http://www.homemovieday.com/news/ en Copyright 2010 Thu, 05 Aug 2010 07:38:54 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Once again the Greater Boston Area celebrated this international enterprise at the Harvard Film Archive with hostess-archivists Liz Coffey, Amy Sloper & Melissa Dollman attending to the needs of films and their nervous owners.  Jason Sanford provided the soundtrack option via records and Amy provided the cookies via Tupperware technology.  Kevin McCarthy helped familiarize people with the bureaucratic red tape required in order to assure a smooth run through on one of many fine projectors present.  There may or may not have been a few other note-takers present, but you can’t really rely on good transcription these days and these gals were no different.  Take me, for instance, I missed HMD last year and had the nerve to show up an hour before showtime to sit and chat it up with the crew as if I were one-sixteenth as dedicated as these archival automatons. >Anyway, I was delighted with the peanut butter cookies and the films of Sid Laverents (shown on video) which overly-engaged the audience while the final films were inspected.  Liz had to disconnect the preshow entertainment and steel herself from the boos, hisses, and rotten vegetation tossed as she made her psuedo-cordial opening remarks.  Soon, however, the rambunctious audience sobered up when they heard Liz’s eerie warnings of Death By Deterioration and, even more tragic in some ways:  The Forgotten Film.  I had heard it all before, but it still manages to churn up old emotions in me and I choked back a few sobs. With her audience now in check, she looped up a regular 8 picture from “Betsy”:  Kodachrome, 1962, featuring her and her brother as youngsters at play.  A lot of pool shots:  swimming and diving, and much leisureliness in general. At one point, things get pretty tropical & flamingos enter the scene.  A little heavy-handed, but… >Betsy’s second reel stayed with the water theme:  this time at the beach with Mom feeding the gulls.  By the time we’re back to the pool, the jaunty music (provided by Jason) has become downright triumphant as Dad gracefully dives again & again off of the diving board.  With one simple cut, we’re transported to Franklin Park Zoo for a moment with the kids enjoying the playground.  But the real treat comes when we’re back at home with the children and babies who, once again, are water-focused; one serious little boy who surely grew up to be a successful maintenance person of some sort, fills his bucket and empties it in such a way that makes those on the slide and fooling around with the hose seem absolutely lackadaisical. His only cinematic competition was a glamorous little girl in pink with hat & sunglasses to match.  Her ease with home movie fame & fortune was enviable. >Next up was a color Super 8 film provided by Yours Truly:  The opening shots featured a trip to Busch Gardens in Tampa in the bicentennial year of ’76 and some good shots of tigers at play in and out of the water.  One got annoyed with another and acted like my tough-guy cat Toby, showing the other one with a giant paw what’s what.  The tribal tunes Jason put on for this first part carried over into my little sister’s first birthday party, so the Gravely women were suddenly conducting an ancient, sacred rite of passage in a 70s kitchen with a big white cake.  My mom made a slice with the shining knife and we looked on bathed in mystical candlelight. The more widely-known ancient ritual of Japanese Imperial Court Dance took over the screen in the next black and white 16mm film.  We were surprised to learn from Gwen that this was not unearthed from an old tomb, but was actually shot during Boston’s First Night back in 1994 or ’95 AD in a storefront on Newbury Street.  And it was a “modern” interpretation, but entrancing and well-exposed nonetheless. >We switched formats for the next one and watched a VHS tape that was originally shot on a VHS camcorder in 1986.  It was a Mother’s Day present for Kelly’s mom that her dad choreographed and staged in their 80s living room.  The sweatpants-wearing leader was flanked on both sides by his children as they performed to that Mother’s Day standard “When the Going Gets Tough (the Tough Get Going)” by Billy Ocean. None of them seemed overly passionate or determined, but I think maybe it was a more post-modern take.  Her little brother at times just stood there awkwardly stretching his shirt or looking down, and I wondered how many times those intricate expressions were practiced late into the night.  The surprising highlight was Kelly’s sax solo using – get this – a recorder as the saxophone and donning sunglasses for true 80s style.  Her mother must have been proud and maybe a little confused. Kevin had the audacity to show b/w 16mm footage of 1930s East Boston on DVD.  I overcame my embarrassment for him once his lovely grandmother lavishly posed for us at Revere Beach. (This was shot by his great uncle who worked for local amateur filmmaking equipment company Keystone, giving him access to contraptions like a 16mm camera.)  There was much beach play, dancing and acrobatics among the adorable kids on this summer day.   >Next, we were on their porch watching the little girls frocked & hamming it up for the camera. Finally, it was already wintertime and the long, dark coats of women formed moving silhouettes against the snow-covered streets. Amy Sloper presented a color super 8 Ektachrome film of a trip to Germany shot way back in 2008.  Most don’t even remember that distant time when people still did weird, morally-questionable things like visit the spot where Leni Riefenstahl shot Triumph of the Will.  In her defense, Amy was obviously wracked with emotion because she could barely focus this simple, consumer-friendly camera.  Nevertheless, I could make out the many daunting steps of the stadium’s ruins and some fuzzy kid with the nerve to perform bike tricks in this charged space.  A girl walking at a disconcertingly slow pace across the screen brought a wave of nervous laughter to an audience already on the edge. >Someone (Amy) tried to patch up the psychological damage done by abruptly throwing on a “mystery reel” of regular 8mm found in a Seattle camera shop.  Late 70s/early 80s folk graced the screen in an outdoor, rural bbq scene of baseball caps and plaid.  The camera focused intently on a squirrel delighting in birdhouse provisions, and then took us inside to Christmastime and a heavily tinseled, cone-shaped tree.  All-in-all, it looked like a good time:  turkey carving, Santa, and lots of laughter. >Reed, one of HMD’s heavy hitters, was up next with a color, regular 8 movie entitled The Fantasies of Professor Brainstorm made in the 1970s with a high school friend.  Apparently, they used to show this to neighborhood kids as a way to make money.  In short, this movie was amazing:  a solid narrative with action, a soundtrack (presented here on CD), comedy, creative costumes, stunning special effects, and even a vaguely moral lesson. There’s too much to go into here, but Reed as the lithe, long-haired scientist dreams of creating a formula to bring him great powers to aid him in defeating the archetypal demons that haunt us all:  the Karate Master, the Sword & Bow-and-Arrow Guy, and of course, the Shaving Cream Monster.  In his yellow towel cape, the humble scientist is transformed into the ultimate superhero magically making himself and objects move or disappear, zapping enemies with film-scratched lasers, and easily subduing any nemesis no matter how scary or powerful.  He wakes up from the dream and learns a lesson in hubris, but I won’t give the ending away since I believe it’s due out in theaters later this winter. >Liz tried to compete with this instant classic by impressing and confusing our senses with her more “experimental” product:  unslit, color regular 8 projected as 16mm, featuring four squares of action. Resembling a rougher, artier Thomas Crowne Affair, it was bikes and bike people rather than Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway.  Though the ending was the same – I looked up in the sky and cried. >Melissa uncovered another one of these “found at a yard sale” type flicks - this time in faded colors of a lesser 16mm stock of the late 60s or early 70s.  It actually turned out to be an educational film called Words That Describe Sounds featuring a girl and a boy disputing how to properly illustrate certain sounds through made-up words.  They would write down their interpretations and silently enter a lip-reading battle that was translated via subtitles, featuring words like “glub” and the ever-popular “skeez.”  Despite its inordinately high entertainment value, it was immediately confiscated by the HMD Security Team, and Melissa was quietly escorted out. >Another Gravely Super 8 Production was up next, cryptically titled “1971 Easter.”  It starred my older sister in her larval form on my parents’ bed.  Like a strange wind-up baby in lacey white, she appeared to wriggle in place to Jason’s telepathic selection of delicate music box sounds.  This was one of my dad’s minimal, single-themed pieces he has become famous for here at Home Movie Day. Peter Mork, another HMD SuperStar ®, allowed us the privilege of viewing his Ideal Domestic Scenes from 1950s America in the brilliant saturation of 16mm Kodachrome.  His cinematographic father once again wowed audiences with this dreamy footage that was surely sought after as highly-effective anti-communist propaganda.  Everyone fell under the dreamy spell of this perfect family gorgeously lit at Christmas. His father let the camera dance around the tree for a bit – showing up-close shots of each ornament.  Christmas morning brought an array of delights:  a baby good-naturedly hiding disappointment in unwrapping a box of clothes, the family dog decorated with a bow, a boy demonstrating his new mini-drill kit with a wholesomely demonic expression, and for the girl – a 1950s homemaker mini-cleaning set, brother & sister dressed as cowboy & girl parading for the camera… it goes on and on.  