SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Allen Willis, a pioneering African-American filmmaker who documented significant periods in San Francisco Bay area history, has died at age 94.
Willis passed away Feb. 23 in Oakland, according to
the East Bay Media Center, which houses his archives.
After moving to the Bay area in the 1950s, Willis
became the first African American in California broadcast journalism when
he took a job at San Francisco's KQED television in 1963, the Berkeley-based
center said. Before that, he studied under photographer Ansel Adams and
collaborated with filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles and poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
Willis received numerous awards, including three
Emmys, for films that chronicled major events and cultural movements such as
Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1967 "white backlash" speech at Stanford
University and the psychedelic drug experience. His 1970 film "Stagger
Lee" documented an interview with Black Panther leader Bobby Seale during
his incarceration in the San Francisco County Jail.
Longtime friend Mel Vapour, co-founder of the East
Bay Media Center, described Willis as a "cultural provocateur" with a
keen eye and an inquisitive nature.
"When it came to events here in the Bay area,
he looked at them as explosive, exciting and they need to be documented," Vapour
said Monday. "He was always out there capturing the moment."
After retiring from KQED in 1986, Willis continued
writing a column for the Marxist-Humanist publication "News and
Letters" until 2008, under the name John Alan.
Willis is survived by a sister, Thelma Willis
Prather, of Maryland, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. He was preceded in
death by his wife, Lillian.
A memorial is planned for April 2 at 1 p.m. at the
Niebyl-Proctor Library in Oakland, the East Bay Media Center said.
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/East Bay Media Center, Mel Vapour)
