Special Collections: Center for the Moving Image

For nearly three decades, educator and scholar Andries Deinum taught courses on film as an art form and ended up changing the course of Portland's cinematic landscape. When Deinum moved to Portland, Oregon in 1957, after being fired by the University of Southern California for not cooperating with the House Un-American Activities Committee, he began teaching film courses at the Portland Extension Center and then at Portland State. In 1965, he recruited his former USC student, Tom T. Taylor to join him at Portland State to teach film production.

In 1969, Deinum and Taylor formed the Center for the Moving Image (CMI) at Portland State University (PSU), creating Oregon’s first college film program. CMI was a core component of Portland’s creative community and many of its alumni went on to pursue influential careers as filmmakers, cinematographers, media artists, writers, journalists, educators, and community activists. Deinum and Taylor remained with the Center until it was closed by the PSU administration under the financial exigency of 1981.

This online collection includes oral histories and images from Heather O. Petrocelli’s Center for the Moving Image Oral History Project and select films produced by CMI and its students. See Petrocelli's thesis: Portland's "Refugee from Occupied Hollywood."

The Tom T. Taylor Collection in Special Collections at the Portland State University Library includes additional records related to the founding, administration, and activities of the Center for the Moving Image, including a list of films and videos donated by the Taylor family.

Special Collections at the Portland State University Library is indebted to filmmaker Tom Chamberlin for connecting us with the Tom T. Taylor Collection and to Heather O. Petrocelli for her passionate commitment to preserving, understanding, and sharing the history of the Center for the Moving Image and its founders.