Tag Archives: Lights Camera Arkansas

RSVP today for August 29 Lights! Camera! Arkansas! FREE seminar at Old State House Museum

Posted on by

LCA_topThis Saturday, the Old State House Museum will host a FREE seminar to explore Arkansas’s connection with the film and television industry.  It will take place from 9am to 2:30pm on August 29.

Activities will include a screening of the 2001 Academy-award winning Best Live Action Short Film “The Accountant.” Speakers including Robert Cochran, Suzanne McCray, Ben Fry, Stephen Koch and Philip Martin will discuss topics including women in film, Broncho Billy Anderson, music in Arkansas and Arkansas in the rise of regional Southern cinema.

“It gives a great sense of state pride knowing how incredibly important Arkansas has been to the film industry from a historical, technical and social standpoint,” said Suzanne McCray, one of the seminar’s presenters. “From the very first cowboy in film to the great up-and-coming actors and directors of today, Arkansas has made its case as a relevant and essential part of film and television.”

OSH logoSimilarly, presenter Bob Cochran said that his talk about a common film character-type is a perfect analogy for Arkansas. “There’s a standard trope of Hollywood films, the outsider — the character who the audience doesn’t expect anything from,” Cochran said. “However, by the end of the film this outsider reveals unexpected qualities and potential. That’s a wonderful analogy for the film industry in the state of Arkansas.”

An RSVP to the free event is required, and reservations can be made by emailing georganne@arkansasheritage.org or calling (501) 324-9685 today to reserve a place. The seminar is programming in support of the “Lights! Camera! Arkansas!” exhibit at the Old State House Museum, which will be on display until January 25, 2016.

The Old State House Museum is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

Lights! Camera! Arkansas! book signing with Robert Cochran and Suzanne McCray

Posted on by

The authors of a new book that explores the legacy of Arkansas on film will be center-stage for a panel and book-signing at the Old State House Museum. 

On Sunday, March 8, at 2 p.m., Robert Cochran and Suzanne McCray will be discussing their new book, “Lights! Camera! Arkansas!” on a panel hosted by Ben Fry, general manager of KUAR and host of Second Friday Cinema. 

“Lights! Camera! Arkansas!” traces the roles played by Arkansans in the first century of Hollywood’s film industry, from the first cowboy star, Broncho Billy Anderson, to Mary Steenburgen, Billy Bob Thornton and many others. 

The Arkansas landscape also plays a starring role: Crittenden County as a setting for Hallelujah (1929), and various locations in the state’s southeastern quadrant in 2012’s Mud are all given fascinating exploration. 

Cochran and McCray screened close to two hundred films—from laughable box-office bombs to laudable examples of filmmaking – in their research for this book. 

They’ve enhanced their spirited chronological narrative with an appendix on documentary films, a ratings section and illustrations chosen by Jo Ellen Maack of the Old State House Museum, where “Lights! Camera! Arkansas!” debuted as an exhibit curated by the authors in 2013.

 The exhibit will close on July 31, 2015. 

Bikes and Movies at Old State House

Posted on by

OSH logoJanuary is a good time to go to the movies and to ride your bike (as well as other fitness regimens).  The Old State House Museum currently has two exhibits which highlight these two activities.

Different Spokes

Different Spokes looks at the history of bicycling and places cycling in Arkansas within a worldwide historical context. Visitors will be able to view galleries of artifacts, historical pictures and video to learn the history of bicycles.

“As cities and towns begin dedicated services and trails for cyclists, it’s important to note that the enthusiasm for bikes in Arkansas has roots that go back over 100 years,” said Old State House Museum Director Bill Gatewood. “The interest at the turn of the 20th century in bicycles was very similar to the one that we are seeing at the turn of the 21st century.”

While the exhibit mainly explores the technological advances of cycling in the past 130 years, Different Spokes also tells the story of competition, economics, and social life. The history of trail systems, cycling communities and history in Arkansas is explored in videos produced by the Old State House Museum. From an 1880 wooden bicycle built from white oak and agricultural implements to the world’s first carbon-fiber bicycles made by Brent Trimble of Berryville, Different Spokes contains artifacts that show this history from past to present. Gatewood says the Museum relied on contributions from the cycling community to present this story. The exhibit will remain on view to February 2016.

“I have not participated in any other exhibit that has had this kind of immediate response from the community,” Gatewood said. “The passion these people have for their pursuit is overwhelming, and I believe it will be reflected well in this exhibit.”

Lights! Camera! Arkansas!

Arkansas’s rich and varied history in film is the subject of Lights! Camera! Arkansas!, the newest exhibit at the Old State House Museum. The exhibit features the state’s ties to Hollywood, through both movies and television. Lights! Camera! Arkansas! highlights several well-known films with Arkansas connections and includes over 800 artifacts from the Old State House Museum’s permanent collection and objects loaned by other museums, film companies, actors, and writers. The comprehensive exhibit shows artifacts related to films shot on location in the state, actors born in Arkansas, and literary figures whose works were the basis for films shot in Arkansas.

 Lights! Camera! Arkansas! features a stellar list of Arkansas-born actors, authors, directors, and scripts. The exhibit  includes the work of Jeff Nichols, Mary Steenburgen, Harry Thomason, Julie Adams, Lisa Blount, Johnny Cash, Gail Davis, Levon Helm, Ben Piazza, James Bridges, and Joey Lauren Adams among many others.

Visitors will see five galleries of costumes, scripts, film footage, awards, photographs, theater posters, props, and more. Documentary videos add to their understanding and appreciation of Arkansas’s role in American film. Visitors will be able to watch the videos in a newly-constructed theater room.

The Old State House Museum commissioned original paintings of the state’s Hollywood-famous by House-of-Blues artists Patterson and Barnes. These fourteen portraits will portray Broncho Billy Anderson, Dick Powell, Alan Ladd, Gail Davis, Julie Adams, William Warfield, Louis Jordan, Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, Levon Helm, Mary Steenburgen, Billy Bob Thornton, Lisa Blount, and Jeff Nichols.

Graham Gordy discusses the film and TV industry at Old State House Brown Bag lecture today at 12 noon

Posted on by
Photo by Nancy Nolan

Photo by Nancy Nolan

The Old State House offers regular noontime lectures on a variety of topics.  These “Brown Bag Lectures” take place at 12 noon.  The next one is today.

Graham Gordy, the award-winning Arkansan writer, will discuss how the film and television industry have changed after the Recession.

Gordy’s discussion is in conjunction with the Old State House’s “Lights! Camera! Arkansas!” exhibit which is currently on display.  It focuses on connections between Arkansas and Hollywood.

Gordy’s credits include include the current series “Rectify” the upcoming movie Quarry as well as the films War Eagle, Arkansas and The Love Guru.  As an actor, he has appeared in “Rectify,” My Dog Skip and The Last Ride.  As a youth, he also appeared on various stages in Central Arkansas.