The Texas Film Commission and the Texas Archive of the Moving Image have announced a new interactive exhibit that explores the HemisFair ’68.
The exhibit is called Meet Me in San Antonio: HemisFair ’68 on Film. It explains how the event came together via home movies, news coverage, and promo films.
San Antonio’s HemisFair ’68 was a 1968 celebration of different western ethnic groups and of San Antonio’s 250th birthday that lasted six months.
The theme of the fair was “Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas.” The event featured architecture that fit the theme as well as demonstrations and performances.
TFC Director Stephanie Whallon thinks the preservation of historic film is vitally important.
“To experience the HemisFair ’68 event and San Antonio through the home movies from those who attended is very exciting. We are proud to partner with TAMI to continue their great work preserving experiences and stories that are uniquely Texan,” she said in a press release from Gov. Greg Abbott.
Many of the iconic buildings built for the fair are still present today, including the Tower of the Americas, the construction of which you can watch in a video at the exhibit, according to TAMI Managing Director Elizabeth Hansen.
She commented in the release that San Antonio’s downtown “came to life during this monumental event,” and you can relive the event by viewing the exhibit here.
The TAMI and TFC introduced the Texas Film Round-Up in 2008 in order to digitize much of the historic film. As a result, over 50,000 films and videotapes were digitized and preserved, and you can view a collection of 5,000 of these digitized films here.
An excerpt from the official HemisFair ’68 guidebook captured the full import of the event: “Bilingual and cosmopolitan, San Antonio lays claim to a lustrous heritage spun from the colorful threads of many cultures. On that foundation, HemisFair’ 68, in the truest sense, is the outcome of visionary, 20th century pioneering.”
The TFC works in the Governor’s Economic Development and Tourism Office and helps grow jobs in the film community in Texas.
TAMI is an independent non-profit organization whose mission is to preserve and improve access to Texas’ moving image heritage.
