Screen Gems Made in Nebraska

Nebraska is not high on most filmmakers’ list of places to shoot pictures for its lack of arresting locations, paucity of film production facilities and no meaningful tax incentives. Yet dozens of Hollywood and indie feature projects have been filmed here in part or in their entirely since the 1930s. Some even ended up award-winners and classics.

Big budget studio or network projects are a rarity here. Most in-state pictures have modest or micro budgets. Still, there’s a history big screen names working here, sometimes before they were stars.

Native son Alexander Payne is responsible for a preponderance of the major films lensed in Nebraska. Five of his seven features have shot in total or in part in his home state. Each time he’s had to fight to shoot here. His in-state projects have brought A-list talent.

Some made-in-Nebraska films have enjoyed national premieres in Omaha, complete with red carpet, search lights and queues of fans.

From the Golden Age of the studio system to today’s dispersed production apparatus, Nebraska has hosted a wide range of film productions. This fall’s series of film classes will sample seven very different pictures from the relatively small but surprisingly rich filmed in Nebraska heritage.

Fall Class sessions are held Wednesday evenings from 5:45 to 8:45 at the Highlander Accelerator, 2112 North 30th Street.

$$ Bundle & Save $$ Screen Gems Made in Nebraska

Dates:

October 10 through November 14, 2018

Meets:

Wednesdays

5:45 PM to 8:45 PM

Location:

MCC North Express 311 in the Highlander Accelerator

2112 North 30th Street.

Registration Fee:

$145.00

For a limited time only, bring a friend for free.

Register at:

https://coned.mccneb.edu/wconnect/ace/

This fall, Metropolitan Community College’s series of film classes will sample seven different pictures from the relatively small, but surprisingly rich filmed-in-Nebraska inventory.

The instructor is yours truly, Leo Adam Biga, film journalist and author of the book “Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film.”

This bundle includes “Boys Town,” “The Rain People,” “We’re Not the Jet Set,” “Terms of Endearment,” “My Antonia,” “A Time for Burning” and “Wigger.” (five sessions)

NOTES:

Must be 18 or older.

Series skips Wednesday, October 31.

The fall 2018 Screen Gems Made in Nebraska series:

Boys Town

October 10, 2018 

5:45 PM to 8:45 PM

MCC North Express 311, Highlander Accelerator

$29.00

MGM came to Omaha to make the 1938 Oscar-winning chestnut “Boys Town” about an institution and its beloved priest founder, Edward Flanagan. The presence of stars Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney set the town to talking during the film’s shoot at the village of Boys Town and in Omaha. (one session)

The Rain People & We’re Not the Jet Set

October 17, 2018

5:45 PM to 8:45 PM

MCC North Express 311, Highlander Accelerator

$29.00

In 1968 Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas came to Ogallala, Nebraska for the last few weeks shooting on “The Rain People,” an arty road picture Coppola wrote and directed that starred Shirley Knight, James Caan and Robert Duvall. While working in Nebraska, actor Robert Duvall met a Nebraska farm-ranch family who became the subjects of his evocative, rarely seen 1977 documentary, “We’re Not the Jet Set.” This was Duvall’s first directorial effort and it’s a must-see for anyone wanting a full appreciation of his screen career. (one session)

Terms of Endearment

October 24, 2018

5:45 PM to 8:45 PM

MCC North Express 311, Highlander Accelerator

$29.00

James L. Brooks found great success creating “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Taxi” and “The Simpsons” and he proved equally adept with big screen comedy when he produced-wrote-directed 1983’s “Terms of Endearment,” whose A-list cast worked on several scenes in Lincoln. Brooks won Oscars as producer, writer and director. (one session)

My Antonia

November 7, 2018

5:45 PM to 8:45 PM

MCC North Express 311, Highlander Accelerator

$29.00

The classic book “My Antonia” by iconic Nebraska author Willa Cather was adapted into this 1995 cable television movie featuring Neal Patrick Harris, Ellna Lowensohn, Jason Robards and Eva Marie Saint. The movie, helmed by acclaimed TV director Joseph Sargent, shot in and around the Stuhr Museum in Grand Island. (one session)

A Time for Burning & Wigger

November 14, 2018

5:45 PM to 8:45 PM

MCC North Express 311, Highlander Accelerator

$29.00

In the mid-1960s, Lutheran Film Associates commissioned Bill Jersey and Barbara Connell to make a cinema verite documentary about race relations in mainstream America. They focused their camera on Omaha, where a young, liberal pastor met resistance attempting interracial fellowship at his North Omaha church. A young barber-philosopher-activist by the name of Ernie Chambers stole the show in the Oscar-nominated “A Time for Burning” about the rupture that resulted among the Augustana Lutheran Church congregation.

University of Nebraska at Omaha Black Studies professor Omowale Akintunde took on the tricky subject of racial identity in his 2010 urban drama “Wigger,” which the writer-director shot entirely in North Omaha. Join this in depth discussion which will also be facilitated by the director himself. (one session)

Register at:

https://coned.mccneb.edu/wconnect/ace/ShowSchedule.awp?&Criteria