14 October 2010

The Cinema Museum: Home Movie Day London 2010 - Saturday, October 16th: 11am – 5pm

Home Movie Day London 2010


Home Movie Day is important because our lives, our recollections, and our truth is recorded in home movies.
One day, what the heck, c'mon!
Steve Martin

For the eighth international Home Movie Day on Saturday, October 16 2010, film archivists will take time out of the vaults to help the public enjoy and save their home movies. Home Movie Day shows how home movies on 8mm, Super8, 9.5mm and 16mm offer a unique view of past life in London and of family history. This year the event will be held at the Cinema Museum in Kennington, itself a shrine to the glory days of the cinema and film. It’s a free event, family-friendly and anybody is welcome to attend.

There will be a Film Clinic, staffed by volunteer film archivists from the BBC and the BFI, to which members of the public may bring their films for examination. The archivists will give feedback about the condition of the films, and advice on how to store them properly in the home. Information will also be available on donating films to archives and how to transfer films to DVD for easy home viewing. No appointment necessary.

After examination, the films will be shown by expert projectionists, who will be continuously screening home movies throughout the day. This is the best part of the event, as people get to watch films they may not have seen for decades. In past years we have shown scenes of Crystal Palace just after it burnt down in 1936 and glorious colour holiday films of Tahiti in the 1960s.

Special events throughout the day include celebrated Archers film director Michael Powell's home movies, courtesy of Thelma Schoonmaker and the BFI National Archive, a showcase of films made by well-known amateur filmmaker Captain Zip, a Captain Zip original super 8 film made of last year’s Home Movie Day, and a talk by veteran film archivist David Cleveland about the importance of home movies.

You don’t need to bring a film to attend and enjoy the event; everyone has the chance to win fabulous prizes including BFI DVDs and tickets from Picture House Cinemas and tea and cake are available.

As director John Waters says - "There's no such thing as a bad home movie. These mini-underground opuses are revealing, scary, joyous, always flawed, filled with accidental art and shout from attics and closets all over the world to be seen again. Home Movie Day is an orgy of self-discovery, a chance for family memories to suddenly become show business. If you've got one, whip it out and show it now."


Event details:

Saturday, October 16, 2010
11am – 5pm
The Cinema Museum, Kennington
2 Dugard Way, London SE11 4TH

Nearest tube: Kennington. Free parking. Music by DJ Foxtrot Fanny of the Shellac Sisters.

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