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) |
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| Last Great Gathering of the Sioux Nation (1934) |
From the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound
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| The Coker Avenue Gang (1930, C. C. Minnich) 16mm |
From a 16mm travel film with recorded narration.
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| Innsbruck (1953) Morris Margolin's Austrian vacation |
Rural families in Ocean County, New Jersey.
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| Meet the Neighbors (1948, Mortimer Goldman) 8mm |
Las Vegas signs en route to A-bomb test, Yucca Flats.
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| 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!).
Listen to Margie discuss the film (intro by Dwight!).A narrative sound film with Chicago Populuxe.
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| Fairy Princess (1955, Margaret Conneely) 16mm |
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| Smokey Bear (1950, Homer C. Pickens) 16mm |
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| Rescued from fire, Smokey flown to Santa Fe's veterinarian. |
Two months after Katrina, a New Orleans family returns.
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| Lower 9th Ward (2005, Helen Hill) Super 8mm |
Paul Gailiunas with his son Francis Pop
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| Helen Hill Collection, Harvard Film Archive |
Screen shots from AMATEUR NIGHT (© 2010 Center for Home Movies). Photos by anonymous.
