HMD Report: East Bay
City: Oakland
Event Venue: Oakland Museum of California (OMCA)
Event time (inspection): 11am-1pm
Event time (open screening): 12:30-3pm
(Beane screening): 3:30-5pm
Total audience: 35 at the open screening, 78 at the Beane screening
Number of people bringing film: 13
Films screened by gauge: 8mm: 8, Super 8: 3, 16mm: 1, 9.5mm: 0
Video: 2 (film-to-tape transfers)
Volunteers: Stefano Boni (projectionist), Adrienne Cardwell (inspector),
Megan Clement (inspector/projectionist assistant),Natalia Fidelholtz
(setup/hellos/welcome table), Myleen Hollero (photographer/hmd buttons),
Margaret Mello (setup), Rick Prelinger (Beane film transfer), Jon
Shibata (projectionist), Lauren Sorensen (inspector), Dwight Swanson
(hellos/welcome table), Pamela Vadakan (organizer/mc/inspector) and Troy
Vadakan (dj).
Staff (OMCA/Oakland Standard): Sasha Archibald, Clair Ball, Rene de Guzman, Valerie Imus and Stijn Schiffeleers
Snacks provided by Arizmendi Bakery and the Oakland Museum
Special events/screenings: The highlight of the day was a 45-minute screening of Ernest Beane’s home movies, accompanied by an original score performed live by the Marcus Shelby Quintet, followed by a group discussion. The Beane collection (1935-1946) comes from the African American Museum and Library at Oakland (AAMLO), courtesy of Beane’s granddaughter and Rick Moss, AAMLO’s Chief Curator, who led the discussion. Ernest Beane worked for the Pullman Palace Car Company and his films are rare views of African American middle class life in Berkeley and Oakland during World War II. Beane was committed to his hobby, investing in both 16mm and regular 8mm equipment, and he brought his camera everywhere, across the country, even to Mexico. Beane shot intimate portraits of his family, friends and fellow porters mostly at ease and at leisure — walking along the block, drinking lemonade in the back yard, working in the garden, swinging, sliding, playing, dancing, kissing. The films are vibrant, full of life and, and as Moss mentioned, pride. Shelby confirmed this after the screening, “Most images of African American people before 1940 are depressing. People were told to keep their head down. But here you have a document that disrupts the narrative.”
Press: Press releases went to OMCA’s local/regional media and calendar lists. OMCA also produced a run of 1000 postcards to Oakland addresses, and sent out an eflyer. Shoutouts in the San Francisco Chronicle
and the Oakland North.
This year’s East Bay Home Movie Day was very special thanks to the enthusiasm and support of the Oakland Standard staff. Seriously these people rule! We didn’t have a lot of film for the open screening but we had just enough, we had a very good turnout, and we made some new friends.
We raffled free transfers from The Looking Glass/Recollections Media Transfer, Digital Pickle, Novato Video Transfer and Audio Video Workshop and free tickets to the OMCA.
Some highlights:
A look back at Home Movie Day East Bay 2008 at Pacific Film Archive; a 1940 Egyptian wedding (the family later immigrated to Berkeley); an outing of young ladies, accompanied by dapper rangers in Yosemite in 1938 — with a glimpse of a Smokey the Bear lookalike and President Franklin Roosevelt; Natalia’s mom’s birthday party in Buenos Aires in 1952, complete with marionettes and a princess crown; a 1957 trick film made in Tennessee by a teenager and his friends eating imaginary food; a 1942 trick film of snow antics, people disappear and jump backwards, along with loving shots of newborn baby Deanne; Stephen Fisher’s little girl dances in Isadora Duncan’s footsteps at the Temple of the Wings (super 8 sound! The Fisher saga continues); a young Kaja Meredith, who will later become a classically trained ballerina and Burgess Meredith’s wife, dances in the living room as her father plays piano; saxophones and sequins in Norcross, Georgia, New Year’s Eve 1972; a repeat screening of the Oakland Rose Garden, shot flower by flower, frame by frame; and, gearing up for Halloween, cute kids in costume in Buffalo, New York, 1963.
HMD in the Oakland Standard (thanks to Stijn/ the Oakland Standard)
Photos on Flickr (thanks to Myleen Hollero)
Report submitted by Pamela Vadakan