October 7, 2019
Master storyteller and award-winning filmmaker to share passion for history
Master storyteller Larry Foley will discuss his passion for history and proclivity for innovation during the lecture "Bringing Real History to Life: Telling Reel Stories" at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 11 at Regnier Hall Forum in the College of Architecture, Planning & Design. The free and public lecture is co-sponsored by the college and the local chapter of the National Daughters of the American Revolution.
Foley is a professor and chair of the School of Journalism and Strategic Media in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Arkansas. During the lecture, he will discuss a journey he began in his 2003 documentary "It Started Here, Early Arkansas and the Louisiana Purchase" and explain how the states in the geographic center of the U.S. were central to some of the nation's most crucial political, cultural and economic issues of the times.
A veteran broadcast journalist, educator and documentary filmmaker, Foley was a 2017 inductee into the Mid-America Emmy Silver Circle for a distinguished career invested in teaching, reporting, writing, producing and directing stories, mostly about his beloved home state of Arkansas. This honor recognizes Foley’s spirit of innovation, passion, creativity and commitment that are hallmarks of excellence in television arts and sciences.
Foley's films have earned seven Mid-America Emmys from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and 19 Emmy nominations in writing, journalistic enterprise, history, cultural history, special program and community service. His films have also received four Best of Festival of Media Arts awards from the international Broadcast Education Association. Fourteen of Foley's historical documentaries are available for viewing through the University of Arkansas's institutional repository at ScholarWorks@UARK.
His PBS credits include "The Buffalo Flows," "Saving the Eagles," "The Lost Squadron" and "When Lightning Struck: Saga of an American Warplane" Narrators of Foley's scripts include President Bill Clinton; Academy Award winners Billy Bob Thornton, Mary Steenburgen and Ray McKinnon; country music star Joe Nichols; ABC reporter T J Holmes; and NFL Hall of Fame broadcaster Charlie Jones.
Foley joined the faculty at the University of Arkansas in 1993. He is the founder of the campus television station UATV and began his television career in 1977 at KATV Channel 7, covering southeast Arkansas as Pine Bluff bureau chief, and host of "Good Morning Arkansas." He is an inductee of the Lemke Alumni Society Hall of Honor and the Fayetteville Schools Hall of Honor and winner of the University of Arkansas faculty research award, Fulbright College Master Researcher award, the Individual Artist Governor's Award from Arkansas Arts Council, and the Henry Award from Arkansas Parks and Tourism.
Founded in 1890, the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution exists to promote historic preservation, education and patriotism. Its members are descended from the patriots who won American independence during the Revolutionary War. With more than 177,000 members in approximately 3,000 chapters worldwide, the society is one of the world's largest and most active service organizations. Connect with the society on social media at facebook.com/TodaysDAR, twitter.com/TodaysDAR and youtube.com/TodaysDAR.