CHICAGO — No one writing, talking or sharing discoveries about film in Chicago brought the breadth of experience or the enthusiastic advocacy the way Sergio Mims did in his 67 years.
Mims co-founded the Gene Siskel Film Center’s Black Harvest Film Festival and its precursor, the Blacklight festival. He was a passionate champion of classical music, opera, MGM musicals and every corner of film history. He hosted “The Bad Mutha Film Show” on WHPK-FM, and taught screenwriting at DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center.
More recently Mims delivered a slew of delightful DVD commentaries on a range of “pictures” (his preferred word for movies), from “Lilies of the Field” to “Watermelon Man” and “Willie Dynamite.” In April, an appearance at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood afforded Mims the “overdue national recognition he clearly deserved,” in the words of Film Center executive director Jean de St. Aubin.
