13 2003 |
When I got home, I opened the canister and found a 16mm film, a silent black-and-white movie.
I dashed back to the dumpster, to beat the garbage truck, and found twelve other reels in the trash.
Over the weekend I bought a projector and some film editing/repair equipment, and last night we watched a few reels.
The building I work in used to belong to the AOUW, now Pioner Mutual, which has since been sold off to some Illinois company. A storage space was being cleaned out, and a bunch of 'junk' ended up in the dumpster. So, these films are primarily related to the AOUW, but they're more than that: there's footage of picnics, of parades, of buildings, of technology. The movies are full of cars, fashion, architecture and history, and I'm so happy I was there to save them from the sanitary landfill's grasp.
As you can imagine from my other 'found art'ish websites, these movies, and their contents, will be online soon. It's going to be a big project, probably hours of footage, but I'll love doing it. My intention is to digitize it at DVD quality, for reproduction & archiving, and work down to internet quality from there. Watch this space for more info.