Phyllis R. Klotman

Phyllis R. Klotman (September 9, 1924 – March 30, 2015) was a film theorist, archivist, professor and later dean for women's affairs at Indiana University, Bloomington. She established the Black Film Center/Archive at Indiana University and championed African-American filmmakers. Klotman is the author of Another Man Gone: The Black Runner in Contemporary Afro-American Literature; Frame by Frame: A Black Filmography (1979); and Struggles for Representation: African American Documentary Film and Video (1999).

Early years

Klotman was born in Galveston, Texas in 1924. Her father, Isadore Rauch, migrated to the United States from Eastern Europe and came to Texas as part of the Galveston Movement. He was a door-to-door salesman and a member of the Merchant Marine in World War 1. Klotman's mother, Esther, was from New York City. The family was Orthodox Jewish.

Klotman attended public school in Galveston and noted in an interview that while her school was segregated, her neighborhood was not. She grew up poor during the Great Depression and has recounted being discriminated against by her teachers and peers for following Orthodox Judaism. and helped to amass a large archive on black cinema at Indiana University which now includes thousands of films, photographs, oral histories and memorabilia.