At one point, the little girl shows off her record player with a zoetrope-type situation on the spindle – causing ooohs and ahhhs and much light-headedness in the audience.  And then laughter during the scene when a gleeful Grandpa unwraps the thinly-disguised gift of a cane and proceeds to unwrap yet another! One of my personal favorite moments was the bohemian (maybe I’m projecting here) [quit projecting, Brittany, that’s my job! ~Liz] aunt and uncle solemnly entering the living room with presents on a stretcher. After Christmas, one of these perfect children presented their perfect science project to us – a board with multiple switches and circuits. And then we are transported outdoors to Ashfield, MA for the purple heart ceremony.  Peter broke his arm and his parents conducted an elaborate parade of flags and people and even the family cat to honor him. (At around this point in my notes I have written “UNREAL” and underlined it twice.)  This is all topped off with a bbq and juicy watermelon-eating around the picnic table. Finally, the adults play some more by enjoying winter cocktails outside in the snow and fun times in & out of a spacious igloo.   >By the time we reach the fishing scene, several audience members have passed out.  Liz wakes them up with some film cleaner fumes and I take a bathroom break… … Only to miss a greater part of the b/w Super 8 documentation of the wedding of John & Eve in Jamaica Plain, MA, 2008.  Jason smartly accompanied this joyous occasion with the symphonic version of Bowie’s Life On Mars? and I made it back in time to see some tossing of the bride and groom in the air. >As if he hasn’t shown off enough for one day, Reed now presented another product of his precocious teen years – The Game – which was an Honorable Mention in the 1970 Kodak Teenage Movie Awards.  This was a darker, apocalyptic tale set in 1992 of the ultimate chess match between the US and Russia televised worldwide.  By the time we see a TV set with “Los Angeles” or “New York” on it followed by fiery footage, we understand who the unfortunate loser is. And my last film of the day (on Super 8 Kodachrome) was of a recent trip to Chicago in 2007, followed by an abrupt shift to visit my parents in the mountains of Georgia.  The best part was footage of Cloud Gate in Millennium Park – a silver bean-shaped sculpture that makes the world look rounded and people distorted.  Unfortunately, the reflections distorted my cinematographic skills so the rest devolved into urban mural footage, city signs of skulls and happy french fries, and finally really boring panoramic shots of mountains which always look much better in reality. >After the Snoozefest Alert sounded, Amy woke people up with some more modern footage shot around the same time of local people, cats and sheep frolicking indoors and out.  Well, the sheep were never indoors… that would have been something. Kevin presented our other VHS footage of the day – this time, it was the 80th birthday party of his grandmother – seen only moments before in her youth as a bathing beauty.  This time, she was brought to tears, reunited with billions of friends and family gathered as a surprise in her yard.  Touching, but in need of an editor with an iron splicer, so Kevin delicately pressed “stop” and saved us all from having to witness the weepy intricacies of every hug of the day. >The illustrious John Quackenbush disclosed the most controversial found film of the day – this one was color, regular 8 from the fifties and appeared to belong to a wild bunch of older folks on their golden journeys.  John rescued this reel from a dumpster and had never seen it.  After the show, he donated it to the HFA.  We begin in Arkansas, according to the box, and it’s cold and wintery.  Which might be why they decide to take a trip to the Deep South.  First stop:  Mardi Gras!  Some truly incredible footage of the parades and shenanigans that go on during this famous celebration:  strange monkey-men, an array of bewildering floats, old men in gold body paint, people in blackface and weird masks.  Then they leave this hedonism to go to Florida where they are greeted by stucco, palm trees, and giant oranges.  They spend much leisurely time out in pristine Floridian yards, cafes, and orange groves.  All this was semi-standard stuff, but to my amazement, they venture out to the shanty towns and stop in on an African American family as if they are a tourist attraction. One shot features the old, portly white man petting a little African American girl on the head.  And there is much footage of the families on their porches, in the yard, … a sight I have never seen at home movie day. >Rarely do folks of color emerge on the screen at HMDs in the Boston area, and certainly not the rural poor!  Someone films out of the car as they drive by house after house with women in rocking chairs on porches.  Beautiful, mysterious roll.  By the end of it, they are back in winter country – looks kind of like a main street in a New Englandy town – and the man grabs his lady’s head in some kind of jokey fashion, but it’s a little unsettling. The snow stays with us for Liz’s next submission on b/w Super 8.  She filmed her neighbor Dave shoveling the snow outside their Roxbury apartment building last winter while he chatted on and on, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she was doing none of the work.  We witness the natural decorations of wintertime upon fence and tree. >Adam Scotto arrived late but the beguiling goddesses of home movies let him present his films anyway.  He showed us a glimpse of his childhood in Nantucket in 1973 on Kodachrome Super 8.  He demonstrated an array of fun things to do on the beach:  play with a bucket and sand, fun with a coke can, and finally, getting tossed up high into the air by his dad (who died in 2005).  His mother and young sister were also present.  At the end, we also see that he enjoyed the pleasures of swings and slides. His next detour took place in 1974, May to be exact, and the setting this time is Niagara Falls on the Canadian side.  Jason added another dimension to their adventures by playing some music of the Moog, and the electronic sounds followed the great bubbling water falling as well as the kids skipping along, playing at a playground, and suddenly it managed to alter the course of time and space as we suddenly witness the changing of the guard in London. >Adam’s third Super 8 was tellingly titled “Baby 1974 – Jumps 1977.” And we see happy, young Adam crawling, then hopping on one leg – obviously, taking his time to evolve to actual walking.  The toddler-aged daughter in this experimental family is already wearing glasses and we see her looking young & intellectual one moment, and then the kids are put to work using an old-fashioned ricer the next. To build strength to survive in such an environment, they also provided the children with a punching bag and let them jump off of the stove repeatedly.  Just as I was about to call social services, there was some weird but benign circling-with-a-toy-phone routine and strange dancing that hypnotized me just long enough. I have neglected to mention that throughout the day, there was all this talk of the mysterious man by the name of Merritt and his ancient films from the 1940s.  He dropped his footage off then disappeared into the fall foliage with his family.  They came back just in time to witness reels that his (great?) grandfather shot back in Hartford, CT – footage he had never seen.  The filmmaker was a member of the Amateur Cinema League and we were treated to the opening intro graphics that members spliced onto the heads of their films:  nice! Then to the action:  couples boating in Long Island Sound and looking good.  We then see all kinds of boats – large and small.  A virtual boat extravaganza, I dare say, before we are back on land with a funny dog getting food at a picnic and Grandma on a scooter in a Farmington neighborhood.  We see lovely autumn colors, the aforementioned dog looking cute at the door, a farm with pigs, a girl on a horse, and back to what appears to be an underlying theme of the day… the water. I soberly gathered my belongings and headed off to a post-home-movie-day celebration of watching more movies, and this important day came to an end.   ]]> http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2010/08/05/from_liz_coffey_written_by.html http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2010/08/05/from_liz_coffey_written_by.html Field Report Thu, 05 Aug 2010 07:38:54 -0800 City: Amsterdam >Event Venue: Filmmuseum, Vondelpark 3, 1071AA Amsterdam >Event time (screening): 13:00-18:00 >Event time (inspection): 12:00-18:00 >Total Audience: 325 >Number of people bringing films: 45+ >Films screened by Gauge: 8mm: 18, Super 8: 21, 16mm: 4, 9.5mm: 2 >Volunteers (54): > Voornaam Achternaam Functie Herkomst
Rommy Albers ontvangst + archief informatie Filmmuseum
Elif Rongen archief informatie Filmmuseum
Bernhard Andre coordinatie SuperSens
Simona Monizza coordinatie Filmmuseum
Catrien Boettger coordinatie Filmmuseum
Jean-Pierre Sens coordinatie SuperSens
Guy Edmonds coordinatie Filmmuseum
Guido Bruin Flashscan SuperSens
Rixt Jonkman floor manager Filmmuseum
Anne van Es floor manager Filmmuseum
Anne Gant floor manager Filmmuseum
Ineke Wiegers info Filmmuseum Filmmuseum
Uli Ruedel info Haghe Foundation + logistiek Haghefilm Foundation
Bertil Pouw info SuperSens SuperSens
Maria Fuentes Carrasco inspectie Filmmuseum P&P
Jata Haan inspectie SuperSens
Annike Kross inspectie Filmmuseum
Andreas Busche inspectie Filmmuseum
Massimo Benvegnù inspectie Haghefilm Foundation
Nino Dzandzava inspectie Haghefilm Foundation
Laurel Howard inspectie P&P
Daniela Currò inspectie Haghefilm Foundation
Janneke van Dalen inspectie P&P
Danuta Zoledriewska inspectie P&P
Francesca Morselli inspectie P&P
Simone Venturini inspectie Haghefilm Foundation
Lyudmila Genkova inspectie P&P
Suzanne Bos inspectie P&P
Sean Kelly inspectie P&P
Ronald Reinds inspectie BenG
Suzan Crommelin inspectie/archief informatie Filmmuseum
Asen Ognyanov Ivanov inspectie/fotograaf P&P
Amy Wensing inspectie/verkoop filmspullen BenG
Patricia Gaetano logistiek tussen Bovenhal en Franse zaal BenG
Taz Morgan logistiek tussen Franse zaal en FilmTent P&P
