Three documentaries made by Dr. James Bogan, Curators’ Teaching Professor of art history and film at the University of Missouri-Rolla, will be screened Tuesday, May 1, as part of the UMR Spring Film Festival. All three films delineate the ways artists go about their work turning inspiration into reality.

The screening will begin at 7 p.m. in Leach Theatre of UMR’s Castleman Hall, 10th and Main streets in Rolla. It is free and open to the public.

The program will feature “Tom Benton’s Missouri,” an award-winning piece from 1992 that debuted nationwide on PBS. It depicts the history and methods of Benton’s most ambitious mural, “The Social History of the State of Missouri,” which is housed in the Missouri Capitol building in Jefferson City. The film features music from Bob Dyer and narration by Bob Priddy.

The second documentary to be shown is “The Making of the Millennium Arch.” Made in 2000, the film shows how artist and sculptor Edwina Sandys and Dr. David Summers, Curators’ Professor of mining and nuclear engineering, used UMR’s high-pressure waterjet to create a 60-ton monument our of billion-year-old Missouri red granite.

The evening will also include the first public screening of “Naked Bronze: ‘Lost Wax’ Louis Smart Sculptor in the Ozarks.”

“This will be a test screening of the first fine cut of the documentary,” Bogan explains. It features Rolla native Louis Smart and follows the process of making a bronze sculpture, from molding session to finished piece.

“I have admired the expressive human figure sculptures of Louis Smart for 35 years. This film has been in the works for about three years, allowing us to document the long process Louis goes through in realizing one of his figures.

“Watching the pouring of molten bronze at 2,200 degrees is an unforgettable experience and I hope our film will be a true reflection of his great work,” Bogan adds. “I am looking forward to trying it out on the hometown audience and getting some responses before finishing it off. It should be done done done next fall.”