Jan 23, 2011

Home movies, Orphan films, Anthology films

Sixteen thumbs up for Dwight Swanon's new film Amateur Night: Home Movies from American Archives. The illicit but promotional cell phone snap shots below were taken during the premiere screening, 1/22/11, at Anthology Film Archives in New York. The 16 short films were originally shot on amateur smal-gauge film stock: 8mm, Super 8, 9.5mm, 28mm, and 16mm. But Amateur Night is a 35mm blow-up of all these, done (pro bono!) with remarkable fidelity and consistency by Cineric film lab, also in NYC. 
 
Read more and better text about the Center for Home Movies production here:
http://centerforhomemovies.org/amateurnight.


An 8mm film by pharmacist Arthur Howe (Crawford, Nebraska)
Last Great Gathering of the Sioux Nation (1934) 


From the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound
The Coker Avenue Gang (1930, C. C. Minnich)  16mm

From a 16mm travel film with recorded narration.
Innsbruck (1953) Morris Margolin's Austrian vacation


Rural families in Ocean County, New Jersey.
Meet the Neighbors (1948, Mortimer Goldman)  8mm








Las Vegas signs en route to A-bomb test, Yucca Flats.
Atom Bomb (1953, Louis C. Harris, Sr.) 16mm




Margie Compton showed this at Orphans 5 (2006).
Listen to Margie discuss the film (intro by Dwight!).


A narrative sound film with Chicago Populuxe.
Fairy Princess (1955, Margaret Conneely) 16mm







Smokey Bear (1950, Homer C. Pickens) 16mm







 Rescued from fire, Smokey flown to Santa Fe's veterinarian.

Two months after Katrina, a New Orleans family returns.
Lower 9th Ward (2005, Helen Hill) Super 8mm

Paul Gailiunas with his son Francis Pop
Helen Hill Collection, Harvard Film Archive





Screen shots from AMATEUR NIGHT (© 2010 Center for Home Movies). Photos by anonymous.

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