Home Movie Day News

HMD 2006 is a wrap, and we look forward to hearing reports from around the country. Also, be sure to check out the Home Movie Day group on Flickr, and if you’re a Flickr user and have photos of your event, become a member of the group and add your pics to the pool!

The reports from Home Movie Day events around the world are starting to come in, including a recap in words and pictures from Leo Enticknap and the Northern Region Film & Television Archive HMD at the University of Teesside. Leo writes that the event had a total of 23 visitors, who were treated to screenings of every format from 8mm to 35mm.

Kathleen Fairweather, Chris Stewart, Cary Cox, JaJuan Johnson, “and all the fine staff at the Butler Center and Central Arkansas Library System” write in to report on Home Movie Day in Little Rock, Arkansas:

Greetings From The Natural State!

What A HMD turnout we had today! More than 80 people showed up on a sunny Saturday afternoon in downtown Little Rock to watch a full two and one half hours of Arkansas’ finest home movies. Most of the footage was from the 30s, 40s and 50s and we even had a few celebrities on screen as Ellie May, Jethro and Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies were caught on camera in Batesville, Arkansas, sometime in the 1960s.

I gave a talk on home movie care and preservation and the importance of donating to your friendly, neighborhood archive and the whole thing was picked up by two television stations, our local channels and affiliates for ABC and CBS, as well as NPR. A Few print reporters were there as well, so there should be some good coverage tomorrow.

The folks at the Butler Center and Encyclopedia of Arkansas at the Central Arkansas Library have decided to build a Home Movie Archive from this collection, and will carry the preservation torch forward to Home Movie Day 2007.

And we couldn’t have done it without your support! You’re creating a lasting legacy of movies that folks here really care about.

Thanks Home Movie Day People!

Snowden sends word of the Austin HMD event on behalf of Anne Shelton, the official HMD coordinator, and deems it a great success.

Howdy!

The first-ever Austin Home Movie Day was an unqualified success. We had about 50 people show up during our two-hour screening window, and nearly a dozen people brought films to show. The local NPR affiliate, KUT, ran a nice spot on us this morning (great soundbite from Caroline Frick there, citing the Zapruder film as a “Texas home movie”!). Listen online.

And we also got a blurb on the popular local-scene blog, www.austinist.com. Headline: “Hey Bobby! Film my butt!” Guess they took the spirit of that John Waters quote to heart…and fortunately we didn’t have any Beavis and Butthead types show up on the strength of it.

Highlights of the films we showed: Footage of the UT campus in 1946, including shots of girls dashing for the campus boundaries, stripping off their coats to reveal the shorts that coeds weren’t allowed to wear on university grounds back in those days; several years’ worth of local parades, family Christmases and Easters brought by Austin filmmaker and artist Luke Savisky and his brother, in which their older sisters (who were NOT twins) could be seen wearing identical outfits and unwrapping identical dollies under the tree year after year; shots of the aftermath of a flood in Lampasas, TX, in 1957, which was one of those natural disasters that never made the national newsreels, but devastated the local community and lives on in regional memory; and another reel from the collection of the woman who took the UT-campus footage—one which she shot in November of 1963. That reel came back from processing with a note from Kodak saying that if the film included footage of President Kennedy’s assassination, the owner should contact the FBI immediately. Caroline Frick made a photocopy of the letter for the Texas Archive of the Moving Image’s files, and I’ll try to get a scan of that up for everyone to see this week…

The films that were brought were predominantly 8mm, with a little bit of Super8 and one or two reels of 16mm. No novelty formats for us this year, but perhaps the greatest part of doing a first-time HMD in Austin is that the local crew were already planning for NEXT year’s event before we’d even had this year’s. We’re thinking of things like a week of feature-film screenings relating to home movies, lectures, workshops, the whole nine yards.

This year I ended up being the primary projectionist, which was a new experience for me—having always been running around too much at the LA events to be in charge of a machine. Fortunately, we had NO technical difficulties this year (aside from a lack of regular 8mm splicing tape, which made things a difficult for the prep folks, who coped with the problem manfully!). It was truly cool to experience the magic of making pictures appear out of thin air, I have to say. And I realized that the projectionist gets the luxury of SEEING almost every film that gets shown, which is a treat!

All in all, this was one of the best Home Movie Days I’ve participated in, and I can’t wait for next year (but I guess I say that every year)…

Check out volunteer Bratten Thomason’s pictures of the event.

Tom Robinson reports on the busy Home Movie Day in Eugene, Oregon.

About 200 people showed up at the University of Oregon’s first HMD yesterday, many carrying collections of film. We attribute the big turnout to the heavy media coverage; both local television stations sent film crews in advance and gave us coverage on all Friday newscasts, complete with old home movie samples. The newspaper put us on the cover of the living section and the top of the front page. The posters helped too.

We had three screens simultaneously showing films, three intake tables and an army of helpers. The projectors were arranged in the center of a screening room, with screens on three different walls. One screen had two 16mm Eiki SSL projectors, the other two screens each had both regular 8mm & super 8mm projectors. We were loading film on one projector while the other was playing movies. For most of the afternoon we were able to have all three screens going at the same time. Two of the three super 8 projectors failed in the first hour, one burned up a motor, a clutch failed on another. Other than that everything worked well.

We did not have advance intake. Patrons checked in with a receptionist, who directed them to the proper intake table (different film gauges). Intake would put a stickie on each film reel, can or box labeled with the family name. The intake person would then give the films back to the patron and a “patron relation liaison” would escort the patron to the projection room, where there was a second intake table next to the projectors. Patrons would put a few films in the “inbox”. As projectors became available for loading, projectionists would ask the projection intake person for a new reel of whatever gauge film. Each projectionist would announce the family name on the film at the point of loading the projector, saying which screen the film would be on, so the family could get to the area near the screen that was going to show their film. The projectionist would again announce the family name at the beginning of each film, so people would know when their films were starting. Patrons were always in possession of their film and the only time we had it was when we were projecting it. There were no claims of lost film, etc.

Next year we will do a more thorough job of examining film at intake to determine whether it is wound on the patron’s reels properly, that it is heads out, emulsion out, that regular/super 8 is on the correct spindle size reel, leader (if any) is securely fastened and that the film is not broken in the middle. Our top problem (aside from being mobbed) was old splices falling apart during projection; we had to have splicing blocks at the projectors and used them quite a bit. Our projectionists (including yours truly) worked non-stop. next year we want to have to have matched sets of four projectors, dedicated regular 8 and dedicated super 8, and two extra projectors for motorized rewinding. We want four screens next year, with a set of small gauge projectors for each of the 4 screens. And we want more of those little gooseneck clamp-on lights to thread projectors with. and a string of xmas tree lights around the perimeter of the projector area, since patrons coming in from the street have to take time to adjust to the dark of the screening room and a few couldn’t see very well.

Probably the oldest HM was 1927, a double sprocket 16mm with vs, brought in by a very elderly lady, showing her as a little girl. We probably screened about 50 movies, the vast majority being evenly divided between regular 8 and super 8, reel sizes from 3” to 7”, and there was a surprising amount of 16mm. We had people crying, whole families came in together, a tv crew filmed inside the event for the evening news, it was a full house and our hands were full from beginning to end.

Ashley Maynor gives an in-depth report on HMD Richmond and on her own home movie preservation efforts in her blog, Preservation Project. Organizers Jere Kittle and James Parrish get her kudos for running the event and providing advice.

About a dozen or so individuals came by between 10am and 1pm with their home movies in tow. One individual had films from the 1940s that she had inherited but never seen, another had several “found” 8mm reels with no idea what was on them. Yet another brought in a 16mm film she had completed in art school, but couldn’t remember what she had shot. Jere and James meticulously inspected a reel from each person in order to detect any damage, repair splices, add leader and prepare for projecting that afternoon in the library auditorium.

Lia Friedman sends news from San Diego, where she and Steven O’Riordan hosted their first Home Movie Day at the Geisel Library’s Seuss Room on the campus of the University of California, San Diego.

We received almost exclusively 8mm from the public the day of the event. We had articles in a couple of small community papers, and listings in the large weekly and daily. We had two dedicated projectionists and two other librarians doing intake and talking to people about preservation/transfer/storage issues. We screened 16 and super 8 films from our collection in between films and saw around 35 people throughout the day (our event ran from 2-5:30). We had all of the projectors going at once on one giant wall and screen, while we watched we ate cracker jack & drank apple juice. The highlight was probably the gentleman who brought in his front line footage from Korea. We all gathered around him as he narrated what was going on, pointing out people and places—“those hills were full of commies…” Pretty amazing…We can’t wait for next year!

