I Make Films for Black People and Everybody Can Watch with Barbara Allen

Ep 151: I Make Films for Black People and Everybody Can Watch with Barbara Allen Two little girls saw a movie camera in a mail order catalog and spent a whole week on the phone building a case to bring to their parents. They both got a yes. Fifty some years later, one of them is a filmmaker and the other one is her writer. This week I'm talking with documentary filmmaker Barbara Allen, the person behind Paper Trail: 100 Years of the Chicago Defender, DuSable to Obama: Chicago's Black Metropolis, Colorblind: Rethinking Race, and House Music: A Cultural Revolution. Recorded live at Lumpen Radio, no edits, no retakes. What We Talk About How an 8 year old talks her mother into a movie camera, and how that kid and her best friend ended up in an editing room together twenty years later Why the Vivian Harsh Collection at Woodson Library is the place to go for Black Chicago history, and what's in there that the big museums don't have The Black pilots of 1930s Chicago: Cornelius Coffey, Willa Brown, and the man they called the one man Ethiopian Air Force Why she deliberately cast white male experts in a documentary about racism, and why it worked Time travel, virtual reality, and putting a viewer on a rooftop during Hurricane Katrina Where she lands on AI, and the dark comedy about AI she's making right now The one thing she wishes more interviewers would do If you love Chicago history, oral archives, or anybody who has been following their curiosity since childhood, this episode is for you. All about Barbara Allen You're gonna love Barbara. She's a straight up walking archive with a great sense of humor about it. She's a producer, director, editor, engineer, and journalist who has spent decades telling stories about Black history, culture, and Chicago. Her documentaries include Paper Trail: 100 Years of the Chicago Defender, DuSable to Obama: Chicago's Black Metropolis, Colorblind: Rethinking Race, and House Music: A Cultural Revolution. She was a Knight Fellow at Stanford in 2013, where she built one of the first immersive VR journalism pieces, a Hurricane Katrina rooftop story narrated by Harry Lennix. She's currently raising funds for Realignment, a dark comedy about AI that is a pilot for a series. Chapters: 00:22 - Settle In — Live, Unedited Conversation on Nosy AF 02:15 - Origins: Making Films at Eight 06:14 - Wearing Many Hats: Learning Every Side of Filmmaking 14:27 - Film timeline — Paper Trail and other works 20:50 - Social Media as Archive: Self‑Documenting and the Future of Storytelling 31:51 - Show Return — Barbara Allen: A Walking Archive 34:43 - AI, Authenticity, and Immersive Storytelling 42:01 - AI and Storytelling: When Technology Becomes the Story 49:16 - Lessons Learned Behind the Camera 52:45 - Advice for the Next Generation — Passion vs. Fame 59:43 - Episode Closing — Thanks & Credits Things We Mentioned Paper Trail: 100 Years of the Chicago Defender DuSable to Obama: Chicago's Black Metropolis Colorblind: Rethinking Race House Music: A Cultural Revolution Realignment, her AI dark comedy in development, fiscally sponsored and currently fundraising The Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection at the Carter G. Woodson Regional Library Michael Flug, archivist Timuel Black, Chicago historian Dr. Daniel Hale Williams and Provident Hospital Cornelius Coffey, John Robinson, Willa Brown, and Bessie Coleman Susan Cayton Woodson and her grandfather Hiram Revels, the first Black U.S. senator The Chicago Defender's WWII Victory Edition and the Double V campaign Gail Baker, her writer since they were 8 Tim Wise and the Brandeis researcher who coined "the Black tax" Jeremy Bailenson and Nonny de la Peña Harry Lennix Donald Crossley of the House Music documentary Felicia Kreger, who made the introduction Recent screening of DuSable to Obama at the Chicago Cultural Center with DCASE Connect with Barbara Allen Barbara’s Production Company “Middle Passage Productions” House Music: A Cultural Revolution is on the WTTW YouTube channel Sponsor Shoutout 💖 This episode features Artist Admin Hour. Every Wednesday, 7 to 9pm Central, artists get on Zoom and knock out the applications, grants, budgets, and invoices we've all been avoiding. Two hours of body doubling with structure, no shame, and real community. artistadminhour.com Stay Connected Sign up for the noseyAF Dispatch and grab the Good Neighbor Playbook. Behind the Mic noseyAF is a project of Stephanie Graham's art practice. More ways to connect [email protected] | @stephaniegraham | noseyaf.com Support & Feedback Rate and review the show, and share this episode with a friend who loves Chicago history. Episode Credits Produced, Hosted, and Edited by Stephanie Graham Lyrics: Queen Lex | Instrumental: Freddie Bam Fam | Cover Art: Emma McGoldrick