Black Film Center/Archive

The Black Film Center/Archive received a donation of material from filmmaker Warrington Hudlin. Several huge boxes of film reels arrived, containing outtakes, soundtracks, and a copy of the work print of Hudlin's 1977 film Streetcorner Stories.

Streetcorner Stories, a cinema vertité style documentary, was shot in New Haven, Connecticut, and around a convenience store at a busy intersection. Here men come not only to make purchases, but also to trade stories and opinions. Among their subjects are work, politics, police, alcohol, drugs, guns, money, women, and life in general. There is no narration; the camera and microphone simply recorded, over a period of 17 days, the interactions of the patrons. The editing preserves the natural flow of events and avoids quick cuts or obvious editorializing. All of this makes Streetcorner Stories a fascinating and authentic document.

A small amount of money was made available in 1995 to sort through the boxes and list the type of film material available. Much of it is sync-sound footage that was not used in the film, like short beginnings or ends of shots and longer takes of scenes that never made it into the final cut. There are also miscellaneous sound recordings, mostly of ambient, non-sync sound. Included among the soundtracks are two reels of uncut interviews for another of Hudlin's films, Blacks at Yale.

The work print and soundtrack were transferred to video by Susanne Schwibs at Indiana University's Instructional Support Services. They can be viewed at the BFC/A. It is hoped that enough funds can be obtained to synchronize and transfer the outtakes as well.

Date of Donation
September 1994