Film school named for Sidney Poitier
In 1963, Sidney Poitier made a film in Arizona, “Lilies of the Field.” The performance led to a huge milestone: He became the first Black winner of a lead-acting Oscar.
Now, Arizona is the site of another milestone for the legendary actor and filmmaker. Arizona State University has named its new film school after him. It unveiled The Sidney Poitier New American Film School at a ceremony on Monday.
The decision to name the school after Poitier, 93, is about much more than an emphasis on diversity, said Michael M. Crow, president of the university, in an interview ahead of the unveiling.
“You’re looking for an icon, a
Then-President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Sidney Poitier on Aug. 12, 2009. J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press file
person that embodies everything you stand for,” Crow said. “With Sidney Poitier, it’s his creative energy, his dynamism, his drive, his ambition, the kinds of projects he worked on, the ways in which he advanced his life.”
“Look at his life: It’s a story of a person who found a way,” he said of the actor, who was born in Miami and raised in the Bahamas, the son of tomato farmers, before launching a career that went from small, hard-won theater parts to eventual Hollywood stardom. “How do we help other young people find their way?”
The university, which is expanding its existing film program into its own school, says it has invested millions of dollars in technology to create what’s intended to be one of the largest, most accessible and most diverse film schools.
Crow said that much like the broader university, the film school will measure success not by exclusivity but by inclusivity.
By expanding both its physical resources and flexible learning options like online study, it hopes to enroll thousands more students, teaching them skills that go far beyond traditional moviemaking.
The school will move in the fall of 2022 to a new facility in downtown Mesa, Ariz., 7 miles from the university’s Tempe Campus. It will also occupy the university’s new center in Los Angeles.
Poitier’s daughter Beverly Poitier-Henderson told The Associated Press her father was “doing well and enjoying his family,” and considered it an honor to be the namesake of the new film school.
Poitier-Henderson and two of Poitier’s other daughters described in interviews how the film school’s emphasis on inclusivity and access aligned with their father’s long-held ideals.
“If it has my dad’s name on it, it has to be inclusive, because that’s the foundation of who he is and what he stands for,” said Anika Poitier, like her father a filmmaker. “And it’s important to not only have inclusion but to have diversity, and to give people the opportunity to tell their stories. I think it’s imperative to cast a wide net and allow anyone who’s called to tell their story to learn how to do that.”
Sydney Poitier Heartsong, the actor’s youngest daughter, noted that the two most important things to her father as she grew up were education and the arts.
“Those are the two tracks that run throughout his life, that define what he has contributed and defined what he felt was important to impart to his kids . .... the arts were also a form of education. He wanted to pass that on to all young people but specifically young people of color.”