Home Movie Day Chicago 2006 was relatively slow as far as home movie submissions, but come show time, the room filled up. Although I thought that we may have not gotten the word out well enough, there was a healthy audience (70-75) for the show who came without films. We started out with an EBE 16mm film called “The City,” an early 1960s film that showcased Chicago by following a white guy with a deep voice as he sped around the city in his convertible. Always the profile shot of the guy with a strong jawline whipping along Lake Shore Drive. From there we went into all home movies. Someone submitted some travel New Orleans and New York footage circa 1950s? Jeffrey Martin came in with footage of an intimate party of geriatrics in someone’s living room, complete with cocktails and explicit sexual groping. There was a baby with a cigarette in another home movie, but the highlight of the evening was the Vietnam footage that one Chicagoan vet had brought to the archive at an earlier date. He was never in combat, but was able to capture the R&R climate. Very reminiscent of MASH actually. BarBQs, beautiful native women, and there was a sequence almost in real time of the donor and several of his buddies plowing through a large Ritz Cracker tin of marijuana. We slowly saw the deterioration of the party go from winks and grins to a couple of the vets wrestling each other in this small room where there are maybe 6 guys slowly getting fried out of their minds. Tim, the donor, gave a dry and hilarious commentary throughout the film.

Bingo as always was a success and the music that was played along with the movies was a crowd pleaser. What I took away this year is that this is a concept that is beginning to resonate among the Chicago group that came. There were many repeaters from last year and everyone was genuinely thankful that we put on the event.

Our volunteer crew that ran it are for the most part repeaters as well and totally make the event rock.

Signing off from Chicago
Nancy Watrous
Chicago Film Archives

Even though our business runs on a world wide customer base, the town that we call home is as small-town America as it comes. The rural community of Ashland, Missouri has a population of 3,000. There quite possible may be a gas station, bank, or nail salon for nearly every person, and the “four way” represents to the hub of town. Thus, our Home Movie Day is much different than those held in large metropolis areas with a higher audience. Our Home Movie Day relied on the support of a small, but eager, community.

Twenty Home Movie Depot employees gave their time to showcase their craft. Technicians who work with 8mm film, super8 film, 16mm film, 35mm slides, and video tapes all had stations set up in the building. We had home movies playing on every station through the entire afternoon, including super8 film that our mechanical engineer shot last week of a local park. Additionally, we had tables with examples of proper storage containers and labeling devices. I also had print materials containing names and phone numbers of professional labs.

Additionally, we had a children’s corner where we showed old Bugs Bunny and Disney cartoons. One of our employees created a cartoon drawing of “Vinnie” the film reel, for kids to color. Vinnie was a smashing success.

We had several computers set up to view the Home Movie Depot Archive, a streaming video collection of home movies, donated by Home Movie Depot customers. The archive is fully searchable and includes a comment function. Thanks to the search function, a few savvy guests figured an easy way to win at Bingo.

Finally, we rented an old time popcorn machine and gave away free popcorn and soda. I stand hardily by my belief that the best way to capture an audience is to feed them. As of Saturday, I see no evidence to the contrary.

The day brought a respectable number of guests, but more importantly, it certainly brought the feeling. Towards the end of the day one of our employee’s elderly mother brought in a box of her films to view. We all enjoyed seeing Kenny as a young boy. And while it may take him some time to live down his Halloween costume, all the teasing is in good fun. While I know of a few things to change next year, I’m thankful for the family element that came with this Home Movie Day. Home Movie Day at Home Movie Depot seemed to bring an intriguing blend of old and new, where modern day technology mingled with nearly forgotten traditions.

Laurisa Hinkle
Home Movie Depot

Home Movie Day New Orleans 2006 featured the first ever HMD road trip. Dwight Swanson (Appalshop) and Lauren Sorenson (NYU Moving Image Archiving Program) drove down from Kentucky, met up with Kelli Hicks (Country Music Hall of Fame) in Nashville and they all picked up Brian Graney (UCLA) at the New Orleans airport.

Since we were coming all this way we figured we should do more than one event, and we really wanted to get the New Orleans filmmaking community involved. So the Friday night event was held at the Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center, a great place just outside of downtown. We termed the program “Personal films by local independent filmmakers” since we didn’t want to restrict them to showing their home movies (though some did). The program was curated by Helen Hill, a New Orleans animator who had screened her flood damaged home movies at the recent Orphan Film Symposium. She has been displaced and living in Columbia, SC since Katrina so this was her first time back since she returned last October to save her things from her flooded home. It was a great program and well attended. Highlights included Helen’s home movies and a video made from them by Courtney Egan, weaving Helen’s water-damaged, pre-Katrina footage with video shot from the same POV after the storm; George Ingmire’s incredible video assembled from recent transfers from his grandfather’s home movie collection—footage of his son, born with Down Syndrome, shot from infancy into teens, with a voiceover left behind by his grandfather; a video diary by a 10-year-old girl named Kalypso (available online here), and Zeigeist owner Rene Broussard’s raw video footage shot from the window of his car, radio turned up loud, of the plethora of advertising signs from the insurance companies, contractors, real estate companies, and sign makers, already in place to welcome back NO residents on the first day authorized for their return.

On Saturday afternoon we headed to the French Quarter for HMD proper. The venue was the “Counting Room” of the Historic New Orleans Collection, a gorgeous room in a structure originally built by a prosperous merchant and trader named Jean François Merieult in 1794-95. Attendance was modest and not all contributions were in condition to be projected—not because of any Katrina-related damage, but because of more common types of deterioration. Two projector-ready collections included one man’s footage of his son’s jazz band playing at the 1984 New Orleans World’s Fair and Eisenhower’s visit to the city on the sesquicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase. We also had the opportunity to screen the many films that were submitted for the occasion by archives in New Orleans and around the nation. From the Academy Film Archive, a clip from the Newcomb Condee Home Movie Collection was screened, shot on a 1927 visit to New Orleans shortly after the Great Mississippi Flood of that year. David Weiss of Northeast Historic Film generously donated to the Historic New Orleans Collection a reel of 1952 Mardi Gras Kodachrome footage. And the Historic NO Collection and Louisiana State Museum screened recent preservation work from their collections, including a gorgeous jazz funeral and footage of 1965’s Hurricane Betsy. Colorlab had also put us in touch with a woman from the Mississippi coast whose home movies had been partially destroyed during her house’s flooding. George Ingmire returned from the previous night with another reel from his grandfather’s collection, showing silkworms at work—unfortunately in no condition to be rojected, to our collective disappointment. Helen Hill premiered a new Super8 home movie of her pre-verbal son demonstrating his skill with sign language.

Through it all, the legendary London-born New Orleans jazz drummer/singer Barry Martyn and his combo accompanied the films, most often with music (“Stormy Weather” for hurricane footage!), but also by chiming in to identify old friends they spotted among the musicians on parade in the footage on screen.

The crowd size was a disappointment (and probably due to the difficulty of parking in the French Quarter, a problem which we knew about but decided to risk anyway), but there were many, many wonderful things beyond the few hours of the screening for those of us who made the trip. Being able to spend time with the local people and hearing their stories was very moving (especially having a breakfast picnic on the porch of Helen Hill’s destroyed house). Every single person we dealt with was unbelievably friendly and giving and they kept thanking us over and over for coming down. Ultimately I think the best result of the weekend for HMD was the contacts we made with the filmmakers and the archives. It feels very likely that they’ll continue with Home Movie Days in the future, and we’ll really get a handle on how much of the city’s home movie legacy is still in existence.

Many thanks due: John Lawrence and Stasia Wolfe of the Historic New Orleans Collection, Courtney Egan, Helen Hill, Rene Broussard, and the Louisiana State Museum.

Since in Italy August is the time of vacation and the big cities are completely empty, every year we tend to change the HMD location and move from Bologna to other places (little town or villages in areas quite crowdy in the Summer), and everytime we organize the HMD with the strong collaboration and support of local partners. It works, for many reasons: the communication is by the usual media, but also word by word, the idea is to realize an event involving everyone. We would like to involve the people of all the ages. This approach could help also to develop local projects in rediscovering and collectiong the private film heritage in the future.

The 4th (our 3rd) edition took place in San Gimignano, a beautiful village near Siena. The location in the morning and in the afternoon was the Piazza del Duomo itself, the centre of the medieval city. It was easy that many people, not only inhabitants with films, but also tourists and curious stopped there to see and ask. Then we had the chance to explain to many people during all the day the importance of saving the old memories. Of course, people came also with their films. From San Gimignano countryside (Val d’Elsa) and elsewhere. And like usual there was the exhibition of old apparatus (cameras and projectors) by the collector Antonio Pignotti.

In the evening the screening took place at Teatro dei Liggeri (a restored theatre of XVIII century), instead of the plein air screening in Rocca di Montestaffoli (because the weather was getting worse). We selected around 15 films collected during the day. The audience was 150 people.

Anyway, the first screening was a film we took from Archivio Nazionale del Film di Famiglia:

“Nozze d’argento” by Giuseppe Lenzi. Shot in 1957 in Siena and San Gimignato. A visit of an old couple for the celebration of the 25th year of marriage (nozze d’argento), filmed in 8mm b/w by their son. With sound added, a poetic view of a special moment of the family life. Lenzi is one of the most interesting amateur filmmakers discovered by Associazione Home Movies in these years. His way of filming and editing is remarkable, the subjects are always family events and he is a poet of everyday life. Now his films are also documents of details completely disappeared.

