The Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) highlights HemisFair ‘68 in the new interactive exhibit “Meet Me in San Antonio: HemisFair '68 on Film.” Drawing from home movies, television news coverage, promotional films, and more, the exhibit explores the planning and execution of the 1968 San Antonio event. Presented in partnership with the Texas Film Commission (TFC), the exhibit can be viewed beginning January 31 at: TexasArchive.org/meet-me-in-san-antonio.
HemisFair ‘68 was a sixth-month event celebrating the ethnic groups of the western hemisphere as well as San Antonio's 250th birthday. The theme “Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas” was seen through performances, demonstrations and the architecture of HemisFair Park, constructed specifically for the event in downtown San Antonio.
"You can see a video of the Tower of the Americas being built in the exhibit!" said Elizabeth Hansen, TAMI Managing Director. "Today, it's hard to imagine San Antonio without many of the iconic buildings created for the fair. Through home movies and other film documents, this exhibit lets you see how the park and downtown San Antonio came to life during this monumental event."
TAMI will hold a special film screening of HemisFair '68 footage the evening of Thursday, March 23 at 6 p.m. at HemisFair in San Antonio to celebrate the exhibit in the place where the original event happened.
Many of the archival films featured in the exhibit were digitized as a part of the Texas Film Round-Up, a statewide media preservation program presented by TAMI and TFC. Feature videos include home movies from the Alamo Village, Ramon Galindo, Emil Wesselsky, television news from UTSA Libraries Special Collections, KPRC-TV, Stephen Schaeffer, and promotional films from Kathryn Rhoads and the TFC.
"The work that TAMI does to highlight Texas history through the preservation of film and media is vital.” said TFC Director Stephanie Whallon. "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."
Since 2008, thousands of residents, businesses, and cultural institutions have participated in Film Round-Up events hosted in locations across Texas. The Texas Film Round-Up has resulted in the digitization of more than 50,000 films and videotapes. A curated collection of more than 6,000 videos is available to watch at TexasArchive.org.
The Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) is an independent non-profit organization founded in 2002 to discover, preserve, make accessible and serve community interest in Texas’ moving image heritage. To learn more about the Texas Archive of the Moving Image, visit TexasArchive.org.
The Texas Film Commission in the Economic Development and Tourism Office helps to grow local jobs and local economies by promoting the Lone Star State as the premie destination for film, television, commercial, animation, visual effects, video games, an extended reality (XR) production. More information is available at gov.texas.gov/film.
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