James Blue


James Blue was a filmmaker.
His most notable films were Les oliviers de la justice , A Few Notes on Our Food Problem and The March. Les oliviers de la justice was given the Prix de la Société des Écrivains de Cinéma et de Télévision award at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival. A Few Notes on our Food Problem received an Academy Award nomination for best feature documentary. The March was added to the National Film Registry in 2008.

Les oliviers de la justice

Les oliviers de la justice was based on "Les oliviers de la justice", a novel by Jean Pelegri. It was filmed in Algeria under war conditions during the Algerian War with a French production company. The musical score was composed by Maurice Jarre. At Cannes, it was shown out of competition in a sideline section of the festival dedicated to the work of promising young directors, the inaugural Semaine de la Critique and was given the Prix de la Société des Écrivains de Cinéma et Télévision au Festival de Cannes 1962. After Cannes, "Olive Trees" received rave reviews for its run in Paris. Cynthia Grenier for The New York Times wrote, under the sub-headline "Justice Triumphs, ""Olive Trees of Justice" a fiction feature made in Algeria against a backdrop of the Algerian conflict, provoked a rare unanimity, from the farthest right to the farthest left in the press, both as to the quality and the courage of the undertaking." In 1963 Olive Trees of Justice was shown in New York at the first New York Film Festival. It did not get a regular run until 1967 when it got a booking at the New Yorker Theater, as reported by Howard Thompson in The New York Times. Mr. Thompson wrote "The Olive Trees of Justice was photographed during the crucial days of 1962 in the heart of Algiers and in the vineyard countryside, with a cast of non-professionals under an American born director. James Blue, who previously made short films here and in France, and has recently worked for the United States Information Agency. Mr. Blue should certainly be making films somewhere." Blue was interviewed for Film Comment in 1963 by Mary Batten. He said about Olive Trees: “What I was trying to do in The Olive Trees was to avoid any kind of fabricated emotion. Of course, I’m not trying to say I didn’t want emotion in this film—that would be completely contrary to my goals—but I wanted to bring about emotion by a synthesis of authenticity in the décor, in the actual setting, in the things that real people said, in the way real people looked, where they lived, in a juxtaposition of all that, a development of the old idea of ‘montage of attractions,’ along a certain theme.” On October 11, 2014, Olive Trees was screened at the Hollywood Theatre in Portland Oregon. It was part of the Mid Century Oregon Genius Screening Series put on by The Oregon Cartoon Institute. The series included a screening of Maurice by James Ivory, with Mr. Ivory in person. James Blue and James Ivory had met while attending the University of Oregon in the 1950s.

The March

is a 1964 documentary film about the 1963 civil rights March on Washington. A quarter of a million people took part in the March on Washington. A television audience of millions watched Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his “I Have a Dream” speech. James Blue captured it on film. The March was shot in 35mm black and white film by a crew of 14 sound and camera men in 7 pairs, most of them from Hearst News. Blue was brought onto the project after the camera crews were hired. George Stevens Jr, the head of USIA films, said "I asked Jim Blue to become involved. No one at Hearst could craft the kind of film we wanted." Over three days they shot 59,795 feet of film - more than 11 hours of material. It was edited by Blue down to 3,021 feet, for a running time of 33 minutes. The budget was $50,000. In addition to directing and editing, it was narrated by Blue, including released prints in Spanish and French. The March was made for the Motion Picture Service unit of the United States Information Agency, a government entity that made informational, some would say propaganda, films. At the time, by law, USIA films were only seen outside of the United States. In 1990 the law was changed to allow USIA films to be shown domestically 12 years after they had been made.
The March won first place in the short features section of the fifth International Film Festival For Youth at Cannes. The March was screened at Venice, Tours, Bilbao and Cannes film festivals. It won grand prizes at Bilbao and Cannes. At Bilbao it won first prize for “Contributing Most to Friendliness and Understanding Between Peoples.” The Cannes Jury credited the film for its “concentrated rhythm which permitted clear interpretation of the way a powerful peaceful force was used to uphold a general desire for universal justice.” It was added to the National Film Registry in 2008. After being added to the National Film Registry, The March was restored by the Motion Picture Preservation Lab, which is responsible for performing preservation work on motion pictures held by the National Archives. Audrey Amidon was leader on the preservation of the film. Restoration work was completed in 2013. On the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington 2013 BAMcinématek presented two weeks of films, August 13–28 under the title "Time for Burning: Cinema of the Civil Rights Movement." The series included A Raisin in the Sun, To Kill a Mockingbird, Nothing But a Man, and much more. It concluded with a screening of Blue's The March.

United States Information Agency

George Stevens Jr. met Blue at Cannes in 1962 and hired him to make films for the United States Information Agency. Prior to making The March, he had made three short films for the USIA. They were A Letter from Colombia, The School at Rincon Santo and Evil Wind Out. Collectively they are called the “Colombian Trilogy” on the Alliance for Progress. In August, 1963, George Stevens Jr., having returned from the Moscow Film Festival, gave a lecture to the Washington Film Council at the State Department Building in Washington. As part of the presentation he showed USIA films, including School at Rincon Santo and Letter to Columbia. In October 1963 Bosley Crowther in The New York Times wrote an article arguing that the USIA films should be legally shown in the States. He claimed that "The content of so many of these films is informative and inspiring, too, that to keep them from American audiences is to miss a natural chance to extend their use." he had recently seen a private screening of the films put on by George Stevens Jr. He wrote "A lovely little item, "The School at Rincon Santo" shows how the people of a Columbian village high in the mountains got together and built their first schoolhouse. It is meant to illustrate the spirit of the Alliance of Progress - People helping themselves. Shot by the USIA unit, headed by James Blue, it has a nice touch of poetry, compounded with the literalness of documentary." He ended the piece with "Several exciting projects are now in the works. James Blue is putting together an extensive documentary account of the August Freedom March on Washington, shot by several freely roving cameramen." Blue had only recently finished the final edit. The release prints would be struck starting December 3. Blue's last film for the USIA was A Few Notes on our Food Problem. It was Blue's first film in color. It focused on agricultural production on three continents. It was shot in Taiwan, India, Uganda, and Brazil. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary.

Ford Foundation Grant

Blue was among the first filmmakers to receive a grant for film making. In 1964 the Ford Foundation awarded twelve American filmmakers grants of up to $10,000 for a one-year period. The recipients could use the money to either produce short films or for travel and study. The awards were described as a “pilot project” by the director of the foundation’s program in humanities and the arts, W. McNeil Lowry. The filmmakers included Kenneth Anger, Bruce Conner, Jordan Belson and Stan Vanderbeek. The Foundation said: "James Blue, Portland, Ore., will travel consult with other directors in the United States, Canada and abroad." Blue interviewed dozens of world filmmakers. The audiotapes and videotapes are now housed at the University of Oregon.
The audiotapes were of:
The filmed interviews were of: