In the opening scene of "Time and Dreams," Mort Jordan is heard speaking over the ticking of different clocks.

In the next moment, the film captures the countryside of Greene County, Alabama.

"Time, time moves gently across Greene County," Jordan said. "It flows with the prairie, through fields and rows of cedar. You can feel its pull in white columns, in magnolias and oaks. The mark of time and sense its weight in the farm towns, the cotton towns, country stores. Time is part of the land itself."

Through the film, Jordan used the concept of time to illustrate something he believes remains an issue today: how some have tried to hold onto the past in the midst of a changing society.

"With love, you turn toward the past, and a vision," he said. "You nurture the vision and sustain it and seek to reflect it. In it, you find strength and you're richer for it. But the vision is also a flaw. You enrapture yourself with the past, and spin it into silk and wrap it around you like a cocoon. Secure within the past, you sleep and dream. On you dream, secure within the past, but unsure of the world about you for despite all your spinning and dreaming, in this world and these times, there are other dreamers who will not be dreamed away."

The film, a 51-minute documentary Jordan completed while a graduate student at Temple University, interviewed people about their feelings about how the civil rights movement and the rise of black politicians in Greene County had changed the area. Through the film, scenes vary from a classroom filled with white and black children to poor black sharecroppers sitting in the shade of a wooden shack.

Jordan, a Tuscaloosa native who often traveled to Boligee as a boy, made the film to complete his master's degree in fine arts in hopes of becoming a documentary filmmaker one day. Until recently, the film remained in storage at Temple. Even Jordan had not seen the film in over 25 years.

Now, the little-known documentary is one of 25 films to be added to the National Film Registry, a collection of films that have been deemed to have "a cultural, historic and/or aesthetic importance" by the Library of Congress. Other notable films added to the Registry this year include "Titatnic," "Spartacus" and "Die Hard."

"When I got a phone call from the Library of Congress, I was absolutely floored," Jordan said. "I never thought that they would have even heard of it, much less seen it."

In its description, the Library of Congress characterized "Time and Dreams" as "a unique and personal elegiac approach to the civil rights movement."

"The filmmaker has described 'Time and Dreams' as a personal journey back to his Alabama home, where he contrasts two societies: the nostalgia some residents have for past values versus the deferred dreams of those who are well past waiting for their time to fully participate in the promise of their own dreams," the release stated. "Through vignettes and personal testimonies, the film portrays Greene County, Alabama, as its people move toward understanding and cooperation in a time of social change."

Jordan said the idea for the film came from the political upheaval that was occurring in Greene County at the time. In 1970, both William McKinley Branch and Thomas Gilmore were elected as the first black probate judge and sheriff, respectively, in Greene County.

Over the years, more black politicians came to power in the area, despite the county's population remaining predominantly white at the time. Through all this, Jordan thought it would be interesting to hear from the people who were seeing this change up front.

"It seemed to be that that was a better story and more important story to be told," Jordan said. "I thought it would be important to include the retrospectives of these people and what they thought the future would hold."

Len Guercio, manager of the Digital Cinema Lab in the TFMA Division of the Center for the Arts at Temple University, said he was approached by the selection committee to suggest some films he thought should be considered for the registry. Guercio said the committee was looking to add more films that had been completed by students.

Guercio said he thought "Time and Dreams" was deeply moving and had always enjoyed watching it.

"It struck me as being very honest and heartfelt," Guercio said. "That's what got me, and that's one of the reasons I suggested it to the committee."

The film's message was simple, Jordan said.

"I wanted to document the times and present a general philosophy that is important for everyone, that regardless of where they are, you cannot go and immerse yourself so totally in the past that it distorts your present," he said.

Jordan said that after he graduated from Temple, he had received some offers in California to work on documentaries but that he decided back to Alabama to do documentary work for Alabama Public Television. However, things did not work out, and he was unable to get any work making films.

Over the years, Jordan has done a number of things, from being the owner of Oz Music to working in real estate. Despite not being able to fulfill his dreams of being a documentary filmmaker, Jordan regrets nothing.

"I'm very happy with the way things have gone over the years," he said.

Jordan said he appreciates the recognition by the Registry for his work.

"My reaction is one of being humbled to the point of being almost speechless," he said. "Indeed it's an honor and I'm proud of that honor."

In addition, another Alabama-centered film was added to the registry this year: Spike Lee's "4 Little Girls," a 1997 documentary on the 1963 bombing at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham that killed four black girls: Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Lee dedicated the film's selection into the registry to the slain girls and said that he cherished the honor. Previously, Lee's "Do the Right Thing" and "Malcolm X" had been selected by the National Film Registry for induction.

Reach Drew Taylor at drew.taylor@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0204.