Peter Dekker logistiek tussen Franse zaal en Onno SuperSens
Dorette Schootemeijer ontvangst + contract prijswinnaars Filmmuseum
Marike Huizinga ontvangst + coordinatie Filmmuseum
Ole Schepp operateur 9.5mm Club 9.5mm Nederland
Onno Petersen operateur grote doek SuperSens
Danny Contant operateur grote doek SuperSens
Nico de Klerk presentator Filmmuseum
Frédérique Urlings presentator Filmmuseum
Walter Swagemakers prijsuitreiking Filmmuseum
Raymond Liefjes projectie 16mm Cineco
Jan Scholten projectie super8 en normaal 8 Filmmuseum
Paulo Fonseca projectie super8 en normaal 8 Cineco
Erwin Verbruggen registratie BenG
Valentine Kuypers registratie + floor manager Franse zaal BenG
Maike Lasseur registratie/inspectie Filmmuseum
Heleen van der Molen registratie/projectie FilmTent Filmmuseum
Eva Hielscher registratie/verkoop filmspullen BenG
Ruud Molleman reparatie projectoren SuperSens
    >Introduction >Our aim with this year’s event was to put everything we had learnt during last year’s almost overwhelmingly successful event at the service of making it just as successful but not so overwhelming. Our evaluation focussed on key areas where we had a shortage of personnel or a lack of strategic planning. A lot of thought went into managing the initial rush of people through the door although this preparation was in fact not so necessary as there were only a dozen or so people waiting outside at twelve o’clock – perhaps our public too had learned from last year! However the flow never really stopped and by the end of the day we had reached a more evenly spread out tally of 325 visitors. This year we had a bit more space to play with, the event occupying both theatres in the Vondelpark pavilion which is the home of the Filmmuseum (at least until 2012 when we move into a four screen spaceship-type facility- but that’s another story). Everyone seemed to enjoy the occasion. Thomas Elsaesser, visiting his first Home Movie Day, praised the ‘fantastic atmosphere’. >Volunteers: >We were helped enormously by a ready supply of volunteer labour coming not just from the Filmmuseum and Supersens but also, The Institute for Sound and Vision in Hilversum(the other national moving image archive in Holland), the newly established Haghefilm Foundation, Haghefilm and Cineco itself, and students of the University of Amsterdam masters programme in the Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image. Our volunteer army was thus almost doubled to 54 people, which crucially meant that we could introduce shift work to enable our volunteers to take some time out and enjoy the different spectacles on offer. The volunteers were marshalled in their numerous different duties by Simona whose penchant for organisation succeeded in doing for HMD what Henry Ford did for automobile manufacture (but without the corresponding alienation of labour). Film inspection volunteer, Lyudmila Genkova said, “We had a fantastic time. Meeting such a diverse group of people with their unique stories and stash of memories in a purse, or a suitcase or a shopping bag. Amazing!” >The improvements in the HMD machine meant that everyone had a much more relaxed day than last year, even with the significant increase in footfall. It was very good humoured and our volunteers had time to engage with the visitors in a meaningful way, becoming, for example, their personal archivist for half an hour or so. >Massimo Benvegnù, a volunteer from the Haghefilm Foundation, specialised in 16mm film inspection and wound films through viewers that seemed too delicate to risk to the projector, “I was touched by the response of the participants. Some of the people whose films I attended to came from as far as Rotterdam and Den Haag. A lady from Scheveningen was first in line with her 16mm cans, with family films but also some images of historical importance (Zeppelins and planes flying over Den Haag in the Thirties...). >A man from Den Haag, thanks to a huge home movie reel, shared some stories of the Jewish side of his family, who all died during WWII – he was able to see his great-grandmother, of whom he told me he only had one photo (and who disappeared during the war, taken by the Germans), and the birth of his father, who was going to turn 77 the week after Home Movie Day! He decided to digitize the film and hand it to him as a birthday present. >A woman with several Super8s also had a small piece of 16mm – bizarrely there were first some images of sailing in the North Sea, and then in the tail, a minute or so of imagery from 1930s Indonesia, on a tinted pink film stock! God knows how it got there... A couple from Rotterdam, whose grandfather was a professional photographer, had some amazing amateur travelogues from the 30s, complete with intertitles, which looked very professional (a trip to Paris, a trip from Den Helder to Texel island to attend a rowing event). And my last 16mm ‘client’ of the day, at 4.30pm, was another lady from Scheveningen... her sister, who was first in line on the 16mm desk in the morning, called her after she left the Filmmuseum and told her to come to Amsterdam, as there were ‘nice people that help you with your films’.Overall, an exhilarating experience.” >Home movie screenings Filmzaal 2 (Parisien): >At 12.30 Simona Monizza and Bernhard André, from the Filmmuseum and Supersens welcomed the audience, thanked sponsors and explained the nature of proceedings. Our two comperes, Frédérique Urlings and Nico de Klerk, were introduced and the screening opened with the 16mm film which Raymond Liefjes and I had shot at last year’s event and which I had finished editing only a couple of days before and for which we had received generous sponsorship of camera film from Fujifilm and labwork by Cineco. I gave a live commentary to the images and Fré and Nico encouraged the subsequent participants to do the same with their films. This worked with most of them apart from one woman who simply insisted that the images spoke for themselves. >One of our winners from last year, Alex Haverschmidt, entered another of his father’s films, this time depicting a day on the beach at Zandvoort in 1960. Many films showed the seafaring and seacontrolling spirit of the Dutch such as one shot in 1957 at the festivities of the completion of the dyke that joins the Island of Marken to the mainland. A film report of a children’s camping trip in Ede in 1950 organised by a church social club from Haarlem came complete with titles and was potentially interesting for the Noord Hollandsarchief. Only one film qualified as an amateur narrative production. Called The Dream, it told the timeless story of a boy and a girl and how beautiful it could have been if only the girl hadn’t dreamt it all. A touch of glamour was supplied by the actress Eva van Heijningen who entered her experimental film shot during the Venice Film Festival of 1973. >Many people stayed until the prize ceremony at ten to six and the theatre was full to hear that not one but three prizes were to be awarded. The jury of Fré, Nico and projectionist, Onno Petersen, gave third prize to Zwaluwen about the salvation and feeding of some swallows which had fallen out of their nest. Second prize went to Bootreis van Indonesië about a 1957 return journey from the newly independent (of Dutch rule) Indonesia aboard the ‘Willem Ruys’. And first prize went to De Bijlmer, comparatively recently shot in the southeast Amsterdam suburb by a Brazilian immigrant. It depicts the demolition of the 1960s tower blocks in the 1990s and also features some beautiful time lapse effects. All three films will be preserved by the Filmmuseum and screened at next year’s event. The first prize winner also gets to keep the Supersens Golden Camera trophy for a year and all prizewinners get digitisations of their films on DVDs. >Film Tent >As last year we had extra projection spaces for those who didn’t want to be part of the large gathering in the Parisien or who had simply arrived too late to get one of the 25 screening slots. This took the form of a marquee erected on the terrace and contained dual gauge 8mm projectors and a 16mm projector all under the operation of Jan Scholtens, Paolo Fonseca and Raymond Liefjes. Not all films shown in this alternative space were registered but twenty of them were. Hence the total figure of people bringing films is recorded as 45+.\ >Curated programmes featuring restored films and presentations about film preservation This year we decided to expand the day into a more ambitious showcase of Home movies outside the home, featuring the largely professional work that occurs around the subject of amateur film. We collected together a series of presentations that took place in our other theatre which aimed to give an overview of different approaches to the use, reuse and interpretation of home movies and amateur film and had the additional advantage of providing extra space for the large number of visitors. >13.00 - 13.45 Filmmuseum programma, Featuring amateur films preserved in the last year and including the two winners from the previous HMD, Vakantie Biesbosch and Hilversum en Zeeland. I presented this with Dorette Schootemeijer and gave an indication of the preservation techniques employed, which in the case of Hilversum en Zeeland involved a digital intermediate blow up to 35mm. >14.00 - 15.30 SuperSens, Huis van Alijn, UvA en Regionale Archieven Jean-Pierre Sens gave an illustrated talk about his experiences repairing and digitising small gauge film including striking images of films in various states of peril- “almost dead but rescued at the last minute." >Sylvie Dhaene and Greet van der Haegen represented the wonderful Huis van Alijn. They have a permanent exhibition of amateur filmmaking incorporated into this museum of everyday life in Ghent, Belgium. They showed Zoete Zeventig or Sweet Seventies, a compilation film by Kadir Balci made out of digitised films from their collection of Belgian residents’ home movies. Gemma van den Berg of the Gemeentearchief Rotterdam and Klaartje Pompe from the Noord-Hollands Archief showed small gauge films from their collections of material relating to their regions. >Two films made by University of Amsterdam students using source material from the Smalfilmmuseum collection concluded this programme section. These were Palindrome by Lotte Baltussen and Maria Fuentes Carrasco and My Skin Will Tell You by Valentina Catena. >15.45 – 16.45 Center for Home Movies. Our very special guest, CHM’s own Albert Steg, all the way from Boston, MA via Venice, Italy, gave a very well-received presentation, outlining the worldwide context of HMD. He showed some favourite home movies from DVD, including Fairy Princess (1955), the famous home movies of Alfred Hitchcock (1934), Atom Bomb (1953) and some films of Helen Hill (2005). >17.00 – 17.50 Club 9.5mm Nederland. Members of the the club gave an illustrated talk on the history of amateur film gauges and showed films on 9.5mm using their Heurtier HSM with Xenon lamp conversion. These included “Waarom 9.5?” a humorous comparison of the advantages of the gauge over 8mm and 16mm made in the 1950s and a gorgeous 1929 film of an airship flying over Groningen – our second Zeppelin of the day!