After that, various screenings. Among them, a marriage filmed in 1953 in color 16mm. The husband was a partisan and the filmmaker a relative or a friend came back from America with a camera, as the old man says… Just to contextualize the evening, he is also the father of the mayor of the city (present at the screenings). Other images filmed by American tourists in 16mm in the 50s, they are not Yankees, but immigrants, just people from San Gimignano came back to their village many years after to see what happened in the while and what changed. Other immigrants: Tuscan people moved to South Africa in the 60s, their life in the Apartheid society filmed in 8mm. Then some classic stuff in 8mm and Super 8, a real fun for the audience (especially carnivals, a religious procession carrying the mummy of Santa Fia and children dressed in white, those now are old women).

At the end, special screenings of mysterious films: diaries of a family in a 16mm reel (in 20s and 30s), the new years day of 1942 in a house of a fascist man and an “adieu” with an amazing close-up soldier kissing a girl before leaving in 1941 (someone said “he seems a vampire”).

Best Regards,
Paolo Simoni
Archivio Nazionale del Film di Famiglia

Paolo also sends this mp3 link to an interview conducted for an Italian radio program of the public Australian broadcaster SBS, featuring himself and Australia’s National Film and Sound Archive Director Paolo Cherchi Usai, explaining why home movies can be much more than a family treasure.

Pro8mm’s Rhonda Vigeant reports that the 2nd annual Home Movie Day in Santa Clarita was a fabulous time. “I was surprised how many people who attended the event last year came again,” she says. “There seemed to be an instant sense of connectivity between the returning participants.”

Everything ran smoothly for the audience of 50, thanks to the now-seasoned event volunteers and to the top-notch projectors donated for the day by Paolo Davanzo of Los Angeles’ Echo Park Film Center. While nearly half of attendees came with film, by all accounts the showstopper was a 400 ft. reel of Super8 shot in the 1960s on the tiny island of Falalop in what is today the Federated States of Micronesia. The reel was brought by a woman who had grown up in Falalop and acquired the film recently through a family member who had received it years ago as a gift from the island’s school principal.

Nancy Urbanski writes in with a report from Orland Park, as well as two articles from the local press and somephotos of the event from the Daily Southtown.

Our first HMD day held at the Orland Park Library was successful. We had film inspection from 11:00 with the film showings beginning at 12:30. We were a bit swamped at 11:00 with everyone wanting to talk to the archivists. Nine people came through the door almost at the same time.

Some brought films for inspection but could not stay for the showing; others left their films at home and just wanted some advice on caring for their films, transfer rates, etc. Still others brought their films for inspection and showing and kept us busy for the hour and a half.

Our program started at 12:30 with Larry Urbanski giving a presentation about proper film care, some movie day history, and format obsolescence. We concluded the talk with audience questions.

We screened 16mm, Reg. 8, and Super 8 home movies. They ranged from the 1940’s to the 1970’s. We screened three 16mm 400 ft rolls from a family that had 12 children: 10 girls and 2 boys. The colors were brilliant and the amateur filmmaker took great care to get shots of faces which makes for an interesting film. Shots were of New Years Eve parties (1958), babies with banners bringing in the New Year, Christmas, and Easter outfits. There were shots of Chicago’s South Side, churches, weddings, local now closed amusement parks, and babies. The people who brought the film told the audience about what we were watching. We had 20 people for the film showings. We were competing with beautiful weather for the event. We served popcorn and lots of theatre candy (Raisinettes and Milk Duds, etc.). We ended at 4:00 but we would have liked to screen more films.

Our only problem was the room could not be made dark enough; a light could not be shut in the back of the room for safety ordinance causing the 8mm gauge film to be too light.

All in all a great, fun-filled day.

Ruta Abolins sends in reports from the Home Movie Day events held on three days in three cities in Georgia, Athens, Butler, and Columbus.

We did three HMDs this year, each on different days, two being on the road: Athens, GA; Butler, GA; and Columbus, GA. In Athens we had plenty of volunteers and more equipment than we actually needed. For the road trip events there were six of us participating, including our development officer, Chantel Dunham, who had arranged those two events. We drove a University of Georgia van and took along a reduced lot of supplies to lighten our load (though we forgot extension cords, study lamps, and a flashlight, but it turned out our venues supplied them for us).

Athens August 12

We held this event at the public library because of its central location and ease of public parking. We had drop-ins throughout day with about 13 people showing up, six who brought film and the rest who just watched. We had 8mm, Super8, and DVD and no 16mm which was surprising. One woman, a filmmaker, brought in the DVD she made as her senior thesis using hundreds of reels of home movies she purchased from eBay. We then watched several of the reels she used to create her final project.

Butler August 15

Butler is a very small rural community in southwestern Georgia where we were hosted by one of the members of the University of Georgia Libraries’ Board of Visitors-the fundraising group for the libraries’ special collections. The board member who lives in Butler, Eloise Doty, found our venue, fed us, and gave us a place to stay. She arranged for our event to be part of her local historical society’s meeting which guaranteed an audience of 50 people and fit in nicely with the historic aspect of home movies. The event was held in a large, nearly new school auditorium which serves all the schools in the area and which was very well set up. Eloise took in some film and videotape for us in the week prior to the event so we could start inspecting it. At the event, one of the VHS tapes we decided to start with (to give us more inspection and prep time after setup) was of a 1950s Butler parade. By coincidence, one of the 16mm reels we prepared and then showed was of the same parade. The VHS transfer was okay, but when we showed the 16mm Kodachrome footage of the parade, it looked gorgeous. It was a nice illustration of the staying power of film and how much better it looks than VHS. The highlight of the event was listening to all the people in the audience commenting on community members in footage that was over 50 years old, especially the 2-year old spraying his relatives with water from a hose who is currently the sheriff. Refreshments were served afterwards in the lobby which gave us a chance to mingle a bit with the audience.

Columbus August 16

We had another library board member, Warren Foley, sponsor this event, and he found and paid for the venue, in this case the theater in the Columbus Museum. The museum has free parking and is well located in town, so it was a good location for the event. It was a dream to set up there because it was a very nice theater and we had loads of help from the museum staff. We heard they had mentioned the event on the local morning tv news so we were expecting a huge crowd which, alas, did not materialize. About four people brought in film and three people came just to watch. Several women in a group took our brochure and handouts because they couldn’t stay. However, to make up for the lack of people in numbers, those who brought film came with large amounts film in 16mm, 8mm, and Super8. We saw gorgeous Kodachrome from the early 1960s of the white sand beaches in Florida and a yacht trip (our board member host’s family trips). We also saw footage brought in by a woman whose mother was the first woman to be licensed as a surveyor in Georgia. This was also the venue where we got our first lot of African-American-taken home movies. A Mr. Thomas had seen the morning news report on tv and brought his Super 8 films from the early 1970s-a wedding, July 4th, his family, and trips to London, Acapulco, and Florida. He was there early and stayed for nearly the entire event. He also ended up donating some of his films

Amy Gallick reports from Home Movie Day in the nation’s capital:

The Washington DC event was once again exciting, fun and rewarding. We had about 45 people, an ideal number for us. With that number, there was sufficient time to answer questions, screen at least one or two of everyone’s films, and show a few items from LC’s collection. We did run over our 4:00 end time, and went to about 4:30 with screenings. Most of our audience found their way to us from our mention in Daily Candy. We had a number of LC staff in attendance because they saw the event announcement in the LC Gazette. Mention in the Washington Post Express and DCist seemed to bring in a number of people, as well.

We had about 18 audience members bring films, plus some of the volunteers brought materials to screen. We had many family films this year — people at home, babies, etc. One of the DC reps, Jennifer Snyder, brought films of her family, who were fond of doing the chicken dance. Lindsay Harris, another rep, showed film of her brother as a baby (and her parents were in attendance to see it). One audience member’s films featured a family playing Twister, and another man’s Christmas film featured a very cool ‘50s robot the likes of which I have never seen. We had a film of children playing on a frozen Lake Erie. Two women brought films of their family that were shot in Sri Lanka.

One of my favorite films was of a Vietnam War protest that was shot on the Mall in DC. Ironically, as we were showing it, an anti-war protest was happening at the very same time on the Mall! Another man brought his 8th grade stop-motion animation project. He had a cassette soundtrack to go with it, but we could not get that to play. His narration made up for the technical difficulties. He gave us an overview of the plot, described that the large clay creature was a monster, and the rest of the people were townsfolk trying to kill the monster. There were many failed attempts at killing it; the best method featured red sharpies that were supposed to be nuclear weapons. Of course, the townspeople eventually triumphed.

Then there was the most memorable film! A woman brought a beautiful travel film of Austria and Hungary (her father is from Papa, Hungary). There were wonderful scenes from a car window driving over a bridge; there were lakes, there were flowers. As we watched, she told us that her mother always said she ate the best chicken in her life while traveling in Hungary. She was staying somewhere (may have been with family) and was asked if she would like to have chicken for dinner. When the mother said yes, the woman went out and killed a chicken and cooked it for them. Our audience member said, “I hope that’s not on this film.” Well, about 5 minutes later, the film cuts to a smiling woman holding a struggling chicken, eventually breaking its neck! There were screams and some laughter (mostly screams) prompting volunteers in the foyer to run in to the theater to investigate. I closed my eyes until I was told it was safe to open them.

This year’s DC event had the greatest number of volunteers we have ever had. I have to thank Lindsay Harris, Jennifer Snyder, Michael Pahn and Dave Gibson for joining early on to help organize. Jennifer was a PR wizard and Dave Gibson programmed all the films we showed from LC’s collection. Lindsay used her connections to get us some other press in the Express, and Michael made our amazing flyers (I’m sending all this to Brian, don’t worry!).

As a great addition, Julia Nicoll and Jake Kreeger from Colorlab volunteered to help after the Baltimore event was postponed. Jake gave a great talk to the audience, showing examples of Colorlab’s work, and Julia and I were the tag-team projectionists. They also provided us with some much-needed equipment. Our check-in and inspection was very smooth this year. We had three people (Jennifer Snyder, Lindsay Harris and volunteer Jennifer Lewis) at checkpoint one, helping people fill out their paperwork. Christel Schmidt and Marlan Green were at table two, and they helped people view their films on a viewer, to pick out what one or two they might want to show. They also answered preservation questions. Then once the film to be screened was chosen, the participant took the film to Dave Gibson and Janet Ceja-Alcala, who did a thorough inspection, added leader, and delivered the films to Julia and me for projection. Albert Mudrian also helped haul things around, work the lights and drive my equipment back and forth to LC. Finally, I would like to thank Mike Mashon for helping us secure the Pickford Theater as our event location and for putting us in touch with the Public Affairs office, and also for working with the LC Police to allow people to leave with their films after the event.

Brigitte Paulowitz sends news of HMD Vienna:

We did have pretty good pre-press announcements, and one of the local TV stations came by for a report. Even though the event was not curated, the TV people wanted to film some “representative” footage, so we started the program with a touristic walk to the major attractions of Vienna in 1958. A few stop motion images of flowers finished the film which was in great shape and beautiful colors (Kodachrome 8mm).

Next we screened a swimming pool scene from the 70s, in which kids forced a woman to swim the lengths over and over again. Our third entry was brought by an art history student who is investigating Zombie appearances worldwide and brought two of the filmic manifestations, which were wildly entertaining. Also, the gentleman introduced them well and explained the dangers of such an undertaking, which were visible in the often shaky camera and dangerously close approach of the zombies. He brought two films, one was – according to his information – shot in Arizona, the other was evidently shot in the Vienna Prater, even though he was trying to convince us that it was once again somewhere in the US.

This was followed by the film of a 12 year old, now in his 30s, who shot some footage in a Safari Park in Gänserndorf, outside Vienna. Next came a more artistic attempt to capture Venice and Vienna, both black and white and colour images of flowers, staircases, objects of daily use, all in all not your typical home movie, from 2002.

After this we attempted to screen a VHS, a great example of MTV VHS aesthetics, but due to its length of 40 minutes did not keep the attention of the audience well so that I interrupted after 25 minutes to a round of applause. I thought it was interesting to a certain degree but as it was mainly footage of 3 guys with a strong sense of self importance on Italian beaches, 25 minutes was probably more than enough of it. We switched back to 1958 – the world exhibit in Brussels which was probably my personal favorite as it showed lots of futuristic architecture, atom models and opened with great footage of the opening fireworks.

The secret highlight for most other people was probably a 16mm b&w film that opened with footage of the Anschluss in a village called Hadersdorf, everbody swore they saw Hitler passing by, but since I was organizing, I really didn’t see that much of any of the films, so can’t confirm. The film had been bought at a local fleamarket, given to a filmenthusiast and preserved by an archive in Vienna, so that what we saw was a brand new 16mm print. The seconds of Nazi footage were followed by shots of a woman in the garden, a woman that seemed to smoke all the time and had short black hair, both things were relativley uncommon in the 30s in Austrian countryside. The reel was probably all that was shot by the family as it continued on into the fifties, always with the woman smoking.

Our bonus track was a film from the early 80s which showed the same Safari Park we had seen before, and even though it was shot by a more professional filmer and a grown up person, it showed the exact same animals doing pretty much the same things.

I did ask somebody to take pictures, but I believe he was so happy just watching films, that he forgot. All in all I’d say the turn up was good considering the space we had. More films would have meant choosing. However, nobody was really happy with the venue (even though the beer was very cheap), so we will definitely have to find something else for next year. Liz’ 101 is right: a bar/pub is not a good place for this. Besides this, I have many more things to do better next year and lots more Zombie films to look forward to! (Somehow maybe the Nazi footage does fall into the same category!!!)

Jimi Jones gives the scoop on Home Movie Day in Champaign-Urbana:

Hello all. Just a note to let you all know how successful the HMD in C-U was. The U of Illinois library and WILL, the local PBS station, co-hosted Home Movie Day. We had an inspection station in the foyer of the WILL building, and we showed films (on 16, 8/S8, and DVD/VCR in the case of telecines) in WILL’s main television studio. I have some pictures on the HMD Flickr group so take a look at them. We had some radio coverage as well as a reporter/videographer from WILL’s local-interest TV program called “Prairie Fire.” The television show has yet to be produced, but will likely air later this fall. We had standing room only capacity for the first couple hours (I would estimate around 60 people) which then petered out by the end of the day (our HMD lasted from 1 to 5). It was a great experience.

Guy Edmonds’ report from London:

We’re still collecting ourselves after a bumper attendance of 79 stampeded through our door on Saturday, more than doubling our 2004 tally. Many thanks to Andreas Busche for cranking up the publicity machine to such a pitch. We benefited mostly from features, not just listings, in The Guardian Guide and Time Out but the newly-tapped resource of local area internet newsgroups also played a part. Both Andreas and I also did radio spots

The sheer weight of numbers meant I saw far less films than I did two years ago and our set up here with a number of small spaces rather than one large one (a makeshift corridor cinema for super and standard 8 and our 24 seat cinema for the 16mm) means no one is able to see everything, with some of the screens running simultaneously at times, but at least everyone who brings a film gets to see it. Therefore my report on what turned up is necessarily a little cobbled together.

A friend, Martin Pickles, sent me a precis of what he saw in the 16mm room:

“I saw three black and white 16mm films from the 1930s which were found footage by one filmmaker. The first had a Royal parade (a Coronation?) going along what looked like Shaftesbury Avenue. Then there was footage from the west coast of Scotland, including Mull, Iona and Oban with footage on a small ship, with well-dressed people playing games on deck. There was some colour footage of a Presbyterian gathering, which showed lots of young people having pillow fights and three legged races on a lawn.

“Then there was some colour 16mm from 1952 shot in Dorset with the filmmaker present (an older man with beard, white hair and glasses). He showed a house party full of young people (colour), young people on a beach, a walk round Avebury etc. There was also black and white footage of the house opposite him in Streatham being built. There was also b&w footage of the filmmaker cutting his 21st birthday cake.”

Ronald Grant, projecting the 16mm, said that the Presbytery footage was his favourite because it showed all sorts of hilarious group gymnastics by otherwise staid 1930s adults, which also jumped from black and white to colour within the same scene. I’m going to get in touch with the contributor and offer a transfer of this so hopefully I’ll get to see it myself soon - at the moment it sounds like our best candidate for the Best of HMD DVD.

In screen two we had a huge variety of material, from the avant garde (a woman who had in exemplary anti-preservation fashion hung her film in tree to let the sap drop on it and then buried it in the ground; another woman who had footage of a Fluxus happening in the 1970s) to the most personal of home movies which required the temporary evacuation of our corridor cinema. The material was not salacious, however, rather the contributor, who had not seen it since she was a child, felt it would be potentially upsetting for her to raise her familial ghosts and so requested this private screening. Other corridor highlights included some wonderful amateur narrative productions by Captain Zip, a movie maker and veteran of King’s Road Punk, some of which have already been preserved on video by The Wessex Film and Video Archive. One family finally got to see the premiere of some super 8 footage that had been returned from processing 17 years ago. In the meantime daughter Matilda had entirely grown up and was able to gaze upon her two year old self in pristine condition and vibrant colour. Another contributor had waited patiently since HMD 04, when he’d heard about the event too late, to bring along his cache of films made by a film industry insider which showed Reg Varney of “On The Buses” fame as well as other 1970s celebs.

A distinct trend visible is that already these movies are moving in to third party hands, with the inevitable loss of context that goes with that. Three of our thirteen contributors were people who had taken pity on the films in junk shops or flea markets without even having the means to show them but had at least started the preservation process by giving them a home and willingly sharing them with others.

As in 2004, Tom Adams of the Imperial War Museum did a fantastic job of projecting the 8mm material and we also gained a great volunteer in the person of Janine Lai who had seen our poster when she put it up in Peckham Library in her day job as librarian.

This is a response from Captain Zip one of our contributors who also includes many descriptions of what he saw:

Hello there. Just a quick note to thank you for such an incredibly splendid Home Movie Day - which I enjoyed enormously. What a pity it is only once a year. There was such a nice balance of the family and holiday and arty and more ambitious (to varying degrees) films. I had very good feedback from people regarding the two films of mine which were shown (it was so good to see them in a different venue). It would be interesting to know how well my Windsor newsreel copied in the camera that was pointed at it for so long. I enjoyed all the other films on show too.

