The Orphan Film Symposium Online

Posted by DwightS May 28th, 2020

The Orphan Film Symposium has long been one of the premier venues for screening, discussing, and understanding home movies by scholars, archivists, and filmmakers, and it has been a cherished supporter of the Center for Home Movies for decades. This year it was moved online instead of its planned meeting in Amsterdam, making it accessible to the wider world. The theme for the third day (May 28th) is “Migration” (following days dedicated to Water and Climate), so the Center for Home Movies would like to share a film from our “Homegrown Movies” project. The Reyes Family home movies were shot in Michoacán, Mexico, Yuma, Arizona, and Salinas, California on Super 8 by Manuel Reyes in 1978-79, silent with commentary by Verónica Reyes-Escudero & Jennifer Jenkins.

Other Histories: Amateur Films on the National Film Registry

Posted by DwightS January 6th, 2020

Other Histories: Amateur Films on the National Film Registry is a three-program film screening series curated by the Center for Home Movies. The series will be the first-ever screening of all 17 amateur films that have been named to the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry. The series will premiere on the weekend of January 10-12, 2020, part of MoMA’s “Home Movie Weekend” at the Roy and Niuta Titus Theater at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The series will be part of MoMA’s landmark Private Lives, Public Spaces exhibition, the museum’s 100-screen gallery installation of home movies and amateur films drawn exclusively from its collection. The series will be projected digitally, including many new high-resolution scans, narration, and musical scores created exclusively for the series.

For more information, see the Other Histories page.

The 4th Annual Home Movie Day GIF Contest is Underway!

Posted by DwightS October 19th, 2019

Happy Home Movie Day! Help us celebrate by creating a .GIF using a favorite home movie moment. Winner takes $200! Submit as many wonderful .GIFs as possible until the contest closes on November 8, 2019 and the winner will be announced on November 15, 2019. See the CHM Tumblr for past winners, recent entries and inspiration, then submit your own. If you need help making your GIF, see HERE.

Home Movie Day and Night: The 24-Hour Home Movie Marathon

Posted by DwightS May 16th, 2019

The Center for Home Movies has begun organizing “Home Movie Day and Night: The 24-Hour Home Movie Marathon” and is seeking input from archives, collectors, and other home movie aficionados. The goal is to have a day-long webcast of home movies from every time zone. Curators and contributors are encouraged to find films that show how home movies depict life in places where they were created and what they can show about the individuals and cultures that inspired them. They should show how amateur films can be both intimate and global at the same time—showing what is unique to a place, but also universal. This will be held on October 27th, the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage. Visit the project’s page on the CHM website for more information on how you can get involved.

Call for Papers: Northeast Historic Film Summer Symposium

Posted by DwightS February 12th, 2019

The Center for Home Movies has been invited to collaborate in the programming of the Northeast Historic Film Symposium this year (July 18-20 in Bucksport, Maine). While amateur films have always been a major focus of NHF’s collections and the symposium, this year home movies will be front-and-center. We invite you to send your proposals for papers and presentations and hope to see you in Maine this summer.

Download the Call for Papers (Word Doc).