\ >Displays and Attractions >Supersens gave live scanning demonstrations on their MWA machine and also had a working exhibit of a new experimental device made out of an old projector that could produce 2K scans from 9.5mm. Their extensive collection of small gauge cameras and paraphernalia which is so good for conjuring up the heyday of amateur film making enlivened the central hall and corridors. But stealing the side shows was a gentleman who turned up with his homemade 70mm projector! This was essentially a random act with only perhaps Jean-Pierre having prior knowledge of the man’s intent. Having found a spare corner, he proceeded to reassemble the partially deconstructed machine and coax it into life. After much fettling he projected for us a very pink ‘home movie’ of Lawrence of Arabia. >Press (pre-event and post-event) >Thanks to our publicity intern, Chuck Kerk, I can tell you that we had mentions in 3 local papers and 4 national ones including full articles in NRC Handelsblad, Het Parool and Volkskrant. Datum Medium Pagina Schrijver/ Bron 30-9-2009 Amstelveens Weekblad 15   23-9-2009 Echo Amsterdam Oud West 31   30-9-2009 Echo Amsterdam Zuid-Oost 35   17-10-2009 Het Financieële Dagblad 12   19-10-2009 NRC Handelsblad 18 Frits Abrahams 19-10-2009 Parool 11 Emma Boelhouwer 16-10-2009 Volkskrant 47 Christjan Knijff >25 different websites carried news of the event including one specially created by Supersens - a dedicated Dutch Home Movie Day site: www.homemovieday.eu. >Photos: A large selection of photos is available here. >Thanks to Asen and Lyudmila for so thoroughly documenting the day. ]]> http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2010/07/05/from_guy_edmonds_city.html http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2010/07/05/from_guy_edmonds_city.html Field Report Mon, 05 Jul 2010 07:36:56 -0800 City: Rochester >Event Venue: Visual Studies Workshop, 31 Prince St., Rochester, NY >Event time (screening): 2pm – 5pm >Event time (inspection): (includes early drop off times) - Tue 10/13 10am - 12pm, Wed 10/14 10am - 12pm, Thu 10/15 5:30pm - 7:30pm, Sat 10/17 1pm - 3pm >Total Audience: 69 >Number of people bringing films: 16 people (22 films dropped off, 15 projectable) >Films screened by Gauge: 8mm: 4, Super 8: 6, 16mm: 5 >Volunteers : 13 - Antonella Bonfanti, Anthony L'Abbate, Alexis Mayer, Ed Stratmann, Nancy Kauffman, James Layton, Deb Stoiber, Jeff Stoiber, Kristen Merola, Jenn Libby, Larry Arbeiter, Pat Doyen, Dan Varenka >Special events/screenings: exhibit of small gauge and amateur film equipment and ephemera in the lobby of the Dryden Theater. Exhibit during the Photo Historical Society conference. >Press (pre-event and post-event): the Rochester City Newspaper, University of Rochester's @Rochester, and in the Democrat and Chronicle. >There was a lot of local footage (we put out a call specifically for local (especially lost) city landmarks due to it being Rochester’s 175th anniversary). In addition to street scenes, amusement parks and the annual Lilac Festival, a highlight was footage of a Kodak building being imploded. There was also some great harness racing footage from Rochester in the late ‘20’s. >One of the audience favorites was a b&w 16mm film, circa 1928, that showed a first communion ceremony at a Rochester church. The imagery was beautiful, with the children in white gowns streaming out of the church and down the steps. Everyone was quite taken with it, although one person said the church was like one of those clown cars because the stream of children was never ending. Someone suggested they were going back in the side door and coming out again. >There was also a beautiful 8mm Kodachrome film from 1956 of Mexico City. A market is shown as well as a theater with a huge mosaic façade. Also modern Mexican architecture in the city, a boat ride and some pretty good shots of a bullfight. >One family film showed an oil delivery with the delivery man smoking while pumping the oil! Most people hated a 3min super 8 film from the ‘70’s that was one shot showing kids playing in an orchestra – silent. I kind of liked it, it was surreal. ]]> http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2010/06/05/from_pat_doyen_city.html http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2010/06/05/from_pat_doyen_city.html Field Report Sat, 05 Jun 2010 07:36:15 -0800 City: Malax, Finland >Event Venue: Malakta >Event time (screening): 13:00-17:00 >Event time (inspection): Thursday 14:00-16:00, Friday : 14:00-16:00, Saturday: 10:00-13:00 >Total Audience: 30 >Number of people bringing films: 8 >Films screened by Gauge: 8mm: 2, Super 8: 11, 16mm: 3 (submitted by Malakta and Filmcentrum Botnia) >Volunteers: 8 :Jukka Rajala-Granstubb, Maja Granstubb, Britt Kootstra, Arvid van der Rijt, Klas Fransberg, Axel Fransberg, Sarah Nelson, Erika Sillander >Special events/screenings: - screening of educational 16mm films (upplysningsfilms) + 16mm films about Malakta, showing the history of Malakta which used to be a dairy factory - exhibition of projectors and camera’s from the collection of Klas Fransberg (Filmcentrum Botnia-Elokuvakeskus Botnia) - live marathon super8-filmscanning >Press (pre-event and post-event): >Pre - Radio Pohjanmaa - Webarticle ÖP ; (international home movie day for the first time in Finland) - announcements in newspapers Vasabladet and Pohjalainen >Post - frontpage + article in Vasabladet - report on Malax TV >super8 - 1 reel (15m.) found film showing a family having fun in the snow - 1 reel (60m.) showing the harvest time in Österbotten ‘73-’76 - 1 reel (60m.) of travels to Scotland and Norway 1978 - 1 reel (60m.) of travels to Germany and Austria, and family in the summer - 1 reel (15m.) of family celebrating christmas - 2 reels (2 x 15m.) of family in Finland - 1 reel (60m.) of a choir travelling - 1 reel (60m.) of summertime in Finland - 1 reel (60m.) of holiday in Italy - 1 reel (70m) of travels to Germany >regular8 - 1 reel (60m.) about every member of the Skinnar family and all their daily activities 1963 - 1 amateur short film of 15 min. about... 1961 >16mm - 2 reels of dairy factory Malakta - 1 ‘uplyssningsfilm’, educational film >All in all, it was a very successful day. We had a nice amount of films handed in. We couldn’t screen all of them, as we had some very active amateur filmmakers in the audience. At home they still had 2,5 km of film waiting to be screened... We had some films on 16 mm to show, just in case we didn’t have enough films brought in. We only had time to watch 3 short films in the beginning. At the end we almost ran out of time to be able to show all the films. All the visitors left saying, ‘See you next year!’ We are putting HMD in our calendar for next year, and hope for the same amount of enthusiasm, we encountered this year. ]]> http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2010/05/05/from_britt_kootstra_city_malax.html http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2010/05/05/from_britt_kootstra_city_malax.html Field Report Wed, 05 May 2010 07:34:50 -0800 This year was PFA's third Home Movie Day. We tried things a bit differently with drop-off/inspection time from 11:00am-1:00pm and the screening started at 1:00pm, kicked off with a tribute to Kodachrome. We got a lot of early submissions so we were more prepared this year, and everyone who brought in film was able to see one or two of their reels. >This year I made Kodachroma cookies (with red-green-blue M&Ms) and we raffled away transfer time thanks to three local labs (Monaco, Video Transfer Center, and Audio Video Workshop). >Films represented all parts of the Bay - Berkeley, Oakland, Benecia, San Francisco, Fresno - and beyond - Oregon, Alaska, Ohio, Massachusetts, Florida, Mexico, Egypt. Every film except maybe two or three included a story from someone in the audience. >City: Berkeley, CA >Event Venue: Pacific Film Archive >Event time (inspection): 11:00-1:00 plus early drop off   >Event time (open screening): 1:00-4:00 (beginning with a Kodachrome tribute) >Total Audience (open screening): 49 (not including volunteers) >Number of people bringing films: 12 >Films screened by Gauge (open screening): 8mm: 9, Super 8: 4, 16mm: 5 >Volunteers: 12 - Stefano Boni, Adrienne Cardwell, Megan Clement, Jonathan Knapp, Lucy Laird, Margaret Mello, Crystal Rangel, Jon Shibata, Pamela Jean Smith, Lauren Sorenson, Kyle Westphal, Troy Vadakan and Anuj Vaidya >Special events/screenings: 'A Home Movie Homage to Kodachrome' - a curated program of Kodachrome movies with audience participation and special music picked out for each movie >Press (pre-event and post-event): The Berkeley Daily Planet, the Berkeleyan, PFA Film Notes/Calendar. SF360, San Francisco Film Society's online newsletter, published an interview with Pamela the week before the event. Calendar listings in weekly independent newspapers the Guardian, East Bay Express, SF Weekly, and online on Facebook, SF Station, squid list, craigslist, fecal face, Flavorpill and UC Berkeley's calendar. A few people attended as part of Rick and Megan Prelinger's Pickpocket Almanack course. >Highlights of the day: >New HMD friend Carol brought