It was just a pity that I didn’t get to see many of the 16mm films, but I must admit to staying in “screen two” because I didn’t want to miss any of my own films. Charles Laughton was right. All is vanity.

The film about a fly in the beer was very enjoyable. The picture quality had survived so well. It looked like it had been shot yesterday rather than in the early 1950s.

I was amazed by the picture quality of your garden party film (which seemed very well edited-in-camera), especially as you didn’t seem to have much depth of field to play with in what I presume were tight telephoto shots.

The standard 8mm films seemed to run a bit slow in places, so I felt like I had really been to Tunisia for the Miss Cinema 1972 and 1973 film. I tend to run slow in the heat too.

I quite liked the arty films, especially Laura’s water damage film and the shots of distorted reflections of London traffic and split-screen effect achieved by holding a hand-mirror in front of the lens. I must give that a try myself.

I keep meaning to make another in my series of London films, which I started in the 1960s, but can’t quite get motivated to spend the money on film stock when both my fridge and roof need mending.

Even the family footage was a joy. It felt very special to share someone’s Christmas from the ’60s.

I liked the film about whipping (or was it caning?) by the lady from New Jersey. Interestingly, I once made a film with the same plot called Kidnap Lark. I remember she was particularly impressed by my production standards, though I found my Dick Dawkins film a bit embarrassing as the style of humour had dated so much. I was hoping no one would object to what had become politically incorrect jokes. They just seemed funny at the time. But it was good to get laughs from the audience.

I’m still trying to work out the Brixton-Kenya connection in the wedding film. Maybe it was simply that they had their honeymoon there. I didn’t think of anything so simple on the day. I loved the museum itself too. What a joy to see one of Hepworth’s soundtrack discs.

I knew it would be a good day when I found a 2 coin on the tube on the way there.

It was good to touch base with Dave Wyatt again after so long, he being a chum from the days when I could afford to collect film.

We couldn’t figure out if the 15 inch Pathe disc was a soundtrack disc or not. He thought it wasn’t because it runs at 90rpm, but I pointed out that films would only be two minutes long in those days so it might have been.

Anyway, thanks again for a very pleasing day and I look forward to the next one.

Press tally:

Feature in The Guardian Guide (national newspaper listings mag)

Feature in Time Out (London Listings mag)

2 interviews on BBC London radio

Interview on Resonance FM available asPodcast here.

Online publicity:

FilmLondon
Archives Hub
Museums, Libraries, and Archives London
University of Teesside
Guardian Film
Film and Digital Media Exchange
Chain D. L. K.

Andrew Lampert, on location in the Big Apple:

HMD NYC was, as usual, a blast. Anthology Film Archives played host for a 4-½ hour marathon screening of films from friends, family and strangers in the 70-seat Maya Deren Theater. Katie Trainor helmed an amazing group of volunteer Archivists and aficionados in the Anthology lobby. Orphan-maker and recent New Yorker Dan Streible was with us as well, which was a particularly a special treat. Dan gave insightful on-the-spot readings of films all day long and was one of the best film-runners we’ve ever had. I would guess that we had maybe 70-80 attendees throughout the afternoon. All prospective audience members and film-bringers were met with smiles, release forms and gloved hands. Films were inspected, repaired, leader-ed and loved. Info was made available about all things home movie, from Kodak give-aways to HMD DVD order forms. We had a fantastic turn out and most of the audience indeed brought a reel or two for screening. There were fewer voyeurs than usual this year, for some reason. More film is always groovy, if you ask us. Another anomaly from previous HMDs was the amount of 16mm that came our way. If memory serves, there have only ever been a few reels in previous years, but this time around we saw at least 10 reels of it. It was, as always, an afternoon of revelations. Super 8 and 8mm projection were projected in the theater by me, Andrew Lampert, and 16mm was handled from our booth.

Highlights:

One woman, known only as “ET”, arrived with a reel purchased from Ebay that outlined, in fastidious detail, what to do with a deer after you’ve slaughtered it. While not a pretty site for animal lovers, it was a fascinating and colorful look at the hunter’s ritual. If you’ve ever seen Franju’s BLOOD OF THE BEAST or Brakhage’s THE ACT OF SEEING WITH ONE’S OWN EYES then you get what I’m talking about.

Another gentleman dazzled and delighted with a couple reels from his recent trip to Cuba. Evidently he shot more than 40 reels of Kodachrome throughout the island. He wanted to capture the splendor and color of that time capsule country with everyone’s favorite discontinued stock, or so he put it. His wife also brought a recently shot reel, so it seems as if this is a family affair. Hope to see more from them next year.

Bradley Eros treated us to a look back at his mid-80s trip to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. He played a soundtrack from the booth and projected slides from the trip over on top of the Super 8 images, creating an on-the-spot expanded cinema home movie experience. It was pretty rad.

A visitor on vacation from Chicago arrived with a reel he found of a group of gay men also on vacation, albeit in been the early-to-mid 60s and at a spot a little more exotic than Anthology. Colorful and laugh-out-loud funny, the guys pranced around in short shorts and, well, no shorts. We all dug it very much.

Steve Carter, another regular attendee, brought a 10-year old reel documenting the fence that his brother built over in NJ to annoy his neighbors. While not a great cinematic masterwork, the story behind this film had us all in stitches. Steve is the guy who started a huge fight a couple years back and we always love his witty insights and opinions. And films!

Tim, a friend of HMD regular Jeanne Liotta, brought a wonderful S8 film of his honeymoon. But rather than mere camera reels, this movie was hand-painted, hand-processed and a real treasure to behold. It was unlike everything else that we saw that day, straddling the line between experimental and home movie. It was a definite highlight.

I dug into Anthology’s copious home movie collection to show a reel by photographer and downtown denizen Bob Parent of the Lower East Side circa 64. Legendary jazz club The Five Spot was only one of the many long-gone venues seen in the gorgeously photographed reel of the East Village. His films remind me of Aaron Siskind photographs, especially in the way he documents posters and writings on the wall. The reel ends with a trip to Washington Square Park where we see the booming folkie scene and nylon-stringed acoustic guitars that used to gather around the fountain.

But perhaps the most revelatory reel was brought by Ms.Liotta. Discovered along with a projector donated by a departing neighbor, this 16mm reel captures the preparations for an early 60s wedding in sumptuous b&w. Our astute audience ascertained that this was indeed the wedding of blushing bride Ramona and boxer Jose Torres. This was determined from a boxing poster in the background of a particular shot. The movie begins with footage of Central Park and then moves inside to the bride and her maidens as they prepare for the ceremony. The shots inside of the church are a little underexposed, but the party footage is dynamite. Overall, I’d have to say that it is one of the best reels that we’ve seen over the years. Evidently a professional Time Life photographer shot it, as we later found out. A long and strange series of events occurred after the screening thanks to Craig Lopez, a member of our dedicated audience. He went home, googled around and discovered that the Torres family live in NYC. He was able to get their number and made contact. Turns out that HMD was the 45th anniversary and that somehow we had all missed this fact when the wedding invite was shown on screen. They were thrilled to find that this film, which had been lost, turned up in time for their big anniversary party in Puerto Rico. Within days Jeanne graciously let us send the reel to Colorlab where Russ Suniewick generously oversaw the transfer to DVD. A gentleman who writes for the New Yorker has taken an interest and we will hopefully soon see an article in the Talk of The Town section. We’ll let you know as the story further progresses.

There were tons more, so maybe I’ll stop here. Speaking on behalf of Katie and all of our other co-presenters, I have to say that NYC HMD was once again a highlight of our cinematic summer.

This year there were five separate Home Movie Events in Japan. Thanks to Kae Ishihara and the Film Preservation Society. Highlights from the venues follow:

Chihiro Takmori reports from Hirosaki:

The venue was a former cafe, so just for HMD the kitchen was used, and we had summer vegetable curry, etc. together.

The atmosphere was very good and although we were all meeting for the first time, we could talk about films together. A lot of episodes, questions, etc.

Some films were discovered at the University of Hirosake and brought in by the University’s Cinema Club.

Kyoto, report by Kazunori Emura:

There was a double 8 film shot in 1937 (no. 7 below) which was in beautiful color, so it was chosen as Best Home Movie this year. Also, there was a b/w film about “Ueno Zoo” which is 3 minutes walk from the Film Preservation Society’s office in Tokyo.

