FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – One of the signature events of the University of Arkansas’ sesquicentennial celebration will be the premiere of If This Walk Could Talk, a documentary about the university’s 150-year story.

The film will premiere in Spring 2022 as the U of A celebrates the 150th anniversary of the first day of classes as part of it’s 18-month sesquicentennial celebration. It will feature contemporary interviews and essays from current and former students that will speak from the heart about how the university has shaped and impacted their lives. 

The film will also include quotes from the past from Razorback yearbooks, literature, special collections and archival interviews, giving a glimpse into the university’s legacy. 

The documentary is directed by Emmy Award-winning and department chair in the School of Journalism and Strategic Media, Larry Foley. Alumni John Cooper and Ben Goodwin, who both work in the Office of University Relations, will serve as associate producers and photographers for the film. Music professor emeritus Jim Greeson will compose an original score.

"I'm honored with the opportunity to help tell the story of our university's rich heritage through the medium of film," said Foley, a 1976 journalism grad. "Walking along campus, I often think of all the stories from each of those names inscribed on Senior Walk--hardships overcome, lessons learned here that would last a lifetime. My name is on the walk, and so is my dad's and daughter's names. Soon, my grandson will graduate and have his name added.  We all have stories and it's going to be fun to tell a few of them."

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.

Narrators

The trailer for If This Walk Could Talk recently debuted alongside the launch of the 150thanniversary website and is narrated by alumni Samantha Jones, Joseph Holloway and Kyle Kellams.

Samantha Jones

Jones is an anchor and reporter for KMOV-TV in St. Louis, Missouri and a U of A graduate in 2014. She joined KMOV in 2019 after stops at television stations in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas. In May of 2020, she earned the chance to anchor a CBS Evening News broadcast. 

Joseph Holloway

Holloway is a news reporter for CBS17 in Raleigh, North Carolina. He recently spent five years with KOTV in Tulsa, Oklahoma and also worked at KNWA in Fayetteville, Arkansas after graduating from the U of A in 2014. 

Kyle Kellams

Kellams has been the news director at KUAF for 25 years and has been producing Ozarks at Large, the station’s daily news magazine, since March of 1990.

He first started working in radio at KTLO in Mountain Home, Arkansas while still in high school and also spent a year as news director at KKIX in Fayetteville before working at KUAF.  During his time at KUAF has also served as the radio play-by-play voice for the University of Arkansas women's basketball team and on occasion the U of A baseball team.

Other university sesquicentennial activities are also being planned or considered in addition to the many annual campus activities, events and forums that will have a sesquicentennial feel in 2021-22. Colleges, schools, units and other groups on campus are also scheduling activities and events for the 150th celebration. Information about these events will be included in the calendar of events and sesquicentennial website. 

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among fewer than 3% of colleges and universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.