Tag Archives: Robert Cochran

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

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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

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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.