Citizen Blue: The Life and Work of a Great American Filmmaker

James Blue (1930–1980) is regarded as one of the important voices in social activist filmmaking, an early driving force in media arts education, and a catalyst in the formation of regional film arts organizations. University of Oregon professor Dan Miller’s film explores the legacy of this Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker, educator, and historian. Blue is best known for his Cannes Film Festival prizewinning Les Oliviers de la Justice (The Olive Trees of Justice, 1962) about a Frenchman returning to his native Algiers to witness mass exploitation. His other important films remain classics, including The March (1964), which chronicled the civil rights march on Washington, D.C.  and Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech, and the Academy Award©-nominated A Few Notes on Our Food Problem (1968), about the growing issue of world hunger. Blue was founder of Rice University Media Center and a leader in the movement to democratize media access and production across America,  including Houston’s Southwest Alternate Media Project (SWAMP), a media arts organization founded in 1977.