Guide Home • A History of Film in East Tennessee • A Love Letter to the UT Film Committee • A Deep Dive into Movies made in East Tennessee
While this issue of BLANK rightly celebrates the inaugural Film Fest Knox and its importance to the cultural health of our town both now and in the future, I thought it would be prudent to highlight another, almost forgotten, Knoxville cultural icon of the film appreciation world: the late, lamented U.T. Film Committee.
Formed circa 1970, this student-programmed group’s mission was to schedule the most entertaining and diverse series of films (and film-related events) the Knoxville community had ever seen.
For 25 years, in fabulous 16mm at the University Center and glorious 35mm at Clarence Brown Theatre, this committee did just that.
Classic and cult films not shown on TV (or later on, not available on VHS)? Check.
Foreign films never shown in Knoxville? Check.
Independent films only being shown in big cities and at film festivals? Check.
Filmmakers, critics, independent distributors, festival directors and many others from the film industry as guest speakers and class instructors? Check.
All of this exposure was mostly free or at very low cost thanks to the wonder that was the student activities fee. All were open to the public, as well.
I speak from firsthand knowledge, as I was a student member of the U.T. Film Committee from my sophomore year through grad school, 1973-1982, followed by a stint as their staff advisor from 1983-1988. Fifteen incredibly informative and influential years of my life were spent with this group of film fanatics, many of whom are lifelong friends.
Because of my exposure to and involvement with the U.T. Film Committee, I was able to be a part of several unforgettable events. Here are just a few of those highlights:
1. Being a part of the second Clarence Brown Film Festival
2. Being able to meet and escort various speakers, like film historian William K. Everson, film critics Molly Haskell and Neal Gabler and the great playwright Tennessee Williams
3. Having the opportunity to help program several premiere events, including Hitchcock’s Fabled Five (five Alfred Hitchcock films that had been out of circulation for more than 20 years), Chaplin Lost and Found (restorations of several Charlie Chaplin shorts) and the premiere of “Louie Bluie,” a biopic of Black string-music legend (and East Tennessee native) Harold Armstrong, who gave a live concert after the film.
4. One of my favorite highlights came from one of the oldest film festivals around, The Sinking Creek Film Celebration, which started in 1969 at the Greenville, Tennessee, farm of creator Mary Jane Coleman and morphed into the ongoing Nashville Film Festival in 1998.
5. Meeting fellow film committee member Jay Nations, later the maven of the beloved Raven Records, who is somehow still my friend these 40-odd years later and, more amazingly, my business partner the last 13 years at Raven Records & Rarities.
I could go on, but I would have to buy ad space.
So, here’s to the rousing success of Film Fest Knox now and forever, but let’s also raise a glass to the amazing group that started and fostered movie appreciation in our town: the U.T. Film Committee.
Guide Home • A History of Film in East Tennessee • A Love Letter to the UT Film Committee • A Deep Dive into Movies made in East Tennessee
