Folks of a certain age with oodles of fond and/or cringe-y memories recorded on old VHS tapes or DV tapes or even film reels take note: On Saturday, October 15, the UWM Archives and the UWM Film Studies Department will host Milwaukee’s first Home Movie Day.
What’s Home Movie Day? According to an event listing, community members are invited to “bring in their home movies in 8mm, Super 8, 16mm, VHS, Mini-DV, or digital formats and have their materials inspected and/or repaired by UWM volunteers, with selections screened for an audience while the owner narrates.” Fun! The event is free and open to the public.
And okay, let’s just get this out of the way: the picture above is me, from a home movie shot in 2003 where a bunch of us went camping at my family’s fishing cabin and my roommate at the time clobbered me in a brat-eating competition. Enjoy?
Anyway, Home Movie Day will take place in Room B91 of UWM’s Mitchell Hall (3203 N. Downer Ave.) from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. In addition to the first-come, first-serve screenings, UWM volunteers will also “provide quick explanations on how to care for film, video, and digital files, as well as ideas on where to get old media transferred.”
Will there be Home Movie Day Bingo, light refreshments from Supernova Coffee & Doughnuts, and door prizes from Fischbergers Variety? Yes. Will I bring in a bunch of my old pre-teen home movies where my friends and I play tough-talking ninjas and/or sexually confused vampires? Absolutely not.
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