There are many things I love about being a media archivist, but one of my absolute favorite annual events is Home Movie Day. What is Home Movie Day might you ask? Well, it is just that-- an event where people all around the world can bring their home movies on an array of formats (depending on what type the venue supports) and have them run before an audience, almost like a show-and-tell. Local archivists generally host it and can give patrons information on how to store their films properly, have them digitized affordably to a format they support, and also help them with repairing the movies depending on the kind of format they come on.
Historically, Home Movie Day was annually hosted on 8/16 because before VHS, home movies were generally shot on 8mm, Super 8mm, and 16mm film. As time has gone on, VHS has become more and more rare in people's homes and harder to play back, so institutions have started to include this and other supporting formats such as VHS-C (a VHS cartridge that held a mini VHS inside of it and fit into a standard VCR) and Hi-8. The date has also become flexible so that cities that want to participate don't feel restrained to participating on a specific day and can allow people all over their communities to join in on the fun.
Los Angeles Home Movie Day is hosted in different locations every year. This year (2017) it will be held twice. Once was last Saturday (10/7/17) at the Linwood Dunn Theater inside of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Vine Street location. The other will be this coming Saturday (10/21/17) at the University of Southern California Archives Bazaar. While the event last week was limited to film formats due to the venue, the Archives Bazaar will include video formats.
Still not convinced that this upcoming event is for you? Let me give you a rundown of how Home Movie Day worked last week and has historically in Los Angeles. When a patron enters the venue, he or she is given a piece of paper to fill out with general information, including their name, what their home movie contains, and what format it is. Their home movie is placed in a queue based on when they arrived and taken to a team of volunteer archivists. If the home movie is a film, the team winds through it, checking for any rips, tears, deterioration, etc., that may prevent the film from being run, and then has it passed off to projectionists inside the theater who are then in charge of running it.
When it becomes the patron's turn to have their film or video run, they are given a microphone to narrate over the film and share what is being seen. This can be an array from Christmases to weddings, to trips to Vegas, to barbecues in the backyard. Some people remember what they are seeing, some people found the film in their Nana's attic. Some even bring films that they've gotten on Ebay or at thrift stores! As long as it's someone's home movie, it is welcome. There are tears from time to time, some in sorrow at seeing a loved one that has passed, others laughing when there is footage of Grandpa Weissberger doing the chicken dance at a party. Historically, this event provides something for the community as well, however.
The images captured in a home movie capture a natural moment in time. There are no sets, no props, no staged performers (unless you count the amateur ballet recitals of your mother when she was 5). The moments are a historic portrayal of life at a certain time in our history, whenever it may be. And while people get a kick out of seeing footage of the 1964 World's Fair or Knott's Berry Farm before it was a big tourist trap and beehive haircuts next to jello mold salads loaded with carrot, the main thing people seem to love is watching the interactions of family members and realizing that while the moving image has been around for over a century, the love of family remains universal in all the images shared.
Please check out your local home movie day. You can find your local one here: http://www.centerforhomemovies.org/hmd/ and it goes without saying that even if you don't have a home movie to bring, you are in for a treat of an afternoon.
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