Films screened:

1.Emura Family’s Home Movie, double8, 3mins, 1950s

2.Skiing, double8, 3mins, 1942

3.Dolls Play, double8, 3mins, late 1940s

4.Airplane, double8, 3mins, late 1940s

5.GHQ soldiers, their families in the base in Gunma, shot by Bill H. Issacs (Military gov’t team), double8, 3mins, 1948

6.Tokyo Tower, Expo, Twins, single 8, 10mins, color & b/w

7.Picnic to Mt. Akagi, double8, 3mins, 1937, color

8.Ueno Zoo, 3mins, 1940

Kenji Emori writes from Nagano:

Films screened: 1.Showa Era of Shimizu Family 18min 1955

2.Sports Festival at Junior High School of Shinshu University 4min 1969

3.Festival in Nagano 16min 1956

4.Sports festival of Chuo Kindergarten 4min 1970

5.Election campaign from the sky 8min 1965

6.Visiting Zenkoji Temple 4min 1965

7.Nagano Expo for Culture and Industry 11min 1961

8.Zenkoji Temple, Open for public viewing 30 min 1987

9.My Family 10min 1960

10.Showa Era of Shimizu Family Part 2 20min 1950

This year’s HMD was a related event of Misuzukaru Shinano NAGANO Film Festival. The local 8mm film club helped us with all the projection work.

Nagoya’s report comes from Satoe Tamura:

Special events/screenings:

-flowing somen noodles in the garden

(Japanese seasonal tradition - cold noodles washed down a half-pipe of bamboo, and scooped out with chopsticks by whoever can catch them on the way past. They’re eaten with a dip and assorted garnishes)

-fresh vegetables, HMD original pottery with cold beer and other drinks were sold and pickles and ice cold Japanese tea were served

-16mm animation film show

-a short talk from the administrator about the preservation of the old house, Shumoku-kan, as a cultural heritage

Films screened:

1.Showa 73 1998

2.A Small Fighting Sprit 1984

3.Skiing in Nozawa Hot Springs

4.Moonlight and the Glasses (16mm)

5.Nagoya Toyopet Sports Festival 1973

6.Soyogo 2005

7.America San Francisco 1969

8.Asuka Road 1974

Best home movie went to No. 5 where you can see how Japanese people used to be very loyal to the company (in this case, Toyota motors whose headquarters are in Nagoya) and serious about an event like this, which reminded the audience about something we have lost unwittingly

Also, No. 2 was a film shot by elementary school students. The teacher used to organize 8mm film club, and he kept the film for more than 20 years. There’s a scene showing a famous professional wrestler “Antonio Inoki”, so, probably no good for a HMD Japan 2006 DVD, but will be shown at Best Home Movies Screenings in October in Tokyo.

Tokyo, by Kenichi Shima:

Most films we showed were double 8, black and white films.

“Masao’s bicycle” was a double8 film shot in Tokyo after the war, but for some reason, it got the biggest audience reaction, as the sight was so different from modern Tokyo, almost like a different country. And more than that, Masao looks so cute with the happiness of finally riding his own bike. Everybody wrote this down as their favorite in the questionnaires, no doubt about choosing this one as Best Home Movie this year. Another Masao related film was not shown on the day, but two films will be added to HMD Japan 2006 DVD, and also Best Home Movies screenings in October.

The wooden church is a very small building but if we reorganize the tables and chairs it’ll hold more than 50 people next year again. This year we borrowed projectors from FPS’ office but one of the film owners is going to donate a projector to me, so I’ll practice with it for next year.

Actually, I learned about film projection from FPS’ film projection workshop for the first time, and did all the projection work alone this year.

Local audiovisual archivists Brock Silversides, Russ McMillen, Aileen Leadbetter and Julie Lofthouse provided advice on how to care for home movies and discussed why home movies are important. Filmmakers Karen Shopsowitz, Laurence Green and Justin Lovell discussed their working with home movies in various contexts. Karen showed a new music video called “Pawpwalk” which she made for the Ron Davis Trio, and which features super8mm footage shot by (no surprise) her dad, in London in 1971. Justin Lovell, a filmmaker whose genesis in the world of film transfers began when he found himself needing reliable high quality transfers of his own films, played a demo showcasing the way his work with Super 8mm.

A last minute surprise of the day was that filmmaker Bruce McDonald (Highway 61, Hard Core Logo, Picture Claire) gave permission to screen home movies from his collection which he previously donated to the Film Reference Library.

Though attendance itself wasn”t as high as previous years, we were not lacking in quantity of film to show. In fact we actually ran out of time within which to screen the films that were brought in. I also found it amazing that we had as many 30 minute reels brought in that day as we did. Participants gladly talked about the films and provided context for them while they were screened. Though not everyone brought in their film that day, we had discussions with some of the participants about their home movies. One of the day”s participants who unfortunately did not bring in film with him, came out to the event solely to gather information and ask questions. He said that he had many films at home taken by his father, who had been a local radio broadcaster in Western Canada. The films were of their various annual family trips across Canada and spanned many years, but also included some film his father shot that were work related.

The first home movie of the day shown was from a man who contacted us the week before the event who had recently brought back a reel of film he found in his parents’ home in Hong Kong. Though now living in Toronto now, the gentleman recently brought back with him after visiting his parents overseas. It is a film that his father took both in Hong Kong and business trips to the US in the 1960s. Sadly his father is in the early stages of Alzheimer”s so the gentleman is working on getting the film transferred so that he can show it to his father while his father is still able to communicate and enjoy it. The Toronto Film and Video Club participated in our event again, bringing some of their home movies with them as well as a few other treats.

A local artist/film-maker who has recently begun shooting with Super8 film brought his films for show. We also received a “home movie” recently shot by a young Toronto film-maker, of her trip to Hong Kong last year. An interesting note about this footage is that this woman”s mother participated in our first Home Movie Day in 2003, having sent in wonderful home movie footage of Hong Kong from the 1950s. Someone else brought in several reels of summers spent up north at a Boy Scout Camp in the 1960s. This was beautiful footage that captured the antics of this young troop. Unfortunately we did not have enough time to screen the full length of the final film shown that day. The film was of a Classic Car Club of America in 1963. The gentleman who brought in the film said that the end of the film contained footage that was shot in Washington DC in the summer of 1963. Though the majority of films brought in and screened were of “Canadian” origin, it was great to see so much stuff coming in that included places in the United States as well as around the world.

Canadian location highlights included various cottage trips, Expo “67 & Centennial Parade, Hells Gate, British Columbia, Kingston Ontario, Superior Ontario (entitled “Bear Valley”)…just to name a few. At the end of the day we loaded up the audience with a bunch of prizes. Prizes included a membership to the Film Reference Library, 2 tickets to the 2006 Preservation Screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, a membership for two to Cinematheque Ontario, a group animation workshop at the National Film Board Mediatheque, some STILDesign cans, the Super8 cartridge given out by Kodak during their Super8 session at the Austin Conference, Home Movie Day mugs, and a $100 towards a film transfer from Photoplays.

We also ran a contest where the audience voted for the “Best Home Movie of the Day.” Winner to receive film transfer services supplied by Justin Lovell of Frame Discreet and much more.

Can’t wait to do it all again next year. We have so many good ideas brewing!!!!

Lynanne Schweighofer and Liz Stanley report on the goings on at Home Movie Day Culpeper:

Culpeper’s first ever Home Movie Day was a great success!

51 people showed up for our afternoon inspection period carrying a total of 372 reels of film, 3 projectors, and one Cine Kodak Model B camera! Needless to say we did not get to examine every reel of film but we were able to inspect and advise on a representative sample from each guest. We were quite surprised that about 75% of what we saw was 16mm (much of it Kodachrome), followed by 8mm. Super 8 was the least represented format. The only reel of 35mm turned out to be a pristine roll of Nitrate film! Talks are in the works to find the nitrate a good home.

Only one guest had film that appeared beyond all salvage- extreme warping, shrinkage, and chrystalized emulsion. The vinegar could be smelled from the door. We were quite sad as it was Civilian Conservation Core footage shot in the Blue Ridge and Piedmont areas of Virginia. The father of the man who now has this footage was a CCC camp director and shot over 200 reels of 16mm. If any of this footage could be salvaged it would be beyond the means of our guest. I am not sure any archive would take on the burden knowing up front of the expense involved in trying to retrieve the images. If anyone has ideas, please contact me!

Our evening screening was a smaller event with 18 participants, not including event staff. Many who came to the inspection period had driven over an hour to get to us and felt they didn’t want to stay until after dark. Those who stayed had much fun. Folks felt comfortable describing the films and we were treated to such images as a bear “attacking” the filmmaker’s car (shot from inside the car!), a comical parade of 1940’s easter fashions, and toddlers in Wisconsin drinking home brewed beer from glass bottles!

We can’t wait to do this again. Special thanks go to the volunteers: Lillie Lee, John Snelson, Laura Maddox, and Peter Schweighofer.

This in-depth report from Liz Coffey, on two Home Movie Day events in New England:

Albert Steg & I did two events this year: Boston on HMD proper and Providence, RI August 12 and 19th. Both events had about 30 attendees, all enthusiastic, but the crowds were quite different.

The Boston event was a the Boston Public Library. A crack team from New England Archivists came to help out, bringing with them a display about preserving paper materials. We had 3 projectors (super 8, 8mm, 16mm) and a record player with a variety of choices for music. We broke out the HMD Bingo, showed someone how to use the projector he brought in, and inspected film for an hour before the show began.

