8mm Celluloid

"Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day"

Paul Simon, "Kodachrome"


If you were born/raised sometime before the late 1980's, perhaps some of your childhood existence is preserved on 8mm or Super 8mm film.  My family owned a Kodak Super 8 Camera during my childhood and my father would record many of the important moments of my own and three younger brothers' lives:  Christmas mornings, birthdays, baby learning to walk, crawling, etc.  I am grateful for these preserved memories even if the medium on which is recorded has since been replaced my camcorders and digital video recording devices. 

There is something about the warmth and vivid colours of Super 8mm film that is irreplaceable by anything that has come afterwards.  The scratchy, highly-flammable brilliance of 8mm celluloid projected onto a screen has an allure that is impossible to reproduce and describe unless you have witnessed it.

All of my own 8mm memories are stored somewhere in my parents' basement.  I sometimes worry about them being preserved and think about transferring them to DVD somehow.  They are after all, evidence of a pristine, idyllic time in my life.

When I was a pre-teen, I made a primitive attempt at linear editing by stitching together a number of these old films in somewhat chronological order so that there would be a longer, continuous viewing of some of the films.  I would imagine that the Scotch tape I used to splice them together is not the ideal means of preservation but last time I viewed one of them, they seemed to hold up OK.

Along with my own childhood memories on celluloid, there is also a vast collection of 8mm films from my father's childhood that my grandfather recorded.  It is truly amazing to witness homemade movies from the 1950's and 60's of a person who I only have ever known as an adult.

The silence of these 8mm films add an element of mystery and wonder to their viewing.  I often wish I could hear how certain people sounded way back then, but I have to leave it to my imagination.

If you have memories preserved on 8mm film like I do, don't take them for granted.  They are a treasure-trove of picturesque, beautiful remembrances of things past and, in this age of digital, should not be forgotten.