Home Movie Day Returns to Roncesvalles

by STAFF

Inherited some old homemade movies? Wondering what’s on those reels that grandpa shot with the Super 8? On Saturday October 16th the Revue Cinema has an event for you!

Home movies are—believe it or not—fascinating to watch! Vividly capturing the changing styles and the rhythm of daily life over the past 80 years, this unique form of filmmaking is increasingly being appreciated by professional historians and average folks alike, as an important record of the lives and times of our parents’ and grandparents’ generation.

Many people with home movies of their family’s past haven’t seen their films in decades because they no longer have a working projector. Home Movie Day is your opportunity to see these films again. It is also a chance for everyone to watch amazing images from the 1920's to 1970's.

For the second year the Revue cinema hosts Home Movie Day. Presented by the Home Movie History Project—a volunteer project dedicated to preserving and showing home movies—this celebration invites the public to see these films as they were originally intended, projected on the big screen. Last year over 60 cities hosted events for International Home Movie Day, a worldwide celebration of the lowly home movie.

HOME MOVIE SCREENING

At 3:30 pm we present our screening of 8mm, 16mm and Super 8 home movies chronicling events, styles and everyday life from the 20th century. Anyone with home movies–whether from their own family or which they have discovered at the thrift store–is welcome to bring their films down to show (admission is FREE for those bringing home movies). The screening will be comprised of the best films brought by participants as well as gems from larger home movie collections and our archive.

In past years we have presented films depicting: Toronto decorated from top to bottom in reds and blues for the 1939 Royal Visit, a sound super 8 reel shot in the mid 70's of an all out dance party at an apartment done up in period furnishings, a large flood in rural Ontario in the 1940's, a school presentation with kids performing strange kinds of gymnastic routines outdoors in the 20's, cottage life on the Toronto Islands, the early days of the Caribana parade, a roadside attraction from a trip to Florida featuring the Weeki Wachee mermaid show, and nurses parading during WWII at the CNE.

HOME MOVIE REPAIR CLINIC

Starting an hour before the screening at 2:30 pm, our Home movie repair clinic is a chance for people to bring their home movies in for some TLC. We can help check your films for damage and give you advice on preserving and storing home movies. This is also an opportunity for people to look through their individual film reels privately on a tabletop viewer, to see what’s on each reel (and if they want, select one or two to show at our screening).