Oakland University Film Studies and Production

04/30/2026

Congratulations to all the graduates.

04/27/2026

03/24/2026

We are accepting submissions for films to be screened at the OUFILM Showcase 2026. Please submit your work produced during the 2025–2026 academic year.
filmfreeway.com/OUFILM26

We look forward to seeing you on April 26 at 3:00 PM in Dodge Hall 201.

03/11/2026

Come See what OU Students Have Created!

03/06/2026

Planning your courses for next year? Consider taking our new course, FLM 3403: LGBTQ Film and Media (CRN 45184). This course is a study of the relationship between society and LGBTQ media as it evolved at key points in history. It fulfills the Culture and Identity requirement for the FLM major (or as an elective for FLM minors). Email Prof. Kies with any questions.

01/30/2026

Congrats to FLM professor Annie Sullivan on the publication of her edited collection, Local TV! The book examines how local television in the U.S. has fostered community, creativity, and civic engagement over the 20th and 21st centuries, with different chapters written by world-renowned television scholars (including Sullivan herself).
More about the book:

Local TV offers critical analyses of an expansive range of practices, policies, and debates in local television histories from the United States. Television ...

01/28/2026

Current students: Want some help with tuition? The department's Holzbock scholarship is open to FLM majors! Deadline March 1. Read more here:

Oakland University English, Creative Writing, and Film Department The Werner Holzbock Humanities Scholarship The award will be applied to student tuition. Who is eligible for this scholarship? Students can apply for this scholarship if they: Have a major offered by the English, Creative Writing...

01/19/2026

01/19/2026

In honor of the (belated) birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I wanted to share some rare footage that features a softer side of the legend. Here we find him discussing his birthday with his dear friend Harry Belafonte in his last television interview. King would be assassinated two months later at the age of 39.

In an unprecedented move for late night television, singer, actor and activist Harry Belafonte took over hosting duties of The Tonight Show for the week of February 5-9 1968. Belafonte was able to invite his own roster of guests and craft his own material, which celebrated Black culture and drew focus to significant (and controversial) political issues of the time. Guests voiced opposition to the ongoing Vietnam War and discussed strategies to advance Civil Rights. In this clip we can watch King discuss the burgeoning Poor People's Campaign and share a joke with his co-panelists singer Leon Bibb, actor Paul Newman, and comedian Nipsy Russell.

The historic week, documented in The Sit-In (the clip’s source material), transformed the late-night show into a multicultural platform, highlighting Black artists and activists. Other guests for the week (not featured in my clip) include Sidney Potier, Robert F. Kennedy Sr, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Cosby, Dionne Warwick, and Aretha Franklin.

While some snippets of the episodes remain, it was common practice for television stations to record over their own footage to save on production costs. As such, the complete tapes of the groundbreaking week in TV history no longer exist. Save your videos and savor your memories, you don´t know how important they may become in the future and what might be lost in the process.

To quote Gil Scot Heron, “The revolution will not be televised,” but in film/television history we can find snippets of revolutionary thought and action.

Happy Birthday Doctor King! Hope you continue to inspire a new generation of dreamers, thinkers, and activists here at OU!

12/15/2025

Decked out and ready to move that tassel to the left! FLM graduates (L to R): Huda Rao, Jack Elsey, and Sean Donovan participated in commencement on Saturday, along with Ashton Stewart. It was freezing cold outside, but the O'Rena was hot with excitement!