Since 1949, WFAA Chanel 8, in Dallas has documented the news of the day. For years, the station shot that news on 16mm film. WFAA donated all of this raw footage from 1960 to 1977 to the Bill Jones Collection at SMU. Archivists there transferred it and gave it—all 1.3 terabits of it—to 10 Dallas filmmakers. Their challenge was to explore the images that spoke to them, and use them to create original works. Think of these pieces like video remixes, or mashups of a cities reflections. They are constructs of imagination, social and political commentary, not factual documentary. Giving these historic images new contexts and new meanings may give us fresh ways to look at the past. And reveal something about who we are today.
