University of Arizona

Everyone is welcome to visit Special Collections without an appointment from 9 am - 5 pm, Mon - Fri. Note that beginning April 1st, our hours will be 9 am - 4 pm

The Desert On Celluloid

Celebrate American Archives Month as the University of Arizona Special Collections, the Center for Creative Photography, and the Bear Canyon Center for Southwest Humanities present a selection of films from Southwest archives.

Arizona Oddities and Tucson Travels from Special Collections features Kodachrome vignettes that explore the cultural highlights of Arizona and Tucson, reflecting the mid-century tourism surge in the United States (Reid H. Ray Film Industries, 1948, USA, 10 mins, Not Rated)

Look Park, an avant-garde walk through the park, uses original material from the Center for Creative Photography's holdings (Dir. Ralph Steiner, 1974, USA, 11 mins, Not Rated)

Spring Planting, or How to Move a Giant Saguaro, a Western Ways curiosity film from the Arizona Historical Society Library & Archives presented by The Bear Canyon Center for Southwest Humanities, showcases the harvest and transplant of a giant saguaro from the open desert to Eleven Arches, the historical mansion near Hacienda del Sol (Dir. Charles Herbert, 1939, USA, 10 mins, Not Rated)

Barrett Archival Consulting presents travelogue and home movie compositions from the 1950s to the 1970s. Clips include the 1969 University of Arizona graduation, Grand Canyon National Park Diné Dancers, and folklórico dancers from Nogales (Dir. Lucienne Collaer Rusconi, 1925-2016, USA, 8 mins, Not Rated).

Upward from Poverty is a 1930s documentary from Special Collections that records the director’s rural reconstruction and community development work with the YMCA in India. Clips are taken from a digital composite of silent film footage and narration recorded by filmmaker Duane Spencer Hatch on 78 rpm lacquer disc. (Dir. Duane Spencer Hatch, ca. 1930, USA, 10 mins, Not Rated).

(Total program running time: approximately 120 minutes)