Our partners
We are home to several centers and institutes that focus on specific areas of study and fields of expertise — expanding your opportunities for research, education, and internships.
Centers and institutes
Black Film Center & Archive
The Black Film Center & Archive is dedicated to collecting, preserving, and making available historically and culturally significant films by and about Black people.
The center houses hundreds of thousands of hours of films, ranging from forgotten documentaries to blockbuster movies, as well as posters and other printed creative materials.
Students and scholars can take tours, conduct research, and attend screenings and other special events.
Description of the video:
Black Film Center/Archive logo appears.The screen counts down: 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. In the upper righthand corner, text reads: Edit Bench #2.
Old, static-y footage of Phyllis Klotman sitting for an interview.
Interviewer: Our feature interview guest this week is Dr. Phyllis Klotman, a professor of Afro-American studies at Indiana University in Bloomington. Dr. Klotman is director of the Black Film Center.
Music begins.
Interviewer: She spearheaded the first Black film workshop and Festival to be held on the campus of Indiana University We will be talking to her today about the study of Black film. Dr. Klotman, thank you very much for joining us.
Video of Deonna Weatherley filming outdoors.
Klotman: The archive idea came out of
Black and white photo of Gloria Gibson, Francis Stubbs and Dr. Phyllis Klotman looking at reels of films. It’s dated 1986.
Klotman: our attempting to find these films.
Words appear: Losing Ground.
Klotman: And when we found them,
Footage from Kathleen Collins’ 1982 film, “Losing Ground.” A woman looks out over a balcony.
Klotman: I thought, "Wouldn't it be great
More footage from “Losing Ground.” A man waves at the woman from the ground.
Klotman: not to have to go through that problem again.
Footage from Diahann Carroll’s “Claudine.” Two women re riding a bus.
Klotman: Once we
Title screen from “Claudine.” A woman is running on a sidewalk. Text says: “Claudine.” Copyright MCMLXXIV by Third World Cinema Productions, Inc. All rights reserved.
Klotman: get them,
Closeup of a woman’s face. Text says: Claudine (1974) John Berry.
Klotman: we could become a center here."
Footage from “Hair Wolf.” A woman is on the screen. Words appear: Black women BEWARE. Text in lower lefthand corner says: Hair Wolf (2018) Cariama Diallo.
Klotman: We're right in the Middle West.
Another woman appears. Words appear: … of the HAIR WOLF. Text in lower lefthand corner says: Hair Wolf (2018) Cariama Diallo.
Klotman: We haven't touched the coasts.
Photo of women sitting in a theater. Text in lower lefthand corner says: Once Haunted Still: Films & Conversation (2019). Pictured Nikyatu Jusu
Klotman: You know, there are people who don't get east or west.
Movie footage. An astronaut is in space. Text in lower lefthand corner says: Afronauts (2014)-- Nuotama Bodomo
Klotman: And wouldn't it be wonderful if we had these films
Video of Deonna Weatherley filming outside.
Klotman: for research and study and also to share with the community.
Photo of Jessie Maple and Terri Francis giving a lecture. Text in lower lefthand corner says: Black Female Auteurs (2020) - Pictured Jessie Maple & Dr. Terri Francis
Klotman: And so I started writing these grant proposals
Photo of Kevin Everson and Terri Francis talking in front of a poster that says “Rough and Unequal.” Text in lower lefthand corner says: Rough & Unequal: Film Installation (2019). Pictured Kevin Everson & Dr. Terri Francis.
Klotman: and in the process,
Photo of students sitting in a classroom. Text in lower lefthand corner says: Once Haunted Still: Films & Conversations (2019).
Klotman: Tom Schwinn said,
Video of people in a classroom. Text in lower lefthand corner says: Black Film Festival Workshop (1983). Q&A with Kathleen Collins.
Klotman: “While you're doing that, why don't you also consider the possibility of bringing people to campus?"
Photo of a man holding up his fist to the camera. His rings spell out “LOVE.” Text in lower lefthand corner says: Do The Right Thing (1989) Spike Lee.