in 44 reels of regular 8 film that her grandfather shot, all kept in their original metal boxes. Since her grandfather was a Japanese American filmmaker who owned his own photography studio, he was thought to be a spy and interned during the war, so all of his films document life before and after the war. Carol hadn't seen any of his films before, and we were able to show two of them dated 1945-1951: one included accidental double exposures of an airfield, a bright red truck with two men shaking hands next to it, fields, trees, and a close-up of Carol and her twin sister as little girls, and the other reel was documentation of a patriotic street parade in Fresno shortly after the war ended (and the family was released). This collection also includes amazing 1939 footage of the World's Fair on Treasure Island, focusing specifically on sights of the Japanese pavilion, but it was unfortunately too shrunken and fragile to project. >Beautiful Kodachrome 16mm footage of Doug's parents' newlywed trip to Florida. We begin with his parents lounging on the beach and snorkeling (with cuts to underwater scenes, shot earlier at an aquarium) then they go to a chimpanzee show where chimps play the drums and piano ("Liberachi"), ride bikes and tightrope walk. Then on to Parrot World, where Doug's dad gets covered with macaws - two on each arm and one on his head! Doug brought this reel in last year, and I had to include it again in the Kodachrome tribute for the colors and for all the animal antics. >Scott Stark loaned two great 16mm movies from his collection - a drunken 1951 Christmas scene of two couples drinking champagne, opening presents, drinking more champagne, and layering their dog with leftover ribbon and a wonderful black & white film from the early 1940s of a family from San Francisco singing "Back in the Saddle" (and occasionally hooting and hollering 'yippee' and 'yow yow wow!'). It was shot on an optical sound Auricon camera. The sound simply shimmered!! (Scott showed these films at Orphans West this year, and again at Other Cinema... if he comes to your town don't miss them!) >An anonymous regular 8mm Kodachrome reel from Alaska, 1960. Two African American boys  ("Craig and David") open presents and do the twist like crazy as their mom looks on with a little smirk. Then there are scenes of everyone dancing in the living room. >An amazing split-screen trick film brought in by one of our volunteers, Adrienne, which was made by her dad when he was in his early twenties (1963). Using his neighbors as actors, he shoots the film twice so that husband and wife are looking at each other on the couch, then in another shot he puts a floor lamp in the middle of the screen and everyone disappears into the lamp! >Ruins of Playland-at-the-Beach in the early 1970s. Lonely, long glances of demolished amusement rides, broken windows and solitary people walking down the street. >Documentation of a lost bet: a man is forced to roll a roll of toilet paper out of a bar and across the main street of Benecia on his hands and knees through mud puddles. It looks like most of the town is there to see it. >A sequel to last year's wedding film: The Grand Train Trip. The Fishers move to New York from San Francisco. We go from Oakland to Silver Creek Falls near Mt. Hood, Oregon. Scenes of picnicking among vibrant green ferns and swimming in a heated pool surrounded by snow. Mr. Fisher plays around with speed and his zoom lens, and there are lots of loving close-ups of his wife (Mr. Fisher refers to these shots as "artsy"). >A beautifully shot Kodachrome movie from 1938 of a Chicago family's visit to Bunker Hill - a wonderful mix of movement and repose. A little girl in a sailor suit swings toward the camera followed by a shot of a group of kids in front of the Bunker Hill monument, standing still as if for a photograph. One of the boys has a wiggling puppy in his arms. ]]> http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2010/05/05/hmd_report_berkeley_california_1.html http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2010/05/05/hmd_report_berkeley_california_1.html Field Report Wed, 05 May 2010 07:28:56 -0800 Summary Weather-wise this year’s HMD was not that great. In Tokyo we had a little rain at night, but our average audience increased to 27 (average capacity of venue was 39). Depending on the venue, the number of films shown varied from six to 15, running costs were from 0 yen to 30,000 yen (average 9,000 yen), and the number of volunteers was from three to twelve. We thank our international guests, Brigitte Paulowitz, John Stewart, and Quentin Turner at HMD Yanesen despite the fact the the event was monolingual. I hope they enjoyed the special home movie time created by our local rep. We mainly deal with 8mm but HMD Yanesen and Nagoya had one 16mm each from the pre-war era this year. The films HMD Japan is showing are increasingly from the old days. We realised that those venues holding HMD for a long time now have a very strong team of volunteers who do a great job. For the first time ever, HMD Misawa had outside screenings, which went successfully. Through the mailing list, the reps talked a lot about how to take action against influenza (it was in the flu season, and there was a lot of hysteria about avoiding crowds in the media), and also about copyright, as one of the “best HMD” films had a scene showing a TV broadcasting “East of Eden” (1955). Publicity We put the HMD PR Video on YouTube (both original and english subtitled version) as our first attempt and it had over 700 hits. This video was made by our member Mariko Goda, who has been making our “Adopt-a-Film” PR for a long time. All in all, we have to admit that this year was a bit quieter on the media coverage side. HMD Misawa and Hirowaki had big articles in the local newspaper after the event, and HMD Nagoya was successfully introduced in advance in Asahi Newspaper with a long interview with the rep, Satoe Tamura. Everyone loved this article as it explains how much fun she is having through the HMD activities and naturally shows the wonderfulness of film preservation. Eventually HMD Nagoya had over 55 in the audience, which was a record for them. We got really excited when a passionate publicity person from Fujifilm Photomuseum came to visit us about their participation to HMD well in advance, in connection with their exhibition “Nostalgic Home Movies ― from the Zoetrope to Single 8 Film.” Unfortunately they did not do any special events related to this exhibition, and their ultimate decision was to pull out of HMD. I felt that in their rather small but beautifully done exhibition, 8mm films were totally in the past and we could just see them displayed as antiques. Yet Fujifilm Square in Roppongi is great place to visit if you have time in Tokyo, and don’t miss their fabulous museum shop! According to Fujifilm’s press release dated 2nd June, 2009, Fujifilm is going to stop the sale of FUJICHROME R25N in March 2012 and FUJICHROME RT200N in May 2010. And Fujifilm’s processing service is going to end in September 2013. All the photos from HMD Japan 2009 can be seen on Flickr. Networking Suddenly from last year, a lot of regional film archiving projects are emerging in Japan. And Film Festivals in Japan are showing more and more interest in regional films. When they have symposiums, seminars or workshops, at least one or two FPS members go to see what’s going on, but it seems they are mainly focusing on the contents, digitization and how to make good re-use of old footage. We had never come across film preservation ethics or long term preservation efforts. I was invited to Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival in October this year to introduce FPS’ activities. They also had home movie related screenings during the festival. I’m hoping that they will have HMD next time in 2011. FPS is also getting involved in a new regional film archive project from next Spring in Bunkyo-ward, Tokyo (where FPS’ office is). So, we’ll keep making efforts to place emphasis on the preservation side of this sort of project. For the temperature controlled vault, our institutional member Kyoshin Warehouse Co., Ltd. is renovating their vault – used to be a storage for food – into a special vault for Audiovisual materials (five degrees). And we are ready to make a contract with them when it’s complete. Reps and Volunteers I especially wish to thank Asako Takemori (HMD Misawa & Hirosaki), Satoe Tamura (HMD Nagoya), Yuko Shiota (HMD Senju), Keiichi Shima (HMD Yanesen) and Nozomi Nakagawa (HMD Kodaira) for their cooperation and considerable input. It feels so great to witness their progress year by year. Nozomi is our accountant, and also taking charge of film inspection and film projection workshop for newcomers as a leader of FPS’ Small Gauge Dept. SGD is opening a new inspection room near the FPS office in 2010. We had a reps meeting before HMD on 16th August 2009 (13 reps and potential reps attended), and will have another meeting after HMD on 28th November 2009 in ELMO headquarters in Nagoya, and best home movies screenings follow on the same day at Cultural Path Shumokukan – they have an English website here. Volunteers: (in Misawa) Saiko Horiuchi, Hisashi Ando, Takeo Mochizuki, Kana Yamamoto, Sachiko Yamashita, Sakiko Kimura, Ai Moriyama, Misato Chikayama, Eri Yamaki, Toshiko Shimokawa, Akiko Miura, Yuko Tamo, Yoko Matsuhashi (in Hirosaki) Satoshi Shibata, Keiko Saito, Masafumi Takebayashi (in Senju) Yasuhide Takanashi, Hidetoshi Sase, Idle Man (in HMD Yanesen) Satoko Ohashi, Sadanobu Iida, Mariko Goda, Chie Nagai, Ryuji Nakayama, Shigeki Arimitsu, Mari Kawamoto (in HMD Kodaira) Mikio Yamazaki, Yuko Kodama, Keiko Imai (in HMD Nagoya) Hiroki Yamashita, Kazuo Shinato, Miyuki Takeda, Yoko Fukada, Nobuaki Hara, Ayumi Hara, Yoji Hasegawa, Saki Tanaka, Masako Kitamura Best HMD 2009 from Japan! MISAWA Organizer: Asako Takemori Venue: Misawa City Library Mikawame Public Adult Lecture R8, BW, Sil., 4minutes, 1965 from Misawa City Hall This is one of the 25 regular 8 films discovered in Misawa City Hall. All of them were in boxes but the descriptions on them did not match the contents of the film. The