It’s been a busy Spring here at the Jones Collection!

In The Media:

 

We’ve had several stories in the news.  Here are just some of the highlights:

• WFAA – Kincaid’s Hamburgers
• WFAA – Oscar’s History
• WFAA – Auto History
• WFAA – Mayfest
• WFAA – Toll Roads
• WFAA – Restrooms

Social Media Stats for May

We had just around 38,300 video views this month, 10.4% of which came from outside of this country. As of early June, our videos have a grand total of 508,944 views in the past 18 months.  Our most popular clips during the month of May were:

• Dedication of the Pearl Beer Waterfall Billboard
• WFAA Film of a Great Baseball Fight
• Interstate Theatre’s Fort Worth/Wedgewood Promo

Newsfilm Update

To date, we’ve digitized 3,903 rolls of WFAA newsfilm and now have over 1,100 hours of video ready to be used in research, documentaries, or for the curious who’re interested in seeing a little bit of forgotten Dallas history!

News

• After eight months of construction following last year’s flood, the Jones Collection finally returned to the Greer Garson building, our permanent location.  As you can see in the photo above, we’re back up and running, and our facilities are better than ever! If anyone is interested in checking them out or just taking a tour of our vault, please don’t hesitate to contact us.  Please send any request to our email address:  filmarchive@smu.edu.
• On March 6, students from Michael Morris’ 16mm production course toured the film vault, as well as our new facilities. Later in the semester, we digitized several of their final projects, walking them through the digitization and color-correction process.
• Archivists from Lone Star Park toured our facilities and learned about our digitization and curatorial practices.
• Professor Rick Worland was interviewed on “About Town with Joe Tave,” featured on I Am Royalty Radio, to discuss the Jones Collection’s Tyler Films Collection.
• On March 29, following a tour of the DeGolyer library, Jim Lehr and his wife stopped by the Jones Collection to take a look at our vault and to view some of his early work with KERA.
• In April, the Jones Collection hosted the Film & Media Arts’ Conference Hour, where students and faculty heard curator Jeremy Spracklen talk about the history of the Collection as well as taking a tour of our remodeled facilities.
• Additionally, the Student Filmmakers Association watched two 35mm short film presentations run by the Jones Collection in Garson 3531.  This was followed by a tour of the film vault and our offices.
• Curator Jeremy Spracklen served as the technical director for the 49th annual USA Film Festival.  This festival began as part of The Meadows School of the Arts by archive namesake G. William Jones.
• Beverly Hennigh donated an impressive collection of press kits, publicity stills, and film-related paper material to the Jones Collection.
• Footage from our WFAA Collection was licensed for several projects including an upcoming documentary film on Arkansas basketball; an upcoming A&E documentary on Jeff Dunham; and as part of an official piece celebrating UTD’s 50th anniversary.

 

Screenings

The Jones Collection screened prints for SMU classes and continued its monthly screening series at the historic Texas Theatre, showcasing a wide array of prints from our 35mm collection. These include:

 

• COMING APART – 35mm – Texas Theatre
• LICK THE STAR – 35mm – Greer Garson 3531
• PRECIOUS IMAGES – 35mm – Greer Garson 3531
• THE LAST HORROR FILM aka FANATIC – 35mm – Texas Theatre

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