We had a lot of people show up who had come previous years and who showed films each time. Many of these were new films shot on super 8 within the past few years. Generally the crowd was young, a lot of artist types. The favorite film was brought in by an area projectionist. It was 16mm Kodachrome of himself as a small child in the 1950s. His dad was an enthusiastic amateur home movie maker. The following paragraph is from Peter, who stars in the film.

“My dad (Phil) took his home movies seriously and hauled that heavy 16mm Kodak camera (which I still have) around with him on a lot of family outings. I have tons more of stuff like that. His secret: use a tripod if you can, and edit for continuity. He had a book called How to Make Good Home Movies, and picked up a lot of tips, so you get things like establishing shots of signs or newspapers. He even experimented with recording sound with a tape recorder, which turned out to be very hard to sync, so that kind of didn’t work out. Maybe next year I’ll bring one of those attempts and we can give it a try.”

The crowd favorite scene was a 4th of July parade in which Peter is dressed up in an adorable leopard outfit and pulled around in a little cage on wheels. Beautiful stuff. I encouraged him to will his film to an archive, since I can’t imagine he’ll part with it in his lifetime.

Albert (my co-presenter) brought some great 16mm amateur stuff he’s picked up here and there, including topless ladies at the 1931 World’s Fair (in color!) which scandalized and delighted everyone (including my parents), and a film in which people got seasick on a boat and then later someone mimed the scene for absent friends. Last year’s star of HMD brought in another 1970s film which showed, in a quick scene, some hash smoking. That’s two for two on the drug use films in Boston!

I showed my Leaning Tower of Pisa film, a comedic crowd pleaser, and a road race starring my dad and sister, who were in attendance. We ran a 3 minute reduction of Rodan on 8mm which had a million frame burns but ran fine. The hilarious and inspirational owner of this film, new to the world of collecting and showing films, wanted to know if he could have his super 8 film transferred to 8mm, since he didn’t have a super 8 projector.

No equipment problems this year, and almost the entire audience stayed for the whole event. Another BPL HMD success.

Unlike the Boston show, we actually had some press and promotion for the Providence show. I put it on at the RI Historical Society where I work. Our PR man sent out 1200 postcards to the members, we got a blurb on the front page of the local section on Wednesday, and Albert & I were interviewed on a local weekend show on station WJAR-TV Providence the morning of the show. We had about 2-3 minutes of airtime talking about the event, which was a pretty funny and not as scary as I expected experience. Our story was followed by a weekly animal shelter segment featuring a dog who needed to be adopted.

I was accepting film the week prior to the event, so I could inspect it ahead of time, and about 10 people, including the executive director of the Historical Society brought in film.

In contrast to the Boston show, most of the people who brought stuff in were over 50 and the film was also older. We had a number of films from the 1920s & 30s, with the youngest (aside from mine from last year) being from the mid-1970s. Did I mention a couple weeks later I got asked out via mail by one of the attendees? Read on for my friend Brittany’s scene by scene recording of the event. She is a hilarious note-taker.

August 19 2006: Home Movie Day Providence Starring, once again, Liz Coffey & Albert Steg
Providence’s first home movie day is held in a stately manse - headquarters of the RIHS - a much more high-class affair than last weekend’s Boston Public Library experience. The grayish stained carpets and flickering fluorescent lights gave way to hardwood floors (with wooden nails, mind you), wall tapestries and chandeliers. It smelled like the church of my youth and probably held the same amount of older-type folk. But enough with the ambiance… Bernard of the RIHS introduced the day and Liz Coffey who had even dressed in a more conservative manner for this one, I noticed. Of course I guess she was also on TV - oh, I’m still digressing….

16mm: 1927 HOME MOVIE FROM EDWARD SMITH
This b&w treat started off with kids riding a pony so you knew it had to be good. According to Edward, this pony was brought in and people paid to ride it. They rode Silver on Quincy St near Providence College. These kids were wearing knickers and long socks with cute striped hats. And these same tykes went on down to Plum Beach - jumping off a low diving board onto the sands of low tide. And a few years later, riding around in a 1929 Chevrolet - although you could make someone out in the background riding in a horse-drawn carriage. Edward said the roads had only recently been paved. Then it was Christmas and much snow. The highlight here was an incredible little snow house they built, and for some reason, one kid would walk out of it and shake the person’s hand who was waiting outside. I don’t know what it meant, but it got a lot of laughs. There were many Xmas scenes that were lovely: the boy and his new bike, the other one with his drum set, and a cute shot of the brother & sister by the window. By the time dinner rolled around, Edward wondered aloud whether they were drinking wine during Prohibition & I was wondering if during Prohibition kids could still drink wine. I guess I’ll never know. Finally, the boys slide down the sidewalks in a homemade sled-on-wheels (not like those kind you find in the stores these days) and the little girl shows off a fancy miniature baby carriage.

SUPER 8: LIZ COFFEY GOES TO SPAIN
Shot on Kodachrome 2 years ago, we witness Liz’s visit to Avila, Spain and the imposing Roman aqueducts of yore. Stony arches frame the blue skies and tiny cars fit into the lower archways. The giant structure leaves long shadows and we welcome the sight of a pigeon resting on the wall.

COLOR SUPER 8: THE TRIA’S WEDDING, 1973
The first of many remarkable moments like this today, this was the first time they had seen this footage of their own wedding. (They didn’t have the right projector for it.) First we see the men and the ladies preparing for the day; getting help putting their corsages and ties on. Side-burns and dramatic parts prevail. They film the drive from the parents’ house over to the church: pretty cute. And in Reel 2, we witness parts of the actual wedding, although some shots are cloaked in under-exposure. We can still make out much dancing during the reception and the backs of various balding heads. Finally, they are in their civilian clothes, leaving to go on the honeymoon amidst a few tears and emotions. The last shot is the newlyweds walking down the street to the car: totally sweet.

16MM RUTH GOLDSTEIN
Once more, footage she had never seen taken by a cousin in the Air Force. This was shot from the ground of tons of planes in formation. According to Ruth, it was post-WWII. They do some fancy stuff in front of very large clouds.

SUPER 8 LIZ’S FILM OF JASON SANFORD PLEIN AIR PAINTING
This is also a recent film by Liz, although it has a dated beatnik quality to it. Jason leisurely painting a boat in the water while an idle friend sits nearby. The boat bobs to the rhythm of this slow, summer day. A dead dragonfly’s wings flutter in the breeze and the artists inspects his dirtied hands - dirtied with the product of his own vision. A vision that he meditates on in the last show: is he happy with the finished painting?

REG 8MM 1950 HOME MOVIE BY MEL
In the tradition of the day, this man had also never set his eyes upon this footage. Shot by an uncle who filmed “anything and everything.” It is in North Attleboro on his dad’s poultry farm. Many fifties folks and fifties cars - weird since it’s the 1950s. A wedding and outdoor reception features a lot of eating and tailgating of sorts. Then we are transported to a lovely landscape in New Hampshire, perhaps? It features a view from on height of town & water. The next scenes are of falls somewhere - Quebec is suggested and he finds the concept not unreasonable. Quickly, we see a stony mill structure and a white church in North Attleboro, and then Longfellows Wayside Inn” and a statue that everyone decides is in Lexington, MA. We are treated to another wedding & the bride boasts nice Betty Page-style bangs. More outdoor seating, great colors (it’s like everyone’s dressed for the Kodachrome) and some slow-motion 3-legged racing. The finale here is an aerial view of a quaint seaside town.

(A sort of intermission…Liz turns on the Peggy Lee and Albert promptly turns it off. As soon as Liz is out of hearing range, he begins his film preservation 101 lecture. Uh-oh. Here comes the vinegar syndrome manifesto. Some people get so horrified by the mere mention of vinegar that they run out. Liz comes in steaming mad and punches Albert. An old fashioned ballroom brawl ensues.)

REG. 8MM: 1951 OR 1952 COLOR
Bernard of RIHS fame is featured in these great-looking flicks with his photogenic parents in Riverdale, NY. Whether he is out in the yard with a sailor hat on, wearing an extra-stylish jacket & hat, or being pushed around in a special basket stroller, Bernard prevails in his endless adventures. His mom (looking fabulous in her bright red lipstick, dark hair and pale skin) puts him to work on a tricycle that’s too big for his toddler-sized legs & tries to get him interested in something in a mysterious box. Generally, Bernard turns up his nose at much of these shenanigans. Thus, perhaps, his dad takes this time to gently pan the inside of their house and all of its little still lives of photos and what not. Then all the relatives come over for some civilized eating and getting together (they eat their honeydew slices with small spoons - I feel like a savage). After some fun with putting a giant hat on Bernard’s tiny head, it is bath time, and here the little baby is bathed, as it were, in a golden light that turns this banal experience into an impressionist masterpiece. The peek-a-boo under the blanket gets everyone laughing, but it’s only a mild reaction compared to what’s next…at this point for me, a home movie first: on-the-potty shot!

REG 8MM - ANOTHER ONE FROM BERNARD! 1954 COMPANY FISHING TRIP
Either his dad’s or granddad’s - a bunch of guys fishing off the coast of Long Island. In one shot, this dude is lying down & fishing - nice. They wind up catching a little shark and some flounder. Bets are paid off.