original box of this film says “Cultural Festival” but there was Mikawame Community Center shot in the film, so it is supposed to be in the box saying “Mikawame Public Adult Lecture”. Bashful local ladies at the commemorative photo-op at the end of the lecture are impressive. HIROSAKI Organizer: Asako Takemori Venue: Menbo Takeya – soba restaurant Odate; Sketch of the Snow Country S8, Color, Sil., 8minutes, year unknown from Kazuo Yoshida This film consists of three parts; In the main street of Odate city, Akita pref, you’ll first see the “Snow Vehicle”. Then, a festival called Amekko-ichi (Candy Fair) in this same street. Every February they have this seasonal tradition with the belief that if you eat candy on the day, you’ll never catch cold. And the last part of the film is about the film owner’s wife Kimiko and icicles, which was the audience’s favourite. Mr Yoshida is scared of heights, and asked his wife to deal with the big icicles at the second floor, which is beautifully shot. She passed away last February right before the Candy Fair. SENDAI Organizer: Hidenori Sakamotoi Venue: Sendai City Museum of History and Folklore Yellow Patrol R8, Color, Sil., 8minutes, mid-1960s from Yasutoshi Ishikawa A rapid increase in car accidents accompanied the increase in the number of cars around 1962 to 63, Nippon-unyu (shipping company) started educational activities to promote road safety. They created a theme song “Good kids’ road is good way to go home” and assembled “Yellow Patrol” to do a campaign combining traffic rules and gymnastic exercises. They visited schools from Hokkaido to Kyushu with the cooperation of local police departments. This film is a record of their visits to schools in Sendai and Morioka. SENJU Organizer: Yuko Shiota Venue: Senju Yanagicho Ju-ku Center A Launch Party for Nissan’s “Datsun” W8, BW, Sil., 3minutes, 1958 from Moriko Oishi This film is about a launch party for Nissan’s “Datsun” in 1958 on the rooftop of Mitsukoshi department store. In those days, department stores were trendsetting places, and what was special about this car was that it used a plastic body for the first time in Japan. They own a car factory (now it’s a car shop) and shot a lot of footage in the factory such as “A Day in the Factory” or “Three-wheeler Inspection”. KODAIRA Organizer: Nozomi Nakagawa Venue: Gas Museum 1977 Okutama, Festival of Dolls, Piano Recital S8, Color, Sil., 4minutes, 1977 from Masako Miyatake Kodaira-city is located in the heart of greater Tokyo and Bridgestone Tire Factory is in the very center of the city. This film shows a girl brought up in the area in Spring 1977. She spends New Year’s day with her family in the company’s recreation facility, and wears traditional kimono for the dolls festival in March, and is in a brand new dress for a piano recital. She shared with the audience a lot of memories from her childhood. YANESEN Organizer: Keiichi Shima Venue: Miyanaga Kaikan Hiro-chan’s Wedding Party R8, BW, Sil., 8minutes, 1971 from Etsuo Watanabe Wedding party in 1971, Sendai at an old style Japanese restaurant. You will see a slightly nervous groom pouring Sake for the relatives, and a shy bride is bashful at the movie camera, a grandfather in formal traditional Japanese dress sings his party piece “Takasagoya” and towards the end, a drunken attendee starts the perennial “catching weatherfish” dance. Although it’s a silent film, you can gradually hear the cheerful sound as the party goes on. NAGOYA Organizer: Satoe Tamura Venue: Cultural Path Shumokukan New Year 1969 S8, Color and BW, Sil., 15minutes, 1969 from Katsutoshi Kitazawa At the beginning, you’ll see the mochi pounding tradition at the film owner’s house. They go to the shrine later on – another typical thing to do at Japanese New Year. On the 3rd January, they visit one of their relatives in Tokyo by driving “Subaru 1100 sports”, and it turns into a roadmovie. It shows Tokyo University’s campus where the student activism over Yasuda-kodo symbolized the year 1969. and also surroundings of Minamiazabu area in Tokyo. The beautiful snowcapped Mt. Fuji and the sports car are wonderfully shot at the end on their way back from Tokyo. *HMD Osaka, Nishifunabashi, and Sangenchaya are not taking part in best HMD screenings. We’ll make a Best HMD 2009 from Japan DVD as usual as our activity record and promotion tool.]]> http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2010/01/11/hm_japan_megareport.html http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2010/01/11/hm_japan_megareport.html Field Report Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:53:03 -0800 Upper Valley Home Movie Day in White River Junction, Vermont >The Upper Valley Home Movie Day held in the studio of the local cable TV channel, CATV 8, in White River Junction Vermont was a success- and was at least in keeping with the turn-out from previous years. We had about 15 or so attendees, half of whom brought films- and, of those, the ones that were screened were almost all Super8- though we had quite a bit of 8mm and some 16mm show up as well. We didn't get much press coverage this year- a combination of over-taxed organizers and the loss of one of our 2 local papers both played a role. Despite the lack of press prior to the event, turn-out was about the same, as I mentioned, as in previous years. >The press coverage we DID get came out today- better late than never, I suppose- though I would have preferred to get press before-hand. The article is available online. >We had also attempted to do a little "Antiques Roadshow" meets Home Movie Day by videotaping the event for air on local cable- though our attention was really on the films as they came in and answering peoples' questions- so- this didn't materialize. If we attempt this again we'll have to round up volunteers who would be tasked with the video portion of the day's events alone. >We had support from The Howe Library in Hanover NH, Film & Media Studies at Dartmouth College, and the Jones Media Center of Dartmouth Library, and the Main Street Museum of Art of White River Junction. >Our organizers were myself, Bruce Posner and Sukie Punjasthitkul - who took pictures at the event which are available here. ]]> http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2010/01/11/hmd_report_white_river_junction_vt.html http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2010/01/11/hmd_report_white_river_junction_vt.html Field Report Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:48:51 -0800 Event Venue: Maine Historical Society >Event time (screening): 1 - 4pm >Event time (inspection): 1 - 3pm >Total Audience: 36 >Number of people bringing films: 3 >Films screened by Gauge: 8mm: 6, DVD transfer of 16mm: 1 >Volunteers: 7 – Steve Bromage, Jane Donnell, Joe Gardner, Jessica Hosford, Gemma Perretta, Karan Sheldon, David Weiss. >Special events/screenings: We showed selections from E.B. White’s home movies, which are held at Northeast Historic Film. The clips were projected from a DVD made from 16mm film. The footage largely took place at and near White’s farm in North Brooklin, Maine from the thirties and forties. White’s granddaughter, Martha White, gave a talk while they ran, commenting on the various people and things seen on screen. E.B. White was usually the one behind the camera, but he was seen occasionally. There was a loud gasp from the audience when a spider appeared on screen. Afterwards, Martha White took questions from the audience. >Press (pre-event and post-event): David Weiss, Northeast Historic Film’s executive director, appeared on the Maine TV talk show 207 to discuss HMD, the E.B. White screening and Northeast Historic Film. It’s online here. >Bonnie Roberts brought in two 8mm films which included 1940s and ‘50s color footage of her great-grandparents in Maine. Coincidentally, her great-grandparents are also the great-grandparents of NHF staff member, Jane Donnell. The films showed footage of a family home that Jane knew very well, and at one point, Jane’s mom (as a child) was shown on screen. Bonnie and Jane had never met before and it was a complete surprise that this connection was discovered. >Tim Findlen of Portland brought in three reels of film show by Al Hawkes, a local music producer. Hawkes’s home movie featured images of a band playing, family skiing and iceskating. Tim has more of Hawkes’s films and plans to make a documentary about Hawkes (who is still alive, but did not attend the event). Other films included scenes of children playing, horse sports, potato fields blooming, waterskiing and farms. The range of years spanned the ‘40s to the ‘70s. ]]> http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2010/01/11/hmd_report_portland_maine.html http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2010/01/11/hmd_report_portland_maine.html Field Report Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:43:35 -0800 Event Venue: Linwood Dunn Theater, AMPAS Pickford Center >Event time (screening): 12:00pm-4:00pm >Event time (inspection): 11:00am >Total Audience: 40 >Number of people bringing films: 13 >Films screened by Gauge: 8mm: 10, Super 8: 8, 16mm: 6, 9.5mm: None, but projectionist Dino Everett brought his museum of 9.5mm projectors and did a demo including the film “The Home Guard” (1941, U.K.) >Video: No way man! >Volunteers: Brian Meacham, Ed Carter, Fritz Herzog, Leah Wagner, Lynne Kirste, Stefan Palko, Tim Wilson, Steve Wright, Amy Jo Damitz, Dino Everett, Meredith Rimmer, Charles Rogers, Jessie Frey, Esther Nam, Jessica Storm, Rhonda Vigeant, Johnny Alexander, Maria Janus, Cassie Blake, Brian Drischell, Sean Savage >Special events/screenings: Evening event, “Hollywood Home Movies II” >Press (pre-event and post-event): some weekly listings, nothing too splashy, plus this bit on IMDb. >Screening highlights: >Volunteer Jessie Frey brought her mom and her great-grandfather’s films. One titled: “Fun with a Movie Camera” had some nice trick effects like a stop motion Xmas tree decoration, and the transformation of Aunt Linda, in housecoat and curlers, into a fully-outfitted majorette after a baton toss in the air. >Military Air Corps footage shot on air base in Orange County, California in 1943. The