Klotman: And I said,
Photo of a man holding up his fist to the camera. His rings spell out “HATE.” Text in lower lefthand corner says: Do The Right Thing (1989) Spike Lee.
Klotman: ”But I don't know these people."
Video of a woman sitting in front of a microphone. Text in lower lefthand corner says: WIDC Panel on Black Women Filmmakers (1981/1990). Featured Camille Billops.
Klotman: And he said, "Well That's never stopped you in
Movie footage. A woman closes a car door. Text in lower lefthand corner says: Ganja & Hess (1973)- Bill Gunn.
Klotman: the past., you know, why not see what you can do?"
Photo of students sitting in a lecture hall. Text in lower lefthand corner says: Once Haunted Still: Films & Conversation (2019).
Video of Deonna Weatherley filming outside.
Klotman: This is to us
Photo of a man smiling. Text says: Rough & Unequal Symposium (2019). Pictured Dr. Ross Gay.
Klotman: as important to know about
Photo of people sitting in a lecture hall. Caption: Spike Lee’s Filmworks - Dr. Terri Francis (2019)
Klotman: a medium that has affected
Movie still. Photo of three people leaning on each other. Caption: Daughters of the Dust (1991) - Julie Dash.
Video of Deonna Weatherley filming outside.
Klotman: so many people.
Photo of a man watching a film in a theater. Caption: Once Haunted Still: Films & Conversation (2019)
Klotman: It's clear that visual
Movie still. A man watches a car on fire on a beach. Caption: The Burial of Kojo (2018) - Blitz the Ambassador.
Klotman: images have a tremendous impact.
A Channel 13 news reporter does a standup on IU’s campus. Caption: WTHR13 interview Rick Young & Dr. Phyllis Klotman (1980/1999).
Klotman: There is still the notion
Movie footage. Two men stare each other down.
Klotman: that Black experience
Movie still. Two women stand next to each other. Caption: Daughters of the Dust (1991) Julie Dash.
Klotman: is separate from,
Video footage of Gloria Gibson Hudson nodding and talking. Caption: Gloria Gibson Hudson IU Black Film Center Archives
Klotman: and not a part of the total American experience.
Video footage of a woman taking a drink of water. Caption: WIDC Panel on Black Women Filmmakers (1981/1990).
Klotman: That there is not that Black universality.
Video of Deonna Weatherley filming outside.
Klotman: As long as that barrier is there,
Photo of a woman watching a film in a theater. Caption: Once Haunted Still: Film & Conversation (2019)
Klotman: I think you're going to have this kind of ebb and flow.
Music ends.
Nina Collins appears. Caption: Nina Collins - Daughter of Kathleen Collins Interviews Dr. Terris Francis (2020)
Nina Collins: Hi everyone, I'm Nina Collins. I'm a writer and an entrepreneur. I run a large community for women over 40 called the Woolfer, and I've known Terry Francis, the director of the Black Film Center Archive forr I guess about ten years now, maybe almost, maybe a little more. I wanted to get a sense of what she knew about my mother, what she thought of my mother. And at the time, Terry had a really, really crappy copy of "Losing Ground" on VHS, which was also what I had. And she said to me, "We need a better version of this." She said, "When my students see this film, I mean, the thing that she said that I'll just never forget, s Terry said, when Black female film students see this film, this movie, they cry like they've never seen representations of themselves. in film.
Photo of Terri Francis. Caption: Dr. Terri Francis. Director of Black Film Center/Archive (2017-Present)
Nina Collins: So tell me a little bit about what you do, Terry. Like you are a professor of film right? at Indiana. And then you also run the archive. How do those two roles intersect? What's the difference?