8MM - BERNARD & SUMMER CAMP IN MAINE, 1960
The adventures of Bernard continue in this lakeside romp. A bunch of kids go for a swim, but the best scene is when this little kid gets mad and walks off.

B&W 16MM JOANNA’S HOME MOVIES: Summer & Christmas 1927.
Another gem of a film that has lain unseen by its owner for decades. Apparently, Joanna figured out, the filmmaker was a member of friends of her family’s family rather than her own family (I should have really thought about that more before saying it). You get the gist. Somehow, she inherited the can. The first shots are of the Lincoln Zoo in Chicago. A Dusty polar bear eats some leaves and wanders around while perky grizzly-types ham it up for the cam. One shows his belly & the older holds his feet in a funny baby pose in order to get some food tossed in his mouth. It works. The zoo visitors are very fancy, the ladies wearing long fur coats (like the bears) and a young man wearing F. Scott Fitzgerald style suit. The little girl featured in the film holds tightly onto a stuffed toy dog for the camera and kisses it. What’s really nice is the following section featuring a series of little “portraits” of each of the zoo guests; they parade in front of the camera in med-close shots so you get a sense of them and get lost in their precious 1920s style. Joanna’s older brother must have been the cutest boy around back then - he looks like a children’s book illustration. Maybe none of this is real. They ice skate on metal skates in crunchy-looking ice and then do some serious sledding down a hill. And then we’re back in the Chicago hood, no longer on the ice or in the winter…but roller skating on the sidewalks! The best is when the older sister makes all of these funny faces and facial exercises at the camera. The younger girl (aka dog-kissing girl) is much more restrained. Maybe she secretly knows that in 2006 a bunch of yahoos in Providence will be watching and laughing. In REEL 2 we see our famous crew getting into an old-fashioned car which I bet wasn’t old-fashioned at all at the time. Then there’s this great part where it seems like the camera person is encouraging every shop owner on the street to come out for some 16mm face time. In the background lurks a “Kodak Film Finishing” sign as various guys and gals come out of different shops to look cool in front of the camera. Delightful. Now it’s onto the beach - Pallisades Park on the shores of Lake Michigan - and two little girls take the long path in cute bathing suits. We get to see inside someone’s beach hut or house where a baby in a crib lives. It’s funny & bouncy. They leave this abode and pass an umbrella advertising “Stag Trousers” on their way to the water. A giant boat aka ship frightens me in an unusual head-on shot. If they had filmed this in 3D it would have been serious heart-attack time. Thankfully, the ship turns out to be a ferry it looks like the Illini take to visit their neighboring state of Michigan. One can presume that they can take this great ship for a day at the beach - and back to the beach we go with a funny little girl sitting in the water & slapping it, and probably the best bathing suit seen so far today: a striped short-style full-piece. Then there’s a canoe and crazy swimming - some more car travels during which geese and a dog are spotted. And there’s the inevitable ship again. The water reflects onto it gracefully. Bon voyage!

Super 8: Edward Smith & the Kilarney Galway Gap of 1965
I forgot to mention how happy everyone was/is in the previous film, but they aren’t exactly sad in Edward’s footage of a tour of Ireland taken by both horse-drawn carriage and later, fun bus. We see rolling farmlands, castle ruins, billions of tiny yellow flowers, and a gorgeous sea and shore scene. The water is all icy glow. Edward says it’s the North Sea. Finally, tons of sheep and a creek.

Super 8: 1965 Boston & London
Edward is back with some location shots that seem all-too-familiar to those Beantownians in the group. The Prudential Center? Newbury Street? The Boston Architectural Center? Impossible! Edward tells us that his son graduated from that fine establishment around this time & they left for London from Boston. So then quickly we are plunged into stereotypical London scenery along the Thames and whatnot. Many of the requisite tourist attractions including the changing of the guard. What’s really cool is a sign for a Francis Bacon show up at the local art museum.

B&W 16mm woman’s “Unknown” film from 1952
Here we go again: “I’ve never seen this before, etc. etc….it was lying wherever…etc, etc….I don’t know how I acquired it…” Listen Lady, I’m beginning to think that all Rhode Islanders are a bunch of mindless automatons that just like store stuff…but she seems really nice and not automated or chipmunk like in any way so I stop thinking this immediately. Let’s face it: I’m not so great. And the little girl with the doll and little boy in his toy fire engine are pretty great. He also keeps his pistol in the truck with him and has a totally dirty butt so that seals the deal for me. This film takes on another magical dimension via decomposition. The silver is apparently oxidizing and leaves these little orange spots of happiness in the more heavily exposed spaces. At one point, the little girl walks down a sunlit sidewalk and in the surrounding shrubbery things sparkle and dance. Sometimes the spots outline things and sometimes they end up in the crotch area of a man, causing some awkwardness among the audience. Most, though, they are amazing almost distracting me from this kid having a tantrum and a mom holding up a baby by the hands so it can pretend to walk.

16mm color Albert’s Found Film of a Canada Fishing Trip
A bunch of men are off in hydroplane style to the beauty and isolation of San Jovite, Montreal. They load everything into a little silvery seaplane and land on a pretty tree-lined land featuring a cabin on a lake. There’s a lot of plaid in the logging sense and much fishing much fish. They compare catches and one guy holds up his five fingers to communicate to us that his particular fish is a five pounder. Then it’s time for a fish fry and eating off bark plates. mmm…mmmm. Between fish fries and boozin’ there happens a patch of snow, a ball of which is tossed at the camera guy. The additionally caught fish are laid out on the planks and a the end is a cute, but unfortunately dead, rodent of some sort. One of the men pets it. Amidst more fishing shots and a handsome sweater vest, we get to enjoy a happy man “shaving” with a machete-type blade. It succeeds in getting laughs all around. Mission accomplished, and then it’s time to go home.

B&W 16mm from the RIHS vault: Rhode Island in 1938
The Providence Parades! Right away, I notice the streetcar wires now missing from modern-day Providence - not to mention the jaunty horses,marching bands, and Red Cross float present in this very popular parade. Gloucester, RI: a bunch of military - type guys washing post and pans for the camera. They have a lot of guns for some reason. More of the parade in color! As they continue to march along their merry Providence way, I catch what’s playing at the local movie theater: “The Postman Always Rings Twice” with Lana Turner and John Garfield.

Color & B&W 16mm: More from the illustrious RIHS vault! Cady Collection
Roger Williams Park 1937: Monkeys and bears and ice skating but not monkeys and bears ice skating. A kid-size Christmas Village. “Water-front scenes:” industrial ship-yard. “Farewell fire station!” they demolish an old fire station, making way for the new post office. We see Market Square before and after 1938 but these go by way too quickly for me to really investigate the subtleties. We then see a quick montage of many important constructions, reconstructions, scenes and tableaux from Good Old Providence. There’s Old Market House, General Edwards Viaduct, Snow Scenes 1940 and everyone digging out after the Blizzard of ‘35 (here we get to witness the bizarre steam shovel in action). Finally: “Hindenburg Visits Providence”! The humanity….. The change to color doesn’t change the continual de/con/reconstruction: “School of Design Auditorium 1940,” snow sculptures by art students, “Wendell Wilkie Visits Providence,” Christmas trees for sale, dedication of Roger Williams memorial & unveiling the statue, Union Station destroyed by fire & the aftermath. Apparently, the filmmaker missed getting to shoot the actual fire, so he tricks us by burning up a photo and then showing the steaming remains. The wrecking ball scene is long and gruesome.

8mm Mr. Smith Again (but not Edward - I know, I know, I’ve gotten confused myself)
We’ve got another medley on our hands here: Mt. Hope Bridge (some conjecture - suddenly everyone’s a geographer), more pans of a lake this time over kerchiefed heads, sitting in wooden chairs on a boat, adark dark Christmas indoors with strange dolls and an icicled tree. Finally, the featured kids have some fun on bouncing rocking horse and a tricycle, then they move onto a chalkboard (a tiny one) and baby girl enjoys a big-headed doll in a moving scene that gets everyone oooing and awwing. Now for some B&W: ah the aftermath of the ‘cane of ‘38. Giant trees uprooted, roofs taken off, and this guy in a suit happily chopping away at a tree that fell into his house. His legs swing off the side of the house. Now back to color: an outdoor party with lots of people in hats. Just as everyone agrees its a graduation, it switches to someone’s confirmation and folks are posing for the camera like you would for a photo. The weirdest thing is this kid all dressed up anachronistically - velvet knickers and a cape.

Now comes the endless parade of birthday’s (all Mr. Smith’s aunt) but the transfer lab put the rolls together, so they are all out of chronological order. She and the surrounding party-goers grow older and younger and older again. They eat cake after cake after cake and drink punch and open presents endlessly. There’s playing, crying, drooling, and lots of eating. The kid with the bandaged eye makes a cameo appearance, and they all seem to generally be worried about birthdays the younger they are. At this point the final footage of Holy Cross and West Warwick is a virtual blur to me, we’ve all been through so much back & forth & in & out of time….. ANOTHER HOME MOVIE DAY COMES TO A CLOSE….