Home Movie Day, The First at Queens Museum of Art

International Home Movie Day (the ninth annual) took place on Saturday, October 15.  "Moving Images 1938-1940: Amateur Filmmakers Record the New York World's Fair and Its Period" held Home Movie Day at the Queens Museum of Art, with stupendous support from the Museum, led by Curator Louise Weinberg, Prerana Reddy on PR, Danny and Arnie on the physical details, and the New York City pavilion from "our" fair as the location.  


Walter Forsberg (NYU Research Fellow), Brian Graney and Karin Carlson (Northeast Historic Film), Alice Moscoso (NYU Film Preservation Specialist), and Katie Trainor (Museum of Modern Art Department of Film), all Home Movie Day veterans, organized. Katie is a Center for Home Movies board member and co-founder; Molly Wheeler (Yale Univ. Beinicke Library) is another HMD co-founder.   

This amazing crew of students from the New York University Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program provided staff support for the entire day. Particular thanks to the film inspectors and the projectionists: Matt Barry, "The Art and Culture of Movies", http://artandcultureofmovies.blogspot.com and Zack Lischer-Katz, Archive Assistant at NYU's Cinema Studies Film Study Center. NYU professors Howard Besser, Dan Streible, and Mona Jimenez attended, too. Thank you, all.    

Individuals with home movies arrived before noon and kept coming. Many had heard about the event on WNYC radio as Leonard Lopate interviewed Walter Forsberg and Louise Weinberg on Oct. 14. Leonard has great listeners who can find their home movies with less than a day's notice. Listen here.   


We saw Kodachrome family fun, a 16mm 1953 wedding--a surprise to the son who brought it, both the 1939-1940 and the 1964 NY World's Fairs, Miami, Havana, teen birthday dancing (1960s), 8th grade graduation, lakes, Fire Island, and new NY highways (many people shot out their windshields). We enjoyed a special guest appearance by the film of Gus Martens, brought by his grandson, Robert Martens, who introduced. Gus Martens was an Amateur Cinema League Member. Mr. and Mrs. Martens talk to Walter Forsberg, below. 

Do you have home movies? Please consult these FILM PRESERVATION LINKS.