Research Catalog

Title

Jackie Shearer papers, 1966-1993 (bulk 1980-1993).

Author

Shearer, Jacqueline

Supplementary Content

Finding aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Baeza, Ifa, 1950-
• Goldstone, Patricia, 1951-
• Seidel, Steve
• Robeson, Eslanda Goode, 1896-1965.
• Wideman, John Edgar
• Jones, Quincy, 1933-
• Gooding, James Henry, 1837-1864.
• Berry, Mary Frances

Description

10 lin. ft. (10 record cartons)

Summary

• The Jackie Shearer papers document various aspects of the filmmaker's career, including production and research files as well as scripts for a few of her films, and her involvement with professional organizations, the latter exemplified by minutes and other material for the Independent Television Service Shearer's, 1980s-1993.
• Shearer worked on a number of films with primarily African American themes in a variety of roles: producer, director, and script writer, with many examples in the Projects series, 1966-1992. The files for "Addie and the Pink Carnations" include proposals, synopses, and contracts with script writers. In addition to several versions of the screenplay written by Shearer, there are a number of script outlines and versions by Ifa Baeza, John Edgar Wideman, Steve Seidel, and Patricia Goldstone. Research material encompasses interview transcripts and a thesis, among other items.
• Folders for the exhibit "Going Up to Birmingham" which was installed on the voting rights video wall in the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in 1992, consist of a media package, budget and other financial information, as well as production files, 1991-1992. For Shearer's 1984 "Incident Report," a thirty-minute narrative film on nursing home abuse, there are scripts and correspondence about the production.
• Material for the film "Massachusetts 54th Colored Infantry" (1991) documents its production and consists of research files for particular soldiers including notes based on their pension records, a copy of Mary Frances Berry's 1966 dissertation, "The Negro Soldier Movement and the Adoption of the National Conscription: 1652-1865," and photocopies of letters from Corporal James Henry Gooding and other members of the regiment. Additional research material incorporates notes about free Blacks in Boston during the Civil War era, and, for the Battle of Fort Wagner, there are manuscripts by Stephen R. Wise and Richard Andersen focusing on Robert Gould Shaw. The "Massachusetts 54th" also includes scripts, production files,and Shearer's manuscript for a report concerning the making of this film.
• Files for "A Minor Altercation" (1976), consist of a script, discussion guide, and information about screenings and distribution. Material for the unproduced "Songs of My People" contains a proposal, production files (treatments), and the transcript of a lengthy advisors meeting with Quincy Jones and others, 1991. There are script notes and a prospectus for the film "Sophronia," a love story, planned as a ninety-minute color film in 1979. Proposed projects of Shearer and other filmmakers such as Michelle Parkerson and Jack Willis can also be found here.

Subject

• Shaw, Robert Gould, 1837-1863
• Shearer, Jacqueline
• Independent Television Service
• Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (Birmingham, Ala.)
• United States. Army > African American troops
• United States. Army. Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, 54th (1863-1865)
• African American women motion picture producers and directors
• African American women screenwriters
• African American women authors
• Women cinematographers > United States
• Motion picture authorship
• African American soldiers
• African American women household employees
• African Americans in the performing arts
• Motion pictures > United States
• United States > History > Civil War, 1861-1865

Genre/Form

• Interviews.
• Scripts.
• Documentaries and factual works.

Note

• Photographs transferred to Photographs and Prints Division.
• Audiotapes, videotapes and films transferred to Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division.

Source (note)

• Jackie shearer Estate

Biography (note)

• Jacqueline Anne Shearer (Jackie Shearer, Nov. 30, 1946 - Nov. 26, 1993, Boston, MA) was an African American independent producer and director of documentary films about African Americans; she was committed to using media as a tool for social change. Her completed work includes "A Minor Altercation" (1976), a dramatic film about the Boston school busing crisis was used to promote discussion of racism and desegregation. Shearer produced and directed, and wrote, along with Leslie Lee, "The Massachusetts Colored 54th Infantry" (1991) for the PBS series "The American Experience." This one-hour documentary emphasizes the role of Boston's free Black abolitionist community in forming the first African American Civil War regiment.
• In 1979 she began a decade-long endeavor to complete a feature film entitled "Addie and the Pink Carnations" depicting the social history of Black women domestic workers during the Depression. Shearer also directed "The Incident Report" (1984), a dramatic training film exploring the issue of patient abuse in nursing homes. She produced, directed, and wrote the multimedia video production "Going Up to Birmingham" (1992) for the permanent exhibition of the then newly opened Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Alabama. This work focuses on Birmingham's early years and the racial divide that marked urban life.

Call Number

Sc MG 560

OCLC

869554416

Author

Shearer, Jacqueline.

Title

Jackie Shearer papers, 1966-1993 (bulk 1980-1993).

Biography

Jacqueline Anne Shearer (Jackie Shearer, Nov. 30, 1946 - Nov. 26, 1993, Boston, MA) was an African American independent producer and director of documentary films about African Americans; she was committed to using media as a tool for social change. Her completed work includes "A Minor Altercation" (1976), a dramatic film about the Boston school busing crisis was used to promote discussion of racism and desegregation. Shearer produced and directed, and wrote, along with Leslie Lee, "The Massachusetts Colored 54th Infantry" (1991) for the PBS series "The American Experience." This one-hour documentary emphasizes the role of Boston's free Black abolitionist community in forming the first African American Civil War regiment.

In 1979 she began a decade-long endeavor to complete a feature film entitled "Addie and the Pink Carnations" depicting the social history of Black women domestic workers during the Depression. Shearer also directed "The Incident Report" (1984), a dramatic training film exploring the issue of patient abuse in nursing homes. She produced, directed, and wrote the multimedia video production "Going Up to Birmingham" (1992) for the permanent exhibition of the then newly opened Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Alabama. This work focuses on Birmingham's early years and the racial divide that marked urban life.

Connect to:

Finding aid

Local Subject

Black author.

Added Author

Baeza, Ifa, 1950-

Goldstone, Patricia, 1951-

Seidel, Steve.

Robeson, Eslanda Goode, 1896-1965.

Wideman, John Edgar.

Jones, Quincy, 1933-

Gooding, James Henry, 1837-1864.

Berry, Mary Frances. Negro Soldier Movementand the adoption of National Conscription: 1652-1865.

Research Call Number

Sc MG 560