base was active from 1942-46, but no longer exists. Shot by an officer, the 16mm Kodachrome reel captures shiny new planes on the tarmac and in the air. Also glimpsed are military personnel setting up a radio communication system in empty field. >Academy oral historian and former assistant to Peter Bogdanovich Mae Woods brought 8mm footage she shot during production of “The Last Picture Show” featuring candid shots of Jeff Bridges and Cybill Shepherd in Wichita Falls, TX (though it was sadly underexposed). >The Archive’s Collections Curator Fritz Herzog presented one of his amateur horror epics c. 1970 entitled “The Feast.” Everyone was sufficiently spooked by the high grain b/w night photography and haunting mag-stripe sound mix. >And attendee Roger Brown brought a couple of his mid-'70s productions including “The Goshfather” (their parents wouldn’t let them say “God”!). Though none of the kids involved had seen Coppola’s film, Roger somehow conjured up a pretty convincing Brando impression. ]]> http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2009/12/22/hmd_report_los_angeles.html http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2009/12/22/hmd_report_los_angeles.html Field Report Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:11:46 -0800 Location: The National Media Museum, Bradford, UK >Time: 10am – 5pm >Organizers: Megan McCooley (Yorkshire Film Archive) and Fozia Bano (National Media Museum) >Additional film examiners, projectionists, filmmakers, and special guest speakers: Sue Howard, Alex Southern, Rachel Smith, Binny Baker, Andrew Knight, Michael Harvey, Joe Hepworth. >Publicity: The YFA was able to have articles go out in local newspapers throughout the region prior to the event. Additionally, we were able to get two promotional pieces on BBC Radio Leeds and York as well as a short promotional piece on BBC Look North on Friday, 16th October. Information was also posted on archivist, film, culture, and tourist sites including Screen Research, Film Archive Forum, DigYorkshire, YFA and NMM websites. Additionally, the YFA organized a joint press release with the organizers of HMD London. A few people saw Look North that night and came to see us on Saturday which was great. Finally we had a flyer which was distributed to partnership organizations throughout the region. >Total number of guests: about 40 + 6 families for the Family Filmmaking Workshop >Total number of films brought in: 1 x 16mm, 6 x 8mm, 2 x VHS, 2 x DVD This was the first HMD event in Yorkshire, and one of two in the UK this year. The Yorkshire Film Archive and National Media Museum have worked closely on other projects in the past and felt this would be the perfect location for this year's HMD event. >A film clinic was open all day and had the capacity for 16mm, 8/super8mm, 9.5mm, DVD and VHS. Just a little bit about the audience – most of them were amateur filmmakers themselves bringing in home movies that they have made or come to see films others like them have made. Many were also members of cine clubs whose collections we hold at the YFA. We had a few people who had not brought in home movies but had wondered up to the Film Clinic just to see what was going on and/or get advice about their own collections. Many stayed to watch the footage from the YFA collection that was being screened. Some of them had collections of their own and were very interested to see the footage being screened upstairs. We also had people mention they saw the Look North piece that went out on Friday and had come to the museum that day as a result. The age range varied of participants as well as the type of collections which came in. We had mostly 8mm films, 6 films in all, 2 vhs tapes, and 2 dvds. Many people were also interested on getting information about how to transfer their own home movies to DVD. The highlight of the day for us was a VHS collection which featured XCLUSIVE, a night club in Batley, in 1984. HMD Bradford also included other events throughout the museum including two sessions with Michael Harvey, Curator of Cinematography at the NMM, focusing on the technology used to create home movies and highlighting pieces from the Museum's collection. There were also two presentations by YFA's Binny Baker and series producer Andrew Knight taking a closer look at the highly successful television series "The Way We Were", a series completely designed around home movies and amateur filmmakers. Plus there was screenings throughout the day of home movies, and an afternoon screening of films made during the Family Filmmaking Workshop run by Joe Hepworth. >We were also able to get a bit of funding through Screen Yorkshire, to whom we're extremely grateful. This helped to cover staff and travel costs and especially digitization costs of home movies already held at the YFA and screened on the day. Films screened included family Christmas celebrations during WWII, Kelly's Eye, a comical film about an amateur filmmaker and the lengths he'll go to in order to make the perfect film, the National Hairdressing Competition at Alexandria Hall, Halifax 1963, Archbishop Holgate School 1932, and underwater footage from the British Sub Aqua Club in 1956. >For our first event, I would say it went well. We certainly learned a lot and will build on those lessons for next year. Having the event in Bradford also gave us the opportunity to reach a larger audience who may not get the opportunity to travel to the Archive in York. It was great to see some familiar faces from local cine clubs who share the same enthusiasm for filmmaking and were also able to contribute greatly to the day. Unfortunately there was a lot going on that weekend in the region, and much of our publicity only went out the week before, so we weren't able to reach as many newcomers as we would've liked. On the upside, we have had people contacting the YFA within the last week looking to deposit collections or seek advice on preservation of their film and video collections as a result of the event. ]]> http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2009/12/22/hmd_report_bradford_england.html http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2009/12/22/hmd_report_bradford_england.html Field Report Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:50:40 -0800 From Homemade Movies: >Toronto - Home Movie Day presented by Homemade Movies >This year we held our Home Movie Day in the Roncesvalles neighbourhood of Toronto at the historic Revue Cinema. The Revue is an old deco movie house that is now run by the non-profit Revue Film Society. The event was co-presented with the Revue Film Society as well as the nearby Swansea Historical Society. >Being invited to present Home Movie Day at the Revue grew out of Homemade Movies' series of ongoing neighbourhood b.y.o.h.m. or "bring your own home movies" events, several of which have been held in surrounding neighbourhoods. >Our Home Movie Day had both a repair clinic - where people were able to look through their collections, get help repairing films and select a reel to show - and a screening. >We had a lot of 16mm films brought out this time, including work from two large collections. Some highlights included films of: an early Caribana parade from 1970 (now the world's largest ex-pat Caribbean carnival - a million plus participants come to Toronto each year), family life from Washington DC and Toronto in the 40's and the Weeki Wachee mermaid show from a trip to Florida. >This year we would like to thank K Raudoja, P Reddick, J Culp, R Cruickshank, R Miyanishi, S Moffat, P Hamiwka, T Bourgette, Images, Pleasure Dome and especially John Porter for all their help. http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2009/12/22/hmd_report_toronto_3.html http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2009/12/22/hmd_report_toronto_3.html Field Report Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:49:40 -0800 From Jennifer L Peterson in Boulder: >Event Venue: Boulder Public Library >Event time (inspection): 2-4 >Event time (screening): 4:30-6pm >NOTE: inspection and screening pretty much overlapped the entire day >Total Audience: 30 >Number of people bringing films: 12 >Films screened by Gauge: 8mm: 2, Super8: 12, 16mm: 7 >Volunteers: Emily Shurtz, Jonathan Borthwick, Jacob Barreras, Matt Barats, Sarah Biagini, Jennifer Peterson, Jeanne Liotta, Joel Haertling >Press: flyering, radio interview, press releases sent to the Onion and local papers >We hosted the first ever Home Movie Day in Boulder last Saturday at the Boulder Public Library. Organizers were Jennifer Peterson and Jeanne Liotta. Joel Haertling of the Boulder Public Library made the venue available to us, and also volunteered on the day. Other volunteers were Jacob Barreras, Emily Shurtz, Jonathan Borthwick, Matt Barats, and Sarah Biagini. Our event was funded by a modest financial donation from the University of Colorado at Boulder Film Studies Program, where Jeanne and I both teach. Our event began at 2pm and ended at 6pm. There were 8 people who brought films, and about 35 people in the audience over the course of the day. >We did some local press (sent press releases to local papers and The Onion, plus Jeanne did spoke on the CU Boulder college radio station). Sarah designed a very nice poster and we put them all over campus and around town. Announcements were posted in the Boulder Public Library calendar. We also relied heavily on word of mouth to promote the event. >We expected a small turnout for this inaugural Boulder event, and got it. Even though only a few people from the community showed up, however, we were thrilled by the way our Home Movie Day turned out! People started showing up at 2pm sharp. We intended to inspect films until 4:00 and then begin our screening at 4:30, but in fact we started projecting films at about 3pm, and didn't stop until the library closed at 6pm. There were a total of 21 films screened, on 16mm, 8mm, and Super 8. >Some highlights: >16mm Kodachrome from the 1950s in Cape Cod and around New England, featuring sailing footage and images of Charlie Whitman, father of current New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman. >16mm B/W from the 