Collection ID: COL 18 (VAE0320)
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Collection context

Summary

Creator:
Sandler, Kathe
Abstract:
The Kathe Sandler Collection contains 16mm film and sound outtakes, original negatives, other film and pre-production elements, and transcripts from A Question of Color and Remembering Thelma.
Extent:
2 Boxes, 160 open reel tapes, 130 Items, 122 Audiocassettes, 20 Videocassettes, 5 micro cassettes, 3 Audiocassettes, 1 film reels, 1 Videocassette, and 1 Videocassette
Language:
Materials are in English
Preferred citation:

[item], Kathe Sandler Collection, COL 18, Black Film Center & Archive, Indiana University, Bloomington.

Background

Biographical / Historical:

Kathe Sandler is an award-winning independent filmmaker known for the documentaries Remembering Thelma (1982), and A Question of Color (completed 1992, distributed 1993). Remembering Thelma received the Best Biography of a Dance Artist Award from the NY Dance Film and Video Festival; A Question of Color received two Prized Pieces Awards from the National Black Programming Consortium. Her other work includes The Friends (1996), which won First Prize in the Cross Cultural Category from the Black Filmmaker's Hall of Fame, Finding a Way: New Initiatives in Justice for Children, and contributions to A Tale of Two Schools, Beah: A Black Woman Speaks, and the PBS documentary Every Mother's Son. In 1996 she was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim fellowship for film. Her forthcoming work includes a one-hour documentary When and Where We Enter: Stories of Black Feminism.

Sandler graduated from New York University and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University. As is also an instructor at Rutgers and president of Film Two Productions.

Scope and Content:

The Kathe Sandler Collection contains 16mm film and sound outtakes, original negatives, other film and pre-production elements, interviews, and transcripts from A Question of Color and Remembering Thelma.

A Question of Color was the first documentary to confront the attitudes that many African Americans have about their appearances. Sandler interviewed a number of African Americans who provided testimony of their experiences and attitudes regarding color. Through the experiences of their testimony, Sandler examined the effects of "color consciousness" upon the black community. The roots of the phenomenon are traced to the preferential treatment that mixed race children would receive during the era of slavery, the effects of which are still present today.

Remembering Thelma is a short and vigorous profile of Thelma Hill (1924-1977). Hill, fondly referred to as "Mother" by the dancers with whom she worked, was a dancer with, among others, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the New York Negro Ballet Company. She also had a long career as a dance teacher with such organizations as the Clark Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, the American Dance Festival at Connecticut College, the University of Cincinnati, and the Davis Center for the Performing Arts at City College. Remembering Thelma contains rare footage of Hill with the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater and the New York Negro Ballet.

Acquisition information:
Collection was donated to the BFCA by Kathe Sandler on May 25, 2010. 10 additional film reels were received on June 5, 2018.
Processing information:

Processed by BFCA staff.

Arrangement:

Arranged in 4 series:

  1. Series 1. A Question of Color interview transcripts
  2. Series 2. A Question of Color film elements
  3. Series 3. Remembering Thelma film elements
  4. Series 4. Audio recordings and viewing copies
Physical facet:
Film cans/boxes, VHS, DAT, open reel video (1 inch), 8 mm, and DigiBeta
General note:

In 2022, the Black Film Center/Archive (BFC/A) transitioned to its current name, the Black Film Center & Archive (BFCA). This finding aid was created under the organizational name Black Film Center/Archive. Upon this organizational name change, all previous references to the BFC/A were updated in this finding aid to match the current name, Black Film Center & Archive.

Access

RESTRICTIONS:

This collection is open to the public. Audiovisual materials are located off site at IU's Auxiliary Library Facility and may require the creation of reference copies. If you are interested in reviewing the contents of the audio or video recordings in this collection, please contact the BFCA staff well in advance of your visit for details.

TERMS OF ACCESS:

All requests for copying and publishing materials must be submitted in writing to the BFCA archivist. In cases where an author wants to quote material from the collection in a non-scholarly publication, they must obtain Kathe Sandler's permission.

PREFERRED CITATION:

[item], Kathe Sandler Collection, COL 18, Black Film Center & Archive, Indiana University, Bloomington.

CAMPUS:
Indiana University Bloomington
LOCATION OF THIS COLLECTION:
1320 East Tenth Street
Herman B Wells Library, Room 044
Bloomington, Indiana 47405-7000, United States
CAMPUS:
Indiana University Bloomington
CONTACT:
812-855-6041
bfca@indiana.edu