Terri Francis appears on camera. Caption: Dr. Terri Francis. Director of Black Film Center/Archive (2017-Present)
Terri Francis: They're both teaching roles based in my research in Black film history. And similarly, the Black Film Center Archive has a dual role, as a center and an archive. As an archive, we collect and preserve Black film history, the artifacts and the posters, the manuscripts, the films themselves. And as a center we generate Black film history through the conversations and research that occur and that happen when we bring curators, archivists, filmmakers, artists, students, all together into conversation with each other. I'm like Phyllis in the sense that I think about archival work as feature- making work, as culture-building work. I think about the Black film that's out there now as the Black film of the Black film history of the future.
Music begins.
Movie footage. A man and a woman kiss and dance.
Credits roll:
Black Film/Center Archive
Founder
Dr. Phyllis Klotman
Director
Dr. Terri Francis
Executive Producers
Terri Francis
Bria McCarty
Rebecca C. Stanze
Deonna Weatherly
Directors
Bria McCarty
Deonna Weatherly
Editor
Bria McCarty
Writers
Yeeseon Chae
Audrey B. Hood
Featured Events
Rough & Unequal: Film Installation & Symposium by Kevin Everson (2019)
Curated by Dr. Terri Francis & Betsy Stirratt
Once Haunted Still: Films & Conversations (2019)
Curated by Dr. Terri Francis & Sarah Lasley
Filmmakers
Nikya Jusu
Cariama Diallo
Eva Hagaman
Nuotama Bodomo
Black Film Festival Workshop (1983) Q&A With Kathleen Collins
Curated by Dr. Phyllis Klotman
WIDC Panel on Black Women Filmmakers (1981/1990)
Moderated by Gloria Gibson
Panelists
Camille Billops
Michelle Crenshaw
Delle Chatman
Zeinabu Irene Davis
O. Funmilayo Makarah
IU Courses
Black Female Auteurs MSCH-F 375
Spike Lee’s Filmworks MSCH-F 326
Dr. Terri Francis
Interviews
4 Thought (1983/1984)
Phyllis Klotman
WTHR 13 (1980/1989)
Rick Young & Dr. Phyllis Klotman
Studio Six (1981/1990)
Gloria Gibson-Hudson & Jane Rhodes
Produced & Hosted by Diane Ward
Virtual Zoom (2020)
Nina Collins & Terri Francis
Produced by Bria McCarty
Kathleen Collins Memorial - IU TV (1988)
Dr. Phyllis Klotman & Kathleen Collins
Featured Films
Losing Ground (1982)- Kathleen Collins
Claudine (1974)- John Berry
Hair Wolf (2018)-Mariama Diallo
Afronauts (2014)- Nuotama Bodomo
Do The Right Thing (1989)- Spike Lee
Ganja & Hess (1973)- Bill Gunn
Daughters of the Dust (1991)- Julie Dash
The Burial of Kojo (2018)- Blitz the Ambassador
Something Good Negro Kiss (1898)
Photography
Alexander Kumar
Chris Meyers
Music
Creating a New Future
Composer David Panades Garcia
Restless Boogie
Composer Neville Dickie
Special Thanks
IU Cinema
IULMIA
IU Media Collections Online
Nina Collins
Website
https://bfca.sitehost.iu.edu/home/
Music ends.
Phyllis Klotman appears on screen. Caption: Dr. Phyllis Klotoman Interviews Kathleen Collins (1988)
Klotman: Yeah. Do you have one last piece of advice for, for students who want to be film makers?
Kathleen Collins appears.
Kathleen Collins: Be very organized. It's really a question of focusing so sharply that you can see from the class how many things you have to think about. Now multiply that growing on a set and then the cutting and music and all the additional things that come through the whole process. And you better like it.
Black Film Center/Archive logo appears.
Words appear: Website https://bfca.sitehost.iu.edu/home/
Center for Documentary Research and Practice
The Center for Documentary Research and Practice supports faculty and graduate students from across the university working on an array of nonfiction media projects, including documentaries.
It also serves as a research hub for those doing historical, theoretical, and critical research on nonfiction film and video and can provide technical and creative assistance.
Visit the CDRP's websiteCenter for International Media Law and Policy Studies
The Center for International Media Law and Policy Studies focuses on legal protection for media rights in Indiana, the United States, and the world.
