Center for the Moving Image Oral Histories

From 1969 through 1982, Oregon's first film department, the Center for the Moving Image at Portland State University, educated students, teachers, and community members to both read and write in the language of film. Although the two keys figures of CMI, Andries Deinum and Thomas Taylor III, are no longer living, a number of their students continue to be a vital part of the thriving film community in Portland.

Starting in 2011, Heather O. Petrocelli interviewed ten people involved with CMI to create the Center for the Moving Image Oral History Collection. Each of the former students credits CMI for shaping and affecting his/her life, specifically the course of his/her career. The interviews not only cover CMI's foundation, key members, demise, legacy, and the professional trajectory of a few key CMI figures, but also places the organization in the specific historical context of Portland in the 1960s and 1970s. Collectively, the body of interviews underscores the importance of oral history, which returns to the historical record memories that would have otherwise remained in the shadows of history.

If you would like to learn more about Andries Deinum and his Center for the Moving Image, see Heather O. Petrocelli's Master's thesis: Portland's "Refugee from Occupied Hollywood": Andries Deinum, his Center for the Moving Image, and film education in the United States.