2025 Annual Report
ILE IFE Films, Inc.
Ile Ife Arts
The Arthur Hall Collection
Frame from Wander at Will
(2025, digital video, 28:07)
President's Report
The first few months of 2025 were focused on my rehabilitation from a life-threatening accident.
By May, I had brought Wander at Will to something of a presentable form and submitted it to
six international film festivals. It was rejected by them all. The odds of acceptance these days is about
one in a hundred, what with everyone and their little baby sister walking around with high quality movie
cameras in their hip pockets. My motto remains, "Eventually it all comes down to a question of editing."
I have been reworking the last stanzas of Wander at Will - essentially the material edited since my accident -
and am hoping for additional references to Arthur Hall's Obatala to make a more rounded finale. We shall see.
Film Festivals are a crap shoot at best, and streaming online is not a very promising medium at the moment.
What to do?
The Cultural Justice folks are producing Philly Rumba about the roots of Rumba, and they plan to include
clips of Bobby Crowder from the Arthur Hall Collection. Last I heard, they were going to use footage
they copied off the internet, or they were going to get higher quality files from the SCRC (the Special
Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries).
As we were exploring what a more comprehensive film about the history of drum culture in Philadelphia
might look like, Fran Harmoni produced an overview that could be a strong foundation for such
a production. If anyone were to undertake such a production, Ile Ife Films would be supportive.
Again, Arthur Hall believed the highest art is the live interaction of music and dance,
and we would encourage any production that promotes that art.
Skip Burton's daughter asked about getting copies of his videos of his trip to Ghana with Ione Nash.
I referred her the SCRC, where the original tapes and their digital copies are archived, and to the edited piece
posted here. In editing it, I should have been more respectful of Mr. Burton and Ms. Nash in the title.
The donation of the tapes to the Arthur Hall Collection was arranged by Fran Harmoni (a nom de guerre).
I was mostly interested in their visit with Saka Acquaye, which was a bit subdued. I did not spend much time
in editing, and it could stand a more careful look. I would be happy to provide Fran Harmoni with a
1TB SanDisk with Skip Burton's videos, along with other Arthur Hall Collection digital files,
so she could produce her own videos without the hassle and expense of going through the SCRC.
The Folger Library at the University of Maine in Orono asked for and received permission to make available
digital copies of my two SVHS recordings of the last Buttermilk Hill country field dance.
I reunited picture and soundtrack for Abbott Meader's Flipping Out (16mm, 1976).
I provided a digital copy of The Unvictorious One (16mm, 1957 or 1958) to Sebastian Neville for a film
he is making on Jorge Preloran. This is a digital copy of the vhs tape Mr. Preloran gave to the Arthur Hall
Collection. The original 16mm workprint and the camera originals are in the Smithsonian Institution,
and are very difficult to access.
I salvaged 16mm film exposed during the 1993 performance of Obatala at Movement Theatre International
in Philadelphia but never processed. Camera malfunction. If there is any image to be seen on the old film,
I intend to use it to re-edit Wander at Will. Perhaps Fran Harmoni could produce new works
from the collection and submit them to the Black Star Festival which only accepts works by
Black, Brown, or Indiginous filmmakers.
In 2025 we purchased additional SanDisk Pro-Blades to back up those used in 2024.
We purchased several 1TB SanDisk drives to back up and transfer digital files,
and we purchased an air conditionaer for the editing room.
The Pro-Blade Station has to be kept cool.
The most viewed videos during 2025 are again Abbott Meader's Isolation
and my own rendition of Arthur Hall's Obatala.
#3 was Ray Hartung's ILE IFE (House of Love)
#4 was Abbott's Destroying Angel
2025 Financial Statement
2025 Credits
Cash Balance 1/1/2025 = $355
2025 Cash Donations (from Patrice and me) = $4,400
Preservation receipt from Abbott Meader= $100
Total Credits 2025 = $4,855
2025 Debits
Equipment purchase (Sandisk Pro-Blade Station etc.) = $2,366
Dues/Memberships = $35
Business expenses = $251
Archive / production costs = $98
Office supplies = $94
Printing Wander at Will poster = $130
Postage/shipping = $27
Maintain ileife.org domain name and website = $165
High Speed Internet Connection = $712
Vimeo Video Streaming = $300
Total Debits 2025 = $4,178
Cash Balance 12/31/2025 = $677
Respectfully submitted,
Bruce Williams
February 2026
Ile Ife Films
66 Northport Avenue
Belfast, Maine 04915
Online Movie Archive (Creative Commons, Full Attribution, Noncommercial)
ileife.org