DON’T THROW AWAY THAT MOVIE! – PUBLIC TALK BY DR RAY EDMONDSON
DON’T THROW AWAY THAT MOVIE! – PUBLIC TALK BY DR RAY EDMONDSON
We all make home movies: today it is on mobile phones or digital cameras, not film. We do it to capture memories, to record events that matter to us. Sometimes what we capture takes on larger significance. On his 8mm camera, Abraham Zapruder captured the most complete film record of the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. The only actuality record of the bombing of Darwin in World War II was made by home movie makers. No "professional" filmmakers were in the right place at the right time. Nor are they around today to capture the intimate, natural details of family life and social events that are the tapestry of the 20th and 21st centuries. This is the unique realm of the home movie, bringing the past alive in a way that no professional film can.
Film was an expensive medium for the home movie maker, so subjects and events were chosen carefully and captured economically. We don't need such discipline today. But how do we organise and preserve the hours of material we so easily generate? How do we choose what to keep - if we choose at all? Contrary to popular belief, digital home movies are harder to manage now than when they were shot on film. Worse, many people are transferring their films to new media like DVD in the mistaken belief that this will preserve them. We need to separate myth from reality, and to take a conscious approach to caring for our living history