Home Movie Day News

Thanks to Pamela Jean Smith for this report:

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.

From Kae Ishihara:

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.

From John Tariot:

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.

Joe Gardner’s report on HMD in Portland, Maine:

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.

From Brian Drischell and Sean Savage:

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.

From Megan McCooley:

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.

From Julie Lofthouse:

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.

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!

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.

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!!

Thanks to Skip Elsheimer for this report on HMD 2009 in Raleigh:

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).

Tim Massett reports on Home Movie Day in Duluth:

Event Venue: Zinema 2

Event time (screening): Noon to Four

Event time (inspection): 12:00, 1:00, 2:00 3:00

Total Audience: 7

Number of people bringing films: 2

Films screened by Gauge: 8mm: 3, Super 8: 1, 16mm: 1

Volunteers: Shana David- Massett, Johnathon Olsen

Press (pre-event and post-event): Duluth News Tribune printed one small article.

Well, Duluth has gotten off to a slow start but the highlight goes to Andrew Williamson who brought in 1 400ft 16mm Kodachrome print of an Amtrak ride he took from Minneapolis to Los Angeles via Seattle in 74. It was mainly landscapes. He also brought in a 200ft roll of Super 8 film he shot in Bong Ha, Vietnam before the Tet offensive. It was chock full of really fantastic images of children running along the banks hoping for something to be tossed to them by the soldiers on the boats, woman washing clothes on the banks of a river and folks fishing while explosions could be seen in the distance. Andrew also documented the arrest of an elderly man, who was hooded with bound hands. Andrew talked about how this was a defining moment in his decision to become against the war.

Although attendance was really low, hearing the stories from Andrew while his films were shown must be what HOME MOVIE DAY is all about. Here is hoping that Duluth will catch on for next year.

The other 8mm films screened were films from my wife’s grandfather. Coney Island in the fifties, Purim Party and a rockin Seder.

A report on HMD 2009 from Martin Koerber in Berlin:

We didn’t really count, but I’d say about 40 people came to see the films, and 12 parties brought in films. Screenshot (a Berlin based company who does professional transfers of Home Movies) supported us again and had installed a demo unit of their new HD Flashscan, so people could see what one can do with Home Movies these days apart from running them through projectors. Many people asked for help in transferring material.

The screenings started with a film about the “Waldbahn” in Muskau, a small gauge (660 mm) train that was first run in 1899 and had been abandoned in the 1990. It has been re-opened by a bunch of enthusiasts and is now running as an attraction for tourists, steam engine and all. Further, we had a lot of baby footage this time, mainly from the 1950s, and the babies, now nearing retirement age, were present to comment. Most of them hadn’t seen the footage for a very long time, and they were moved to see themselves through the eyes of their loving parents, so to speak. We were moved by their comments, which included a lot of cultural and social history which would have been lost to modern viewers without the live commentary. What stuck is the notion that even private footage of this sort can “talk” and made worthwhile, if only the right contextualization is at hand.

Another highlight was a film made in the 1970s in Hadrian’s villa near Tivoli (Italy). A now retired art-historian had recorded this and other archeological sites as what she calles “optical memory” helping her remembering facts and appearances of these places when writing about them. Apart from being interesting because of the topic itself, the footage was extremly beautifully shot.

Two people (independently from each other) brought films they had recorded in their school days in the early 1960s in East Germany, and had recently re-evaluated and re-edited on DVD for a class-reunion. This was interesting too, because it showed they view on themselves then, but also their hindsights thoughts and feelings.

The sensation of the day was a Home Movie from Outer Space, so to speak. The German astronaut Reinhard Furrer had recorded 16 mm footage during his flight on the European Space lab in 1985. We saw the astronauts floating about during their lunch-break, and a tour through the Space lab and the shuttle. Amazing! The footage was brought in by his sister, who had never seen it. Furrer died in a plane crash in 1995 an left the footage as well as audiotapes of his inflight-recorded reflection on his space travel to her. We will follow this up and hopefully aquire this unique material for our collection.

To conclude HMD this year, we showed ELLE S’APPELLE SABINE by Sandrine Bonnaire at Kino Arsenal at 7 p,m in the evening. People who had brought in films received a voucher for a free ticket. The film is a portrait of Sandrine’s autistic sister, and her story is told partly through the use of the Bonnaire’s family films.

Janet Ceja’s report from Home Movie Day 2009 in Pittsburgh:

Event Venue: Waffle Shop

Event time (screening): 7-9 p.m.

Event time (inspection): 4-6:45 p.m.

Total Audience: 26. We also streamed live over the internet and since the weather was lousy there may have been a few people who chose to watch from home.

Number of people bringing films: 4

Films screened by Gauge: 8mm: 6, 16mm: 2

Volunteers: Samantha Le Blanc, Rabia Gibbs, Bo Baker, Sean Kilcoyne, Diana Little, Miriam Meislik, Renee Ziemann, Lindsay Mattock

Press (pre-event and post-event): Press was limited to flyers around town, University of Pittsburgh, and social networking (online and off line).

Movies screened will be described in pairs by subject:

Wedding Reception: There were two 8mm films documenting one audience member’s mother’s wedding receptions. There were two wedding receptions with lots of dancing, socializing and etc. One scene that was striking and that got the audience talking was a shot of a pregnant woman drinking and smoking.

Father: There were two 8mm films documenting one audience member’s father. One was based in a local PA town in which her father is being filmed post a car accident in crutches visiting the junk yard where the car ended up, as well as scenes of him in front of the family owned furniture store and other exterior shots of the town. The second location was unknown, but another audience member identified it as Florida. This film was most memorable for its initial shot where we see a sign on the road that said “No Niggers, Mexicans or Puerto Ricans.”

Kids: There were two 8mm films documenting one audience member’s grandparents, aunts, and uncles as kids at the beach and theme parks in one film, and the other in the woods.

Ed Films: I brought in some educational films that circulated around the Pittsburgh school district. One was titled Bus Nut, and the second Pittsburgh Holiday, Kennywood Park.