A report on HMD 2009 from Martin Koerber in Berlin:
We didn’t really count, but I’d say about 40 people came to see the films, and 12 parties brought in films. Screenshot (a Berlin based company who does professional transfers of Home Movies) supported us again and had installed a demo unit of their new HD Flashscan, so people could see what one can do with Home Movies these days apart from running them through projectors. Many people asked for help in transferring material.
The screenings started with a film about the “Waldbahn” in Muskau, a small gauge (660 mm) train that was first run in 1899 and had been abandoned in the 1990. It has been re-opened by a bunch of enthusiasts and is now running as an attraction for tourists, steam engine and all. Further, we had a lot of baby footage this time, mainly from the 1950s, and the babies, now nearing retirement age, were present to comment. Most of them hadn’t seen the footage for a very long time, and they were moved to see themselves through the eyes of their loving parents, so to speak. We were moved by their comments, which included a lot of cultural and social history which would have been lost to modern viewers without the live commentary. What stuck is the notion that even private footage of this sort can “talk” and made worthwhile, if only the right contextualization is at hand.
Another highlight was a film made in the 1970s in Hadrian’s villa near Tivoli (Italy). A now retired art-historian had recorded this and other archeological sites as what she calles “optical memory” helping her remembering facts and appearances of these places when writing about them. Apart from being interesting because of the topic itself, the footage was extremly beautifully shot.
Two people (independently from each other) brought films they had recorded in their school days in the early 1960s in East Germany, and had recently re-evaluated and re-edited on DVD for a class-reunion. This was interesting too, because it showed they view on themselves then, but also their hindsights thoughts and feelings.
The sensation of the day was a Home Movie from Outer Space, so to speak. The German astronaut Reinhard Furrer had recorded 16 mm footage during his flight on the European Space lab in 1985. We saw the astronauts floating about during their lunch-break, and a tour through the Space lab and the shuttle. Amazing! The footage was brought in by his sister, who had never seen it. Furrer died in a plane crash in 1995 an left the footage as well as audiotapes of his inflight-recorded reflection on his space travel to her. We will follow this up and hopefully aquire this unique material for our collection.
To conclude HMD this year, we showed ELLE S’APPELLE SABINE by Sandrine Bonnaire at Kino Arsenal at 7 p,m in the evening. People who had brought in films received a voucher for a free ticket. The film is a portrait of Sandrine’s autistic sister, and her story is told partly through the use of the Bonnaire’s family films.