, began publishing a regular newsletter, the BFCA has been a significant contributor to the development of the field of Black cinema studies.
Black Camera
The BFCA’s third director, Michael T. Martin, transformed the center’s original newsletter/microjournal into a leading global resource on the frontier of Black cinema studies. Black Camera: An International Film Journal, featuring interviews with directors and actors, scholarly articles, and more, continues to be published biannually.
Rough and Unequal
In 2019, BFCA Director Terri Francis and Betsy Stirratt, Director and Curator of the Grunwald Gallery, presented “Rough and Unequal,” a film installation that explores the waxing and waning of the moon by artist Kevin Jerome Everson. Rough and Unequal explores this presentation through essays, images, and dialogues with writer Ross Gay, art historian Kelli Morgan, archivist Carmel Curtis, film scholar Joan Hawkins, and more.
Paulin Vieyra, Pioneer of African Cinema
The event booklet for the workshop “Paulin Vieyra, Pioneer of African Cinema: Filmmaker, Producer, Historian,” with an introductory essay by BFCA director Terri Francis and Francophone studies professor Vincent Bouchard. In French and English.
In Touch with the Spirit: Black Religious and Musical Expression in American Cinema
Published proceedings from the In Touch with the Spirit conference organized by Phyllis R. Klotman and Gloria J. Gibson-Hudson and held in Indianapolis, IN in July 1992. The event drew over 1,000 participants to discuss the impact of Black religious and musical traditions on American cinema.
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Frame by Frame: A Black Filmography
BFCA founding director Phyllis R. Klotman’s classic 1979 edition has been reprinted, containing listings of over 3,000 film items with Black themes and subject matter from the period 1900–1977.
Out of Print
Frame by Frame II: A Filmography of the African American Image, 1978–1994. Edited by Phyllis R. Klotman and Gloria J. Gibson. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1997
Frame by Frame III: A Filmography of the African Diasporan Image, 1994-2004. Edited by Audrey Thomas McCluskey. Foreword by Edward Mapp. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2007.
Imaging Blackness: Race and Racial Representation in Film Poster Art. Edited and curated by Audrey Thomas McCluskey. Foreword by Melvin Van Peebles. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2007.
Urban Testimonials: Hip Hop Culture in Film: Essay & Annotated Filmography. Edited by Audrey Thomas McCluskey and Tyrone Simpson. Bloomington, IN: Black Film Center/Archive, Afro-American Studies, Indiana University, 2002. (Occasional Paper Series, Volume 1)
“I always tell people that if you are not on a piece of paper, then you don’t exist. […] I always tell people the most revolutionary thing you can do is do a book about your life. Don’t let anybody call it a vanity press. You just do this, this magnificent thing, and you put it on the best paper you can find. Put all your friends in it, everybody you loved, and do a lot of them so one day they will find you and know you were all here together.”
—Camille Billops, filmmaker, archivist, editor, educator, and artist