In addition to conducting its own research, the center:
- Helps other researchers find partners and funding
- Matches students with internships at press freedom organizations in the United States and abroad
- Develops curricula for journalism and mass communication programs at universities in the developing world
- Organizes and co-sponsors seminars and events related to free expression
Institute for Communication Research
The Institute for Communication Research works with faculty and students to facilitate social scientific research.
In the ICR, researchers design questionnaires, experiments, and surveys; measure psychological factors; and conduct content analysis about the media. It offers:
- Four psychophysiological data collection labs
- Two survey research rooms
- One focus group room, interview room, and content analysis room
- One data analysis room equipped with digital video and audio editing suites, as well as physiology, eye tracking, and facial coding analysis software.
Description of the video:
[Video: Upbeat music plays]
[Video: The IU trident against a white background. Words appear: The Media School Indiana University.]
[Video: Rob Potter speaks to the camera]
[Video: Words appear: Rob Potter ICR Director]
Potter speaks: ICR is the place where social science research is done in The Media School, and so what we try and encourage is a place for
[Video: A student working on a computer]
Potter speaks: graduate students or undergraduates or faculty to bring their ideas to try
[Video: Sensors are placed on a female participant’s face around the eye area during data collection in the ICR]
Potter speaks: and test out hypotheses that they have about the impact of media on people
[Video: Sensors on a participant’s hand]
Potter speaks: the impact of different individual differences on how people make sense of media, how they choose media
[Video: Cartoon elves on a screen during a study]
Potter speaks: what the media does to them, to their attitudes, to their attention
[Video: A screen measuring data from participants in a study]
Potter speaks: to their excitement, to where their eyes move on the screen.
[Video: Rob Potter speaks to the camera]
Potter speaks: We have a whole bunch of different tools that people can use to investigate the questions that they have. So what we try to do is
[Video: A screen collecting data during a study]
Potter speaks: take people's ideas that that they want to investigate and figure out a way
[Videos: Students working in the ICR]
Potter speaks: that they can get the answers that they want. So our job as an institute
[Video: Professor Potter discusses data while pointing to a screen]
Potter speaks: is to really try and streamline
[Video: A student looks at basketball footage on a computer]
Potter speaks: and make the path really easy for people to answer
[Video: Rob Potter speaks to the camera]
Potter speaks: the questions that they have about media.
[Video: Screen fades to black]
[Video: Words appear: Edited and sot by Anna Howell]
[Video: Words appear: Music by: Bensound/Bensound-happiness]
[Video: Music ends]
[Video: A white background with a red tab on the top, displaying the IU trident.]
[Video: Words appear: Indiana University]
[Video: Words appear: Fulfilling the Promise]
[Video: Words appear: iu.edu]
Michael I. Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism
The Media School is home to the Michael I. Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism. Funded by a $6 million gift from alumnus Michael Arnolt (BA’67, journalism), the center teaches and produces high-quality investigative journalism for the state of Indiana and beyond.
The center conducts multimedia investigative reporting on issues of importance to Indiana residents, including matters that reach beyond the state’s borders. Its work is available at no cost to local, regional, and national news outlets, and it seeks to supplement its reporting at a time when many are losing newsroom staff. Master of Science and undergraduate students do the reporting, providing them with an opportunity to learn in a real-world setting.
Visit the Arnolt Center’s websiteNational Sports Journalism Center
The National Sports Journalism Center connects students studying sports journalism at The Media School with the industry through internships, interactions with sports media professionals, extracurricular training, and sponsored work-study opportunities.
The NSJC also engages in research related to sports journalism through on-campus and affiliated faculty members.
Visit the NSJC's websiteObservatory on Social Media
The Observatory on Social Media investigates the role of media and technology in society, focusing on the spread of information and misinformation online. It provides resources and training to help students, journalists, and citizens identify attempts to intentionally manipulate information and sway public opinion.
Visit OSoME's website