Home movies gains new meaning the more time has passed

For this video, I edited a super 8 film shot by my maternal grandfather to an audio recording of my mother narrating the footage. The commentary was unscripted, which allowed me to demonstrate how narration of home movies influence the audiences interpretation of the images. As Peter Forgaes states “one of the sources of understanding for family films lies within the context of the screening – specifically the role of the narration.” For example, my mother offers up her own thoughts about the footage, however if I’d asked my aunt or uncle to narrate the footage, they may have highlighted different things or offered a different perspective on the film.

I also wanted to explore the personal meaning that home movies can carry. As Jo Spence explains in Family Snaps: The Meaning of Domestic Photography, “To the outsider, the [family] album may be a social document; to those pictured… it may reverberate complex memories and emotions.” In terms of my mother, I know how important photographs and videos from her childhood are to her. Her parents passed away before I was born, however I feel I have a insight in to who they were from what my mother tells me when she shows me these images and films. Forgaes suggests that when we watch these home movies “it is as if [the deceased] have sent a message with skeletal traces for today’s viewer.” This quote for me expresses how I feel about this footage in particular. I may have never met my grandparents, but through the simple footage of their everyday lives, I’m able to get a sense of their mannerisms and personality.

Editing this clip also made me reflect on the nature of home movies. Rodger Odin defines home movies in Reflections on the Family Home Movie as Document as being “made by one member for other members of the same family, filming events, things, people and places linked to the family… [the filmmaker films for the pleasure of gathering the family.” The footage my grandfather captured is a perfect example of this idea. The people in the film aren’t doing anything in particular, it appears to just be an ordinary weekend. The focus appears to be on the people themselves rather than any particular activity.

I like the point that my mum raises in her commentary. “Isn’t it funny how you bring out a camera in those days and everybody had to play up to it, had to show their best tricks?” While the same could probably be argued for home videos today, I think it’s interesting to look at how they way in which people act around cameras has changed with digital technology, as cameras are now more common and less of a novelty as they would have been during my mother’s childhood. It’s just one example of how technological developments not long change the quality of media, but also our relationship to the media itself.

Bibliography

Forgaes, Peter (2007) Wittgenstein Tractatus: Personal Reflections on Home Movies. In Mining the Home Movie: Excavations in Histories and Memories (p. 47). Berkeley; Los Angeles; London: University of California Press.

Holland, Patricia., & Spence, Jo. (1991). Family snaps : The meanings of domestic photography. London: Virago.

Odin, Rodger(2007)  Reflections on the Family Home Movie as Document:: A Semio-Pragmatic Approach. In Mining the Home Movie: Excavations in Histories and Memories (p. 255). Berkeley; Los Angeles; London: University of California Press.