Athens, Ga. – National Home Movie Day 2010 will be held this year in Americus on Sunday, Oct. 24, 2:30-4:30 p.m. at the historic Rylander Theatre, located at 310 West Lamar Street. This event is being sponsored by the University of Georgia Libraries’ Brown Media Archives and the Rylander Theatre. It is free and open to the public.
The Brown Media Archives has been working with Atlanta attorney Sheffield Hale over the past two years, to organize and preserve his family’s large home movie collection-67 reels of film shot between 1926 and 1965 by Hale’s grandfather, Americus native Frank Sheffield J r.Highlights from this collection will be screened and include many local families and friends, street scenes, aerial views of Americus, and the filming of Americus’ Hero in 1928.
National Home Movie Day is a worldwide celebration of amateur films and filmmaking, held annually in October. The event provides an opportunity to learn more about one’s own family films, how to care for films and videotapes, and how home movies have helped capture 20th century history.
In addition to the Sheffield screening, Home Movie Day will include screenings of home movies from the media archives’ holdings, including footage from locales around Georgia and the Southeast. Also included will be a discussion of the best ways to preserve film and videotape. Attendees are encouraged to bring films, videotapes and DVDs for inspection and screening when possible.
“If you have home movies on film or videotape that you are concerned about preserving, bring them to Home Movie Day,” said Ruta Abolins, director of the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection. “We will be screening 16mm, regular 8mm, and Super 8mm films, VHS videotapes and DVDs. Too many people see their home movies as just documenting their family; they don’t realize that home movies provide insight into family custom, lifestyle, landscape and history.”
For more information about Home Movie Day in Americus, contact Abolins at 706/542-4757. For more information about National Home Movie Day, see www.homemovieday.com.
For information about the Rylander Theatre, see http://www.rylander.org/ or call 229/931-0001.