What to Know
- Home Movie Day at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
- Nov. 5; free (museum admission is additional); 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. drop-off, noon to 4 p.m. screening
- Guests may bring Super 8, 16mm, and videotapes for screening; your films will be inspected first by the volunteers
November might just be the month when we feel the pangs of nostalgia the most deeply.
It could be due to the promise of Thanksgiving, with all of those year-after-year dishes we enjoy, the ones from the family recipe annals, or it might be that evenings are arriving earlier, much earlier, making for more time spent at home.
November's notable ability to whisk us straight to Remembranceville is real, and a free event on the first Sunday of the month may only heighten that particular sensation.
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It's Home Movie Day at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, and the name reveals that it is about what the public has to offer, as in, you, if you want to share a home movie with the world.
Or, rather, the people attending the Nov. 5 celebration, which will take place at the Miracle Mile museum's Shirley Temple Education Studio.
Guests are invited to arrive with a family film in tow — they can be on "small-gauge film stock" like 16mm or Super 8 — with the knowledge that volunteers will take a look at the movie (videotape is welcome, too).
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This is not about transferring films to digital — that option does exist for Home Movie Day, though you usually have to submit your movie several days in advance — but rather getting the chance to watch them on a large screen.
As well as watch the family films of other people in attendance, the birthday parties, school parades, and holiday celebrations of decades long gone.
"For over 20 years, Home Movie Day events all over the world have made it possible for individuals to share and reconnect with their own films," shares the museum. The Academy Film Archive is a partner and several volunteers are at the ready to make it a special event.
If you've had a treasured canister of film in the attic for several years, this could be the right moment to take another look or even a first look at what is inside.
Hoping to show with your short and sweet family movie? You'll want to arrive earlier in the day, beginning at 10 a.m., so volunteers can look at it first; other activities, like the "exploration of film gauges," movie games, and more are on the schedule.
Talk about nostalgia: Many Southern Californians will get to revisit a home movie, one that probably hasn't been viewed since they were very young, as November begins.
That feels like a gift well before the holiday season truly begins to sparkle.
