CAPTURE

Moments are fleeting.
Home movies hold their place.
Digital transfers promise eternal access
to the past, but at a cost.
Which memories are worth saving?

John Cox’s home movies form a collection
of all the people who loved him.
Reel by reel, members of the audience recognize that love
and retrieve it in their own memories.
Suddenly, a room that felt empty
except for the clicking of an old projector
is vibrating with memories of several lives past.

As technology advances, we lose access to our memories.
They are rotting away in outdated formats
in our attics, basements, or under our beds.
We can save them—at a cost.

People trickle into the Chicago History Museum carrying their home movies in everything from film canisters to old shoe boxes.

As they wait for volunteers to inspect their films, the Chicago Film Archives’ Collections Manager Anne Wells shares the most important rule of preserving home movies:

Save your film.

Watch a home movie preservation

These techniques protect home movies from decay,
but they don’t guarantee our ability to watch them.

“We consider transferring part of the preservation platform because you don’t have to put a film through a projector every time you want to see it. It’s possible to damage it. You can watch it on the TV or on a file.”

- Anne Wells, Collections Manager, Chicago Film Archives

Make a preservation plan

Before we spend that kind of money,
we have to ask ourselves:
Which memories are worth saving?

History is more than dates, textbooks, and timelines. Home movies give a firsthand perspective of what it was like to be there, living it.

The most important moments to remember
are often the ones history forgets.

Watergate is not the only story of the Nixon administration.
Three staff members with Super 8 cameras captured what it was like to work alongside the president day in and day out.

Brian Frye and his partner, director Penny Lane, got a hold of their footage from the Nixon Library at the National Archives and Records Administration and used it to create the documentary “Our Nixon.”

VIDEO

A lost moment with Nixon

Small moments take on greater meaning in retrospect. Watching them unfold on a big screen allows us to reconnect with versions of ourselves we thought we'd never see again.

“Home movies tend to be very rich...They tell the story of everyday life.”

- Cecilia L. Salvatore, Coordinator, Archives & Cultural Heritage Department at Dominican University

Get to know Katie

Ralph Metcalfe was a famous African American Olympic sprinter
who competed and medaled at the 1932 and 1936 Summer Olympics.
He later became a Chicago alderman and Illinois representative.
His son dedicated the past 10 years to preserving his father’s memory.
He preserved a community’s legacy in the process.
The story begins at a school bake sale.

Home Movie Day began as a way to connect the public with archivists who could help them preserve their films. It has grown into something that saves whole histories for the generations to come.

This year 22 countries celebrated
Home Movie Day—a movement to save the past.

Return

Capturing VHS

Katie Rife built a pyramid from hundreds of stacked Jerry McGuire VHS tapes. She collects analog Jerry McGuires from thrift stores, and sometimes her friends even mail her copies they find. To her, the movie in its original format is a reminder of how disposable culture can be.

“In the heyday of VHS, everyone owned a copy of Jerry McGuire. And it won all the Oscars.” she says. “But now, no one gives a shit about it.” A lot of people forgot about it when they dumped their tape at a secondhand store.

This didn’t just happen with the Oscar-winning Tom Cruise film. When America converted from VHS to DVD, blu-ray and digital, thousands of films fell out of social consciousness.

Rife started collecting tapes when she realized how many movies technology has left behind. She has over 5,000 of them, about 1,000 of which are Jerry McGuires.

But VHS as a format frustrates her because it’s unreliable. “It breaks down like crazy, and it doesn’t look good. It’s a formatting nightmare!” She tries to save at least four digital copies of everything in her collection so that when her tapes wear out, they won’t disappear forever.

CAPTURE

Moments are fleeting.Home movies hold their place.Digital transfers promise eternal accessto the past, but at a cost.Which memories are worth saving?

John Cox’s home movies form a collectionof all the people who loved him. Reel by reel, members of the audience recognize that loveand retrieve it in their own memories.Suddenly, a room that felt emptyexcept for the clicking of an old projectoris vibrating with memories of several lives past.

As technology advances, we lose access to our memories. They are rotting away in outdated formats in our attics, basements, or under our beds. We can save them—at a cost.

People trickle into the Chicago History Museum carrying their home movies in everything from film canisters to old shoe boxes.

As they wait for volunteers to inspect their films, the Chicago Film Archives’ Collections Manager Anne Wells shares the most important rule of preserving home movies:

Save your film.

Watch a home movie preservation

These techniques protect home movies from decay,but they don’t guarantee our ability to watch them.

“We consider transferring part of the preservation platform because you don’t have to put a film through a projector every time you want to see it. It’s possible to damage it. You can watch it on the TV or on a file.”

- Anne Wells, Collections Manager, Chicago Film Archives

Make a preservation plan

Before we spend that kind of money,we have to ask ourselves:Which memories are worth saving?

History is more than dates, textbooks, and timelines. Home movies give a firsthand perspective of what it was like to be there, living it.

The most important moments to rememberare often the ones history forgets.

Watergate is not the only story of the Nixon administration. Three staff members with Super 8 cameras captured what it was like to work alongside the president day in and day out.

Brian Frye and his partner, director Penny Lane, got a hold of their footage from the Nixon Library at the National Archives and Records Administration and used it to create the documentary “Our Nixon.”

VIDEO

A lost moment with Nixon

Small moments take on greater meaning in retrospect. Watching them unfold on a big screen allows us to reconnect with versions of ourselves we thought we'd never see again.

“Home movies tend to be very rich...They tell the story of everyday life.”

- Cecilia L. Salvatore, Coordinator, Archives & Cultural Heritage Department at Dominican University

Get to know Katie

Home Movie Day began as a way to connect the public with archivists who could help them preserve their films. It has grown into something that saves whole histories for the generations to come.

This year 22 countries celebratedHome Movie Day—a movement to save the past.

Return

Return

Return

Return

Capturing VHS

Moments are fleeting.
Home movies hold their place.
Digital transfers promise eternal access
to the past, but at a cost.
Which memories are worth saving?

John Cox’s home movies form a collection
of all the people who loved him.
Reel by reel, members of the audience recognize that love
and retrieve it in their own memories.
Suddenly, a room that felt empty
except for the clicking of an old projector
is vibrating with memories of several lives past.

As technology advances, we lose access to our memories.
They are rotting away in outdated formats
in our attics, basements, or under our beds.
We can save them—at a cost.

These techniques protect home movies from decay,
but they don’t guarantee our ability to watch them.

Before we spend that kind of money,
we have to ask ourselves:
Which memories are worth saving?

The most important moments to remember
are often the ones history forgets.

Watergate is not the only story of the Nixon administration.
Three staff members with Super 8 cameras captured what it was like to work alongside the president day in and day out.

This year 22 countries celebrated
Home Movie Day—a movement to save the past.