1930s showing coeds at Amherst College. >Super 8 footage of The Cramps in concert at a tiny venue, from the late 1970s, with nice morning after/hangover footage of audience members. >8mm footage of drag racing. Various films people found at garage sales and church sales, including a great color film about a group of men on a fishing trip in the 1960s, which featured a sequence shot inside the "Glory Hole" bar (which turned out to be filled with charming ladies in beehive hairdos). >An emotional part of the day came early on when a woman showed up with a shoebox filled with meticulously-kept super 8 home movies. There were many reels in the box, but she only wanted to watch two films of her son. It turns out that this son was, that very day, lying in the hospital dying of Huntington's Disease in his mid-30s. She told us he wasn't expected to last the night. We watched a film of the son at a tumbling recital as a young boy, and a film of him being brought home from the hospital. The woman quietly narrated what was going on, and then after watching these two films, left to return to her son at the hospital. There were only a few people there at this early part of the day, and we were all moved by this moment. >We played bingo, gave out prizes, and overall, had a very good time at Home Movie Day! http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2009/12/22/hmd_report_boulder_colorado.html http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2009/12/22/hmd_report_boulder_colorado.html Field Report Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:47:34 -0800 From Genevieve Maxwell in San Luis Obispo: >I hosted a home movie day event in San Luis Obispo, California. This was the first HMD I have ever hosted and the first in this location. Thankfully, it was a big success! We had 40 people in attendance and 14 who had their films screened. Although the event was in SLO, the vast majority were neighbors or former neighbors and friends from the community I grew up in, Garden Farms. It is a very small, close-knit community and the amount of participation was in large part due to the efforts of my mother, Janice, and the fact that some of the films were shot in the neighborhood. There is a great interest in Garden Farms history and preservation among its residents and I was excited to see HMD provide a whole new way of coming together and exploring that history. >One of our biggest highlights came from Billy Wilson, a neighbor who brought in a beautiful 16mm film that he shot in Japan and Korea when he was in the air force in 1946. Another popular film was one belonging to a neighbor, Art Robinson, which featured him as a child in Garden Farms from 1937 to the late 1940s. This was exciting because it gave us all a look at what the neighborhood looked like back then. One film from the 1970s was done as a project for an architecture course at Cal Poly and documented some architectural oddities, particularly in Southern California and Las Vegas. >Overall, I have gotten a lot of great feedback from people who had either never seen the films they brought, or hadn't seen them for over 30 or 40 years!! I really loved that everyone narrated their film and there was a lot of banter and giggles all round. Thank you HMD organizers and founders for inspiring us to participate in such a cool event! >Venue: San Luis Obispo Senior Center >Screening: 2-6 >Inspection: 12-2 >Total Audience: 41 >Number of people with films: 14 >8mm: 7 films, Super 8: 4, 16mm: 3 >Volunteers: Janice Maxwell, Jessica Bockelman, Nick Colin, Josh C. >Press: local newspaper the Telegram Tribune and weekly, The New Times, online community calendars, ads in the senior center (venue) newsletter and Garden Farms' local newsletter, The Gazette. Films: >Genevieve Maxwell: color,16mm film of me and my mom circa 1983 >Wes Burke: 4 color, super 8 films including camping in Texas, Sea World, Six Flags in 1980 and 1977 respectively, waterskiing and Wes on his mini-bike (motorcycle) >John Pinson: color, 1960's, travel footage, location unknown, family party with dancing, feigned drunkenness and an uncle playing guitar, ends with footage of the uncle's country band performing >Art Robinson: b/w, 8mm, Garden Farms from 1937 to late 40s >A.A.: b/w, color 8mm, 2 short films of her and her brother as children playing in their yard in a Chicago suburb >Duane English: color, super 8, climbing Bishop's Peak in San Luis Obispo in the form a Keystone Cops spoof with music >Billy Wilson: b/w 16mm, beautiful film from when Billy was in the airforce, circa 1946 in Japan and Korea >Don O'Daniel: color, super 8, project he did when attending Cal Poly in the 1970s, focusing on architecture of a fanciful nature primarily in southern california >Tao: color, super 8 films of family vacations in Mexico, Jamaica in the late 70s-80s >Kara: color, 8mm film of family camping trips in colorado, shot of her and her friend getting bucked off a horse, a lot of trains and scenery, 1960s >Ron: 8mm, color, shot by his father who was also in korea and japan after WWII, children playing on a see saw, very young girl does a beautiful dance for the camera in traditional Korean dress >Beth Kilimnik: color, 16mm project done for an art class when she was in college, animated drawings done directly on the film >Chris Kelley: color, 8mm, films of her childhood parties and events, such as xmas and halloween, some fun stuff >Jim Ream: 8mm, color, college basketball games and pole vaulting, 1960s, one interesting shot where someone was filming the tv set >John Kelley: 8mm, color, S.F. zoo and family trip to visit relatives in S.F., training at Fort Ord. >Interestingly, despite press in San Luis Obispo, all the attendees were people who live or once lived in the small community of Garden Farms, technically a part of Atascadero. All the outreach to acquire those films was by word of mouth. Many of the participants are planning on doing another screening for other neighbors who weren't able to attend Home Movie Day. My mother, Janice, who helped me immensely in getting the films together loved the event and is encouraging neighbors to come to us for any help in transferring or donating their films. http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2009/12/22/hmd_report_san_luis_obispo.html http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2009/12/22/hmd_report_san_luis_obispo.html Field Report Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:44:27 -0800 From Brenda Flora in New Orleans: >Venue: Zeitgeist Multi-disciplinary Arts Center >Screening time: 2-5pm >Inspection time: 11am - 1pm >Audience: 11 >People bringing film: 3 >8mm: 6, Super 8: 5, 16mm: 5 >Volunteers: Brenda Flora, Ian Wood, Yvonne Loiselle, Joshua Smith >Press: Blurb in local free paper, alternative events website, radio events calendar, venue website >We didn't have a huge crowd, but I don't feel too bad about it since we were competing with the Jazz and Heritage Blues and BBQ Festival (Buddy Guy played for free!), Steam Train Festival, Land of Nod Experiment Music Festival, and October Fest - all of which were free - plus it was the first bearably cool Saturday of the summer. Keeping that in mind, I think we did okay with 11 people in attendance. >We had way more films than last year, and didn't get a chance to get through the boxes and boxes that were brought. Hopefully attendees will return with them next year! >The highlight was the 8mm films an attendee's father filmed while in the Navy. He had a lot of interesting footage from all over the world, but the most interesting reel was the one depicting the Navy hazing ritual that happens when they cross the equator for the first time. Lots of crawling and spanking, a man dressed as King Neptune whose tummy the men must kiss, stockades, and something that looked sort of like a pool of urine the must jump into. It made me want to learn more about the ritual, and made our attendee want to speak to her father about it. >We also had 4 films that were shot this year on Super 8 by two different attendees. Yay!! Super 8 lives on!! http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2009/12/18/hmd_report_new_orleans.html http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2009/12/18/hmd_report_new_orleans.html Field Report Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:58:28 -0800 Event Venue: North Carolina State Archives >Event time (screening): 1-4pm >Event time (inspection): 1-4pm >Total Audience: approx. 85-95 >Number of people bringing films: 14 >Films screened by Gauge: Not sure of the total but it was predominantly 8mm, 16mm with some super 8. We showed some films that had been transferred to Quicktime files. >Volunteers: Skip Elsheimer (A/V Geeks), Kate Kluttz, Paul Shackleton (A/V Geeks intern), Dave Zahn, Charlotte Walton, Karen Glynn, Anna Bigelow, Z Hobert Thompson (A/V Geeks intern), Stephanie Stewart, Kim Cumber, Marsha Orgeron (NC State Film Dept), Devin Orgeron (NC State Film Dept), Jerry Pemberton >Press (pre-event and post-event): Local NPR radio interview before the event, mention in the News Observer weekend section, article in News and Observer after the event. >Slow motion family, trip to Hershey gardens, Christmas (x3), trip to Europe 1952, Halloween, fire at the KY State Fair, living in France, couple visiting Italy - seeing Mussolini, couple visiting Germany, Autobahn, Hitler in a village. Lots of Italian and German military training, Visiting Paris, big Hitler rally, Johnny Tramaine class project, Raleigh's Pullen Park, Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Korean war films - submarine, Ohio State footage, Vietnam USO footage... >One family ("Gou" I think) who brought the Vietnam footage, aerial ftg and ftg of soldier playing with dog. I think it was shot by the woman's late husband and she was there with her adult children - I don't think they had seen the ftg before (Stephanie Stewart). ]]> http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2009/12/18/hmd_report_raleigh_north_carolina_1.html http://www.homemovieday.com/news/2009/12/18/hmd_report_raleigh_north_carolina_1.html Field Report Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:56:32 -0800