Synopses & Reviews
The first international anthology to explore the historical significance of amateur film, Mining the Home Movie makes visible, through image and analysis, the hidden yet ubiquitous world of home moviemaking. These essays boldly combine primary research, archival collections, critical analyses, filmmakers' own stories, and new theoretical approaches regarding the meaning and value of amateur and archival films. Editors Karen L. Ishizuka and Patricia R. Zimmermann have fashioned a groundbreaking volume that identifies home movies as vital methods of visually preserving history. The essays cover an enormous range of subject matter, defining an important genre of film studies and establishing the home movie as an invaluable tool for extracting historical and social insights.
Synopsis
"By claiming home movies as essential tools of historiography, Ishizuka and Zimmerman manage to break down artificial barriers between public histories and private records. In this groundbreaking volume, their selection of visionary essays offers a way to reclaim devalued work and turn the tables on the cataloguers. Absolutely required reading for historians, curators and media analysts."and#151;B. Ruby Rich, author ofand#160;Chick Flicks: Theories and Memories of the Feminist Film Movement
About the Author
Karen L. Ishizuka is an independent writer, curator, and documentary producer and is the author of
Lost and Found: Reclaiming the Japanese American Incarceration (2006).
Patricia R. Zimmerman is Professor of Cinema and Photography at Ithaca College. She is the author of
Reel Families: A Social History of Amateur Film (1995) and
States of Emergency: Documentaries, Wars, Democracies (2000).
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction. The Home Movie Movement: Excavations, Artifacts, Miningsand#151;Patricia R. Zimmermann
1. Remaking Home Moviesand#151;Richard Fung
2. The Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institutionand#151;John Homiak and Pamela Wintle
3. Wittgenstein Tractatus: Personal Reflections on Home Moviesand#151;Pand#233;ter Forgand#225;cs
4. La Filmoteca de la Universidad Nacional Autand#243;noma de Mand#233;xicoand#151;Ivand#225;n Trujillo
5. Ordinary Film: Pand#233;ter Forgand#225;csand#8217;s The Maelstromand#151;Michael S. Roth
6. The Imperial War Museum Film and Video Archiveand#151;Kay Gladstone
7. 90 Miles: The Politics and Aesthetics of Personal Documentaryand#151;Amy Villarejo
8. The Florida Moving Image Archiveand#151;Steven Davidson
9. Something Strong Within: A Visual Essayand#151;Karen L. Ishizuka and Robert A. Nakamura
10. Something Strong Within as Historical Memoryand#151;Robert Rosen
11. The Moving Image Archive of the Japanese American National Museumand#151;Karen L. Ishizuka
12. The Home Movie and the National Film Registry: The Story of Topazand#151;Karen L. Ishizuka and Patricia R. Zimmermann
13. The Nederlands Archive/Museum Instituteand#151;Nico de Klerk
14. Home Away from Home: Private Films from the Dutch East Indiesand#151;Nico de Klerk
15. The Library of Congressand#151;Brian Taves
16. Deteriorating Memories: Blurring Fact and Fiction in Home Movies in Indiaand#151;Ayisha Abraham
17. The Movie Queen: Northeast Historic Filmand#151;Karan Sheldon and Dwight Swanson
18. The WPA Film Libraryand#151;Carolyn Faber
19. Mule Racing in the Mississippi Deltaand#151;Karen Glynn
20. The Academy Film Archiveand#151;Lynne Kirste
21. and#147;As If by Magicand#8221;: Authority, Aesthetics, and Visions of the Workplace in Home Movies, circa 1931and#150;1949and#151;Heather Norris Nicholson
22. The New Zealand Film Archive/Nga Kaitiaki o Nga Taonga Whitiahuaand#151;Virginia Callanan
23. Working People, Topical Films, and Home Movies: The Case of the North West Film Archiveand#151;Maryann Gomes
24. The Oregon State Historical Societyand#8217;s Moving Image Archivesand#151;Michele Kribs
25. Reflections on the Family Home Movie as Document: A Semio-Pragmatic Approachand#151;Roger Odin
26. The Stephen Lighthill Collection at the UCLA Film and Television Archiveand#151;Ross Lipman
27. Morphing History into Histories: From Amateur Film to the Archive of the Futureand#151;Patricia R. Zimmermann
Selected Filmography and Videography
Selected Bibliography
Contributors
Index