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COLLECTION Identifier: hfa00009

James E. Hinton Collection, 1968-1992 : Finding Aid

Overview

The James E. Hinton Collection at the Harvard Film Archive consists of approximately 170 items: motion picture film projection prints, workprint materials, 16mm and 1/4" magnetic audio reels, and viewing copies and video masters on 1" video, 3/4" U-Matic, Betamax, BetacamSP and VHS created by the photographer, cinematographer and filmmaker James E. Hinton.

Dates

  • Creation: 1968-1992

Language of Materials

Material is in English.

Access Restrictions

Access by appointment only. Applications to consult this material should be directed to the staff of the Harvard Film Archive.

Film prints are made accessible in close consultation with HFA staff. Although materials do not circulate for individual use, students, filmmakers, artists, and researchers are encouraged to use the collections on-site.

Use Restrictions

Reproduction and/or publication of materials subject to copyright requires written permission from a) the copyright owner, his/her heirs or assigns and from b) the Harvard Film Archive, owner of the original material.

Extent

1 collection (two 35mm film reels, ninety-three 16mm film reels, three 1" video tapes, nineteen 3/4" U-Matic video cassettes, 4 Betmax video cassettes, 2 Betacam-SP video cassettes, 24 reel to reel audio tapes, and 23 VHS video cassettes)

The James E. Hinton Collection at the Harvard Film Archive consists of approximately 170 items: motion picture film projection prints, workprint materials, 16mm and 1/4" magnetic audio reels, and viewing copies and video masters on 1" video, 3/4" U-Matic, Betamax, BetacamSP and VHS created by the photographer, cinematographer and filmmaker James E. Hinton.

Genres range from feature films (Ganja and Hess) to documentary, educational, and industrial shorts and commercials on a range of topics, from many titles on African American history, the importance of arts in education and in the community, to films about music, including footage from an unfinished documentary on Dizzy Gillespie. Hinton's role in the production of titles in the collection ranges from director to cinematographer to producer, and many elements and titles represent the work of Hinton Productions, his production company. These include mostly commercials and industrial films for the U.S. Government, car companies, and oil companies, and in some cases Hinton's direct involvement with the titles is not documented.

Biography

James Hinton began making photographs while he was an active participant in the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s. As a witness to the violent reactions that the movement provoked in the American South, he captured moments that were often overlooked by the mainstream media. In 1957 he was one of several correspondents that documented the shooting of Lester James in Seneca, South Carolina. In 1961 he documented the reprisals against Harry Briggs and the efforts by the NAACP to relocate Briggs and his family to New York City. Hinton’s photographs include images of those who walked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, as well as the angry white crowds that gathered along the march routes both in the North and the South. He began exhibiting his photographs in 1963 and then went on to study at the highly regarded Kamonge Photography Workshop for African Americans in New York City in 1965.

In the late sixties, Hinton turned to commercial film production and in 1973 he was hired as the cinematographer on the feature film Ganja and Hess. He used his experience as a documentary filmmaker and photographer to bring the techniques of cinema verité to the shooting style of the film. A groundbreaking film for the period, Ganja and Hess, (ostensibly a black sexploitation vampire film) became renowned for its all black cast and its scenes of elegant, multi-lingual African Americans imbibing blood instead of martinis. With Ganja and Hess, Hinton changed the look of African American filmmaking by insisting that the skin tones of the black actors and actresses in the film not be lightened photographically, a standard technique at the time.

Arrangement

Organized into the following series and alphabetized within each series:

  1. I. Audiovisual Materials

Acquisition Information

The films of the photographer, producer, cinematographer and filmmaker James E. Hinton were donated to the HFA in 2008.

Processing Information

Encoded by: Miranda Nero, March 2011; Amy Sloper, August 2011

Title
James E. Hinton Collection, 1968-1992 : Finding Aid
Author
Harvard Film Archive, Harvard University
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hfa00009

Repository Details

Part of the Harvard Film Archive, Harvard Library, Harvard University Repository

The Harvard Film Archive is one of the largest university-based motion picture collections in the United States, with a collection of 40,000 audio visual items, a growing number of manuscript collections, and nearly one million still photographs, posters, and other promotional materials from around the world and from almost every period in film history. The HFA's collection of paper materials, including the documentation of individual filmmakers as well as promotional materials such as posters, film stills, and ephemera are accessible to Harvard affiliates as well as to outside researchers.

Contact:
24 Quincy Street
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 496-6750