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A Guide to their records at the Black Film Center/Archive

Finding aid prepared by Mary Huelsbeck/Hannah Caproon/Gabriel Gardner

Summary Information

Repository
Black Film Center/Archive
1320 East Tenth Street
Herman B Wells Library, Room 044
Bloomington, IN 47405-7000
Phone: 812-855-6041
Fax: 812-856-5832
Email: bfca@indiana.edu
http://www.libraries.iub.edu/~bfca

Creator
Camille Billops and James Hatch

Title
Hatch-Billops Collection, 1937-1995

Collection No.
Special Collection HB

Extent
3 boxes

Language
Materials are in English

Abstract
Papers and related material documenting the careers of Camille Billops and James Hatch.

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research.

Biographical Note

The multi-talented Camille Billops has found many different ways to express her artistic ability throughout her career. From poetry to printmaking, sculpture to jewelry making, and book illustration to filmmaking, she has never been afraid to use a new medium to display her visions.

After studying sculpture on the west coast, Billops moved to New York and received her M.F.A. from the City College of New York in 1973. In 1975 she founded the Hatch-Billops Collection with her husband, filmmaker James Hatch. The Hatch-Billops Collection is an archive of African American cultural history that includes oral histories, slides, books, photographs, and other historical materials.

Billops began her career in filmmaking in the early 1980s with Suzanne, Suzanne (1982) and has since directed five more including Finding Christa (1991), which won the Grand Jury Prize for documentaries at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival and aired on PBS as part of the P.O.V. television series. Finding Christa, like many of her other films, is a highly autobiographical documentary. Other films by Camille Billops include Older Women and Love (1987), The KKK Boutique Ain't Just Rednecks (1994), Take Your Bags (1998), and A String of Pearls (2002).

Billops' husband, James Hatch, was born on October 25, 1928 in Oelwein, Iowa. After earning a B.A. in English and Speech in 1949 from the University of Northern Iowa, Hatch taught high school English and Drama. In continuing his studies at the University of Iowa, he received a M.A. and PhD in Theatre and Speech in 1955 and 1958, respectively. Hatch also had two children with his first wife, Evelyn Marcussen during this time.

In 1958, Hatch accepted a position as assistant professor of Theatre Arts at UCLA and continued there until 1962 when he began a three-year tenure as a Fulbright lecturer at the High Cinema Institute of Cairo, Egypt. He went on to teach English at the City College of New York beginning in 1965.

In addition to his teaching career, James Hatch began directing and producing films in the late 1950s. His early films include This Is Worth Remembering and Autumn (1957), Tallest Baby (1958), Fly Blackbird (1960), The Sole Survivor (1960), Modern Arabic Women (1964), Three Days of Suez (1964), Paper Pulp from Sugar Cane (1965), Denmark 43 (1972), and Oelwein Centennial (1973). Hatch also collaborated with Billops on Suzanne, Suzanne, Older Women and Love, Finding Christa, The KKK Boutique Ain't Just Rednecks, and A String of Pearls.

Hatch is also a noted historian of African American theatre and has written several books on the subject, including The Black Image on the American Stage: A Bibliography, Drama Book Specialist (1970), Black Playwrights, 1823-1977 (1977) with Omanii Abdullah, Roots of African American Drama, 1858-1938 1990) with Leo Hamalian, Sorrow Is the Only Faithful One: the Life of Owen Dodson (1993), Black Theatre USA: Plays by African Americans, 1847 to Today (1996) with Ted Shine, Inside the Minstrel Mask (1996) with Annemarie Bean and Brooks McNamara, Lost Plays of the Harlem Renaissance, 1920-1940 (1996) with Leo Hamalian, and History of African American Theatre, 1564-2000 (2002) with Errol G. Hill. James Hatch and Camille Billops collaborated on Artist and Influence (1981-2001) and The Stone House, A Blues Legend (2000) with S. Noguere.

Camille Billops and James Hatch currently reside in New York City where Hatch is professor emeritus in the Graduate Theatre Program at CCNY and both serve as curators of the Hatch-Billops Collection.

Scope and Content Note

The Hatch-Billops Collection, donated by filmmakers James Hatch and Camille Billops of Mom and Pop Productions, New York, is arranged in three series: General Film Publicity, 1937-1977; Finding Christa, 1991-1995; and Monographs and Serials, 1960-1977.

The film publicity series consists of press sheets, pressbooks, newspaper advertisements, and newspaper articles on films with African American actors and actresses. The bulk of the series consists of newspaper advertisements and pressbooks from 1967-1975, featuring many Blaxploitation era films. Also included are several press sheets for early films distributed by Sack Amusement Enterprises, such as Underworld (1937) and Son of Ingagi (1940), and a pressbook for Home of the Brave (1949).

The second series contains materials related to the documentary Finding Christa including photographs, programs, and publicity (including a press kit), and photocopies of reviews and articles about the film.

The Monographs and Serials series includes three books and three issues of Cineaste. Two of the books are based on the films The Crowning Experience (1960) and Spartacus (1960) while the third, Taking Another Look by Asiba Tupahache, confronts the problems involved with stereotypes and racism.

Administrative Information

• Indexing Terms

• The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection. Materials about related topics, persons or places can be found by searching the catalog using these terms.

• • Names
  • Hatch, James Vernon, 1928-
  • Billops, Camille
• • Topics
  • Advertising--Motion pictures
  • African-American motion picture producers and directors
  • Documentary films--United States
  • Newspaper advertising

Collection Inventory

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